Dr Moira Sweeney
Course Leader, Higher Diploma in Television and Media Production | Portais Film Supervisor
Email: [email protected]
Biography
I am a filmmaker, broadcaster, researcher and educator. My documentaries blend observational and participatory modes of storytelling and have been screened on RTÉ, BBC, TG4 and Channel 4, at the London, Rotterdam, Melbourne, Berlin, Dublin and Edinburgh film festivals and in the Yokohama Museum (2016), the Tate Modern (2017), the Lab Gallery, Dublin (2017) and the National Gallery of Art, Washington (2018). My work has been nominated for Best Documentary at Boston Irish Film Festival, the Radharc Awards, the Irish Film and Television Academy Awards and most recently for a Business to Arts Special Recognition Award for Starboard Home (RTÉ, 2019). Mná na bPíob (TG4, 2021) premiered at DOCS Ireland and is available on the TG4 Player. "What distinguishes Mná na bPíob from many other traditional documentaries is that it brings mostly unfamiliar figures to light" (Journal of Music, 2021).
I was the Film Supervisor for Portalis, a SETU School of Humanities led transdisciplinary pilot project mapping the story of the first human journey between Ireland and Wales dating back to the Mesolithic period. It builds on the work of WIT's Creadan research project, led by Joy Rooney and for which I directed Creadan: A Sense of Place (2021).
My recent research on transformations in working life in Dublin Port has been presented at Media and The City, Milan (2012), the Geographers Conference of Ireland (2014, 2016, 2018), the Royal Geographic Society International Conference, London (2016) and UCD’s Women and The Sea Symposium (2016). The research has been published in Media & The City: Urbanism, Technology and Communication (2013) and Mind the Gap: Working papers on practice based doctoral research in the creative arts and media (Bell 2016). I was invited to contribute aspects of the research to The Geographical Turn (Kearns 2015), a forum in which geographers and artists are brought together to learn from their separate explorations of the common themes of space, place and environment. A welcome and insightful case study of my lens-based ethnographic research on Dublin’s port can be found in Research in the Creative and Media Arts: Challenging Practice (Bell 2019).
I hold a BA (Honors) in Fine Art from the University of Northumbria and an MA in Television Drama at Goldsmiths University, London where my film The Gift was awarded a Fuji Film Script Scholarship. I received a Fiosraigh Doctoral Scholarship from Technological University Dublin to research my thesis Keepers of the Port: Visualising Place and Identity in a Dublin Dock Community.
2016 - Present: Course Leader, Higher Diploma in Television and Media Production,
School of Humanities, WIT
2006 - 2016: Lecturer, Higher Diploma in Television Production, School of
Humanities, WIT
Guest Lecturer
2018 BA Geography, Maynooth University
2016: MA in Social Practice and the Creative Environment (MA SPACE),
Limerick Institute of Technology
1996-99 Performing Arts Centre, Dublin
1996 Trinity Arts Club, Trinity College, Dublin
1990 North Staffordshire University
Birbeck University of London
Trondheim Art Academy, Norway
Current Research
2022 Film Supervisor for Portalis, a SETU School of Humanities led transdisciplinary pilot project exploring the earliest connections between Ireland and Wales. Portalis maps the story of the first human journey between Ireland and Wales dating back to the Mesolithic period. It builds on the work of WIT's Creadan research project, led by Joy Rooney and for which I directed Creadan: A Sense of Place (2021).
2019 'Keepers of the Port: Visualising Place and Identity in a Dublin Dock Community', Doctoral Thesis, Technological Uniiversity Dublin.
2016 ‘Dublin Docks: Visualising Changing Identities, Communities and Labour Practices’, in Bell, D. (ed), Mind the Gap: Working Papers on Practice Based Doctoral Research in the Creative Arts and Media. Distillers Press, National College of Art and Design: Dublin.
