Joe Lawlor

Based on actual events that took place on 26 April 1974, former debutante turned IRA member Rose Dugdale and three comrades carried out an armed raid on Russborough House, Wicklow, in which nineteen masterpieces were stolen in an effort to support the IRA’s armed struggle. The film plays out over the course of the days following the raid, when Rose is in hiding in a remote cottage.

A story of a young woman searching for her biological mother. Set against a backdrop of misogyny, revenge, and longing, Rose undertakes a journey that leads her to revelations that are both devastating and dangerous.

After discovering his wife's infidelities, Gerry leaves London to look after his deceased brother's business and family in Singapore. Discovering a foreign world of opportunity that had not existed before gives Gerry a chance at starting over by slipping into his brother's life - both emotionally and physically. However, leaving his wife and child behind in the UK is not so easy as Gerry must choose between becoming his brother's alter ego 'Mister John' or returning to London to face his failing relationship.

Staged as a series of voiceover sessions, written with gloriously off-balanced precision and dipped in the color green, THE FUTURE TENSE unfolds as a poignant tale of tales, exploring the filmmakers’ own experiences in aging, parenting, mental illness, along with the brutal history that lies submerged beneath Ireland’s heavy, moist earth.

In their debut documentary Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor take as their point of departure the compelling 18th Century figure, Ambrose O'Higgins, and attempt to retrace his remarkable journey from Ireland to Chile.

A police officer, coordinating the reconstruction of the last known movements of a young girl who has gone missing, speculates on what might have happened to her.

An 18 year old girl called Joy has gone missing. Another girl called Helen is a few weeks away from leaving her care home. Helen is asked to 'play' Joy in a police reconstruction that will retrace Joy's last known movements. Joy had everything. A loving family, a boyfriend, a bright future. Helen, parent-less, has lived in institutions all her life and has never been close to anyone. Gradually Helen begins to immerse herself into the role, visiting the people and places that Joy knew; quietly and carefully insinuating her way into the lost girl's life. But is Helen trying to find out what happened to Joy that day, or is she searching for her own identity?

Originally created as a series of short films by writer/directors Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy, Civic Life features seven vignettes focusing on life in the United Kingdom, each photographed in a single shot in the CinemaScope aspect ratio.

Short film set on a boat

Poetic images of a city in change and the world of experience of its inhabitants, filmed in misty long takes in Cinemascope. A sense of loss is predominant in this meditative work about the relationship between the city and the people. An ambitious film made with the help of 160 Liverpudlians and shot in 10 scenes at different locations in the city.

A father returns to work.

A book sale goes awry.

Lyrical and musical in its style, Tiong Bahru is a thoughtful portrait of 3 very different people caught at a cross-road in their lives. TIONG BAHRU was filmed in Singapore in June 2010 over 3 days and involved over 150 residents of the Tiong Bahru Heritage Estate in Singapore.

The thoughts of a young African woman in Ireland as she considers her future, and her unfolding sense of identity, as she walks along the city street at night.

A group of young people receives therapy in the City Hall of Manchester.

The perfect English arcadia gives way to varying kinds of misfortune, disruption and violence. With more than a passing reference to the 'narrative' paintings by masters such as Bruegel, this single-take 9-minute short is about a lazy Sunday afternoon that goes horribly wrong.

Discussions in a town hall.