Panti Bliss to take global stage after crowdsourcing target smashed

The world can expect to see a lot more of Rory O’Neill, aka Panti Bliss, after a crowdsourcing target for a feature-length documentary on his life was smashed this week.

Following a six-week campaign, the target of €50,000 was exceeded on Monday night, with a final tally of €53,927 pledged from 962 funders for the project, entitled The Queen of Ireland.

According to scannain.com, the crowdsource target of €50,000 was set to raise money for equipment, license music and archive footage, interview additional contributors, post-production, and promotion of the final film.

Shooting on the project has been taking place for the past four years, well in advance of the Pantigate controversy earlier this year, which attracted international attention and with RTÉ paying out over the “homophobic” defamation controversy sparked on The Saturday Night Show.

Blinder Films is producing the film which is directed by filmmaker and photographer Conor Horgan.

It charts the life and times of O’Neill from his native Ballinrobe in Mayo through to the high-profile Noble Call speech on the Abbey stage.

The production crew has been following O’Neill at various intervals in recent years and will continue to do so up to the marriage equality referendum next year.

Aoife Kelly is campaign manager on the film and said the project had received “a huge amount of support” with momentum building in recent weeks, resulting in €15,000 being pledged in the last 10 days of the campaign.

Ms Kelly said the plan was to release the film through film festivals around the world next year, with a general release also planned.