2015 ‘Dublin Docks: Visualising Changing Identities, Communities and Labour Practices’ in The Geographical Turn, Kearnes, G. (ed.) [online] Available at: https://geographicalturn.wordpress.com/2015/11/03/guest-blog-3-moira-sweeney-dublin-docks-visualising-changing-identities-communities-and-labour-practices/[Accessed 10 December 2018].
2013 ‘Space and the Geographical Imagination on the Dublin Docklands’, in Giaccardi, C, Tosni, S. and Tarantino, M. (eds), Media and The City: Urbanism, Technology and Communication, Cambridge Scholars Publishing: Newcastle upon Tyne.
2012 ‘Space and the Geographical Imagination on the Dublin Docklands' Media & The City, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan: http://www.academia.edu/1428785/ECREA_Media_and_The_City_TWG_Paper
Key Broadcast and Film Credits
2021 Mná na bPíob, Tyrone Productions for TG4 Director
2021 Creadon: A Sense of Place, Nemeton TV and WIT Director/Producer
2020 Longings with Lynnes Sachs Writer
2020 The Tenuous We with the Still | Moving Collective Co-director
2019 Starboard Home, Spirit Level/Southpaw for RTÉ Director/Producer
2017 Keepers of the Port, Spirit Level, Irish Film Institute Director/Producer
2017 Tracks and Trails, Sherwin Media for RTÉ Director
2016 Cleas Act, Tyrone Productions, RTÉ for TG4 Director/Producer
2015/17 Logainm, Nemeton for TG4 Director
2014 Rhythms of a Port, Spirit Level Productions Director/Producer
2013 Opry an Iúir, Big Mountain, BBC NI/ TG4 Series Producer
2013 Aniar Aduaidh, Independent Pictures, RTÉ Director
2012 The Road Back, Spirit Level Productions, Director/Producer
2005-10 Laochra Gael, Nemeton for TG4 Director
2009 Teens in The Wild, Firebrand for RTÉ Director
2009 Cósta Uí Catháin, Independent Picturess for TG4 Director
2008 Imeall Geal, Big Mountain for BBC Series Producer
2007 Feud, Independent Pictures for RTÉ Director
2006 Cártaí Poist, Adare for TG4 Producer/Director
2003-06 An Tuath Nua, Independent Pics for RTÉ Director
2001-02 Léargas,RTÉ Producer/Director
1999-2001 Spórtiris, RTÉ Producer/Director
1996-99 Cúrsaí Ealaíne, RTÉ Producer/Director
1994 Coming Home, Spirit Level for Channel Four Producer/Director
1990 Imaginary, Spirit Level, ZDF TV Producer/Director
Distinctions, Awards, Commissions
2021 Mná na bPíob, HD Dcumentary Film, Premiere, Docs Ireland
2019 Starboard Home, HD Documentary Film, Premiere, TradFest
Business to Arts Judges’ Special Recognition Award for Portfolio of Investment:
2018 Keepers of the Port, Nominee Best Documentary Kerry Film Festival
2018 Dublin Port Company Commission for Starboard Home, Documentary Film
2012-14 Fiosraigh PhD Scholarship: Dublin Institute of Technology
2012 Dublin City Council/Tall Ships Dublin 2012:
Commission for Audio Visual Installation Stevedoring Stories
2008 Crann Beatha, Solo Touring Photographic Exhibition
Tree Council Of Ireland and OPW
2009 Teens in the Wild:Nomination for TV Now Awards
2004 Laochra Gael: Shortlist Best Documentary - Boston Irish Film Festival,
Nomination for Irish Film and Television -Best Sports Documentary
2004 Léargas, Na Caitlicigh is Fearr: Radharc Best Documentary Nominee
2003 Léargas: Irish Film & TV Academy, Best Documentary Nomination
2000 Cúrsaí Ealaíne: Irish Film & TV Academy, Best Documentary Nominee
2005 TG4 Commission for Oirialla
2000 Arts Council of Ireland/Tinahely Courthouse Centre:
Solo Photographic Show - Gold and Blue
2000 Wicklow County Council Arts Fund:
Photographic Series – Communion
1996 Arts Council of Ireland/ Arts Council of Northern Ireland:
Tyrone Guthrie Centre – Artist Residency
1995 Banff Centre For the Arts, Canada:
Re-Telling Tales-Artist Residency
