Nick Kelly’s feature documentary The Song Cycle comes to Belltable on Thursday June 4 with a special guest appearance by the filmmaker himself.
Winner of Best Independent Film at the 56th Galway Film Fleadh and the Audience Choice Award at the IFI Documentary Festival, the film follows Kelly’s journey by bicycle from Ireland to perform at the 2022 Glastonbury Festival, accompanied by musician Seán Millar, who tracks his progress by public transport and performs with him each night along the route.
A road movie, a musical and a meditation on art, friendship and mortality, the documentary also reflects on what it means to sustain a creative life. “This started out as a project around environmental sustainability,” Kelly has said, “but as I watched the footage back, I started to realise that this could also be a film about sustainability in a broader sense – how do we manage to keep going and stay relevant as artists and humans as we age.”
Kelly, formerly frontman of 1990s band The Fat Lady Sings, previously directed The Drummer and the Keeper, which won 18 international awards, and the Oscar-shortlisted short Shoe. The Song Cycle is his first documentary feature.
- External Walls: Up to €8,000 Grant
- Attic: Up to €1,500 Grant
- Cavity Walls: Up to €1,700 Grant
- Internal Dry Lining: Up to €4,500 Grant