Perry Ogden is probably most famous for his fashion photography. His work has appeared in the likes of The Face, Vogue, The Sunday Times and Harpers & Queen. A far cry from a travellers halting site in Ringsend, the setting for his debut film, Pavee Lackeen, which had it's gala screening in the IFI last night, in association with The Dubliner magazine.
Following the life of an itinerent girl, Winnie, and her family, Pavee Lackeen gives an insight to the life style of the travelling community. It tracks, among other things, the family's attempt at moving out of their mobile home and into a house, Winnie's disruptive behaviour at school, her suspension from said school and subsequent delinquency. From the beginning I was unsure as to whether I was watching a real-life documentary, a ficticious movie or a bit of both. Was it cinéma vérité, produced for our voyeuristic enjoyment? Or an exposé of the underbelly of Irish society in these prosperous times?
During a brief Q&A session after the screening, Perry tried, unsuccessfully in my opinion, to justify the elements of the movie that left me unsettled. When asked what he hoped the traveller family will get out of the movie he said he hoped that they got the house they so badly needed. He also told us that the family was on the poor scale as traveller families go.
True, it is a shame that in Dublin today, where a few months ago a house on Shrewsbury Road, Dublin 4, sold for €58million, a family can be living at the side of the road with no toilet facilities or running water. However, during the film we see that the family is indeed offered a house. It just wasn't in the area that they wanted, which was Ringsend. So they stayed by the roadside and were no further on in their quest. In fact they were evicted from their spot and moved to a less salubrious location nearby.
Well, I'm sorry but I feel it hard to sympathise with their situation. I'm sure many of us would love to live in the affluent area of Dublin 4, but the reality is that few of us can.
All in all, Pavee Lackeen, for which Ogden won the Best Irish Film Award at the recent IFTAs, left a bad taste in my mouth. I felt sorry for the family, but sorry that their lives have been projected onto the movie screen for our amusement and entertainment. Sorry that most of the characters didn't even get a name change. Sorry because I felt that they had been somewhat exploited.
Apart from all that the movie doesn't really tell you what you weren't already well aware of. It's long and exhaustive in places (though sometimes funny too), has no narrative and leaves many questions unanswered. Ultimately, for me, it served only the purpose of voyeurism. Which, I guess in today's world, is big business.
Joining Perry Ogden in the audience and at the drinks reception were Bono's wife Ali Hewson, looking very beautiful and unassuming, artists Louis le Brocquy, his wife Anne Madden and Guggi, who recently opened his latest exhibition in the Solomon Gallery.
Ronan Ryan of Town Bar & Grill was there, as was Odette Rocha, looking great in a twenties inspired outfit. Also present were Robert O'Byrne, actors Hilary Cahill and Eamonn Owens, Ingmar Kiang and Trevor White of The Dubliner and singer Paul Brady.
