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ABOUT Donal Foreman (born in Dublin, 1985) has been making films since he was 11. From his very first films, he has explored different forms of improvisatory and collaborative filmmaking methods in an effort to find a filmmaking process that is transformative, fun and not simply a means to an end. An alumnus of the Irish National Film School and the Berlinale Talent Campus, Donal has written, directed and edited eight fiction short films since 2006, as well as several experimental and documentary works. His fiction films have been created through a mixture of script, rehearsal and improvisation, and share a concern with notions of togetherness, solitude, memory and escape, paying close attention to the sensual minutiae of human behaviour, relationships and interaction with urban spaces - as well as the textural and expressive qualities of light, colour and sound. His shorts have been screened in the Galway Film Fleadh, the Irish Film Institute, the Cork Film Centre, the Kerry Film Festival and internationally in Italy, Spain, Hungary, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, the Phillipines, Alaska, Florida and Los Angeles. Film Ireland called one of his early shorts among “the very best short cinema this country has produced in recent years” and the Sunday Tribune described his film school graduate film as “ambitious, confident stuff, told with visual aplomb.” As a freelance film critic, Donal has been published in Cahiers du Cinema, Film Ireland, Experimental Conversations, Estudios Irlandeses, Karnival, Start Magazine, Filmmakers Alliance Magazine in LA, the Berliner Zeitung in Germany, and the Manilla Bulletin, the largest daily newspaper in the Phillipines. He also works as a film workshop facilitator for young people, a film lecturer in the Dublin Business School, a board member and film programmer for the Fresh Film Festival, a promo director for Irish Modern Dance Theatre and the Funky Seomra, and as a programmer for Dublin’s recently established Experimental Film Club. Other collective projects include (An)Other Irish Cinema, the No Fixed Abode reading group and Better Questions. He has a blog, a Vimeo, a Youtube, a Facebook, a Twitter and enjoys describing himself in the third person. Download Donal's CV here.   PRESS Paul Lynch, "Dún Laoghaire students show what they are made of", The Sunday Tribune, June 15 2008: "The most ambitious short was written and directed by Donal Foreman. You're Only What I See Sometimes is a film about a one-night stand very much inspired by the fleeting impression ism of love and memory in the work of Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-Wai. This was ambitious, confident stuff, told with visual aplomb. Foreman's film contained the cinematic moment of the night: a burst of spontaneous bedroom dancing from Hannah McDonnell that reminded me of Godard's freewheeling cinema. Anna Karina couldn't have done better herself. "   Tony Keily, "The Birth of Cool", Film Ireland 93, July/August 2003: "The Unmentionable (Donal Foreman/Danny McMahon, Dog Day Films) was in a class apart. It deservedly took both First and Audience Prizes. The film managed to squeeze the blackest comedy out of a horrible premise. A gang of guys know what their pal doesn't: he's lost his girlfriend in a car crash. But it's his birthday so, hell, let's have a party anyway. Just don't mention... you know. Featuring defecation, vomiting, binge-drinking, violence, on- and off-screen death and saturated with what people used to call 'language', this was hilarious and daring filmmaking. It didn't do what it was told, and it successfully pushed out the boundaries of what anybody would consider acceptable or funny. The fact that the young audience so totally identified with it (female almost more than male) was also telling. The performances were perfect (the cast have been working together for years as an independent group), and pacing, camerawork and use of locations were all excellent. According to the makers, they couldn't agree on a scenario down to the last week before the submission date for Fresh. They finally hammered the script out in a flash, shot it in four days, and edited it in three, VCR to VCR! The last fact went unnoticed because the piece was in every way so accomplished. "[The Unmentionable could] stand with the very best short cinema this country has produced in recent years."