Joe Comerford spoke at the Irish Film conference in Virginia, USA in May of 1996. The following is an edited version of his lecture.

This year is the 10th anniversary of my trying to complete a short film called Roughtouch. It's unfinished. It was shot on tape in 1986. I have done an assembly edit but it needs a lot more time and money. The story is about a woman who has had her child taken away from her, and a man who has robbed a car to get back to jail after parole. Apart from the live action, which is shot, I want to shoot the abstract version of the story and integrate the action with abstraction. I have a purpose, to tell a story. I also have a purpose to find a contemporary film language for the story.

This is my fourth short film. I mention them for a reason. The first two Emptigon and Withdrawal were black and white, mostly live action. The third Waterbag is the first in which I crudely mixed the two disparate veins of action and abstraction - not for affect, but because if you do not advance film language even a little you are advancing cliché and as a consequence, wittingly or unwittingly, propaganda.

Irish society, with it's present agenda of 'upward mobility', needs to redefine the word art in a way that doesn't require rigorous self-analysis. As a consequence you can get a situation where in this tiny country a tiny agency assesses (if they give it any time at all that is) a tiny film from the perspective, not of art, but for the most part of anti-art i.e. does the work comply with the current agenda. The anti-art movement is an import from the USA that we need in Ireland at the moment to ensure we do not scrutinise our society or ourselves to any depth

By art I mean revealing the dynamics of a chosen subject. Because of the nature of film it is particularly vulnerable to this manufacturing of consent. Generally, in the course of production, most films have very direct contact with banks, business, government, insurance, unions etc, which can have profound effects on the outcome.

The present consensus in Ireland is dominated by the 60% to 65% of the population who vote and own. The rest, as in other western societies, are increasingly marginalised and if you make films about the marginalised then you risk being marginalised yourself. In my opinion you can tell what is happening to a society not by looking at the centre so much, but by looking at the margins. The centre knows this and when necessary ensures that you cannot function on the margins. But I intend to continue making films.

The three features and the one hour television film I have made to date all earned a profit for the Irish economy. Down the Corner, Traveller, Reefer and the Model and High Boot Benny were each made for the purposes of art but also made a small profit and in addition gave employment and training. On a macro scale this seems to be no longer encouraged, even if the films do make a profit. Why? because the role of art is being redefined, driven by an apparent loss of philosophy. Art agencies seems to fear underfunding if they produce art. Film agencies seem to fear closure.....not without cause. I say apparent as the philosophical transition (for good or bad) is being concealed i.e. change from a community based to a corporate based society. But the battle is on to retain traces of art. It is a vital ingredient for human existence. But to do that certain things must occur. Centrally we would need to enable truth to overcome agendas. Otherwise market forces, which increasingly drive commercial narrative, will exclude many issues from critical consideration in the medium of film.

PART TWO of this lecture can be found in Film West 27.