biography
Born in Dublin, Ireland Christine Molloy (b 1965) and Joe Lawlor (b 1963) studied theatre in the UK in the late 80s. From 1992 to 1999 they devised, directed and performed in six internationally acclaimed touring theatre shows before shifting their attention towards moving image based work. Between 2000 and 2003 they directed a number of episodic, interactive works for the internet, and large-scale community video projects for galleries. Between 2003 and 2010 Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, produced, wrote and directed 10 acclaimed short films, under the title CIVIC LIFE. All shot on 35mm, the CIVIC LIFE films have screened extensively around the world including screenings at the 33rd Telluride Film Festival, the 36th International Film Festival Rotterdam, the 49th Thessaloniki International Film Festival and IndieLisboa'09. HELEN, their debut feature film, premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June 2008 before screening at over 50 film festivals worldwide.
FILM
2010 - current
Civic Life tourUK / Ireland / SINGAPORE | 2010 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 73mins
The CIVIC LIFE tour is an assembly of selected CIVIC LIFE films screening in a limited number of UK cinemas in early 2011.
Tiong Bahru
Singapore / UK | 2010 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 19mins 28 seconds
Lyrical and musical in its style, Tiong Bahru is a thoughtful portrait of 3 very different people caught at a cross-road in their lives. TIONG BAHRU was filmed in Singapore in June 2010 over 3 days and involved over 150 residents of the Tiong Bahru Heritage Estate in Singapore.
Developed, co-produced, wrote and directed.
2010 - ongoing
Civic Life: SingaporeCIVIC LIFE: SINGAPORE is a major arts project which brings together artists, communities and audiences to explore, question and celebrate ideas of community, identity and belonging through film and writing.
Developed and co-produced.
Mister John
Feature film (in development) with Samson Films, The Irish Film Board and UK Film Council.
2008
JoyUK | 2008 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 9mins
The police stage a reconstruction of the last known movements of a missing teenage girl named Joy. JOY is a companion piece to HELEN and was shot in Handsworth Park, Birmingham on 28th October 2007 using the participation of local members of the community.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
Helen
UK / Ireland | 2008 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 79mins
HELEN in the debut feature film of Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor which premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June 2008 where it was nominated for a Michael Powell award and was picked up for distribution by New Wave Films (UK/IRL), KMBO (France), Front Row Entertainment (Middle East), Irfan Films (Turkey) and Vanguard Cinema (US).
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
2006
DaydreamUK | 2006 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 29mins
A poetic work tracing the connection between a city during a moment of change and how this is reflected in the emotional world of its citizens.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
2005
Now We Are Grown UpUK | 2005 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 11mins 40secs
Commissioned to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Cornerhouse Arts Centre in Manchester, this film places a group of 20 year olds in a room, where they tell each other stories of confusion, love, pain and experience.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
Leisure Centre
Ireland / UK | 2005 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 17mins 40secs
LEISURE CENTRE follows a young man who is struggling to come to terms with his new role as a father.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
Town Hall
UK | 2005 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 10mins 35secs
In TOWN HALL the camera takes a restless, sweeping point of view on the issues that matter to the assembled local residents.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
Twilight
UK | 2005 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 5mins 20secs
Shot on a boat on the Tyne during the magic hour, TWILIGHT is an intimate exploration of the ebb and flow of life.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
2004
RevolutionUK | 2004 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 9mins 53secs
A technically astonishing circular shot depicts how a community fete descends into chaos and mayhem, and there's a gorilla in the library.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
Moore Street
Ireland | 2004 | Swahili/English | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 5mins 45secs
As a young African woman walks along a deserted Dublin market street at night she considers what it means to belong to a new city and a new country.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
Who Killed Brown Owl
UK | 2004 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 9mins 23secs
In WHO KILLED BROWN OWL the perfect English arcadia gives way to varying kinds of misfortune, disruption and violence.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
VIDEO
2002
Night BusDV CAM
NIGHT BUS is a video installation shot in Hull, Nottingham and London. Night Bus toured to Nottingham, Hull, London and Manchester throughout the winter of 2002. Night Bus was also featured as part of The Digital Hub exhibit1 in Dublin in Spring 2003. It was funded by the Arts Council of England, National Touring Programme, HTBA, Now Festival Nottingham and the ICA.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
London Framed
DV CAM
LONDON FRAMED is an ambitious video installation made across 6 London boroughs over a weekend. The same film was made 6 times with different casts and in different locations. The resulting installation involved a screen split 6 ways with each of the 6 different versions of the film playing simultaneously.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
2001
Apt #801Ireland | Mini DV | 3mins
Shot in Phoenix, Arizona, APT #801 is three 53 second scenes filmed in a domestic setting. With minimal text, each of the scenes have an underlying comic tension and more than a little blood. APT #801 featured the performers Annette Foster and Doug Williams. The production received an Arts Council Film Award and was produced by Brother Films, Ireland.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
Click here to see APT #801.
