Build Something Modern premier at JDIFF

Build Something Modern premier at the Jameson Dublin International
Film Festival, Friday 25 February 2011

Still Films are delighted to announce that their latest feature
documentary film will be premiered at the Jameson Dublin
International Film Festival, Friday 25 February in IFI Screen 1 at
6.30pm. Tickets are on sale now via the JDIFF website https://
jdiff.ticketsolve.com/shows/126512479/events

Build Something Modern is a Reel Art film funded by the Arts Council/
An Chomhairle EalaÌon. The film is directed by Nicky Gogan and Paul
Rowley (Seaview, the Rooms) and produced by Maya Derrington (Pyjama
Girls).

Build Something Modern tells the story of a hidden canon of Irish
architecture - groundbreaking young architects who pushed the
boundaries of Irish design, With surprisingly little recognition at
home. Between the 1950's and 1970's adventurous architects, eager to
be among the first Irish modernists, travelled to Africa for
excitement and creative freedom. At the same time other Irish
architects, fresh out of university, were given the opportunity to
design modern buildings in Africa, but remarkably never got to see
the finished constructions.

These structures - churches, seminaries, hospitals and schools - were
for the most part built as part of a massive community effort. They
were co-ordinated by the Catholic missionaries, often without a
contractor and with the architect mostly absent. Build Something
Modern reveals a surprising and untold history about these people and
their innovative creations. We travel back to the 1950s, when
colonies were still in place, through the atrocities of numerous wars
where many of the structures were destroyed, right up to present day
Nigeria.

Reworking stunning imagery from both the personal archives of the
architects and recruitment films made by the missions, the film
encompasses Still Films unique visual and storytelling style. Build
Something Modern is a touching and revealing film about people and
the special relationship with the things they create as they reflect
on it many years later.

Featuring Dr. Sean Rothery, B.Arch., Ph.D., FRIAI, Dr. Richard Hurley
FRIAI, ARCUK, HRHA, Allen Smith B. Arch, Gerald Fey B.Arch RIBA RSUA
and Michael O'Doherty Dip. Arch FRIAI, Fr. Kevin Longworth SPS, Fr.
Jim Sharkey SPS, Fr. Gerald Gogan CPPs. Original Concept & Research
by Dr. Lisa Godson.

Directors and producer bios available at http://www.stillfilms.org/
pages/about.html Full press kit and images available on request.