Irish Arts Council create Film Specialist role

The Irish Arts Council (An Chomhairle Ealaíon) has announced the appointment of Jane Doolan to the new part-time consulting role of Film Specialist.
As a member of the arts policy team, reporting to Séamus Crimmins, she will be responsible for providing policy advice to the Arts Council on film, and for developmental work in this artform. Siobhán Bourke, the Council's previous film advisor will remain in the role of Cultural Cinema Advisor to the Council until early summer 2004 - retaining responsibility for the Cultural Cinema Consortium and the Council's Sgrîn/Intereg research project. Jane Doolan began her career as TV and radio producer for Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising where she worked for four years. In 1989 she joined Little Bird and set up what became Ireland's largest TV commercial operation. Between 1992 to 1996 she was co-producer on 'Into the West', (director Mike Newell, writer Jim Sheridan); producer of 'The Brother', a one man show based on the works of Flann O' Brien; associate producer of 'In the Border Country', (director Thaddeus O' Sullivan), and associate producer of 'Moondance', (director Dagmar Hertz). In 1996 she founded Ireland's first independent theatrical and video distribution company Clarence Pictures. She has distributed over 200 films including 'The Usual Suspects', 'Secrets and Lies' and 'Trainspotting' on behalf of PolyGram, FilmFour, Icon and other independent distributors, as well as releasing many indigenous Irish films from 'December Bride,' (director Thaddeus O Sullivan), 'Dancing at Lughnasa,' (director Pat O'Connor) to 'Accelerator,' (director Vinnie Murphy). She established Mammoth Films in April 2002 to concentrate on development and production of feature films. Mammoth Films currently have three feature films in development. She is a consultant and acquisitions executive for Xtra-Vision, the largest video retailer in Ireland. Her most recent feature film credit is executive producer on 'Spin The Bottle' - released across Ireland at the end of 2003.
(GB)