2000
No MotiveDV CAM | 17min
In 1998 seven people from Dublin, Ireland were invited into a studio where they were then interviewed and filmed over the period of an hour. At the end of the interview each person was invited to shoot a gun directly at the camera. NO MOTIVE is the resulting 17min single screen video about waiting to shoot a gun and the act itself - an act that is as chilling as it is banal. Each person has to decide how they are going to hold the gun and how they are going to take aim but nobody can anticipate how they are going to respond to the power of a gun once it is fired. No Motive is a layered and complicated piece which is also surprisingly simple. No Motive was directed and edited by desperate optimists and filmed by Chris Dorley-Brown. No Motive was shown at Neeb Hall Cinema, Phoenix Arizona in March 2000, Catalyst Arts, Belfast in May 2000, Darklight Film Festival, Dublin in May 2000, Portobello Film Festival, London in August 2000 and the Showroom Cinema, Sheffield in March 2001.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
Click here to see an extract from NO MOTIVE.
1999
Shot 7Germany | 16mm (transferred to DV) | 9mins
Directed and edited a 9 minute film for Urban Shots, a live outdoor event as part of Weimar 1999 Cultural Capital programme.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
1997
BLIPVERTHi8 (transferred to 35mm) | 45 seconds
Desperate Optimists were commissioned as part of the Blipvert series to make a 45sec film that was then transferred to 35mm and screened at a number of selected cinemas around Britain throughout 1997. The film featured Helen Lawlor, Leslie Hill and K. Michael Weaver.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
ONLINE
2003
Wirecrossing: 24 Hours In Central Singapore.desperate optimists worked with a diverse range of Singaporean artists to create a web-film project as part of spell#7's The Year Of Living Digitally. One hour on the hour every hour was recorded. When the tape ran out somewhere across the city of Singapore another crew started to shoot. 24 locations, places, moments, happenings, occasions were captured.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
Catalogue
CATALOGUE is an alternative A - Z of London. Filmed throughout 26 London locations, each short film depicts a silent journey through a specific location and imagines the narratives that might unfold in these strangely empty London landscapes. CATALOGUE extends desperate optimists interest in urban space and the relationships people have to those spaces through emotions, memory, dreams and social situations. CATALOGUE was funded by London Arts Combined Arts Programme.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
Home Turf
desperate optimists worked with community groups in Lambeth to build a snapshot of Lambeth in the summer of 2003. The resulting 7 films were accessible online. A 'Moving Image' project commissioned by the Hayward and Moving South.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
2002
DomesticAn alternative, darkly humorous tale shot on digital film for the web. DOMESTIC continues the company's preoccupation with the tension that exists between all that is familiar, homely, functional and routine orientated about domestic spaces and the ever present threat of danger and chaos lurking just under the surface. Directed and edited by Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, with camera work by Joe Lawlor and text by desperate optimists and the cast. DOMESTIC features Gillian Wylde (the girl with the gun), Helen Paris (the 'nurse') and K. Michael Weaver (the 'doctor'). desperate optimists received a Shooting Live Artist Commission for Domestic. The Shooting Live Artists Commission is funded by A.C.E., BBC, Studio of North and b.tv. DOMESTIC was accessible on the BBC Arts web site from throughout 2002.
Wrote and directed.
Minute By Minute
For MINUTE BY MINUTE we worked with 8 Newham artists and filmmakers to create 24 x 1min films shot on location in Newham and made specifically for the internet.
Developed and facilitated the project.
2001
map50MAP50 is a web based narrative set in North East London that is played out over 63 episodes. MAP50 follows a 24 hour cycle in the life of one woman who struggles to survive on the streets of Hackney. MAP50 includes contributions from Chris Dorley-Brown, The Max Factory, Roney Fraser-Munroe, pleasant-net and Alan Howley. The MAP50 website was supported by the New Media Centre at the ICA and the site was designed and built in collaboration with Nicola Gogan and Simon Byford. desperate optimists are very proud to say that map50 was shortlisted for a transmediale.02 award (in the image category) and was also shortlisted for competition during the Viper International Festival. In October of 2002 it was selcted for the E-MAGIC event as part of the Thessalonika film festival.
Developed and facilitated the project.
