Docfilm THE SONG CYCLE to have its World Premiere at 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival; Irish filmmaker and musician Nick Kelly with musical partner Sean Millar just released the album “Joy” that includes film soundtrack
By Oliver Carnay
Irish filmmaker and musician Nick Kelly’s documentary feature The Song Cycle will have its first international screening at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Winner of Best Independent Film at Galway Film Fleadh 2024 and Audience Choice at IFI Documentary Festival 2024, this funny, moving and thought-provoking story about Mother Nature, Father Time and Brothers on the Road, screens as follows:
Thursday Feb 6 – Riviera Theatre – 6.00pm
Friday Feb 7 – Film Center 2 – 2.20pm
Saturday Feb 8 – Film Center 1 – 9.20am
Thursday Feb 6 – Riviera Theatre – 6.00pm
Friday Feb 7 – Film Center 2 – 2.20pm
Saturday Feb 8 – Film Center 1 – 9.20am
Nick Kelly is an Oscar-shortlisted filmmaker and Choice Music Prize-nominated musical artist born and based in Ireland. In 2022, Nick decides to cycle from his home in Dublin to the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England, carrying his guitar, tent, and all other necessities on his bicycle while playing shows in towns along the way.
He is accompanied by his great friend and musical partner, Sean Millar, who tracks his progress using public transport, joins him onstage every night, and acts as a witty, long-suffering, and sometimes skeptical Sancho Panza to his Don Quixote. On the day they finally play Glastonbury, Nick turns 60, thereby outliving his politician father, John Kelly, who died at age 59 and was unaware of the existence of Glastonbury, much less contemplated attending it.
While inspired by environmental concerns, The Song Cycle turns out to be about other forms of sustainability too. Ultimately it encourages viewers to stay in the saddle and keep pedalling, whatever the weather, traffic, or gradient faced.
Nick has been described as “uncompromised and ever-shining, precious” by NME and “the most visual songwriter Ireland has ever produced” by Hot Press. He first came to prominence as frontman with THE FAT LADY SINGS, with whom he released two acclaimed albums in EastWest / Atlantic Records in the early 1990s and toured extensively in Ireland, the UK, Europe and North America. He’s subsequently released four independent solo albums on his own Self Possessed label, the latter two as Alien Envoy. Most recently, he’s been collaborating with his great friend and fellow songwriter Sean Millar as Dogs. Having toured sustainably around Ireland and the UK, including playing Glastonbury in both 2022 and 2023, Dogs have now recorded their debut album JOY which they’re planning to release in the coming months. At various points Nick has been awarded Best Solo Artist at the Irish Music Critics Awards, nominated for Irish Album of The Year at the Choice Music Prize, and voted Ireland’s #3 Best Songwriter in the Hot Press annual Readers Poll.
He began writing and directing films in 2003. His second short WHY THE IRISH DANCE THAT WAY was selected by New York’ Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) for Shortfest: Outstanding Shorts From The International Festivals in 2006. His third short SHOE was Oscar-shortlisted at the 2011 Academy Awards. His debut feature THE DRUMMER AND THE KEEPER (2017) won 18 awards on the international festival circuit. In 2018 he set up THE STORY WORKS, an innovative independent TV writers room based in Dublin with the aim of generating new television drama with global potential. BEDSITTERLAND, a new drama feature written and to be directed by Nick was selected for the Berlinale Co-Production Market in 2020 and is currently in development. His drama feature screenplay THE SEA LION was a Quarter-Finalist in the 2023 Page Awards. Red Ted Media have recently optioned WELCOME TO HELL, an epic period TV crime drama written by Nic and Carl Austin.
