James Creedon – Thanks to Your Noble Shadow #FilmFleadh2017

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews James Creedon, director of the film Thanks to Your Noble Shadow.

Director James Creedon talks about his documentary, Thanks to Your Noble Shadow. The film was shown during the 29th Galway Film Fleadh. Thanks to Your Noble Shadow looks at the life of Jennie O’Sullival, one of Ireland’s last Catholic missionary nuns. She spent 75 years in Japan before returning to her native land. Just after her 100th birthday, she decided to have her memories recorded by her younger cousin, James. In this interview, Creedon talks to us about the journey of the making of Thanks to Your Noble Shadow – one that, as he says, totally transformed him as a person. The film, he explained, evolved during production. Here, he also discusses some of the themes dealt with in the film, such as mortality and the Catholic religion. He also tells us about the use of archive footage in Thanks to Your Noble Shadow and the challenges of making his first feature.

Thanks to Your Noble Shadow: after 75 years in Japan, Jennie O’Sullivan has returned to her native Ireland. Just after her 100th birthday, this energetic, elderly nun agrees to have her memories recorded by her younger cousin, James. Over one year, they voyage together through the various episodes in her epic life story. It begins in the staunchly Catholic Ireland of her youth, which she left in 1935, and continues in Paris where the Order she belonged to was founded. Later in Japan, James discovers a wellspring of love for Jennie amongst a legion of adoring past pupils. What is it about this woman that sees past pupils travel thousands of miles to visit her in Ireland? Interspersed with archive footage of Ireland and Japan in the early 20th century, this biographical film weaves a journey through Irish and Japanese history as well as Eastern and Western spiritual traditions.

For the official website of the festival, click here.
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