Tipperary man's personal loss the inspiration for new short film

‘Good Grief’ is the title of a new short film by writer/director Eoin Ross-Lonergan that he hopes to shoot at locations in his home town of Clonmel this spring.

The film tells the story of Danny, who is in his early 30s and still lives with his mother. The problem is she died when he was 15.

The subject matter is close to his own heart. Eoin, who is originally from Boherduff, Fethard Road, is son of Michael Ross-Lonergan, and his mother Gabrielle died when he was 16.

“The story is vaguely autobiographical,” says Eoin, who is based between London and Clonmel.

“It’s taken from my experience but there are plenty of people my age and younger who have lost parents. Everybody has a different way of grieving and connecting to that grief when they lose a parent.

“I’m doing it in a slightly different way and making a comedy about it”.

The cast gathered for a read-through at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith in November.
“We got a lot of laughs,” says Eoin.

“To have a table read- whether it’s theatre or whether it’s a film like this, it’s good just to have that jumping point, to have it performed in front of an audience, however small.

“We had an audience of about 10, 12 people.

“I think we got the laughs where we wanted to get the laughs”.

He has mapped out locations in Clonmel where he plans to shoot the film, and which include Mitchel Street, the Gas House Bridge and the Technical Institute on The Mall.

“We’ll try to bring in as much of the town as we can,” he says.

The cast includes Thomas Fitzgerald, who is from Holycross; Belfast woman Catherine Tomelty and Andrew Cusack, who is originally from Cork.

A past pupil of Clonmel High School, Eoin moved to London in 2016 and has lived in the western suburbs of the city including Hammersmith, Acton and Chiswick. He completed a degree in film school in 2018, which he undertook while working in Ealing Studios, honing his craft directing shorts and feature-length projects.

He then undertook a masters in screenwriting, which he finished in 2020.

Since then he has worked as a director in independent theatre, as well as working with new writers while developing new projects. He has also written and developed projects under the brand Black Road Films, and which are available to view online.

Last year he became involved with Slainte Theatre, an Irish/Scottish company, and has directed some of their plays, which have been staged at the London Irish Centre in Camden.

To finance the making of ‘Good Grief’ and make his vision become a reality, Eoin has launched a crowdfunding venture through a London-based company called Greenlit, which specifically supports creative projects such as stage shows, comedy, short films and documentaries.

“Our target is to raise 10,000 pounds sterling, that is the best case scenario,” he says.

“It’s really about making sure that everybody who contributes and works on the film can be paid for their time. This includes travel costs and any expenses for anyone who works on the film, from the sound and editing department to the cast and crew.

“There are perks for anyone who makes a donation of ten pounds or more.

“These include a digital poster of the film, behind-the-scenes photo diaries, a digital copy of the script and having your name listed in the credits. Larger donations are rewarded with a listing in the credits as an associate producer”.

Eoin says he has also applied for funding through other bursaries and programmes, and is working with some “good producers” in Ireland who are helping out.

He says the film is also trying to use Tipperary as “a bouncing board and bring the community into it, in terms of if a film does well going to festivals in Ireland or the UK, you can find many different positives around that and then more people might come and more people might want to film and then that helps investment in the area.

“Like I said, I’m just one of the people that are trying to help out, one of the filmmakers that wants to shoot more stuff in Tipperary because everything I’ve done has been in the UK”.

Donations to the crowdfunding campaign may be made through https://greenlit.com/
project/good-grief.

Eoin’s website is https://blackroadfilms.com/.

He also has an Instagram account with updates as well under @blackroadfilms.

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