For Pulitzer prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, music matters almost as much as poetry. In Alan Gilsenan’s original and acclaimed bi-lingual “documentary musical”, Muldoon’s creative life and times are explored by many of the performers he has worked with in words written by Paul himself. Shot in an eclectic variety of film formats, the unique and innovative ‘documentary album’ reflects the allusive and playful poetry of Paul Muldoon who also narrates this film. Among the stellar array of artists taking part are Paul Simon, Ruth Negga, Bono, Iarla O’Lionáird, Run DMC, Moya Brennan, Laurie Anderson, Van Morrison and PJ Harvey reflecting Paul’s personal and professional life on both sides of the Atlantic.
“A visually engaging, artfully constructed masterpiece that celebrates the beauty of language.” – Karen McMullen, DOC NYC Festival
The film screening will be followed by an intimate conversation sharing with Paul Muldoon and film maker Alan Gilsenan
Paul Muldoon was born in County Armagh in 1951. He now lives in New York. A former radio and television producer for the BBC in Belfast, he has taught at Princeton University for thirty-five years. He is the author of fifteen collections of poetry including Joy in Service on Rue Tagore, published by FSG and Faber and Faber in 2024. Among his awards are the 1972 Eric Gregory Award, the 1980 Sir Geoffrey Faber Memorial Award, the 1994 T.S. Eliot Prize, the 1997 Irish Times Poetry Prize, the 2003 Pulitzer Prize, the 2003 Griffin International Prize for Poetry, the 2004 American Ireland Fund Literary Award, the 2004 Shakespeare Prize, the 2006 European Prize for Poetry, the 2015 Pigott Poetry Prize, the 2017 Queens Gold Medal for Poetry, and the 2020 Michael Marks Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Literature and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Alan Gilsenan is an award-winning Irish writer, film-maker and theatre director. His very diverse and eclectic body of film work extends across documentary, feature films and experimental work.
His latest film The Days of Trees - a reflection on trauma and memory - recently won the George Morrison Feature Documentary Award at the 2024 IFTAS (Irish Film & Television Awards) and he has recently completed a new feature documentary, a meditation on the dark legacy of the Irish “Troubles” and the possible future of a united Ireland called The Irish Question.
As well as in his native Ireland, Gilsenan has made films in places as diverse as Japan, Paraguay, the USA, Greece and Brazil. Other recent films include the film-poem Ghosts of Baggotonia, a feature documentary about radical politician Noël Browne - The Seven Ages of Noël Browne and An Buachaill Gealgháireach/The Laughing Boy (which won the Audience Prize at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival).
Alan Gilsenan has also served on the Irish Film Board (now Screen Ireland) (2000 – 2008); as Chairman of the Irish Film Institute (2002 - 2007); as Chairman of Film-Makers Ireland - now Screen Producers Ireland – (1995 - 1998) and as a Board member of the International Dance Festival Ireland (2001 – 2007). In 2020/21, From 2009 - 2014, Gilsenan served on the Board of Ireland’s state broadcaster RTÉ. He is currently Chairperson of Fighting Words, a national creative writing centre for young people.
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