Declan Cassidy

Declan Cassidy is an Irish television and film director.

Career

A founding member of the Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA Awards), he began his film career in the documentary genre where his work includes War on Waste (2003), a documentary looking at vermiculture as a waste disposal alternative to landfill and The Crew Cut (2006), a documentary charting the voyage of the Irish Naval flagship L.E. Eithne on its voyage to South America.

In July 2008 his short film Whatever Turns You On premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh. Written and directed by Cassidy, it won eight awards at various film festivals, including Best Short Film at Florence International Film Festival Italy, Best Irish Short Film at the Kerry Film Festival and the Audience Award at Filmstock International Film Festival in Britain. When the film received the award for Best Short Short at the Oscar-qualifying Aspen Shortsfest it became one of a limited number of short films worldwide each year to be considered for the Academy Awards.

Cassidy's television series, The House, commissioned by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, screened in 2009 on Dublin's community channel, DCTV. In 2010 his Irish Film Board funded short film Veronique featuring Martha Christie in the title role was released. It was followed up by The Bouquet, The Box and Spoon in 2011.

In 2012 Etihad Airways featured a collection of Cassidy's short films as part of their inflight entertainment. This included his newly released short film Wedding Planners.[1]

In December 2014, following the death of homeless man Johnathan Corrie in an inner city doorway of Cassidy's native Dublin,[2] the film maker released his short film Whatever Turns You On for viewing online in conjunction with Focus Ireland to raise funds for the charity.[3]

This coincided with the death of his father, artist James Cassidy[4] (1926-2014). Cassidy took a sabbatical from work to take care of his mother, Josephine, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Cassidy used the time that his mother attended a daycare centre to read Italian and Spanish at Trinity College Dublin and to write his debut novel. Pins and Needles was published in September 2017[5] and rose to number three on the best sellers chart at Dublin's landmark Hodges Figgis bookstore.[6] Cassidy graduated from Trinity in 2020, in absentia, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, securing a Bachelor's degree with First Class Honours.

With his mother's disease having progressed to the point where she required full-time professional care, Cassidy re-engaged with the film and television industry, securing funding from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland for Romancing Ireland,[7] a six-part television series that focusses on the eating habits of five non-Irish national communities in Ireland that the 2016 census found to be in growth - Brazilian, French, Italian, Romanian and Spanish.[8] The name of the series derived from the fact that all five countries are speakers of Romance languages. In tandem with this project, he was attached as producer of Marypatcheen Must Die, a short film penned by Irish writer Louise Geraghty[9] and directed by Irish film maker Fiona Ashe.[10] The film is scheduled for shooting during summer 2021.

Filmography
  • War On Waste (documentary, 2003)
  • The Crew Cut (documentary, 2006)
  • Make It Stop (short film, 2007)
  • Dancing Dublin (five episode television reality series, 2008)
  • Whatever Turns You On (short film, 2008)
  • The House (eight episode television drama series, 2009)
  • I Hate That Smile (short film, 2010)
  • Véronique (short film, 2010)
  • The Bouquet (short film, 2011)
  • The Box (short film, 2011)
  • Spoon (short film, 2011)
  • Wedding Planners (short film, 2012)
  • Harriet (short film, 2014)

Bibliography
  • The Carbon in the Cabonara - Facing the carbon cost of Ireland's hunger for "la cucina italiana" (Thesis, 2020)
  • Pins and Needles (Fiction, 2017)

Notes
  1. "Local film 'Wedding Planners' to premiere at 36,000 feet". Independent News & Media. 13 October 2012. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  2. Holland, Kitty (3 December 2014). "Jonathan Corrie was 'a bright young man who got caught up in drugs'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  3. "'Lights, Camera and Action' for the homeless". 11 December 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  4. "James Cassidy". rip.ie. rip.ie. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  5. "Pins and Needles". Goodreads. Goodreads. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  6. "Pins and Needles". Google Podcasts. anchor.fm. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  7. "List of Successful Applicants" (PDF). BAI Successful Applicants. Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  8. "Non Irish Nationals Living in Ireland". Census 2016. Central Statistics Office. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  9. "Louise Geraghty". IMDB. IMDB. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  10. "Fiona Ashe". IMDB. IMDB. Retrieved 27 October 2020.

References
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