The Stones Will Speak

A spiritual fable, written by Fr Cyril Farrell, about a mysterious Christ-like figure who comes down from the mountain to visit a land shrouded in fog. The stranger remains in shadowy silhouette throughout this allegorical tale told in voiceover, accompanied by stunning images of flora and fauna.

movie inspires the viewer to recall a wordless story of five men who meet under mysterious circumstances and receive secret notes. The brassy score builds the suspense as the men meet and square off in a graveyard. The Goethe quote ‘Zwischen uns sei Wahrheit’ translates to ‘Let there be truth between us,’ an interesting phrase in a film that seems to blend fantasy and reality, a tool Terence McDonald also wields in Nebelung and Twilight Belle. This film was made with the members of an amateur film club in Derry, many of whom appear in the short film [Film Club Antics]. The film’s credit note Film Realizion – Eric Von Peak (aka Eric Peak).

A Derry teacher turned filmmaker transforms a classroom in his school into a claustrophobic hallucination. Created over two Sunday afternoons this award winning film stars a fellow teacher and local pupils. Terence McDonald and Gerry Wills have worked together on several films; with Nebelung they achieved international success demonstrating their flare weaving this darker postmodern tale of the anxious reactions of a German teacher triggered by an old photograph.

A mother and father’s grief following the loss of their daughter in a road accident is mapped alongside the changing seasons in this contemplative short film written by John McCullagh and produced and directed by Terence McDonald.

An appealing portrait of the McCormick players, one of the last travelling theatre groups in Ireland in the late 1960s. Terence McDonald captures their variety show of songs, sketches and puppetry, along with interviews with the family members, most of whom were born into the business and have been on stage from as young as three years old. The audiences are diminishing due to the rise in television and showbands, but the family’s passion for the stage still burns brightly. RTÉ had scheduled this documentary for broadcast in 1967 but postponed transmission after the Apollo 1 explosion due to the unintended new context of one of Bert’s songs You’ll Never Reach the Moon. The film concludes with a song wishing the family goodbye with a final curtain call, with the family credited as Colm McCormick, Betty, Bert Patterson, Coral Patterson, Queenie White and Joe.