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GIRLS
GIRLS is written, directed & produced by Mo O'Connell for 3 Hot Whiskeys Prods. It won the Screen Ireland Spotlight Development Award & is being developed into a feature film called, "FAIR GAME".
Struggling to find an identity and feeling isolated at home and at school, teenager Mary, takes matters into her own hands with explosive consequences.
GIRLS had its World Premiere at the Cork International Film Festival in 2010 and went on to enjoy its run at film festivals around the world including the Bluestocking Film Series, Portland, Maine, USA where they flew Mo O'Connell & did two screenings for GIRLS. One screening for the festival and another for local high-school students.
GIRLS had its World Premiere at the Cork International Film Festival in 2010 and went on to enjoy its run at film festivals around the world including the Bluestocking Film Series, Portland, Maine, USA where they flew Mo O'Connell & did two screenings for GIRLS. One screening for the festival and another for local high-school students.
GIRLS trailer
SPOTLIGHT NEW WRITERS SCHEME AWARD FROM SCREEN IRELAND
Mo' Connell & Gemma Creagh won funding under the Spotlight New Writer's Scheme from Screen Ireland to develop GIRLS into a feature length film, provisionally titled "FAIR GAME".
They have a fully fleshed out feature length script written and are seeking production funding and backing.
To find out more about FAIR GAME & Gemma & Mo, click on the button below...
They have a fully fleshed out feature length script written and are seeking production funding and backing.
To find out more about FAIR GAME & Gemma & Mo, click on the button below...
YDA NOMINATION
young director award nomination
from the yda's for mo o'connell for girls
review for girls
By Alessandro Cima for Candlelight Tales
"...The film builds quietly toward a surprising viciousness that seems very real. O’Connell darts around the action like she’s making a documentary. She works well with actors, somehow getting large groups of them to create scenes that are shockingly realistic and disturbing. There’s not a hint of awkwardness in her camera work. In fact, she seems, along with director of photography Arthur Mulhern, to revel in what I call the messy image. It is my belief that only people who seek out messy images can become great filmmakers. I will not explain that too much. It should be obvious to any filmmaker. The film contains a crystallizing and gorgeous image where O’Connell points the camera into the sun and tracks a running group of teenagers after a fight. It’s a great image that violates the norms of video photography. In fact, I notice quite a bit of light leaking into the lens during the film. O’Connell’s violence is shocking but also mesmerizing. She approaches it in a slightly off-kilter manner that I can’t quite get a handle on. Just when you think it’s time for her to calm down and quiet things, someone gets kicked in the face. She just has a natural sense of drama.Her lead performer, Marilyn Bane, conveys her role brilliantly. She is a cross between likeable innocence and brute savage ...
Really fine work. All the actors are terrific and the group of ass-kicking girls is just horrifying.
So this Maureen O’Connell is probably going to be making something very fine for the BBC soon..."
"...The film builds quietly toward a surprising viciousness that seems very real. O’Connell darts around the action like she’s making a documentary. She works well with actors, somehow getting large groups of them to create scenes that are shockingly realistic and disturbing. There’s not a hint of awkwardness in her camera work. In fact, she seems, along with director of photography Arthur Mulhern, to revel in what I call the messy image. It is my belief that only people who seek out messy images can become great filmmakers. I will not explain that too much. It should be obvious to any filmmaker. The film contains a crystallizing and gorgeous image where O’Connell points the camera into the sun and tracks a running group of teenagers after a fight. It’s a great image that violates the norms of video photography. In fact, I notice quite a bit of light leaking into the lens during the film. O’Connell’s violence is shocking but also mesmerizing. She approaches it in a slightly off-kilter manner that I can’t quite get a handle on. Just when you think it’s time for her to calm down and quiet things, someone gets kicked in the face. She just has a natural sense of drama.Her lead performer, Marilyn Bane, conveys her role brilliantly. She is a cross between likeable innocence and brute savage ...
Really fine work. All the actors are terrific and the group of ass-kicking girls is just horrifying.
