Between modernity and marginality: Celtic Tiger cinema

Abstract

This chapter examines and analyses the industrial developments, international influences and local productions relating to Irish cinema in the Celtic Tiger period. It considers funding opportunities, specifically in relation to the Irish Film Board, for Irish filmmakers, and comments upon the consequences of the growth of digital film-making during this time. The end of the Troubles and a new perception of Ireland overseas, expressed through cultural product such as Riverdance and chick lit, are linked into altered expectations of what Irishness signifies. Specific points include the rise of a new generation of Irish male film stars, from Colin Farrell to Chris O'Dowd. Barton reviews of the shift in representations by local Irish filmmakers, from films that celebrate the new spaces of globalised Dublin (About Adam and Goldfish Memory) to an accelerating trend that focuses on Dublin as a dangerous space inhabited by a disenfranchised underclass (Intermission and Garage). In addition, the chapter critiques the representation of new Irish immigrants, arguing that their depiction is more to shed light on indigenous Irish identity concerns than to engage with the experiences and expectations of this specific group of individuals.