Two Hearts

Director's Statement

Darren founded Calipo Theatre and Picture Company in 1994 and has been Artistic Director since then. He co-wrote and directed LOVE IS THE DRUG, a six part TV drama series for RTE in 2004. The series was based on the original Calipo play and won an Irish Film and Television Award for Best Drama Series in 2005. His short film FRANKIE was screened at over 50 festivals world-wide, and has won multiple awards including the European Film Academy’s award for best short film in Copenhagen in 2008. He also established the “Sharp Focus” project for Calipo, a cross-border film project where established filmmakers work with teenagers on the production of original short films. How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing? For other shorts I’ve made it’s taken a long time to get the funding, but this one was surprisingly easy to get financed. My brother Colin wrote the screenplay and everyone really responded to the quality of the script. We shot the film over five days in April 2011. Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”? A lot of positive things really, my shorts have always been warmly received at festivals in Europe and I feel immensely proud to be part of such a strong community. If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen? FIVE EASY PIECES by Bob Rafelson, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN by Ang Lee, and 400 BLOWS by François Truffaut. What is your next project? My next project is my first feature film; an adaptation of a play I directed called ‘A date for Mad Mary’. It’s a comedy and I hope to shoot it early next year for Element Pictures in Ireland.