Tommy Collins

Birth : , Derry, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland

Death : 2022-07-19

History

Tommy Collins (1950-2022) - sometimes referred to as Tom Collins - was an Irish filmmaker, known for his Irish-language features, two of which - Kings, and The Gift - were put forward as Ireland's submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature. Raised in Derry, he made both dramas and documentaries. Kings, his 2007 film, received a record 14 nominations at the Irish Film and Television Awards, winning five. He also worked on many productions as a cinematographer and producer.

Movies

Aithrí
Director
Father Eion O'Donnell is unambiguous about the need to use violence to force Britain out of Ireland. He influences a young impressionable boy, Antaine to fight in the 1916 Rising. Fifty years later Antaine arrives in Derry as an experienced gunman. This appearance throws Eoin back to the cause of his breakdown in 1916. Eoin's influence on young Antaine echoes in Antaine's dark influence on an Altar boy, Feidhlim.
The Poor Mouth
Director
An animated adaptation of Flann O’ Brien’s acclaimed 1941 novel in Irish. A biting satire on the highly popular Gaeltacht autobiographies of the time and widely regarded as one of the greatest Irish-language novels of the 20th century.
An Bronntanas
Writer
An Bronntanas is a contemporary Irish crime thriller set against the backdrop of the Connemara Coastline on the West of Ireland and the dramatic lives of a local lifeboat crew. The story is told through both Irish and English.
An Bronntanas
Director
An Bronntanas is a contemporary Irish crime thriller set against the backdrop of the Connemara Coastline on the West of Ireland and the dramatic lives of a local lifeboat crew. The story is told through both Irish and English.
Kings
Director
In the mid 1970s a group of young men leave the Connemara Gaeltacht, bound for London and filled with ambition for a better life. After thirty years, they meet again at the funeral of their youngest friend, Jackie. The film intersperses flashbacks of a lost youth in Ireland with the harsh realities of modern life. For some the thirty years has been hard, working in building sites across Britain. Slowly the truth about Jackie's death become clear and the friends discover they need each other more than ever.
Dead Long Enough
Writer
Two brothers from Wales on a stag night return to a small village in Donegal where they spent a working holiday 16 years previously. There they bump in to an old flame and a series of mishaps and misunderstandings reignite old passions and throw their lives into confusion.
Dead Long Enough
Director
Two brothers from Wales on a stag night return to a small village in Donegal where they spent a working holiday 16 years previously. There they bump in to an old flame and a series of mishaps and misunderstandings reignite old passions and throw their lives into confusion.
The Story of the Undertones - Teenage Kicks
Writer
Veteran BBC Radio DJ John Peel takes his first visit to Derry and discovers for himself the band that forged his favourite pop song 'Teenage Kicks'.The film, through the use of interviews and archive footage (of Derry and The Undertones), takes us back to 1975. To a time when it would have been normal, even expected, for five Derry teenagers to get together and have a riot. The Undertones got together, formed a band and created their own form of riot, bursting into a vigorous and joyous celibration of their own existence.
The Story of the Undertones - Teenage Kicks
Director
Veteran BBC Radio DJ John Peel takes his first visit to Derry and discovers for himself the band that forged his favourite pop song 'Teenage Kicks'.The film, through the use of interviews and archive footage (of Derry and The Undertones), takes us back to 1975. To a time when it would have been normal, even expected, for five Derry teenagers to get together and have a riot. The Undertones got together, formed a band and created their own form of riot, bursting into a vigorous and joyous celibration of their own existence.
Bogwoman
Producer
Bogwoman charts the experiences of a woman who moves to the city from Donegal in 1958. Down the years she copes with various personal and familiy pressures against the background of the emerging civil unrest and the redeployment of British troops into the area.
Bogwoman
Director
Bogwoman charts the experiences of a woman who moves to the city from Donegal in 1958. Down the years she copes with various personal and familiy pressures against the background of the emerging civil unrest and the redeployment of British troops into the area.
Korea
Co-Producer
Nothing's fair in love and war. Based on short story by John McGahern. A powerful story of the relationship between father and son, John and Eamon Doyle. It is set in rural Ireland during the 1950’s, a period of mass emigration and social change. Young Irish emigrants, on arriving in America, have been enlisted and sent to fight in the Korean war. One of those emigrants, Luke Moran, dies in Korea and his home village is awash with rumours about the compensation the Moran family received on Luke’s death. John Doyle hears the rumours but remains silent. Ben Moran is John’s arch-enemy, a feud traced back to the Civil War. Eamon comforts and falls in love with Una Moran. His father feeling betrayed, blames Ben Moran for everything and is prepared to sacrifice Eamon in seeking vengeance as a contemporary Romeo and Juliet story unfolds.
Hush-a-Bye Baby
Producer
In 1984, a pregnant Irish girl tries to contact her boyfriend in British prison but her letters are not allowed through to him because she writes in Irish.