As he prepares to make his feature debut with crime drama The Broken Law of Attraction, award-winning director Paddy Slattery has told RTÉ Entertainment he is out to change the public's perception of disability.
The Offaly filmmaker has been a wheelchair user for 20 years following a car crash that left him quadriplegic. During his year in hospital and rehabilitation, he decided he wanted to pursue a career in cinema.
"I got into film in order to make something that possibly might have a positive impression on culture and inspire somebody to think, 'You know what? Life isn't actually too bad'," he told RTÉ Entertainment.
"I was very optimistic about my situation but everybody's perspective on my situation was grim - 'Oh God love you, Paddy', 'Poor Paddy', 'Disabled Paddy', 'Paddy can't do anything for himself'. I was like, 'Sorry lads, I'm actually more capable than I've possibly ever been'."
Now, after a series of acclaimed short movies, Slattery is crowdfunding The Broken Law of Attraction, which finds Garda Dave Connolly (actor Tristan Heanue) crushed between a rock and a hard place and draws inspiration from both Billy Wilder's The Apartment and Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown.
"It's an edgy, energetic crime drama that plays on all the genres," Slattery explained.
"Dave Connolly is drawn a lot from personal experiences. Now, I never shot anybody - let's put the record straight! - but Dave is a character, who from a very early age, has to take on the father figure role in the family - that was the kind of role I had. He's a guy who is not a good cop-turned-bad cop but he's tired of walking the straight line. He falls in love with a girl who's actually the victim of his brother's crime."
If Slattery reaches his crowdfunding target he hopes to begin filming The Broken Law of Attraction before Christmas and has recently welcomed Dublin company Zanzibar Films (Sanctuary, the Jack Taylor series, Swansong - the story of Occi Byrne) on board as producers. He is adamant that even if the target isn't reached, the film will be made by "hook or by crook".
"The accident gave me that extra 'oomph' to say, 'You know what? I need to put my foot down and prove to people that I can actually do anything I need to set my mind to doing'," he said. "I don't know if that's the healthiest motivation, to try and prove a point to people, but that's the mission I'm on."
