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Life with Wexford shepherd Orla Barry makes for an entrancing, compact documentary
Dir: Cara Holmes. Ireland. 2023. 71mins.
Orla Barry operates on the intersection between art and farming. A hard-working shepherd in rural Wexford, she is also a visual artist creating video and sound installations. Notes From Sheepland offers a beguiling immersion into her life and the tapestry of profound connections she experiences with the animals, the land, the elements, words and language. Funded by an Arts Council of Ireland initiative to support experimental documentaries, it would seem an obvious fit for gallery spaces and screenings but the beautiful images captured by cinematographer Luca Truffarelli and an engaging mixture of the poetic and practical should earn it a wider platform following a world premiere at Dublin.
What happens in Barry’s little corner of Ireland becomes a reflection of global events and challenges for everyone
Holmes’s compact documentary takes its inspiration from Barry’s i-phone ’Sheepland Diary’ and her 2019 book ’Shaved Rapunzel, Scheherazade And The Shearing Ram From Arcady’. Barry provides the words...