National Film School Student Mark Lynch’s ‘His Car’ Garners Awards and Industry Attention
Listen Back: His Car – Mark Lynch
CLIP • 20 MINS • 31 MAY • THE RYAN TUBRIDY SHOW
Mark Lynch’s short film, ‘His Car’, won Best Overall Film in the ‘First Frame’ category at this year’s Dublin International Film Festival. Mark is a second year film student at IADT.
His Car was an extremely challenging film to make. I wanted to make my family proud, myself proud, and to honour my dad. I made His Car in the depths of lockdown (March 2021), a year after the loss of my dad.
The creation of it was a painful yet cathartic experience through out every phase of production. At the time the 5km restrictions were in effect and IADT was teaching fully online, so myself and my partner made it using only what we had at home.
I was very lucky to have a number of online tutorials with my lecturers Vanessa and Deirdre who helped nurture my story and steer me in the right direction.
It was entered into the DLR Stories from Isolation awards where it won first place, then it travelled home to IndieCork Film Festival, and finally to the Dublin International Film Festival where it won the Best Film in the First Frames programme.
Screening the film has been a very surreal experience; watching something so personal on a big screen with a big audience. Initially, it was quite tough to share this intimate piece but after some time and reflection I am happy with the great response it has gotten and I do feel proud that I was able to show people just a sliver of who my dad was.
Mark Lynch
Vanessa Gildea, Head of Film + Media at IADT says: “We are incredibly proud of Mark and ‘His Car’ at the National Film School, it is one thing to make a film under lockdown restrictions with limited access to equipment and little or no crew.
It is however quite something else to create work so beautiful, so personal that has touched us all. I was so impressed with Mark’s cinematic drive, his dedication to the storytelling and visual style. Mark kept driving forward with small changes, making the film better and better with each cut.
Ultimately, it is the universality of the father / son relationship and bond they share over this car that connects with people, it moves audiences, particularly during a time when we were all reflecting on what was really important to us.”
Mark Lynch will be on The Ryan Tubridy Show on RTE Radio 1 on Tuesday 31st May at 9.15am.