Pyjama Girls principally focuses on the lives of two charismatic inner-city Dublin teens, Lauren and Tara, as they roam the streets, sporting nightwear for daywear –
a curious cultural (and purely female) phenomenon currently spreading the globe. In a series of intimate vignettes, we gain a vivid insight into their daily lives: the girls’ tenacity amidst the at times grim uncertainty that surrounds them and the oft-quotable bravado that rolls with it. Director Maya Derrington’s emphatic feature debut is the latest in a series of inspired home-grown feature documentaries, amongst them His & Hers and Colony, exploring an eclectic array of contemporary subjects. (Perhaps we’re entering a new golden age in Irish documentary filmmaking.) Crisply edited by Paul Rowley and featuring a delicious minimalist electronic score from Dennis McNulty, Derrington’s triumph is to craft a keenly observed tour-de-force that, in the grand tradition of all great non-fiction cinema, challenges our way of seeing. (Notes by Derek O’Connor).