A short movie about Skibbereen town, created by the residents of the local Community Hospital, will debut at the Fastnet Film Festival.
A NEW short film created by the residents of Skibbereen Community Hospital will debut at Schull’s annual Fastnet Film Festival later this month.
Starting life as a songwriting project through the Uillinn centre and the HSE, The Town That Has Nurtured My Dreams has become a celebration of Skibbereen, and the stories and creativity of the people who call it home.
The project grew out of the sharing of favourite songs, a weekly endeavour as part of an Arts for Health sessions with Clonakilty-based composer and musician Justin
Grounds.
‘I’ve been working on the Arts for Health team for about ten years.’ Justin explained. ‘About three or four years ago I took up the role of resident musician/composer in Skibb Hospital and it’s such a great place.
There’s something about the attitude of the staff and the community of people who live there. It’s very open and sharing and a joyful kind of place. The music group that I run every Wednesday just grew into something really creative.’
He shared his experience of the creative process: ‘The residents decided it was high time for a new song for the town which celebrates all the fabulous places and wonderful new families who have come back to make it their home. Josie Mackle, a member of the group and a keen poet, set about composing a poem about the history of the town, and then the group began their songwriting process by choosing some of their favourite lines from the poem, and mixing them with ideas from their favourite places; the song is like taking a tour around the town, from Fields’ Coffee Shop to West Cork Hotel!’
‘Josie is 92 now,’ Justin continued, ‘and she told me that she’s always loved poetry, but she only started writing original poetry after she entered the hospital. She wouldn’t come to the sessions but I’d visit her every week and she’d always have, like, two new poems for me.
She’s a great symbol of what this whole Arts for Health thing is about. For her, because she can’t go out into the world beyond the hospital, she let her creativity take wing, and that’s kept her going.’
Grounds is convinced of the power of music for everyone, but particularly for people who may be in their later years or who may have cognitive issues.
‘The way in which music stays in the brain even when people might lose other cognitive abilities, because it fires up so many parts of the brain, is an extremely powerful thing. Every week you see how the communal singing and music-making gives people a boost to get on with the rest of the week.
‘It’s hugely rewarding for me to see how music can be used in that context. You find someone’s song that they love, and you’re able to sing it together and it’s like opening the floodgates. As someone who has spent all my life performing on stage and playing music, this absolutely takes the biscuit. This is what music is for.’
Visual artist Sharon Dipity, who also works as part of the Arts for Health team at the Community Hospital, produced line drawings with the residents, of the places mentioned in the song.
Additionally, Sharon helped with filming and the recording of performances for the film. It is a tribute to the residents’ creativity, with animations, drawings, poetry reading, musical soundscape, and singing all woven together.
The Town That Has Nurtured My Dreams is being screend at the Fastnet Film Festival on Sunday, May 25th.
Joan Browne, director of nursing at the hospital said that both the residents and the hospital community were ‘delighted and honoured’ to be part of the project.
‘It’s a great honour and privilege, and I wish to acknowledge the residents and Arts For Health for the hard work and their dedication that made this wonderful celebration come to pass.’
Justin Grounds adds to these sentiments: ‘What I’m delighted about, with this film getting out to the film festival, is that it’s showing people in the wider world that there isn’t an age limit to creativity. No matter how old you are, you’ve still got a voice and you’ve still got a creative spirit. There’s no line that you draw, and the ideas that some of the people I work with and their willingness to try things is incredible.
‘Sometimes you don’t get that with younger people. And they’re so excited that the film has made it to the festival. To think that their work is getting shown at this hour of their lives – they’re chuffed!’
The Town That Has Nurtured My Dreams is screening as one of the films in the Local Interest category at the Fastnet Film Festival on Sunday, May 25th between 3:30pm - 4:35pm. More information can be found at the festival website.
