Mick O’Dea RHA is one of Ireland’s most renowned living painters. His diverse range of work includes a ten-year study of the War of Independence, culled from found and researched images. As he prepares a monumental exhibition “The Foggy Dew” in central Dublin, a film crew attempts to document the journey. But amidst the collision of history, memory and cinema, reality soon intervenes.

Director Emile Dinneen’s study is both whimsical and reflective, eschewing the traditional, reverential artist profile for a lively exploration of O’Dea’s creative process – his doubts and uncertainty alongside his artistic vision – which lead to ground-breaking and memorable work.

Battlefield will screen with Paddy Cahill’s short Merging Views. Artist Seán Hillen, master of the scalpel-and-glue photomontage and, like O’Dea, a keen rummager in the drawers of Irish history, speaks of his art and a recent personal revelation.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn