Three Keening

Directed by Oliver McGoldrick

Length: 10:04
Producers: Oliver McGoldrick, Natalie Remplakowski, Cade Featherstone
Editors: Oliver McGoldrick, Reuben Hamlyn
Cinematographer: Gianna Badiali
Sound Designer: Oliver McGoldrick

Set against a backdrop of the Northern Irish countryside, Three Keenings is a dark comedy film based around the tradition of ‘Keening’, a form of vocal lament for the dead in Gaelic Celtic Culture.

It follows the story of Ian, a struggling actor who has the unusual stopgap job of a professional mourner. Ian works the local funeral circuit, getting paid to cry by the hour with his mourning troupe- The Banshees- seemingly detached from the emotion and tragedy around him.

When Ian’s apathy is put to the test by an encounter with a young boy who recently has lost his father, a drunken fight ensues and Ian is thrown out onto the street. With nowhere left to go, he travels home where we learn the truth of his turmoil; that he is a carer for his ailing father and has recently received some devastating news.

Graduate Film

om2053@nyu.edu

Oliver McGoldrick grew up in the countryside outside Belfast, Northern Ireland and is currently an MFA Candidate at New York University's Graduate Film Program. Prior to moving to New York, he worked as an Emergency Medicine Doctor back in Ireland. Through his work and personal life he has experienced grief in many different ways. This informs his interest in examining how others experience it- and how often in the grimmest of circumstances, there is only a fine line between tragedy and comedy.