Martina Durac

Phoenix Films

Address: No 16, 20-21 St. Patrick's Road, Dalkey, Co. Dublin

Tel: +353 (0) 864475033

Film Type: Live Action

Bio

Phoenix Films was set up by Martina Durac & Julien Behal to pursue several documentary films and is now developing a slate of projects in different genres, with the intention of exploring their potential on a variety of platforms. The key objective is to tell stories that excite our interest and will draw viewers in. Martina comes to the company with many years experience as a producer and director of documentary & factual programming on a wide variety of subjects and Julien Behal is one of Ireland’s leading photographers whose work as a photo-journalist has taken him all around the world.

They have just completed Death of a Son - The Killing of Michael Dwyer, a documentary that explores how a young Irish man was shot dead in Bolivia in 2009 and subsequently accused of being part of a terrorist plot to assassinate the President there. The film follows his mother as she travels form Tipperary to Brazil, Bolivia, Washington and Brussels, looking for answers.

Martina directed Mairéad Farrell - An Unfinished Conversation, a film that looked at the life and death of the woman who became one of the most iconic figures in the IRA after she was shot dead in Gibraltar in 1988.

She directed the documentary series Mna an IRA (Women of the IRA).

Martina was the director and series producer of Muintir na Mara (People of the Sea), a documentary series that travelled all around the coast of Ireland in a naomhóg (currach) with Pádraig Ó DuinnIn as he met people whose lives are intertwined with the sea. She made six series of Muintir.

She produced Foley Ghost of the Empire for TG4 and BCI. She was the series producer/director of Soisceal Pharaic (The Gospel According to Paraic), a weekly arts/cultural affairs programme that ran for five years on TG4.

Martina was the series producer of Imprint, a weekly books programme that was commissioned by RTE and ran for three years. She was the producer/director of its sister show, Writers in Profile, which featured in-depth interivews with writers such as Gore Vidal, Edward Said, Anthony Cronin, Eavan Boland, Doris Lessing, Joe O Connor, J.G. Ballard and Margaret Atwood.

She produced the film, Kathleen Lynn Rebel Doctor and the feature documentary Jimmy Murakami Non Alien. She also co-produced Dreaming The Quiet Man, a feature doc shot in Ireland and the U.S that explores the life and work of John Ford and his most famous film shot in Ireland, The Quiet Man.

Martina taught film and video production at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology for a number of years and and has run documentary courses in Ireland and abroad. She has designed and run Feature Documentary Workshops for Screen Training Ireland since 2001 and has brought to Ireland many of the leading film makers of the documentary world.

Martina holds a law degree (hons) from U.C.D. and qualified as a barrister-at-law from Kings Inns, Dublin. She holds a a BDes (hons) from Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. She served for two years on the Executive Board of the European Documentary Network and is now its Irish representative.

Filmography

HUGO HAMILTON – HOW TO BELONG

2011

O BHÉAL GO BÉAL UM NOLLAIG

2010

MUINTIR NA MARA

2005