Lambing (2022)
A young dad in rural Ireland must face his anxiety around gender and bullying when his baby is born intersex.
In modern-day rural Ireland, David meditates on his own childhood the day before his son is born. He is so haunted by his father bullying him for being weak and effeminate on the family farm that he now doubts his own abilities as a father. Though the young couple are excited for the birth, his wife Caoimhe senses his anxiety and worry as they settle down to sleep.
When the baby is born with both male and female sex organs, David is unable to cope with the diagnosis. He mentally shuts down and walks out of the room without a word. The pressure, shame and secrecy of the medical process is driving the young parents apart. Caoimhe and the baby take an ambulance to Crumlin Children’s Hospital to await the surgical panel’s decision, without David.
As lambing season continues on his father’s farm, David spends his days hiding away in tension and silence. When the day of the appointment arrives, it is unclear if he will show up for his wife and baby, or if the gendered trauma he has suffered will ultimately stop him from loving his own child.
Director Biography - Katie McNeice
Katie McNeice is a multi-award winning Writer Director and Editor who crafts thoughtful identity-films with a particular focus on sexuality and gender. She was recently nominated for an IFTA for Best Script Film for her debut feature project WHO WE LOVE, which she shares with Co-Writer and Director Graham Cantwell. (The IFTAs are the Irish Academy Awards, presented by the Irish Film & Television Academy.)
Her debut short film IN ORBIT has received 57 awards including a Special Jury Mention at the Galway Film Fleadh and a ZeBBie nomination for Best Short Script from the Writers Guild of Ireland. Soon to begin its festival run is rural drama LAMBING, Ireland’s first film on the experience of intersex babies and their parents. This project is funded by the IMDb Script to Screen Award and the Kildare ShortGrass Film Bursary.
WHALE FALL was written and directed as part of the Little Cinema Galway Film Challenge 2021 where it won Best Film, Best Editing and Best Actress. This arthouse short will make its international premiere at the 2022 Fastnet Film Festival. Upcoming shorts include ‘FOCAIL BAILE CROÍ (Words Home Heart), funded by the Comórtas Fisín Pitching Competition, Inaugural Catalyst International Film Festival Screenplay Award and Screen Kerry Short Film Bursary.
Feature projects include WHO WE LOVE which made its World Premiere at the 2021 Galway Film Fleadh. This film earned her the Inaugural Rising Talent Award at the Kerry International Film Festival and was nominated for six IFTAs at the 2022 Irish Film & Drama Awards.
She is currently developing a feature adaptation of award-winning LGBT children’s novel THE DEEPEST BREATH by Meg Grehan from Little Island Books. This project is being produced by Wild Atlantic Pictures.
Katie is also set to make her feature directorial debut next year with NORTH OF NOWHERE, a neo-noir thriller written by Sam Uhlemann and produced by Juliane Wothe of New Stage Films.
Katie is represented by Jasmine Daines Pilgrem of The Lisa Richards Agency.
Director Statement
“This beginning starts with this juxtaposition, this intercutting between man and boy, if you like. You could see the imagery that she was creating. You could see that Katie thought about themes, she thought about metaphor, she thought about emotion, she thought about gaze, about point of view. I was so impressed, we all were, with her courage in her decision making and her certainty about whose point of view this story should be told from.
“I can see Katie’s career unfolding in a forward manner and I’m really excited for what she might have planned for the future and what she goes on to do because I think she’s a super, super talented screenwriter. It was an honour to judge this, this piece of work.”
–– Amma Assante, (BELLE) IMDb Script to Screen Award Judge
I have been working on this script and following the gradual awareness of intersex in Ireland for almost three years now, so finally getting to make this film is an incredible feeling. My greatest hope for Lambing is that it will broaden our understanding about how much work is left to do, particularly in Ireland, in terms of fighting for diversity in all aspects of life.
Before we can meaningfully speak about minority identities such as intersex, we need to dissemble our long-standing and often toxic ideas of gender. We need to get to a place where we realise we have no more right to put our fear or prejudice on gender diverse bodies than we do our hands.
–– Katie McNeice, Writer Director
Lamb Skinning: What and Why?
Often during lambing season, ewes die and the lambs are left motherless. Likewise, there may be ewes whose lambs have died. Farmers cut the skin of the dead lamb and tie it to the live one like a coat, in order to get the grieving mother to look after the orphan. Because the lamb is in her child’s skin, she will love it as her own. Intersex people often feel they are in the “wrong skin” or a skin no one else understands. This metaphor is a flexible way to explore this emotional entanglement from both the child and parent’s point of view.
