Filmmaker Cathal Black in Conversation with Thomas Lynch

When a Film Director possesses the talent prise a documentary from ten thousand words you get closer to the essence of the person behind the Poet who wrote them.

The skill required to empathetically extract and portray the Poet as being more complex than the sum of his parts, takes a keen sense of understanding of the complexity of the human condition.

This weekend after many decades, two talented men come together again to discuss their respective outlook from their not dissimilar gifts in order to make meaning of one of the greatest frontiers that every living thing on this planet will face, Death.

Thomas Lynch will read from his new book of poetry Bone Rosary - New and Selected Poems published by Godine 2021 followed by  the screening of 'Learning Gravity. 

A Question & Answer session between the 2 men is moderated by Susanne Bach which is followed by cheese and wine reception. 

Biography:  Cathal Black 

Cathal Black’s sustained visionary film-making and member of Aosdana is central to the canon of Irish cinema. His drama feature: Korea won prizes in Copenhagen, Seattle and Amiens, France. His feature documentary Learning Gravity - on American poet and undertaker, Thomas Lynch, won awards at the New York Television Festival, the Michael Moore/Travers City Festival and was nominated for an IFTA. The film has been screened on RTE and BBC and at festivals at Telluride, Mill Valley, and Cologne. He has worked with actor Daniel Craig (James Bond) and with cameraman Slawomir Idziak (‘Three Colours Blue’- ‘Black Hawk Down’- ‘Harry Potter’).

Filmography: 

‘Wheels’ (Producer/Director) Drama based on a short story by John McGahern

‘Our Boys’ (Producer/Director/Co-Writer) Drama/documentary. Banned by RTE for 11 years.

‘Pigs’ (Director) Drama with Jimmy Brennan. Written by Jimmy Brennan.

‘The Invisible World’ (Producer/Director/Writer) Documentary on spiritual healer, Tony Hogan.

‘Korea’ (Producer/Director/Co-Writer) Drama with Donal Donnelly and Andrew Scott.

‘Love and Rage’ (Co-Producer/Director) Drama with Daniel Craig and Gretta Sachii.

‘Learning Gravity’ (Director/Co-Writer) Documentary on Thomas Lynch, poet and undertaker.

‘Irish Folk Furniture’ (Producer) Writer & Director Tony Donoghue.

‘Butterfly’ (Producer/Director) Short drama with Denis Conway and Antonia Campbell-Hughes, written by Neil Donnelly.

‘Jumping Hedges’ (Producer/Director) RTE 1 Radio play. Written by Philip Davison.

‘A Loner’s Instinct’ (Co-Producer/Director/Writer) Documentary on Máirín deBurca.

BAI, RTE, Section 481. Broadcast in January by RTE. IFI screening 8th April 2019. To be repeated on RTE.

'Our Boys' Melbourne Film Festival Special prize for formal experimentation.

Korea Copenhagen Film Festival Asta Nielson Film Award for direction.

Amiens Film Festival Best Actor: Andrew Scott & Special Jury Prize.

Seattle Film Festival, USA Runner-up/Best Film/Best Director.

Learning Gravity/The Undertaking

New York Television Festival 2008 Winner/Silver Trophy.

IFTA Finalist/IFTA nomination. ‘Learning Gravity’ opened the ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ documentary film festival, Dublin. Screened on RTE/TG4 and on BBC4 as ‘The Undertaking.’ Officially selected for the Telluride Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, San Francisco and LA Irish Festival. Cologne Film Festival. Invited to the Michael Moore Film Festival in Travers City, Michigan, July/August 2009 where it won ‘The Michigan Award’.

Irish Folk Furniture Sundance Film Festival Winner: Best Animation/Documentary Short Melbourne Film Festival Winner: Best Animated Short

Special mention: Galway Film Fleadh, 2012. Invited to over 200 festivals worldwide.

Shown on RTE/BBC/Europe with a cinema release in the U.S.

A Retrospective of Cathal’s work was hosted by the Irish Film Institute in 2016.

Bio: Thomas Lynch

Essayist, Poet, and Funeral Director - Thomas Lynch has written five critically acclaimed volumes of poetry, four books of essays and a book of short fiction.

His most recent collections include, THE DEPOSITIONS – NEW AND

SELECTED ESSAYS (Norton, 2019), and BONE ROSARY = NEW &

SELECTED POEMS (Godine, 2021). 

He has taught at Wayne State University Department of Mortuary Science, University of Michigan Graduate Program in Writing and Emory University Candler School of Theology. His work has been the subject of two documentary

films, PBS Frontline’s 'The Undertaking' and Cathal Black’s 'Learning Gravity.' He divides his time between his home on Mullett Lake in Northern Michigan and his ancestral home in Moveen, County Clare.