Biography
Gemma Creagh
Gemma Creagh has worn many hats over the years. She was a writer, filmmaker, journalist, editor, PA, prop buyer, administrator, marketer and training manager. Starting with hyphenates off the bat, Gemma was the creator, writer and co-producer of five-part comedy Rental Boys for RTÉ’s Storyland. Receiving €40,000 in funding, this series came second in the first year of the competition to the hilarious Hardy Bucks. With a taste for creating, she became one of four members of the comedy group Half a Giraffe. There, she got the opportunity to write, direct and produce a web series and shorts that screened at festivals around the world, from the Fleadh to the US and Ukraine. Under this collective, she directed the short film, After You, which was commissioned by Temple Bar Cultural Trust and Filmbase.
In 2014, she went back to university and received a 1st in NUIG for their Writing MA programme. Adjacent to her work in film, she has penned articles for magazines, industry websites and national newspapers and is the assistant editor for Film Ireland. She also contributes to RTE Radio One on occasion. Her stage play Spoiling Sunset was performed at the Jerome Hynes One Act Play series in 2014, and she was selected to write for AboutFACE’s 2021 Transatlantic tales. In 2018 the Galway Film Centre commissioned Gemma's pitch for Fitzy’s Last Stand to be developed by a script editor. Her script Detour was shortlisted for the 2020 Dun Laoghaire First Frames Scheme and was a finalist in the CinemaStreet Women’s Short Screenplay Competition.
"If there’s one thing I love to watch in film, it’s a complex, messy antihero."
Mo O'Connell
Mo O’Connell is an award-winning filmmaker and actor living in Dublin. She studied Film Production at Ballyfermot College, Dublin and Acting (BA) at RADA, London.
Mo has made several award-winning short films including the Screen Ireland award-winning short, "HUM" (currently on the festival circuit) with Bosco Hogan & Barry John Kinsella. Mo has also made the award-winning feature film "SPA Weekend" (also currently on the festival circuit).
One of her acclaimed short films "GIRLS" that she wrote and directed is the basis & inspiration for "Fair Game" that she has co-written with Gemma Creagh.
Training as an actor at RADA and winning the prestigious Henry Marshall Award for Outstanding Acting whilst there, storytelling has become embedded in her body as a result of live performance & now informs her filmmaking, writing and direction.
Project Title: Fair Game
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Genre: Drama / Coming of Age
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Target Audience: 16 - 40
"Between the pair of us, we had such great conversations fleshing out Mary and Donna. Who are these violent, angry girls, and what would make someone act in this way?"
Synopsis
After her mother’s disappearance, Mary is uprooted from her quiet coastal home in Kerry. She’s forced to live with her estranged father and his pretentious stepfamily in their suburban South Dublin home. As an artistic dreamer with a vivid imagination, Mary can’t seem to find her place in this new life - an alien world filled with Rugby pitches, shiny four-by-fours and fake tans.
On her way home from her new school, Mary is targeted by a gang of girls from the local Private Academy. Outgunned, outnumbered and with no option to escape, Mary lunges at the ringleader. In the brutal attack that ensues, Mary catches the attention of wild, charismatic Donna. Jumping in with her loyal crew, Donna defends Mary, and in the aftermath of the violence, their blood still pumping with adrenalyn, she issues an invitation. Does Mary want to join them?
Donna, Amber and Janice introduce Mary to a world of petty crime, car theft, vandalism and violence, all of which is shocking to Mary at first. However as her relationship with Donna becomes closer, and she can feel the fear and respect of her peers, Mary starts to embrace this newfound power. While she's ready and able to navigate intergroup jealousies and feuds with local gangs, Mary begins to question how far is too far when Donna targets an innocent, vulnerable girl at their local school. Will Mary fall in line, or will she have the convictions to stand up against her new friends and forge her own path?
"There’s a truthfulness in their teenage rage that we really want to see on screen."