Forum of Independents - Competition 2011 / The Pier / Ireland, USA 2011
This subtle, low-budget drama focuses on reconciling oneself with the past and accepting an unavoidable conclusion. Director Gerard Hurley returns to his native Irish countryside where his protagonist Jack tries to reconnect with his irascible father after 20 years of not speaking to each other.
Your father is dying.... Like every son, Jack McCarthy drops everything and hops on a flight to Ireland from the United States. But after jolting along to the remote village where he was born, the first thing he sees is his father Larry standing in a pasture driving golf balls. He’s none too happy about it. Jack spent the last money he had on a one-way ticket and he doesn’t appreciate his father’s trick, especially since they haven’t spoken for 20 years. Jack would take off immediately but financial straits force him to stay for at least a while and live under one roof with his father. Their stormy relationship is marked by an inability to talk about the past, which is painful for both of them and drove them apart years earlier. But the time has come when understanding becomes a necessity. And it’s not easy dealing with pigheaded Larry.... The director returned to the land of his youth, and portrayed the uneasy process of coming to terms with the past and the approaching end of one’s life with concision, exceptional personal conviction, and the help of the rugged beauty of the Irish countryside.
83 min / Color, HD CAM
World premiere
Director Gerard Hurley
/ Screenplay Gerard Hurley
/ Dir. of Photography Jesse Cain
/ Music Maurice Seezer
/ Editor Frank Reid
/ Producer Gerard Hurley, Jim Stark
/ Production Black Equus Film LTD
/ Cast Karl Johnson, Gerard Hurley, Lili Taylor
/ Contact Black Equus Film LTD
Gerard Hurley was born in Ireland but left for Switzerland at age 15 to work with horses. In 1987 he settled in the United States, first working in the oil fields of Oklahoma, later traveling around the States taking work in construction, tending bar, and doing other odd jobs. At the beginning of the 1990s he began cooperating on low-budget films in New York where he took an ever greater interest in writing scripts. In 2008 he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in his first feature, The Pride, a film that explores domestic abuse in the "Irish gypsy” community in America. The psychological drama The Pier is his second feature film.
Black Equus Film LTD
Crew Bay, , Shull
Ireland
Phone: +353 217 319 494
E-mail: [email protected]
Jim Stark
Producer
Gerard Hurley
Film Director
Karl Johnson
Actor
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