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HAVENHAVEN is directed, edited & produced by Mo O'Connell
watch the full film belowHAVEN is about the unlikey friendship between 'Carmel', a lonely sheep farmer in her 60's (& a Mothers & Baby's Home survivor) and 'Tanaka', a young female teenager from Somalia, living in the Refugee Centre in the local rural village.
'HAVEN' IS 3 HOT WHISKEY PRODUCTIONS' NEWEST SHORT FILM.
HAVEN on an Aer Lingus flight.
MO WON THE PITCHING AWARD AT THE GALWAY FILM FLEADH 2022 FOR THE FEATURE VERSION OF HAVEN.
MO O'CONNELL ACCEPTING THE PITCHING AWARD FOR
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AwardsThe HAVEN Team through 3 Hot Whiskeys Prods. won the Kerry County Council & Arts Council Bursary to produce HAVEN.
Mo O'Connell pitched HAVEN - the feature version - at the Galway Film Fleadh 2022 and won! As a result, HAVEN is now being developed into a feature film by writing team, Ivan Cush, Rehan Ali & Mo O'Connell World premiereHAVEN had its World Premiere at Kerry International Film Festival in October 2022.
RTE & AER LINGUS HAVEN was screened on RTE's Shortscreen in early Nov 2024 and can now be seen on all international Aer Lingus flights. |
FINALISTHAVEN was a finalist for the Women in Film & Television Ireland Showcase in December 2022 at the Irish Film Institute.
upcoming film festivals in 2023
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haven trailer
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haven stills
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WRITERS OF HAVEN - THE FEATURE
REHAN ALI
Rehan Ali graduated with a BSc in Neuroscience and is currently studying for his MSc in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at University College Cork. After arriving in Ireland from Pakistan in 2005 he would go on to spend his childhood in a Direct Provision centre called Bridgewater House in Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary. Living under Direct Provision for ten and a half years he developed a deep fascination with storytelling and film. During this time, he joined The Tudor Artisan Hub, an independent dynamic arts collective based in Carrick-on-Suir which allowed him to write, direct and edit his own student films. In 2015 Rehan along with the Tudor Artisan Hub founded a Community based amateur film production company ‘Studio42’. From 2015 to 2019 ‘Studio42’ produced 6 short films largely funded by Culture Night Partners – the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the Creative Ireland Programme in association with Tipperary County Council. Studio42 enabled Rehan to experiment in and master many aspects of film-making including writing, casting, directing, cinematography, lighting, special effects, sound, music composition, screening and DVD production. In 2019 he was one of the writers of the book “Correspondences: An anthology to call for an end to direct provision”. His work was also published in The Stinging Fly Magazine and for his contribution to the magazine, he was awarded a Narrative of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award by UCC. In his final year of studying Neuroscience, Rehan became one of eight UCC students awarded the title of ‘Puttnam Scholar’ a prestigious scholarship where he had the privilege to learn about filmmaking under the tutelage of Academy Award-winning film producer David Puttnam. Rehan has most recently won the Virgin Media Discovers Short Film Competition for his script ‘Water Under The Bridge’ which he went on to direct for Virgin Media Television and Virgin Media on Demand. ‘Water Under The Bridge’ had its premiere at the 2022 Dublin International Film Festival. His future work that is yet to be released includes the narrative piece ‘Those who knocked on room 39’ which will be published in the book ‘Atlantic Currents II: Campus to Campus’ later this year in Lowell, Massachusetts. Rehan also co-wrote the short film ‘Haven’ which is set to have its premiere sometime later this year. Create and the Irish Network Against Racism (INAR) also recently announced that Rehan is the recipient of the Artist in the Community Scheme Bursary Award 2022: Collaborative Arts and Cultural Diversity. Through the medium of writing and film, Rehan hopes to further bring to light the conversations and concerns of the very diverse community within which he grew |
IVAN CUSH
Bio: Ivan Cush is a writer from Dublin. His first short film, Hum, directed by Maureen O’Connell and funded by Screen Ireland, played at the Cork FF, Dublin FF Fastnet FF and many more, while also winning the audience award at the Emerging Lens Film Festival in Canada. His next short, Silence, directed by TJ O’Grady Peyton, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2021, had its Irish Premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh 2021 and was nominated for an IFTA Award in February 2022. His third short, A Runner, funded by DLR Arts Council, premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh 2022, where his feature film project, Haven, also won the prestigious Pitching Competition. A short film version of Haven was awarded the Kerry Short Film Bursary in 2021 and began its festival journey in late 2022. Unproduced scripts of Ivan’s have been shortlisted or finalists for over fifteen commissions and contests, with his first feature script being shortlisted for five established screenplay competitions. In September 2021, Ivan was selected to participate in ScreenSkills Ireland’s Mentoring Scheme and was paired up with BAFTA-winning screenwriter Malcolm Campbell (What Richard Did, Herself,) to begin a yearlong mentoring relationship. Ivan is also a Film Studies Masters graduate from Trinity College Dublin and has worked in development, production and business affairs for some of the country’s leading production companies, including Element Pictures, Mammoth Films and Feline Films. 
MO O'CONNELL
She has written, directed and produced over 12 short award-winning films and has made a multi-award-winning slacker comedy feature film called, “SPA Weekend”. She has directed several comedies interspersed with some dramas. And, recently directed the award-winning short dramas, “Bruise” and “Haven” which screened all over the world & at Bulgaria at the Academy Award Qualifying Festival: 20th in the Palace Short Film Festival. They are both now on their way to the Boyne Valley Intl Film Festival 2023. As of July 2023, she finished up the Advanced Producer's Course taught by John McDonnell. This course, run by TU Dublin & Screen Ireland selected Mo to do the prestigious David Puttnam Scholarship Course which Mo thoroughly enjoyed. Mo has a Higher National Diploma in Film Production from Ballyfermot College and a BA in Acting from RADA, London where she won the Henry Marshall Award for Outstanding Acting. Mo is now receiving training on the Screen Ireland's Creative Leadership Course led by Fiona Montaulk & Stephen Fagan. It will conclude in mid 2025. "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." |