Page 5 - John Duddy News Today

The yearly Manhattan celebration of Irish music, movies and culture is this year a virtual event anchored by an offer of 23 Irish genre-crossing movies for just $23.

Irene Falvey follows Colin Broderick’s film in which Northern Irish writer Matt Donnelly returns home to Tyrone having not been back for 30 years, to face the ghosts of his past. A Bend in the River directed by Colin Broderick and starring John Duddy as Matt who journeys back into his past, battling demons he had long since run away from. The film opens with some beautifully lush shots of Irish countryside, green enough to make any expat weep. We get a quick flash of the current life Matt h...

Speaking about the film, Broderick said it is an attempt to come to terms with "a childhood tainted by the residue of war". Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, he said: "It is my love poem to Northern Ireland. The writer Matt Donnelly is the physical embodiment of the North of Ireland. He returns to confront the ghosts of his past: the violence, the confusion, the heartache. "Like the place itself, he emerges from it all, reborn. Ultimately, A Bend in the River is a movie about the power of for...

Emerald City), IFTA-nominated Kathy Kiera Clarke ( Derry Girls) and John Connors ( Cardboard Gangsters), the semi-autobiographical story follows struggling writer Matt Donnelly (Duddy), who returns from New York to Northern Ireland for the first time in 25 years. Matt faces the ghosts of his past (Clarke); an abusive teacher, his dead mother, and his childhood best friend, who sacrificed an easier life to stay at home and fight during The Troubles. Newcomers Nicola Boyle, Johnny Mc Connell, and...