2000
lostcause 1-10LOSTCAUSE 1-10 is a sci-fi narrative for the web that is told in 10 parts. Using an evocative sound score, LOSTCAUSE 1-10 follows a woman as she makes her way through a futuristic city intent on finding and ultimately blowing up the head quarters of the Chemi-drome Corporation. LOSTCAUSE 1-10 very consciously makes reference to a number of classic sci-fi films including La Jetee and Alphaville and is, in many ways, an attempt to look at the notion of narrative as experienced on the web. LOSTCAUSE 1-10 was commissioned as part of the the Irish Cultural Programme for Expo 2000, Hannover.
Developed, produced, wrote and directed.
AWARDS, NOMINATIONS AND SELECTIONS
In May 2010 Joe Lawlor received a bursary award from The Arts Council / an Chomhairle Ealaíon.Helen
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize, Festival Cinessonne 2009; Ole Bratt Birkeland winner of the Best Cinematography Award, Durban International Film Festival 2009; Winner of the Grand Jury Prize, Premiers Plans Festival d'Angers 2009; Annie Townsend wins the Best Actress Prize, Premiers Plans Festival d'Angers 2009.
Shortlisted for the Evening Standard First Film award 2009; Shortlisted for the Guardian First Film award 2009; Selected for the International Feature Film Competition, Festival de Cine de Bogotá 2009; Selected for the New Horizons International Competition, Era New Horizons International Film Festival 2009; Selected for the Feature Film Competition, Durban International Film Festival 2009; Selected for the International Feature Film Competition, Paris Cinema International Film Festival 2009; Selected for the International Competition, IndieLisboa 2009; Selected for the CPH:PIX New Talent Grand Pix 2009; Selected for the New Blood Competition, Beaune International Thriller Film Festival 2009; Selected for the Torino 26 Feature Films Competition, Torino Film Festival 2008; Nominated for the Sutherland Trophy, London Film Festival 2008; Selected for the Cinema Extraordinaire Competition, Bergen International Film Festival 2008; Selected for the XploreZone Award programme, Flanders International Film Festival Ghent 2008; Shortlisted for the FIPRESCI Competition for New Directors, Haifa Film Festival 2008; Shortlisted for the Golden Hitchcock Award, Dinard British Film Festival 2008; Nominated for the Michael Powell Award, Edinburgh International Film Festival 2008.
Joy
Joint winner of the Best Live Action Short Award at the Darklight Festival 2008; Winner of the Prix UIP Rotterdam 2008.
Nominated for a European Film Award.
Who Killed Brown Owl
Joint winner of the Best British Short Film Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2004. Shortlisted for the 13th Kodak/BAFTA Short Film Showcase.
map50
Shortlisted for a transmediale.02 award (in the image category); Selected for competition during the Viper International Festival 2002.
desperate optimists nominated for the 2003/04 Paul Hamlyn Award.
desperate optimists received an Honorary Award from Dartington College of Arts. The Award was presented to the company at the Graduation and Awards Ceremony on November 8th 1997.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS, DVDs AND REVIEWS
HelenDebut feature film from Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor. DVD extras included their short film JOY and an interview with the directors.
Vertigo, Vol. 4 No. 3, Spring/Summer 2009
Makers: Missing, Camera, Action, by Jerry White
The Place of Artist's Cinema: Space, Site and Screen by Maeve Connolly
Event-sites and Documentary Dislocations, Chapter 4
Art Review, Issue 27, November 2008
Black Hole, by Jonathan Romney
Civic Life
DVD and book that reflects on and features the complete CIVIC LIFE series of short films.
Darklight Compendium Vol. 1 DVD
Revolution is featured in this DVD that contains a selection of films from the first 7 years of the Darklight Festival.
Best v Best DVD
Who Killed Brown Owl is featured in this DVD that contains a selection of award winning short films.
Made in Liverpool 06: Beneath the skin of the city
Book and DVD documenting the Made in Liverpool programme at the Liverpool Biennial 2006 including Daydream.
Ireland at the 26th Sào Paulo Bienal, Light on the City
The Cinema of desperate optimists, by Ben Slater.
Stalking Memory
CD-ROM was distributed in December 2000 with the On Memory issue of Performance Research (Vol 5 No3).
British Art: Defining the 90s Art and Design, Profile No 4
Performing Questions, an interview with Adrian Heathfield.
Curating: The contemporary Art Museum and Beyond Art and Design, Profile No 52
Showtime, by Lois Keidan.
Entropy: Experimental Culture from the Margins to the Edge, Volume one, Issue three
Upping the Stakes, desperate optimists in conversation with Entropy.
