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Horses & Cars  - a documentary

Synopsis 

 

In a part of Dublin known as the Liberties, (which is also where the Vikings settled 1000 years ago), there is a small community of rebel horse owners. And a few years ago, a travelling street musician accidentally crashed her van into the wall of one of their urban horse yards – and out came a horse and a few boys. One of them brought her for a spin with a horse and two-wheeler, and from that day on she was hooked...

 

She ends up buying her own horse and moves him into the horse yard. And then she makes a deal with the boys: if they help her make a film, she will bring them “cruising” in her van whenever they want… And together, they bring you on a crazy adventure through the back streets of Dublin...

 

 

Ideas behind the film

 

The film is actually about the search for freedom. I left my home town to go on a road trip, because I was sick of my life, and wanted to go on an adventure and get back my feeling of freedom. And then I ended up finding this community of horses and boys in a laneway in the centre of Dublin. And it’s hard to explain, but the first time I saw them jockeying horses in the middle of the street, it lit the fire in my heart. It was like the horses and boys reminded me how life used to be, when we were still living in the jungle, and we made our own rules and didn’t need money to survive. And I think having horses in the middle of the city actually makes a lot of sense. I think people need to feel this contact with nature, and that the horses remind us of our own wild nature, and remind us what it feels like to be free.

 

The lane 

 

And there really is something magical about this laneway in Dublin 8. It’s more than just a group of horse yards, it’s a local meeting place where people catch up on the latest news, and there’s always something going on, with visitors from other horse yards, and always some conflict, or some water fight. But even though there are problems, these people have so much love for each other, and there is a buzz here that you won’t find anywhere else.

 

The boys

 

And then there’s this group of 16 year old boys, who have become the main characters in the film. It was them who brought me to the Ballinasloe horse fair where I found my horse, and it was them who inspired me to write the song about the horse yard, "No Plan". (A few of them have even helped write 2 of the verses in the song). And they are some of the smartest and funniest teenagers I’ve met in my whole life. And they have this way of always being in the flow, and making crazy things happen in the middle of everyday life. And it was the boys who taught me how to go “cruising” with the horses and the cars. And the art of cruising is an important part of the film. I want to show how cruising brings you into this zone where you don’t have to think and you can just enjoy being alive. So the point is that these 16 year olds are actually on the ball, and they have something important to teach the world about life and about freedom. And basically, we should all go cruising more often… Also I couldn’t have made the film without them, and thanks to these boys, the culture of the Dublin horse community will go down in history.

 

Release

 

The filming is completed, but the project is currently on hold, as we are raising money for post-production. However, the music video, "No Plan", about life in the horse yard, was released on December 2nd 2016.

 

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