1995 Fuji Film Production Award for The Gift
1994 Channel Four Artist Film Commission - Coming Home
1991 North West Arts (England): West Africa
1990 Arts Council Of England: Artist Film Award -Coming Home
1990 Trondheim College of Art, Norway- Artist Residency
1990 British Council Travel Awards: Philippines, Brazil, Norway, USA,
France, Switzerland, Norway
1990 Imaginary: Cork Film Festival – Certificate of Merit
1989 Imaginary: Retina Film Forum, Hungary - Honorary Screening
1989 British Council Travel Award: Hungary
1988 British Council Travel Award: Yugoslavia
1987 British Council Travel Award: Hungary
1988 Arts Council Of England: Artist Film Award for Imaginary
1987 Arts Council Of England: Artist Film Award for Message from Budapest
Solo Photographic, Film Exhibitions and Installations
2017 Keepers of the Port, port | river | city series, Irish Film Institute
https://vimeo.com/292588093
2014 Rhythms of a Port, Film Installation, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin
PhotoIreland 2014 and Riverfest
http://2014.photoireland.org/program/moira-sweeney/
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/video?vid=1.1851488
2012 Stevedoring Stories, Film Installation,Georges Dock, Dublin
Tall Ships Races 2012 and Photo Ireland 2012.
http://2012.photoireland.org/program/stevedoring-stories/
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2012/0823/1224322748689.html
2008 Crann Beatha Photographic Series:
Airfield Trust, Dundrum; Enfo, Dublin; Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin
JFK Arboretum, Wexford; Leixlip Library, Co Kildare
2000 Gold and Blue Photographic Series:
Signal Arts Centre, Bray; Ardowen Centre, Enniskillen; Clotworthy Art Centre,
Antrim; Tinahely Courthouse Centre, Co Wicklow
1999 Lúnasa Photographic Series: Brownes, Sandymount; Escape, Bray
Bray Arts Club, Bray
1995 Film Retrospective: Banff Centre For the Arts, Canada
1988 Film Retrospective: Zagreb Center Za Film and Belgrade Studenski Center
1985 Moira Sweeney Films: Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Public Collections
Maynooth University, Geography Department
University College Dublin, Scholl of English, Drama and Film
Arsenal Cinema , Berlin
Yokohama Museum, Japan
Institute of Contemporary Art, London
San Francisco Canyon
Photographs held in private collections in England, Ireland, France, USA
Published Photographs
2003-2004 Stinging Fly, Feasta, the sHop
2000-2002 Freacneac Mearcair & Scuais
1984-85 Undercut, Iron
Education
2018 PhD in Cultural Theory & Social Documentary Practice, Dublin Institute of
Technology
1995 MA TV Drama, Upper Second Class Honors Goldsmiths University of London
1986 BA Honors Fine Art, Northumbria University
2021 Mná na bPíob, Docs Ireland, Belfast
2021 Creadan: A Sense of Place as part of Creadan - a new understanding of Ireland's Ancient South East
2019 Starboard Home, TradFest, Iirsh Film Institute
2018 Keepers of the Port, The Lab Gallery, Dublin
2018 Art and Geography, Geographers Conference of Ireland, Maynooth University
2016 Nexus Thinking, Royal Geographic Society International Conference, London
2015 Women and The Sea, Dun Laoghaire Maritime Museum: https://soundcloud.com/ucd-humanities/panel-5-arts-of-the-sea-women-and-the-sea?in=ucd-humanities/sets/latest-podcasts
2015 Art and Geography, Geographers Conference of Ireland, Queens University
2013 Stevedoring Stories: A Contemporary Symphonic Experience:
MeCCSA, University of Ulster, Derry
2013 Art and Geography, Geographers Conference of Ireland, Galway University
2012 Space and the Geographical Imagination on Dublin’s Docklands
Media & The City, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan:
