Tommy Collins
Directing
Biography
Tommy Collins (1950-2022) - sometimes referred to as Tom Collins - was an Irish filmmaker, known for his Irish-language features, two of which - Kings, and The Gift - were put forward as Ireland's submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature. Raised in Derry, he made both dramas and documentaries. Kings, his 2007 film, received a record 14 nominations at the Irish Film and Television Awards, winning five. He also worked on many productions as a cinematographer and producer.
Known For

1980s Derry: Goretti Friel, one of a spirited group of teenage friends, meets Ciarán at her Irish language class, and romance blossoms. When he is arrested and imprisoned by the British army, Goretti is dismayed to find herself pregnant. Left to deal with the crisis alone, she is tormented by the conflicts of her growing belly and the influence of a Catholic upbringing.
Hush-a-Bye Baby

Set in 1950s rural Ireland, this is a powerful story of the relationship between father and so. Amid emigration and war, John Doyle’s feud with Ben Moran resurfaces after Ben’s son dies in Korea. As John's son Eamon falls for Una Moran, old hatreds threaten young love in a tragic, modern Romeo and Juliet tale.
Korea

Unequivocal about the need for violence to force Britain out of Ireland, Father Eoin O’Donnell seals the fate of the young and impressionable Antaine by convincing him to fight in the 1916 Rising. Fifty years later, the reappearance of the now-experienced gunman Antaine in a divided Derry throws Father O’Donnell into turmoil. Once allies, the pair are now placed on opposite sides of the same agenda.
Penance

In the mid 1970s a group of young men leave the Connemara Gaeltacht, bound for London and filled with ambition for a better life. After thirty years, they meet again at the funeral of their youngest friend, Jackie. The film intersperses flashbacks of a lost youth in Ireland with the harsh realities of modern life. For some the thirty years has been hard, working in building sites across Britain. Slowly the truth about Jackie's death become clear and the friends discover they need each other more than ever.
Kings

An animated adaptation of Flann O’ Brien’s acclaimed 1941 novel in Irish. A biting satire on the highly popular Gaeltacht autobiographies of the time and widely regarded as one of the greatest Irish-language novels of the 20th century.
The Poor Mouth

A lifeboat crew discovers millions of euros worth of drugs on a fishing boat off the coast of Connemara.
The Gift

Two brothers from Wales on a stag night return to a small village in Donegal where they spent a working holiday 16 years previously. There they bump in to an old flame and a series of mishaps and misunderstandings reignite old passions and throw their lives into confusion.
Dead Long Enough

Veteran BBC Radio DJ John Peel takes his first visit to Derry and discovers for himself the band that forged his favourite pop song 'Teenage Kicks'.The film, through the use of interviews and archive footage (of Derry and The Undertones), takes us back to 1975. To a time when it would have been normal, even expected, for five Derry teenagers to get together and have a riot. The Undertones got together, formed a band and created their own form of riot, bursting into a vigorous and joyous celibration of their own existence.
The Story of the Undertones - Teenage Kicks

Bogwoman charts the experiences of a woman who moves to the city from Donegal in 1958. Down the years she copes with various personal and familiy pressures against the background of the emerging civil unrest and the redeployment of British troops into the area.