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speaking with them, I expressed how much of my ow
n family I saw in the story, and how it was unlike anything I had ever seen before in relation to working class Dubliners on screen. “That’s all down to Gemma’s writing,” Kenny tells me with pride for her friend and collaborator. “I think that’s what everyone loves, is that it feels authentic. One of the things that we both said at the start of this was that we’re sick of Northside Dublin, Crumlin and Drimnagh… just being KIN. That’s not what it is. Some of it is, but not all. It’s authentic. And that comes down to Gemma’s writing. And just being unapologetic.” mind. I think it’s a really sad thing that people can’t get a fresh start anymore”. When Edelle became involved with the Normalising struggle without romanticising it was of the utmost importance to Gemma when writing this script. She is no stranger to writing about tragedy within Dublin communities, having written an acclaimed play about the 1981 fire in Artane’s Stardust nightclub, which is now being produced into a feature film. However, her main focus here was on everyday hardships, struggles that can even be called mundane, such as needing money, which is often not discussed. “I think it might look like the characters are greedy, but actually, when you look at it, they’re just looking for basic human things.” As was mentioned, every character has a second agenda when saying goodbye to their grandfather, but Gemma does not think it necessary that they be villainised for wanting things or having dreams. One wants a house to live in with her children, one wants an education, one wants a fresh start (that fresh start being to move to Mallorca and be a DJ, but still). All of these things aren’t outlandish asks, and they’re not something Kane feels as though anyone should be punished or judged for desiring. “It’s so rare these days that any of us get to have a fresh start, which is such a basic thing. It’s not a need, I know, but it’s like people decide their lives very early on, and they have to stick to it, because you’ve no money to change your 46 project, like Gemma, she was very against these characters being put into any sort of box, or misinterpreted as “greedy”. Her main concern was not making the “poverty porn” we so often see on our screens. She takes representing the groups portrayed within the scripts she picks very seriously, and often gravitates towards stories that centre on complex women. Her first short, Ossobuco (2022) focussed on a couple having a heated interaction in their New York apartment. Kenny decided to direct the film as she originally judged the female lead when she first read the script, and she wanted to try and see from this woman’s perspective and let go of any stereotypical ideas she had of women “like her”. “I think that working class families are so quickly depicted as the downfall of our economic society, and I think people “Normalize you just wanting a solid home, without making it a pity party or poverty porn, without putting it in the flats which they already demonize.” don’t see their needs as ambition,” she says. “Normalize you just wanting a solid home, without making it a pity party or poverty porn, without putting it in the flats which they already demonize. This is the reality of the majority of our country. Ambition amongst working class families should be celebrated, even if the rest of the world in this consumerism focused age doesn’t notice that as ambition.” The film was partly funded by the National Talent Agency Short Film Fund grant. The grant is quite new so The Race is only the second film to receive the grant. Both Kane and Kenny could not stress enough the importance of grants like these for young independent filmmakers. “There’s not enough opportunity for people but there’s so much talent all around, and I think with things like the NTA, their generosity of support and their kindness and their guidance. They were always there to help.”