5 Irish Filmmakers to Watch on St. Patrick's Day

It's 11 AM on St. Patrick's Day. You're already drunk, trying to avoid whatever parade, bar crawl, or other dumb communal drinking event your friends (who aren't even Irish) are spamming your Facebook feed with. Yet, for some reason you still have a smattering of instinct to celebrate the holiday, either because you don't completely hate fun, or because you admit that driving all the snakes out of an entire country is actually pretty badass.

Maintain some festivity without leaving your dirty apartment—or even opening the blinds!—by checking out these five Irish filmmakers who are worth your time.

North Irish filmmaker Aoife McArdle often blurs the lines between short films and music videos. Last year, she fused two U2 songs together with 80s Irish punk rockers for the film Every Breaking Wave, which you can watch above. Recently, she tackled James Vincent McMorrow’s new album, Post Tropical, in a new series of videos, which you can find out more about on her blog.

You may know him as the fascist-y General Hux in the new Star Wars movies, Captain Andrew Henry, a.k.a. the resident goodfella in The Revenant, and horny hacker Caleb in Ex Machina, but Domhnall Gleeson is also a director. Check out his absurd short film, Noreen (2010) above. Once he takes a break from his on-screen killing streak, we can't wait to see what will happen when he gets back behind the camera.

An indie darling of the Oscars, John Crowley's Brooklyn (2015) was a satisfying romance—and Irish as all hell. It was graciously more mature than the Nicholas Sparks-style fare we've been getting, able to draw more than just the date night crowd. Crowley, however, is certainly not boxed into this genre. He also directed two episodes of True Detective, a terrorism mystery starring Julia Stiles, and a coming-of-age film with Michael Caine cracking wise. Now that he's exploded into the mainstream, we can't wait to see what Crowley does next.

Vivienne Dick shaped the voice of the No Wave movement of the 70s and 80s. If you don't want to throw back some Jameson after watching this segment of her 1971 classic Guerillere Talks, then why are you even celebrating St. Patrick's Day?

The Irish horror genre is full of gems, one of which is Connor McMahon. His films Stitches (2012) and Dead Meat (2004) are frequently cited as must-see slasher flicks, but his latest feature film, From the Dark (2014), is a whole housefull of non-stop terror. If you're as drunk as you should be right now, watch this film and embrace the inevitable St. Patrick's Day nightmares that result.

What Irish films will you be watching today? Let us know @CreatorsProject or in the comments below.

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