Bob Quinn

Cinegael is an independent cinema set up by filmmaker Bob Quinn in the 1970's, in which his son, the director Robert Quinn, lived as a child. The film focuses on the contribution the cinema made to the cultural life of the community, but also to the Irish film industry itself, acting as a home for, and catalyst to, radical ideas and attitudes within the film industry at the time.

A precursor to Reefer and the Model, Waterbag involves the relationship between two fishermen and a pregnant woman, and ends with an apparently self-induced miscarriage.

Documentary about the Irish, dispelling the myth that they are all of pure Celtic heritage, but showing them as the mix of races they really are, and portraying the island not as the remote outpost of Europe most people think it is, but as a busy meeting place for seafaring traders of the Atlantic all through history.

The film follows Connemara emigrants in London who make a living fly-tipping. In the 1980s as Thatcher's entrepreneurial friends were demolishing buildings almost as fast as they were constructing new ones, tons of rubbish would be carried to designated sites outside the city causing chaotic and time-consuming traffic conditions (very unprofitable!). Enter the fly-tippers! these men and their lorries didn't waste time in traffic, they found the nearest empty space for dumping, the local authority had to clean up the mess, the builders and contractors turned a blind eye.

Bob Quinn’s seminal documentary, deemed too disturbing for television viewers and not broadcast until 10 years after its completion, reveals life inside the Atlantis Commune at Burtonport, Co. Donegal where its members, The Screamers, led by English woman Jenny James, practised Reichian methods of extreme emotional self-expression.

During a conversation he has with a young priest, a bishop reveals to him a love story that turned his beliefs upside down. Remade as "The Bishop's Story" in 1994.

A group of Ballyfermot schoolboys attempt to rob an orchard in the more affluent, nearby suburb of Chapelizod.

Luke is an alcoholic and a petty thief. Once a talented drummer, he is now busking on litter bins and strumming Rossini on his teeth. Estranged from his wife and son, he becomes obsessed with a girl that reminds him of his deceased daughter. The girl is a soprano in a choir, which Luke wheedles his way into and is given a chance to play percussion for them. The film is called a 'small opera' because operas are usually tragic, but Luke is a real statistic in modern Ireland. Audrey Corbett directs the exquisite music of the 70-strong Galway Baroque Singers

A group of unruly Irish stage actors refuse the orders of their British director as he orchestrates a dramatic retelling of Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill’s eighteenth-century keen about the the life and death of Irish rebel Art Ó Laoghaire.

This documentary traces the emigration of 50 Irish families, mostly from Connemara, who were transported to Minnesota in 1880 in a misguided attempt to colonise middle America with Catholic families. Each of them was given 640 acres of Sioux land which, despite their primarily fishing background, they were required to farm to survive. Tragically, the experiment was doomed to failure, as some of the descendants of the original transplanted families describe.

Renowned Irish filmmaker, Bob Quinn of Cinegael, spent a week in the mid-1970s following Connemara vet, Maurice O'Scanaill, on his rounds in the wild and wonderful scenery of Connemara. This was long before the advent of mobile phones and, in such a vast and mountainous area, radio/telephone was not a viable option. This made working in the area something of a logistical nightmare but a very scenic nightmare.

Bob Quinn's 1981 film on the decline of the Gaeltacht, written and presented by Desmond Fennell.

A Documentary Tribute to Donal McCann. The basis of this documentary was the first and only public interview given by the actor. It happened at the Galway Film Fleadh in July 1998 where McCann enthralled the audience in the Town Hall with humour and frankness, his insights into art and life, success and failure, the mistakes that became masterstrokes, the performances that touched on the spiritual. Gerry Stembridge was his accomplice for the two hours. Bernardo Bertolucci, John Turturro, Pat Laffan, Lelia Doolan, Hugh Leonard, Gabriel Byrne, Sinéad Cusack, Neil Jordan, Joan O'Hara, Jim Sheridan, Sebastian Barry, Michael D. Higgins, Robert Ballagh all talk about the man they knew, admired and tried to understand. This is an attempt to reveal the personality that lay behind the art of one of the great actors of our time. Donal McCann died in July 1999, age 56. Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann.

A documentary on a sean-nós singing seminar that took place in An Spidéal in Conamara. Filmed in 1981 by Bob Quinn for RTÉ's Aisling Gheal series.

The ConTempo Quartet from Bucharest has been Galway's Ensemble in Residence since 2003. As world-class musicians in the community, these four young artists have endeared themselves to adults and children alike with their skill and love for all music. They have won numerous international prizes, have performed with celebrated musicians such as John O'Conor, Hugh Tinney, Emma Johnson, the Amadeus and Vanbrugh quartets as well as the Galway Youth Orchestra an d The Galway Baroque Singers. One of their ongoing collaborations is with bosca player Extraordinaire Máirtín O' Connor combining with Garry O'Briain and Cathal Hayden. To witness them sharing tunes, classical and modern, avant garde and traditional, is a revelation. This 'Documenting the Arts' film shows that the classical/traditiona divide can dissolve in the hands of great musicians.

In 1896 James Brendan Connolly, son of emigrant parents from the Aran Islands won the first athletics* Gold Medal at the Athens Olympics. He also won silver for High Jump and bronze in the Long jump. He later set a world record for the long jump that stood for 13 years. A friend of president Teddy Roosevelt, he developed into a war correspondent and novelist. In his prime he was better known than Rudyard Kipling. This documentary celebrates his life.

Before the term was familiar in Ireland, Joe MacAnthony was an 'investigative reporter'. As early as 1974 he was revealing the corruption in the Dublin Planning process. Nothing was done! MacAnthony was 'encouraged' to leave the Sunday Independent and became unemployable in Dublin. He took his family to Canada. There he became an award-winning TV producer and a successful novelist.

During a conversation he has with a young priest, a bishop reveals to him a love story that turned his beliefs upside down.

A poitín (moonshine) maker attempts to avoid the attentions of the Gardaí (police) in Connemara in the west of Ireland.