Bio

Vanessa studied film as part of a Liberal Arts Degree at the University of Limerick. Subsequently she worked in film training for nine years, mostly for Filmbase, Dublin where she still tutors on the documentary foundation course, she has also lectured on the film courses in Griffith College Dublin, Colaiste Dhulaigh and the University of Limerick. She has experience in camera, producing and directing and directed short documentaries for Amnesty International Ireland and award winning Dublin based production company Venom Films.

In 2006 she wrote and directed the Film Board funded short film ‘The White Dress’ which won numerous awards and a nomination for an IFTA, it has been purchased / screened by RTÉ, Swiss, French and Italian Television.

She has received three IFTA nominations including ‘The White Dress’ the feature length music documentary shot in Mali, West Africa called ‘Dambé – The Mali Project’ which was nominated for an IFTA 2009 in the Best Feature Documentary category and ‘John Ford – Dreaming the Quiet Man’ in 2013.

In 2009 Vanessa wrote and directed a short documentary called ‘The Beast’ for award winning production company Venom Films, and produced by Andrew Freedman. She has worked extensively for Loopline Film on a variety of projects and as director / producer on half hour doc for RTE ‘O Bheal go Beal um Nollag’.

As writer / director she has just recently finished an Arts Council project award film called ‘fivefive’. In 2013 Vanessa was the first recipient of the Tyrone Guthrie Film Bursary award and in 2014 she received the Arts Council’s Film Bursary Award. Her short Film “The Abandoning”, winner of The Sky Road Film Festival was described by Jury Member Jim Sheridan as “a marvellous short film that captures memories like a silken web. Moving and Simple.”