Performance Research: On Refuge, Volume 2, No. 3. Autumn 1997
Photogrammetry, prepared pages by Desperate Optimists.
Performance Research: On Refuge, Volume 2, No. 3. Autumn 1997
Performing Displacement: desperate optimists and the Arts of Impropriety, by Andrew Quick.
SELECTED INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE ONLINE
Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy talk about TIONG BAHRU, the latest in the acclaimed CIVIC LIFE films.Click here to go to interview.
Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy were guest directors on the weekly podcast at Directors Notes
Click here to go to interview.
AirTV interviews the Directors of HELEN, Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy, at the EIFF 2008.
Click here to go to interview.
Filmmaker Joe Lawlor, together with his partner Christine Molloy, has made over the past 7 years a series of award winning short films exploring the relationship between community and civic space. Here Joe talks about the process.
Click here to go to interview.
Interview with Christine Molloy, one of the directors of short fiction film JOY, winner of the Prix UIP Rotterdam, nominated European Film Awards 2008.
Click here to go to interview.
LIVE PERFORMANCE
2002
Kitchen SinkA collaboration with final year Theatre students from Lancaster University which premiered at the Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster on February 12th 2002.
2000
Time-bombCreated by desperate optimists in collaboration with the Dublin Youth Theatre, TIME-BOMB was developed out of an extended dialogue between desperate optimists and 9 members of the Dublin Youth Theatre throughout the summer and autumn of 2000. TIME-BOMB looked at Dublin over a 24hr time frame through the eyes of a group of young people. The result is a contemporary, challenging show about 9 young people asking questions and attempting to map out their thoughts and feelings about what it means to be young in a rapidly changing city at the start of the 21st century. TIME-BOMB premiered at Project Arts, Dublin on November 6th 2000.
1999
Urban ShotsInitially, desperate optimists received a commission from Theaterhaus Jena, Germany to develop the concept for a large scale outdoor multi-media event that would involve many people and would take place in the car park of a large abandoned tower in the centre of Jena. The ideas for URBAN SHOTS were originally developed on a CD-ROM that was authored by desperate optimists. The live event itself was directed by Albrecht Hirche of Hirche/Krumbein Productions and the film and video aspects where directed by desperate optimists. With an international cast and crew of over 150 people, URBAN SHOTS included live video feed, a 9 minute 16mm film, stunts, a live band, dancing troupes and specially trained police dogs. URBAN SHOTS premiered on 2nd July 1999 and was seen by over 10,000.
Bull
A quartet for four performers that took place in a roofless Icehouse in downtown Phoenix, Arizona.
During the month of March 1999 desperate optimists and the multimedia performance company Curious (Leslie Hill and Helen Paris) worked in residency at the Institute for Studies in the Arts at Arizona State University, USA. This month long residency culminated in an innovative, site-specific, 12 hour performance/video installation created for the Ice House in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. BULL featured video, sound, live performance and a mechanical bull.
1998
Play-boyThe setting is a cabaret venue of sorts complete with large make-shift curtain, garish lights, two video monitors and a catwalk. Against a background of Latin dance rhythms and the occasional outburst of stray gunfire, the performers use costume, make-up, the odd mexican boot dance and one or two special effects in a highly theatrical interrogation of identity and language. In PLAY-BOY the performers are joined, through video, by various characters who constantly attempt to disrupt, derail, slow down, speed up and complicate things as they discuss the ethical and social issues at the heart of Ireland's most controversial play, John Millington Synge's The Playboy of the Western World. The video element was directed and edited by desperate optimists and filmed by Chris Dorley-Brown. PLAY-BOY premiered at Prema Arts Centre, Uley and then toured throughout 1998-99, including a two week run at the Young Vic Studio, London and performances in Dublin, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Helsinki and Stockholm. Funded by London Arts Board and the Arts Council of England.
1997
Stalking RealnessPerformed under the glare of intense white lights, on a red floor, with dj turntables and a video monitor, Stalking Realness is a chaotic reconstruction of all that was said and done in a domestic setting late one night, when questions got too personal, the conversation kept going off the rails, the music never stopped, the images on the screen kept distracting and lots of things got broken. STALKING REALNESS is about four people determined to find value and meaning and a sense of their true identity - no matter how flawed - in the banal details of the world they have constructed for themselves. STALKING REALNESS featured the performers K. Michael Weaver and Alan Howley and a video by desperate optimists and Chris Dorley-Brown. STALKING REALNESS was commissioned by Arnolfini, Bristol and premiered at Arnolfini at the end of October 1997 before embarking on a national and international tour including a two week run at the Young Vic Studio, London and performances at Berlin, Utrecht, Rotterdam and Finland. Stalking Realness was funded by London Arts Board and the Arts Council of England.
