A still from the documentary "Blow-ins".
Following its world premiere at the 2022 Galway Film Fleadh, and its RTÉ television premiere in September, "Blow-ins", a feature documentary film directed by Malcolm Willis, and produced by Ben Kavanagh, has now been released to American audiences, through Janson Media.
The film, from production company Icy Peaks Media, is a study of the so-called "blow-ins" of Dingle, County Kerry people from different towns, counties and countries who have relocated to the area. Featuring a wide range of nationalities, from Americans to Brits to Australians, the film is a unique look at how a people who are so known for traveling outwards welcome others into their own nation.
The Dingle Peninsula is a rural area in County Kerry, situated on the edge of the harsh Atlantic Ocean, with a strong Irish language culture. An island within an island. Despite this, the town boasts a foreign population of nearly 30% - the locals refer to these individuals as blow-ins.
What brought these people here? And what caused them
to stay? With a wide variety of characters, we gain insight into the
unique magic of the area and what it means to live there.
We witness the highs and the lows of integrating with a
rural Irish community, and ask the question of what it takes to be truly
considered a "local".
Malcolm Willis, the Director, is a London-born filmmaker, who moved to Killarney several years ago. He was visiting Dingle when he picked up on how many non-locals there were around the area, which is odd given that it's an isolated, Irish-speaking region on the island's west coast. He did some digging and found, based on the last census, Dingle had a foreign population of nearly 30% - higher than major cities, like Dublin, Cork and Limerick. So we decided to look into what was drawing people here, and why they were deciding to stay!
The resulting film showcases the kindness and welcoming spirit of Dingle. In fact, Malcolm became so enamored with the town throughout the shoot, that he actually moved to Dingle! He's a Blow-In now himself, an affectionate term the locals use to refer to those who've wandered into the town, and set up shop.
"Blow-ins" is now available on Amazon and also Jansen. It's also available on RTE.