So this Maureen O’Connell is probably going to be making something very fine for the BBC soon..."
girls eventually sold to rte's shortscreen
some stills & festival photos
WRITERS OF FAIR GAME - FEATURE VERSION OF "GIRLS"
GEMMA CREAGH
Gemma Creagh is a writer, filmmaker and journalist. She was born in Cork, lives in Dublin, and has studied both in Belfast and in Galway. In 2014 she graduated with a First from NUIG’s MA Writing programme. A huge fan of live performance, Gemma’s play Spoiling Sunset, was staged in Galway as part of the Jerome Hynes One Act Play series in 2014 (clip). Gemma was one of eight playwrights selected for AboutFACE’s 2021 Transatlantic Tales. In Loving Memory of Dan O’Reilly and was also available to watch in January 2022 at the Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival in New York.
Gemma was the creator, writer and co-producer of the five-part comedy Rental Boys for RTÉ’s Storyland (Episode One). As well as penning all five episodes (which received a total budget of €40,000), she was responsible for directing and editing the marketing shorts and videos. Since then, she has gone on to write, direct and produce shorts and sketches which screened at festivals around the world (from the Galway Film Fleadh to the Screen Ireland supported International Film Festival Molodist in the Ukraine. She was commissioned to direct the short film, After You, by Filmbase and Temple Bar Cultural Trust, as part of the Made in Temple Bar Festival.
On other projects, features, live events, advertisements, and TV Shows, Gemma has worked across a number of departments. She traveled the country as a production assistant on TG4 Documentary Scéal na Gaeilge, was a prop buyer on the Screen Ireland Short, Barry’s Bespoke Bakery and regularly shot and edited corporate videos for the countrywide Jobs Expos. Promoting diversity and gender parity are very important to her ethos, and she is currently working as Administrative Executive for the Irish Chapter Women in FIlm and TV. Gemma has penned articles for magazines, industry websites and national newspapers and works as the assistant editor for Film Ireland Magazine. She’s a contributor to RTÉ Radio One’s Arena on occasion.
She has recently just completed co-writing a feature with writing partner Mo O’Connell, Fair Game was commissioned under Screen Ireland’s Spotlight Development Scheme. In 2018 the Galway Film Centre commissioned Gemma's pitch for Fitzy’s Last Stand to be developed. Her script Listen was shortlisted for the 2020 Dun Laoghaire First Frames Scheme and was a finalist in the CinemaStreet Women's Short Screenplay Competition. One of the chosen Axis Assemble artists in 2021, Gemma is presently developing a play - Old Town - with Axis Theatre Pop-lit department and the support of the Arts Council’s Agility Fund. A section of this work was performed February 2022 at the axis Assemble:Works in Progress showcase.
Gemma has been commissioned as one of five writers to write a piece for Voyeur Theatre with the aim of it being performed in Kilkenny in 2023. She has just been commissioned as a Writer/Director under the DLR First Frames funding scheme to shoot her comedy/horror short, Conveyance, which will hit the festival circuit later this year.
Gemma Creagh is a writer, filmmaker and journalist. She was born in Cork, lives in Dublin, and has studied both in Belfast and in Galway. In 2014 she graduated with a First from NUIG’s MA Writing programme. A huge fan of live performance, Gemma’s play Spoiling Sunset, was staged in Galway as part of the Jerome Hynes One Act Play series in 2014 (clip). Gemma was one of eight playwrights selected for AboutFACE’s 2021 Transatlantic Tales. In Loving Memory of Dan O’Reilly and was also available to watch in January 2022 at the Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival in New York.
Gemma was the creator, writer and co-producer of the five-part comedy Rental Boys for RTÉ’s Storyland (Episode One). As well as penning all five episodes (which received a total budget of €40,000), she was responsible for directing and editing the marketing shorts and videos. Since then, she has gone on to write, direct and produce shorts and sketches which screened at festivals around the world (from the Galway Film Fleadh to the Screen Ireland supported International Film Festival Molodist in the Ukraine. She was commissioned to direct the short film, After You, by Filmbase and Temple Bar Cultural Trust, as part of the Made in Temple Bar Festival.
