Celtic countries come together to celebrate the annual Celtic Film Festival in Wexford town.
The Celtic Film Festival is not one of glitter and prancing starlets. More a hard-nosed business conference aimed at generating business and jobs.
The festival aims to promote and develop TV industries where visual culture has been weak. Around fifty films from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Canada will compete for prizes in the festival. There will also be debates on the economics and politics of film-making and new technologies.
Michael Russell from Scotland, director of the festival, speaks to reporter Michael Ryan about the 3rd International Festival of Film and Television in the Celtic Countries.
The point of the festival is the health and welfare of film and television in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Brittany. That's at the very heart of what we do.
The festival will also have an informal marketplace for filmmakers and producers to sell their work. There will also be a retrospective of the works of Bob Quinn and Kieran Hickey.
According to Russell, the Celtic countries have common cultures, common possibilities, and common problems. They share a lack of access to programming that runs through Paris, London and New York.
Muiris Mac Conghail, Chairman of the Irish Film Board, describes the budgetary restrictions of making films in a small country and plans for the Irish film industry.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 30 March 1982. The reporter is Michael Ryan.
