North American premiere for Birr filmmaker's short film

A SHORT FILM by a Birr filmmaker, Maura Foley, will be premiered at the prestigious Poppy Jasper Film Festival in Morgan Hill City, California this April.
“Reunion” will be shown at the festival on April the 11th. It's a road-trip movie about two old friends returning home to a reunion in Offaly.
An actor and director, Maura has enjoyed prestigious recognition for her film work before. In April 2024 she won the best first time filmmaker award in the Catalyst Film Festival, Limerick, for her short film, Missing.
Growing up in Ballyoran Kilcormac, she went to the national school in Ballyboy, and then to Birr Community school where her Dad, Tom Foley, was principal. She subsequently taught in the national school in Ballyboy and was Deputy principal there for three years.
She told the Tribune that shooting the driving scenes for Reunion brought a number of challenges, which included the production's car breaking down on three occasions! “Luckily I had an amazing producer, Sophie Lynch, who was a huge support throughout the shoot.”
She said they were also “incredibly lucky” to have a very talented award winning lead actress involved, Susan Wokoma, a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit, and star of productions such as Chewing Gum, Taskmaster and Enola Holmes. Susan plays a central role in the film, which was “proudly shot” on location in Offaly (Kilcormac and Birr).
The project was made on a modest budget of €5,000 (through the Screen Ireland Actor as Creator scheme). Maura told the Tribune that the project could not have happened without the support and generosity of local people and businesses. “The County Arms Hotel in Birr very kindly sponsored accommodation for us, which was vital. They also allowed us to shoot key scenes in the premises. I’d also like to acknowledge the team at Doolan’s in Kilcormac, particularly Ciarán Doolan, who generously allowed us to film in their family-run petrol station, creating a wonderfully authentic setting.
“When car trouble threatened our schedule, as mentioned, Michael Kennedy of Kennedy Motors, Birr went above and beyond to help us out and keep the production moving. We were equally grateful to Adrian Haines, who kindly gave us permission to shoot scenes in his garage.”
Maura said returning to Offaly to make this film meant a very great deal to her personally, and the kindness and goodwill the film crew encountered everywhere they went was “overwhelming.”
She said she's very proud of how strongly the film (a scene from which is pictured below) is now performing on the international festival circuit. “We will hopefully bring it home and have a screening in Offaly at some stage later on this year.”

Maura is currently living in Dublin. A number of years ago she took a career break from teaching in order to study at the Gaiety school of Acting. From the Gaiety she went to the Factory Actors Studio where actors and directors would meet regularly to direct and workshop scenes. “The Factory Actors Studio was a formative experience,” she says, “from which I have made some lifelong friendships.
“I have always had a huge love for film and it was when Lockdown happened and there was no work happening for me acting-wise that I realised I needed to create my own work. So I wrote my film script, Missing, (which takes postnatal depression and the mood of a suspense thriller and combines them.)
“Directing Missing was a thrilling and exciting experience. A filmmaker friend said to me, 'You're either gonna love it or hate it,' and fortunately for me I loved it! The amazing thing about filmmaking is the collaborative nature of it. It's inspiring to see the crew work and watch them excel in their particular areas. There's a huge amount of trust involved in making a film, it's a team effort and every single person has an important role to play.”
Missing was funded by Film Offaly and is about a new mother struggling with postpartum anxiety who becomes convinced her new neighbours are harbouring a dark secret which she must investigate. “Missing was shot in Ballyboy,” she told The Midland Tribune. “The local pub Dan and Molly's allowed us to use the pub as a location for catering which was a local company ML Catering. The County Arms Hotel in Birr kindly sponsored us rooms to accommodate cast and crew which was absolutely amazing as a €10,000 budget can only go so far!”

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