Funded by the Arts Council and the British Film Institute Production Board, Down the Corner was produced in 1976. It was an attempt to make a community film with and within the working class community of Ballyfermot in Dublin. The story was simple: a group of boys from the estate attempt a robbery on an orchard in a nearby middle class suburb. Joe Comerford typically darkened it by hinting, tonally, at social and political collapse. His process was persistently unconventional – untrained people from the estate were used as actors, and, as in Withdrawal, and later Traveller, the shoot was organised so that unforeseen events could contribute to the final shape of the film. Improvised camerawork and naturalistic sound created a heightened realism not seen before on Irish screens.                

 Notes by Eugene Finn