Gilsenan appointed to RTE Authority

Kells native film director Alan Gilsenan was last week appointed a member of the new RTE Authority by Communications Minister Eamon Ryan. The authority will be chaired by Tom Savage, chairman of the Communications Clinic. The authority has been appointed for a period of six months. Alan Gilsenan received the inaugural AJ Leventhal Scholarship and graduated with First Class Honours in Modern English and Sociology from Trinity College, Dublin. He initially made a number of award-winning documentary films about Ireland: 'The Road To God Knows Where" (Special Jury Prize, 1989 European Film Awards), 'Stories From The Silence" (both of which won two Jacobs Television Awards, 'Prophet Songs" and 'Between Heaven And Woolworths"). Other documentaries include the opening and closing episodes of 'The Irish Empire", an extensive history of the Irish diaspora for BBC, RTE and SBS Australia; 'Emerald Shoes", an ITV network special on the history of Irish dance; 'The Green Fields Of France", a poetic film about the Irish who died in World War One; 'Private Dancer", a behind-the-scenes portrait of Ireland"s first lap-dance club; 'Maura"s Story", the story of a young Irish-American woman who became a Buddhist saint; 'Road II" which revisited 'The Road To God Knows Where"; and a portrait of playwright Tom Murphy 'Sing On Forever"; and 'The Ghost Of Roger Casement", a documentary on the life of executed Irish rebel Roger Casement, which revealed the results of a forensic examination into the infamous Black Diaries and which won an Irish Film & Television Academy award and Best Feature Documentary award at the Celtic Film Festival. Gilsenan has directed film drama including Samuel Beckett"s 'Eh Joe", the short film 'Zulu 9", an experimental film based on Paul Durcan"s poem 'Six Nuns Die In Convent Inferno"; the experimental feature film 'All Souls" Day", both of which he also wrote; as well as the feature film 'Timbuktu" for which he was nominated for an IFTA as both director and designer.