A rare screening of Paul Hockings’ and Mark McCarthy’s 1967 documentary about the effects of modernisation on the inhabitants of Dunquin and the outlying Blasket Islands, off the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry. American anthropologist Hockings set out with filmmaker McCarthy to chart how the fishermen’s lives were changed forever by the introduction of commercial trawlers, the destruction of the family unit due to emigration, and how reliance on the tourist industry contributed to the decline of the traditional culture it celebrates. The Village is pure ethnographic cinema. Both informative and entertaining, it features a cast of colourful local characters and visitors, including innkeeper Muiris O’Caomhanaigh, otherwise known as ‘Kruger Kavanagh’, a returned migrant who had reputedly worked as a Hollywood agent and became de Valera’s bodyguard. The film was produced by the UCLA Ethnographic Film Programme and features a score by Sean O’Riada. This print is part of the Paul Balbirnie Collection held by the Irish Film Archive.
U.S.A., 1967. Black and white. 70 mins.