Nick is one of Ireland’s most highly-regarded advertising creatives and commercial directors. As a copywriter, he won a Clio for his Guinness and Tom Crean and cast a young Michael Fassbender in another epic Guinness spot QUARREL. Working pro bono he wrote the Party Political Broadcast for the Irish Green Party in the 2007 Irish General Election which was credited by many with helping the Greens achieve participation in the subsequent Coalition government, and wrote and directed a fund=raising appeal for the Irish Film Archive featuring Saoirse Ronan. Nick has directed spots for (among others) AIB bank, Barry’s Tea, Newstalk Radio, Clonakilty black pudding, SSE Airtricity and homeless charity Simon.
Director Nick Kelly’s Statement
I’ve been a touring musician for over 30 years, travelling between shows across Europe and America by plane, tour bus, splitter van and private car. I’ve also travelled considerably as a filmmaker. My first feature THE DRUMMER AND THE KEEPER (2017) screened at festivals all over world, many of which I was invited to attend — obviously gratifying for me as a writer-director but also guilt-inducing in terms of how much all that air travel was amplifying my personal carbon footprint.
I’d become increasingly aware of other musical artists – people like Coldplay, Massive Attack and Billie Eilish — grappling to reconcile their artistic and economic need to perform live with the harmful impact of that activity on a global environment under existential threat. I’d heard the pretty terrifying statistic that 80% of the carbon footprint of a typical major live music event is directly related to travel.
Then, in October 2021, I had a moment of revelation when I was asked to perform a single song at a large multi-artist event in Dublin. Realising that backstage parking at the 8000-capacity 3Arena was going to be extremely constrained. I donned my rain gear (this was a very typical Irish Autumn night), strapped my guitar onto my back, threw my stage wear in my pannier, and mounted my trusty bicycle. I got a few curious looks from Security and one or two of my fellow-musicians at the stage door, but the surprising ease of this way of travelling to a gig was revelatory for me. The show inspired me to plan THE SONG CYCLE. As a not particularly fit, skilled or youthful cyclist, I reckoned that if I could manage to transport myself and my gear to a major musical event solely by pedal power, so could many, many others.
For me, film and music are very similar art forms. I credit much of my success in film to my background in music. The one big difference is how remarkably more expensive it is to make a movie than a record. Even on my very modestly budgeted first feature, a typical shooting day involved 40 or more highly specialised professionals on set. I’ve spent much of the past 15 years pitching, writing applications and nagging producers, broadcasters and funders to support my film projects financially — a necessary but immensely wearing process that almost all directors have to engage in continually to make their work.
In 1997, three years after I’d split THE FAT LADY SINGS and walked away from our major label deal, I funded the pressing of my first solo album BETWEEN TRAPEZES by writing directly to 600 fans and asking them to support my project. This initiative — way before the internet or crowd funding was really a thing — not only gave me the money I needed to finish my record, but also the affirmation that what I was doing was worthy of support. I’ve funded each of my subsequent solo albums in this way.
When I decided to film my journey to Glastonbury, I chose to embrace a similar alternative aesthetic, not least because both the ethos and the practicalities of the project demanded it. If I could gig minimally, couldn’t I also film that way? Travelling on bikes necessarily rules out heavy cameras and lights — but actually the technology now available allowed us to create a cinematic experience with tiny cameras and natural light.
I’ve maintained this approach by running a Kickstarter campaign to fund post-production. Over the course of one month – October 2023 – nearly 250 pledged between €5 and €2500
smashing our target of not only enabling me to pay for editing, archive footage and sound design but also encouraging me to believe that many people really want to see our finished film.
I’m proud of what we’ve created, grateful to all of the people who’ve supported us on the journey so far, and very excited as we roll forward.
<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/
Soundtrack of the film
The Song Cycle is a quasi-musical, with live performances from various shows along the journey augmented by studio recordings of songs composed and performed by Nick and Sean. Dogs have released a debut album JOY which includes many of the songs featured on THE SONG CYCLE, and will in effect act as a soundtrack album. JOY was released in November 2024 and Nick and Sean will be scheduling live performances at festivals where THE SONG CYCLE is screening, thereby providing a unique cross-promotional opportunity.
For tickets, screening schedules, please log on to www.sbiff.org
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