Ep38: Dr Enda Murray, Media Producer & Film Festival Director

Today my guest is Enda Murray, a Media Producer & Director of the Irish Film Festival. The festival launches at the Chauvel cinema in Sydney on 25th August 2022, then travels to Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra on consecutive weekends, with online streaming options to follow. In this episode, we find out more about Enda’s upbringing in Ireland and his university experiences in Dublin in the early 1980s. Enda reflects on his interest in working with musicians and entertainers to organise music gigs and festivals. Enda also shares his strong drive, interest, and experiences working with disadvantaged communities - in areas including social justice, and environmental activism - and the role played by film, video, and other community arts. We also find out more about the Irish Film Festival and telling Irish stories through film. Enda reflects on his early inspiration for creating the festival and getting a conversation to happen in Australia about Irish issues. We find out about the various day-to-day practical tasks of planning such a film festival, including interactions with film producers, directors, distributors, cinemas, and sponsors as well as responsive and ongoing coordination of the festival team, largely made up of community volunteers. Enda offers insights into the conventional film festival cinema experience, as well as the various the challenges and opportunities of increasingly popular online streaming options. We chat about the often complex issues related to Irish history, culture, and identity, especially within an Australian context. Enda reflects on the shared and universal experiences of a range of social groups: culturally and linguistically diverse, low socio-economic, Indigenous, ethnic minorities, migrants, and others. We explore the value of ethnic film festivals in providing an important community voice that helps to connect with culture, as well as facilitating broader connections, conversations and cultural exchange. Links: https://irishfilmfestival.com.au/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/enda-murray-48a9004/ http://virusmedia.com.au/ Transcript: https://pastebin.com/E8zk8NDa