Please tell us your motivation for making your film:
To highlight the issues of intersex and gender based prejudice
What is the theme of your submission?:
Intersex and intergenerational trauma
What was the message you wanted to convey with this project?:
To highlight the issues of intersex and gender based prejudice
and Intersex and intergenerational trauma
Credits
Katie McNeice
Director
In Orbit, Whale Fall
Katie McNeice
Writer
In Orbit, Who We Love (feature), Focail Baile Croí, Flaneur, Lambing
Mo O'Connell
Producer
Pat Shortt
Key Cast
"John"
Garage, Calvary
Fiach Kunz
Key Cast
"David"
Foundation, Red Election, Barriers
Johanna O'Brien
Key Cast
"Caoimhe"
Foundation, Krypton
Rebecca Hickey
Key Cast
"Nurse Foley"
Whale Fall, Mildly Different
Richard Kendrick
Cinematography
Song of Granite
Emer Kinsella
Music
Hell Boy, Sense8, Jungle
Katie McNeice
Editor
In Orbit, Ship of Souls, Whale Fall
LAMBING (2022) is a short film Written & Directed by IFTA-Nominated Filmmaker Katie McNeice and Produced by Mo O'Connell, funded both by the IMDb Script to Screen Award and the Kildare ShortGrass Film Bursary.
LOGLINE
A young dad in rural Ireland must face his anxiety around gender and bullying when his baby is born intersex.
Director: Katie McNeice
Producer: Mo O'Connell
Cinematographer: Richard Kendrick
Editor: Katie McNeice
Composer: Emer Kinsella
Production Manager: Richie Kearney
Cast:
Pat Shortt
Fiach Kunz
Johanna O'Brien
Cate Russell
Joe McNeice
Rebecca Hickey
Gerry Cannon
For full credits please visit: imdb.com/title/tt15164598
Learn More about:
- Year2022
- Runtime12:00
- LanguageEnglish
- CountryIreland
- DirectorKatie McNeice
- ScreenwriterKatie McNeice
- EditorKatie McNeice
Lambing (2022)
A young dad in rural Ireland must face his anxiety around gender and bullying when his baby is born intersex.
In modern-day rural Ireland, David meditates on his own childhood the day before his son is born. He is so haunted by his father bullying him for being weak and effeminate on the family farm that he now doubts his own abilities as a father. Though the young couple are excited for the birth, his wife Caoimhe senses his anxiety and worry as they settle down to sleep.
When the baby is born with both male and female sex organs, David is unable to cope with the diagnosis. He mentally shuts down and walks out of the room without a word. The pressure, shame and secrecy of the medical process is driving the young parents apart. Caoimhe and the baby take an ambulance to Crumlin Children’s Hospital to await the surgical panel’s decision, without David.
As lambing season continues on his father’s farm, David spends his days hiding away in tension and silence. When the day of the appointment arrives, it is unclear if he will show up for his wife and baby, or if the gendered trauma he has suffered will ultimately stop him from loving his own child.
Director Biography - Katie McNeice
Katie McNeice is a multi-award winning Writer Director and Editor who crafts thoughtful identity-films with a particular focus on sexuality and gender. She was recently nominated for an IFTA for Best Script Film for her debut feature project WHO WE LOVE, which she shares with Co-Writer and Director Graham Cantwell. (The IFTAs are the Irish Academy Awards, presented by the Irish Film & Television Academy.)
Her debut short film IN ORBIT has received 57 awards including a Special Jury Mention at the Galway Film Fleadh and a ZeBBie nomination for Best Short Script from the Writers Guild of Ireland. Soon to begin its festival run is rural drama LAMBING, Ireland’s first film on the experience of intersex babies and their parents. This project is funded by the IMDb Script to Screen Award and the Kildare ShortGrass Film Bursary.
WHALE FALL was written and directed as part of the Little Cinema Galway Film Challenge 2021 where it won Best Film, Best Editing and Best Actress. This arthouse short will make its international premiere at the 2022 Fastnet Film Festival. Upcoming shorts include ‘FOCAIL BAILE CROÍ (Words Home Heart), funded by the Comórtas Fisín Pitching Competition, Inaugural Catalyst International Film Festival Screenplay Award and Screen Kerry Short Film Bursary.