On other projects, features, live events, advertisements, and TV Shows, Gemma has worked across a number of departments. She traveled the country as a production assistant on TG4 Documentary Scéal na Gaeilge, was a prop buyer on the Screen Ireland Short, Barry’s Bespoke Bakery and regularly shot and edited corporate videos for the countrywide Jobs Expos. Promoting diversity and gender parity are very important to her ethos, and she is currently working as Administrative Executive for the Irish Chapter Women in FIlm and TV. Gemma has penned articles for magazines, industry websites and national newspapers and works as the assistant editor for Film Ireland Magazine. She’s a contributor to RTÉ Radio One’s Arena on occasion.
She has recently just completed co-writing a feature with writing partner Mo O’Connell, Fair Game was commissioned under Screen Ireland’s Spotlight Development Scheme. In 2018 the Galway Film Centre commissioned Gemma's pitch for Fitzy’s Last Stand to be developed. Her script Listen was shortlisted for the 2020 Dun Laoghaire First Frames Scheme and was a finalist in the CinemaStreet Women's Short Screenplay Competition. One of the chosen Axis Assemble artists in 2021, Gemma is presently developing a play - Old Town - with Axis Theatre Pop-lit department and the support of the Arts Council’s Agility Fund. A section of this work was performed February 2022 at the axis Assemble:Works in Progress showcase.
Gemma has been commissioned as one of five writers to write a piece for Voyeur Theatre with the aim of it being performed in Kilkenny in 2023. She has just been commissioned as a Writer/Director under the DLR First Frames funding scheme to shoot her comedy/horror short, Conveyance, which will hit the festival circuit later this year.
MO O'CONNELL
Mo has a Higher National Diploma in Film Production from Ballyfermot College and a BA in Acting from RADA, London.
She has written, directed and produced over 12 short films and has made a no-budget slacker comedy feature film called, “SPA Weekend”. Lots of these films including “SPA Weekend” are award-winners. She has directed several comedies interspersed with some dramas. And, recently directed the award-winning short dramas, “Bruise” and “Haven” which screened in north America at festivals in Chicago, Florida, Canada: Toronto Irish Film Festival & then onto Bulgaria at the Academy Award Qualifying Festival: 20th in the Palace Short Film Festival. they are both now on their way to the Byone Valley Intl Film Festival 2023.
She is currently finishing up the Advanced Producer's Course at the moment with John McDonnell. This course selected Mo to do the prestigious Lord Puttnam Scholarship Course which Mo thoroughly enjoyed.
"I enjoy making films of all different types and genres. The most important thing for me is a good story with well-drawn characters and I look for 'liveliness' in scripts. It is a hard thing to describe but I suppose it is a type of dynamism in the writing that I hope I carry over into my directing."
Mo has a Higher National Diploma in Film Production from Ballyfermot College and a BA in Acting from RADA, London.
She has written, directed and produced over 12 short films and has made a no-budget slacker comedy feature film called, “SPA Weekend”. Lots of these films including “SPA Weekend” are award-winners. She has directed several comedies interspersed with some dramas. And, recently directed the award-winning short dramas, “Bruise” and “Haven” which screened in north America at festivals in Chicago, Florida, Canada: Toronto Irish Film Festival & then onto Bulgaria at the Academy Award Qualifying Festival: 20th in the Palace Short Film Festival. they are both now on their way to the Byone Valley Intl Film Festival 2023.
She is currently finishing up the Advanced Producer's Course at the moment with John McDonnell. This course selected Mo to do the prestigious Lord Puttnam Scholarship Course which Mo thoroughly enjoyed.
"I enjoy making films of all different types and genres. The most important thing for me is a good story with well-drawn characters and I look for 'liveliness' in scripts. It is a hard thing to describe but I suppose it is a type of dynamism in the writing that I hope I carry over into my directing."