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Leisure Centre, an 18 minute film, was shot in the new leisure centre situated on Main Street, Ballymun and features a cast of local residents. From the opening scene, we follow a young man through the rooms and corridors of the building where he works as he struggles to come to terms with his new role as a father. Leisure Centre was filmed over two days, and comprises of three separate long takes with the intention that it looks like one single take. The glamorous look and feel of the film stems from the production values of using 35mm film and contrasts with the rawness of performances by the cast.
It was through the filmmakers’ encounters with the residents of Ballymun and listening to what they had to say that the thinking behind Leisure Centre was formed – the desire to focus on new beginnings, new life and the chance to start over again. Molloy and Lawlor became convinced that the film should inhabit the speculative, that of looking to the future not as a way of erasing the past of the old Ballymun but as an attempt to conjure up a hopeful and optimistic vision of a life that is there for the taking and ‘merely’ requiring an act of faith in oneself and the community of people one is a part of.
Leisure Centre also happens to be the final film to be screened in the Civic Life series of films by Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor. Civic Life comprises of six other short films each shot in one day on 35mm film making extensive use of the long-take. The films, despite being undeniably fictive, have also succeeded in creating arresting documents of specific places and people at specific times and ultimately this could be seen as the accidental legacy of the Civic Life films.
Limited edition DVD available on request.
www.desperateoptimists.com
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