http://www.academia.edu/1428785/ECREA_Media_and_The_City_TWG_Paper
2004 Boston Irish Film Festival
2003 First Wicklow Open, Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray
2002 Christmas Crackers - Signal Art Gallery, Bray
ART+action, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
2000 Glendalough Visitors Centre, Bray Arts Club
1996 L’Alternativa, Barcelona
1994 Galway Film Festival; British Short Film Festival
1990-92 ICA, London; Yokohama Museum, Japan; Berlin Film Festival, Manila Super
8 Film Festival; Melbourne Film Festival; Bonn Experi; San Francisco Art
Institute Cinematheque; Hallwalls Art Centre, Buffalo; Millennium, New
York; Tokyo Image Forum; Lightcone Paris; Viper, Lucerne; Osnabruck;
Edinburgh Film Festival; Paris Rencontres
1989 International Experimental Film Congress, Toronto
World Tour: Erotic Films by Young European Women
1988 Oberhausen Film Festival; British Art Show, Vienna
Madrid Experimental Film Festival
1987 London Film Festival; British Avant Garde- Musarnak Museum, Budapest
1986 Light Years, London Filmmakers Coop
Off The Map, Chisenhale Gallery, London
Feminale, Germany, Tokyo Image Forum, Japan
1985 Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, York College of Art Foyer Gallery,
Newcastle Upon Tyne Polytechnic
1984 Sheffield Expanded Media Show; Leicester Super 8 Festival;
The Basement, Newcastle Upon Tyne
1984 Foyer Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne
List of Publications
2019 In 'Creative and Media Arts: Challenging Practice' (Desmond Bell, 2019)
2019 'Keepers of the Port: Visualising Place and Identity in a Dublin Dock Community', Doctoral Thesis, Technological Uniiversity Dublin.
2016 ‘Dublin Docks: Visualising Changing Identities, Communities and Labour Practices’, in Bell, D. (ed), Mind the Gap: Working Papers on Practice Based Doctoral Research in the Creative Arts and Media. Distillers Press, National College of Art and Design: Dublin.
2015 ‘Dublin Docks: Visualising Changing Identities, Communities and Labour Practices’ in The Geographical Turn, Kearnes, G. (ed.) [online] Available at: https://geographicalturn.wordpress.com/2015/11/03/guest-blog-3-moira-sweeney-dublin-docks-visualising-changing-identities-communities-and-labour-practices/[Accessed 10 December 2018].
2013 ‘Space and the Geographical Imagination on the Dublin Docklands’, in Giaccardi, C, Tosni, S. and Tarantino, M. (eds), Media and The City: Urbanism, Technology and Communication, Cambridge Scholars Publishing: Newcastle upon Tyne.
2012 ‘Space and the Geographical Imagination on the Dublin Docklands' Media & The City, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan: http://www.academia.edu/1428785/ECREA_Media_and_The_City_TWG_Paper
2007 ‘A Tribute to Michael Davitt', Cork Literary Review, Vol. XII
2005 ‘From Lahas to Riverstown', the sHop, Issue 19
2002 ‘Shirin Neshat at IMMA', Bray Arts Journal, Jan 2002
1990 – 2000 ‘Three Poems', Cúirt Literary Journal,
1996 ‘Light Years Ahead - Contemporary Avant Garde Film', The Film and Video Umbrella,
Arts Council/BFI, Autumn
1990 ‘Signs of the Times - Contemporary British Film & Video Art', Undercut, Issue 19, Autumn, pp. 36-40
1990 ‘Signs of the Times - Contemporary British Film & Video Art ICA Biennial of British Film and Video Art
1990 ‘Towards a New Erotica: Cross Currents in Culture', Variant, Issue 7, p.50, 1990
1987 ‘An Eye for Ireland’ Independent Irish Film & Media, Jan, Issue 73, pp 20 1988
Selected Reviews
Bell, D. (2019) ‘Lens-based ethnography: documenting Dublin’s docklands (case study)’ in Research in the Creative and Media Arts: Challenging Practice, Routledge: Abingdon, England.