Feature projects include WHO WE LOVE which made its World Premiere at the 2021 Galway Film Fleadh. This film earned her the Inaugural Rising Talent Award at the Kerry International Film Festival and was nominated for six IFTAs at the 2022 Irish Film & Drama Awards.
She is currently developing a feature adaptation of award-winning LGBT children’s novel THE DEEPEST BREATH by Meg Grehan from Little Island Books. This project is being produced by Wild Atlantic Pictures.
Katie is also set to make her feature directorial debut next year with NORTH OF NOWHERE, a neo-noir thriller written by Sam Uhlemann and produced by Juliane Wothe of New Stage Films.
Katie is represented by Jasmine Daines Pilgrem of The Lisa Richards Agency.
Director Statement
“This beginning starts with this juxtaposition, this intercutting between man and boy, if you like. You could see the imagery that she was creating. You could see that Katie thought about themes, she thought about metaphor, she thought about emotion, she thought about gaze, about point of view. I was so impressed, we all were, with her courage in her decision making and her certainty about whose point of view this story should be told from.
“I can see Katie’s career unfolding in a forward manner and I’m really excited for what she might have planned for the future and what she goes on to do because I think she’s a super, super talented screenwriter. It was an honour to judge this, this piece of work.”
–– Amma Assante, (BELLE) IMDb Script to Screen Award Judge
I have been working on this script and following the gradual awareness of intersex in Ireland for almost three years now, so finally getting to make this film is an incredible feeling. My greatest hope for Lambing is that it will broaden our understanding about how much work is left to do, particularly in Ireland, in terms of fighting for diversity in all aspects of life.
Before we can meaningfully speak about minority identities such as intersex, we need to dissemble our long-standing and often toxic ideas of gender. We need to get to a place where we realise we have no more right to put our fear or prejudice on gender diverse bodies than we do our hands.
–– Katie McNeice, Writer Director
Lamb Skinning: What and Why?
Often during lambing season, ewes die and the lambs are left motherless. Likewise, there may be ewes whose lambs have died. Farmers cut the skin of the dead lamb and tie it to the live one like a coat, in order to get the grieving mother to look after the orphan. Because the lamb is in her child’s skin, she will love it as her own. Intersex people often feel they are in the “wrong skin” or a skin no one else understands. This metaphor is a flexible way to explore this emotional entanglement from both the child and parent’s point of view.
Please tell us your motivation for making your film:
To highlight the issues of intersex and gender based prejudice
What is the theme of your submission?:
Intersex and intergenerational trauma
What was the message you wanted to convey with this project?:
To highlight the issues of intersex and gender based prejudice
and Intersex and intergenerational trauma
Credits
Katie McNeice
Director
In Orbit, Whale Fall
Katie McNeice
Writer
In Orbit, Who We Love (feature), Focail Baile Croí, Flaneur, Lambing
Mo O'Connell
Producer
Pat Shortt
Key Cast
"John"
Garage, Calvary
Fiach Kunz
Key Cast
"David"
Foundation, Red Election, Barriers
Johanna O'Brien
Key Cast
"Caoimhe"
Foundation, Krypton
Rebecca Hickey
Key Cast
"Nurse Foley"
Whale Fall, Mildly Different
Richard Kendrick
Cinematography
Song of Granite
Emer Kinsella
Music
Hell Boy, Sense8, Jungle
Katie McNeice
Editor
In Orbit, Ship of Souls, Whale Fall
LAMBING (2022) is a short film Written & Directed by IFTA-Nominated Filmmaker Katie McNeice and Produced by Mo O'Connell, funded both by the IMDb Script to Screen Award and the Kildare ShortGrass Film Bursary.
LOGLINE
A young dad in rural Ireland must face his anxiety around gender and bullying when his baby is born intersex.
Director: Katie McNeice
Producer: Mo O'Connell
Cinematographer: Richard Kendrick
Editor: Katie McNeice
Composer: Emer Kinsella
Production Manager: Richie Kearney
Cast:
Pat Shortt
Fiach Kunz
Johanna O'Brien
Cate Russell
Joe McNeice
Rebecca Hickey
Gerry Cannon
For full credits please visit: imdb.com/title/tt15164598
Learn More about:
- Year2022
- Runtime12:00
- LanguageEnglish
- CountryIreland
- DirectorKatie McNeice
- ScreenwriterKatie McNeice
- EditorKatie McNeice