Evidence
The company were invited to participate in a European Theatre Festival, transeuropa '97 in Hildesheim, Germany. Here they worked with other European practitioners to produce an International Co-production in a large, dis-used Bosch Factory in the city of Hildesheim.
1996
IndulgenceINDULGENCE used an ad hoc proscenium arch, some outmoded yet strangely effective theatrical tricks, a fortune-teller, a fairy godmother, the theraputic powers of loud dance music, a selection of self-help tapes and some soothing words in an attempt to make everyone feel better. INDULGENCE was a response to that end of the century state of mind - introspective, giddy and at times hysterical. INDULGENCE featured the performers K. Michael Weaver and Leslie Hill. desperate optimists worked in residency in Dublin, Ireland as part of a commission by Project Arts Centre, funded by the Irish Arts Council. There they premiered INDULGENCE as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival 1996. They then embarked on a national and international tour up until May 1997. Indulgence was performed 37 times including a two week run at Young Vic Studio, London and performances in Utrecht and Rotterdam, NL and Hildesheim, Germany. INDULGENCE was funded by London Arts Board and the Arts Council of England.
In November 1996 desperate optimists delivered the Steve Rogers Memorial Lecture as part on Now '96.
1995
DedicatedThree performers accompanied by a dj (James Molloy) and a digital photographer (Amanda Harman) pretend to be members of an underground political organisation and throughout the show they prepare 'communiques' to be sent to prominent public figures. When not preparing communiques they rehearse scenes from a still-to-be-made film about a red-headed working class heroine, Vera. DEDICATED was initially developed in March 1995 when desperate optimists were artists in residence at The Showroom Gallery, East London. The residency culminated in the presentation of DEDICATED to capacity audiences over 3 nights. For this the company received a commission from The Showroom Gallery. In October 1995 desperate optimists worked in residency at the CCA, Glasgow to rework DEDICATED for touring. DEDICATED was performed 21 times including performances at the Battersea Arts Centre, London and peformances in Dublin and Denmark. DEDICATED was funded by the Arts Council of England and the Eastern Arts Board. DEDICATED featured the performer, K. Michael Weaver.
1993
HOPEHOPE is a tough performance that takes on the big issues. Exploring notions of the family, the home, the garden, fear and religion, HOPE weaves together personal stories of half-forgotten childhood memories, contemporary retellings of exclusion myths and a deconstruction of that quintessential English comedy, Absurd Person Singular. HOPE included an original score by the midi violinist Kaffe Matthews and featured the performer, Laurence Lane. HOPE toured both nationally and internationally during 1993 and 1994. In total HOPE was performed 18 times including performances at the ICA, London and the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London and performances at Project Arts Centre, Dublin. HOPE received a Barclays New Stages Award and was commissioned by the ICA Live Arts Department as part of the Acts of Faith season.
1992
Anatomy of Two ExilesANATOMY OF TWO EXILES mixes narratives of national and personal identity in an attempt to uncover a notion of 'Irishness'. In a space littered with symbolic objects and cultural artefacts from the Motherland - holy statues, Guinness bottles, potatoes, clods of earth - an attempt is made to reclaim a sense of identity through storytelling, music, dancing, stripping and drinking. ANATOMY OF TWO EXILES was desperate optimists' first major touring production. Throughout 1992/93 desperate optimists toured this production both nationally and internationally, performing 15 times including performances at the ICA, London and performances in Slovakia. In 1996 desperate optimists were invited to bring ANATOMY OF TWO EXILES to the USA as part of a tour by the ICA. Since then they have performed the production 5 times in the USA but also in Aarhus, Denmark and Antwerp, Belgium and Manchester, England.
AUDIO
2000
Crimescenedesperate optimists were commissioned by ArtsOnline.com to produce a 3min audio piece that was premiered on their web site on 31st December 2000.
RE:PLAY
Audio work for local radio with young Welsh people. Broadcast on radio Cerdigion. RE:PLAY was commissioned as part of the Restless Gravity International performance festival.
1999
Livestream30 minute audio sequence mixing music and text broadcast by Gaialive as part of Alan Howley's Livestream sessions.
1998
The Club Scenedesperate optimists received a commission from TORKRADIO (produced by Chris Dorley-Brown and Bob Jaroc) to create a 2 hour piece of work to be broadcast live as part of a continuous 72hr live webcast that happened between 16th and 18th October at the Junction, Cambridge.