If you go down to the woods... it’s all lights, camera, action

IF you spot what looks like the retreating arse of a shrieking madman dashing through the woods in hot pursuit of his prey, do not be alarmed.

The man is completely harmless and the pursued individual is breathless only because he plays the main character in a feature film being shot on the outskirts of Cork city.

It is all part of Tree Keeper, a thrilling action movie. Written and directed by Patrick O’Shea, it is a gripping drama about a young man’s struggle to protect the woodlands he inherited from his father from being developed as a landfill site.

This is O’Shea’s first major feature-length movie and his heart is very much in it. “It is a very personal project, something that really means something to me,” he says, ruminating on the destruction of local woodlands.

“The idea came to me when I was walking in the woods and saw the domestic rubbish people left behind them. I felt I had to do something.”

That ‘something’ is a big thing – a full-length feature that combines a traditional whodunnit with a polemic on the state of our environment.

O’Shea has another agenda, though – to make Cork into a mini Hollywood. Despite the absence of big money and a lacklustre Film Board, he feels the city of his birth could still house a thriving film industry.

“What we would like to do is create a sustainable industry in Cork. I am from Cork. I like living here and I want to stay here and make films. If we have to do it ourselves, so be it. If Tree Keeper is a success, that will be mean we can make more feature films, and that would be fantastic.”

The ‘we’ he refers to is a trio of himself, actor James Browne and Rupert MacCarthy-Morrogh, director of photography with Southern Man Films, the production company.

Tree Keeper unfolds in a small rural town and its neighbouring woodlands and features the character Doire, played by Browne, a young man who finds solace and peace from the outside world until he is forced to confront his demons. In his isolation, Doire is unaware that his estranged mother has sold the woodlands he calls home to a greasy developer.

The rest... is a mystery.

O’Shea studied Film and Communications in the Dublin Institute of Technology from 1995 to 1999. He was head of operations for the Future TV Media Centre in Dublin in 2000, before moving to Luxembourg where he worked in the film studios of Carousel Pictures and Deluxe Productions.

He has written, directed and produced numerous short films and promo videos. His short film, Revenge, was broadcast on RTÉ 2 and his short horror film, The Sign (2008), premiered at the Cork International Film Festival in 2008 and played as part of Spike Lee’s Babelgum Online Film Festival 2009.

His short film Penny screened at the Cork, Waterford and Clones Film Festivals in 2008 and won the Prize for Best Drama at the 2009 Corona International Fastnet Short Film Festival. It recently screened on RTÉ as part of its Short Screen series.

His latest short film, ‘ Tunnel, has screened at the Cork Film Festival, Electric Picnic, The Galway Fringe Fleadh and at Underground Cinema in 2009.

In other words, O’Shea knows what he’s doing.

So does actor James Browne, the man with Hollywood hunk looks who has appeared in numerous short films, including 65, The Wrong Turn and ‘ Tunnel.

On stage he has received critical acclaim for Roundhouse’s Lipstick and in Christian O’Reilly’s The Good Father, with which he is currently embarking on a national tour.

Rupert MacCarthy-Morrogh was the director of photography for the feature film Forty Shilling Shame. He has also worked on a number of short films that have screened at international film festivals including, ATA Girl, Tunnel, the award-winning drama Snap, Daughters of Rome and the BCI and Arts Council-funded The Wrong Turn.

Among the cast of Tree Keeper is Pascal Scott, a well-known face in Irish film, TV and theatre for many years.

The cast also includes Charlie Ruxton, who has featured in Clash of The Ash, Into the West, Angela’s Ashes, The Eclipse, and the upcoming short Roman epic, Daughters of Rome.

Also featuring are Roisin O’Donovan, Ciarán Ruby and Martina Carroll.

* For more information log on to www.southernmanfilms.com