Tipton, G. (2012) Life on the Water in The Irish Times, [online]. Available at: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/life-on-the-water-1.541880
2009 Teens in the Wild, Irish Times, Irish Independent
2006 Cartaí Poist, Foinnse
2003 An Tuath Nua, Irish Times
2003/2004 Laochra Gael, Irish Times, Foinnse
2002 ‘Sé Seo m’Oileán, Irish Times, Foinnse, Sunday Times,
Sunday Independent
2002 I Dream of Jeannie, Sunday Tribune
2001 An Fhírinne Faoi Cheilt, Sunday Times
2000 Lúnasa Photographic Exhibition, RTÉ Guide
1999 Cúrsaí Ealaíne, RTÉ , Sunday Business Post
1998 Safe Harvest, RTÉ, Sunday Tribune
1997 Dorothy Cross on Cúrsaí Ealaíne, Sunday Business Post
1994 Coming Home, Time Out, The Guardian, Film Ireland
1990 Imaginary, San Francisco Bay Reader, Variant, Village Voice, City Limits,
Performance, Undercut, Art Monthly, Time Out, ICA Biennial
1987-90 Hide and Seek, Art Monthly, Independent Media, Rote, Kusse, Paris Rencontres
1990 Looking For the Moon, Paris Rencontres, San Francisco Bay Reader
2021 Mná na bPíob, Docs Ireland, Belfast
2021 Creadan: A Sense of Place as part of Creadan - a new understanding of Ireland's Ancient South East
2019 Starboard Home, TradFest, Iirsh Film Institute
2018 Keepers of the Port, The Lab Gallery, Dublin
2018 Art and Geography, Geographers Conference of Ireland, Maynooth University
2016 Nexus Thinking, Royal Geographic Society International Conference, London
2015 Women and The Sea, Dun Laoghaire Maritime Museum: https://soundcloud.com/ucd-humanities/panel-5-arts-of-the-sea-women-and-the-sea?in=ucd-humanities/sets/latest-podcasts
2015 Art and Geography, Geographers Conference of Ireland, Queens University
2013 Stevedoring Stories: A Contemporary Symphonic Experience:
MeCCSA, University of Ulster, Derry
2013 Art and Geography, Geographers Conference of Ireland, Galway University
2012 Space and the Geographical Imagination on Dublin’s Docklands
Media & The City, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan:
http://www.academia.edu/1428785/ECREA_Media_and_The_City_TWG_Paper
2004 Boston Irish Film Festival
2003 First Wicklow Open, Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray
2002 Christmas Crackers - Signal Art Gallery, Bray
ART+action, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
2000 Glendalough Visitors Centre, Bray Arts Club
1996 L’Alternativa, Barcelona
1994 Galway Film Festival; British Short Film Festival
1990-92 ICA, London; Yokohama Museum, Japan; Berlin Film Festival, Manila Super
8 Film Festival; Melbourne Film Festival; Bonn Experi; San Francisco Art
Institute Cinematheque; Hallwalls Art Centre, Buffalo; Millennium, New
York; Tokyo Image Forum; Lightcone Paris; Viper, Lucerne; Osnabruck;
Edinburgh Film Festival; Paris Rencontres
1989 International Experimental Film Congress, Toronto
World Tour: Erotic Films by Young European Women
1988 Oberhausen Film Festival; British Art Show, Vienna
Madrid Experimental Film Festival
1987 London Film Festival; British Avant Garde- Musarnak Museum, Budapest
1986 Light Years, London Filmmakers Coop
Off The Map, Chisenhale Gallery, London
Feminale, Germany, Tokyo Image Forum, Japan
1985 Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, York College of Art Foyer Gallery,
Newcastle Upon Tyne Polytechnic
1984 Sheffield Expanded Media Show; Leicester Super 8 Festival;
The Basement, Newcastle Upon Tyne
1984 Foyer Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne