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Distribution
(forthcoming)
Supported by
Bord Scannán na hEireann (Irish Film Board)
Credits
Directed by: Siobhán Twomey
Produced by: Áine O’Brien and Alan Grossman
Written by: Liz Morris and Siobhán Twomey
Backgrounds and Designs by: Siobhán Twomey
Character Animation by: Ciara McClean
Cast:
Abbi: Oyin Animashaun
Lucy: Lauren Murphy
Lillian: Yemi Adenuga
Sadiq: Ngor Tong
Sanjay: Shyam Gollapalli
Principal: Eithne McGuinness
Consultant, Voice Director and Dramaturge: Bisi Adigun
Sound Post Production by: Owen Tighe
Dubbing Mix: Killian Fitzgerald
‘Funky Stuff’ composed by Christopher Bangs published by Atmosphere Music Ltd.
Consultants: Jacqueline Healy, Migrant Rights Centre Ireland
Special Thanks to: Aodán O’ Coileain, Maeve Burke, Rashmi Sahwney, Barbara O’Toole, Niamh McGuirk, Ken McCue and Jacqueline Healy
Abbi's Circle - New Beginnings
In the final chapter of Abbi’s Circle, the group of friends prepare for their school’s winter concert. The song they write together celebrates the fact that their diverse backgrounds form a strong unifying bond, but their performance hinges on the participation of Sanjay - whose family discovers they are at risk of becoming ‘undocumented’ and may be forced to leave the country.
It is, therefore, through young peoples eyes and their own sense of solidarity – what is fair and not fair – that the issue of ‘undocumented migrants’ is explored. A hugely complex area, to be sure, and one that is confusing at best for publics, as they try to make sense of the complicated policy and legal rhetoric surrounding the issue. Yet increasingly, it is children who are made most vulnerable when families either face the crisis of falling into irregular status or are living in an ‘undocumented’ – sans-papier, clandestine – state.
New Beginnings tackles the challenging issue of being undocumented in Ireland and explores how this affects the lives of families who fall out of regulated status through no fault of their own. Building on case studies produced by our partner the Migrant Rights Centre , the film portrays the inflexibility of a bureaucratic system, and offers an image of how a new generation of young Irish children might inherit a shared legacy of diversity and inclusion.