The Irish documentary Mattress Men, which tells the story of how Dublin retailer Michael 'Mattress Mick' Flynn became a household name, is to have its world premiere at the prestigious Hot Docs festival in Toronto in May.
Directed by Colm Quinn, Mattress Men shows how Flynn teamed up with aspiring filmmaker Paul Kelly to help his struggling mattress business. Reinventing himself as Mattress Mick - and roping in co-star Brian 'The Mattress Man' Traynor - Flynn used social media and online videos to get the word out.
However, as his fanbase grows, his friendship with Kelly comes under pressure.
Paul Kelly and Mattress Mick on location
Hot Docs is North America's largest documentary festival and director Quinn told TEN he was very excited to bring Flynn and Kelly's story to an international audience.
"It has been a privilege to spend time in their presence and to see how they fought back in such a creative way against both a recession and brutal economic austerity," he said.
Paul Kelly gets to the heart of the Mattress
The director will be joined at the world premiere by his three stars with Mattress Men screening at Hot Docs on May 3, 4 and 6 as part of the festival's Future Cult Classics strand.
With characteristic understatement, Flynn has described the premiere as his "first step to world domination".
"Toronto will have a spring in its step when I bring over the mattress magic and I'm looking forward to seeing my story on the big screen," he said.
"It's unbelievable, really, to think that this all started when I met Mick in the pub and suggested I could make a couple of YouTube videos for him," added co-star Kelly. "The hard work has paid off and we've gone global."
Paul Kelly cuts out the nonsense
Mattress Men is the first feature-length film from Dublin-based production companies El Zorrero Films and Faction Films. It was supported by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board and will be released in Irish cinemas later this year.
Also screening at Hot Docs will be Irish director Brendan J Byrne's hunger strike documentary Bobby Sands: 66 Days and Pieter-Jan De Pue's The Land of the Enlightened, a Belgian/Irish/Dutch/German co-production which looks at the wartime economy in Afghanistan as told through the eyes of the country's children.
Bobby Sands: 66 Days
The Land of the Enlightened
