"It must be done right"

A Documentary Tribute to Donal McCann

"It must be done right"
Documentary: Donal McCann - 'the world's greatest actor (Newsweek)' . His last public performance. Prod. De Facto films
1999
(Colour, 50 mins)

€20

The spine of this documentary was the first, the only (and the last) public interview that the actor ever gave.
It happened at the Galway Film Fleadh in July 1998 where McCann had the audience in the Town Hall riveted for 1 1/2 hours with his humour and frankness, insights into art and life, successes and lapses, his ascetic eschewing of success, the mistakes that became masterstrokes, the performances that touched on the spiritual.
It would have been possible to run this interview by Gerry Stembridge uncut but because of McCann's superbly oblique manner, his glancing mode of discourse (he treats the audience as intelligent beings) he raises all kinds of questions and retains the privacy essential to a master craftsman.
Arnold said of Shakespeare: 'Others abide our questions; thou art free. We ask and ask; thou smilest and art still...'
Such questions about Donal McCann are attempted to be answered - or light shed on them - by a collection of luminaries who knew him personally and professionally. There are appearances by Jim Sheridan, Neil Jordan, Gabriel Byrne, Lelia Doolan, Sebastian Barry, Joan O'Hara, Hugh Leonard, Sinéad Cusack, Pat Laffan, Michael D. Higgins, John Turturro, Robert Ballagh and others. All talk about a man they know, admire and think they understand.
The process is discreetly illustrated by a treasurehouse of stills (from the Abbey Archive etc.) plus illustrations of his work with many of the above artists, his many stage appearances, films and television dramas.
This is an attempt to reveal some of the mystery of personality that lies behind the art of one of the acknowledged ˜greats" of our time.
Donal McCann died in July 1999, aged 56.

Ní­ bheidh a leithéid arís ann.