David Tynan’s short film, a monologue in the streets of Dublin on the effects of emigration, went viral just days before he traveled back to London. Now returned home full time the filmmaker observes that coming home is far from easy.
In 2012 David Tynan’s short film “Just Saying” went viral with over 250,000 viewings in one week (that figure has now surpassed 330,000) and it was one to watch by the Tribeca Film Festival. His film, starring Emmet Kirwan, is a kind of love letter to Dublin, a mourning for the “lost generation” of those who’ve left and a realization that “there’s ten reasons to go but a thousand tiny ones not too.”
The clip struck a chord:
Writing in the Irish Independent Tynan admitted that he doesn’t know why the short film seemed to resonate so much with the public.
He wrote, “The film went online just after Christmas so it got people in their tender hangover spot. It found them with one hand on the laptop and the other at the end of a tin of Roses.
“I always thought of the film as a hundred different people, all let down and walking home after a night out. That's why the place names are spread out across the city.”
Tynan came back to his Dublin city center home from London to make the film, which he was able to make through crowdfunding. Commenting on the recent mass emigration from Ireland, following the economic collapse, he said, “We didn't tell ourselves that we wouldn't have to leave, we were told that by an older generation.
“We didn't make the mess, but we had to leave it and find somewhere else to live. It felt like the place emptied out so it didn't matter whether you stayed or went, either way something was getting torn up.”
Tynan is now living back in Dublin’s city center but says that coming home is in no way simple.
He wrote, “I've been back in Dublin over a year now. Leaving is complicated so coming home isn't that simple either.
“I haven't missed London as much as I expected. Big cities don't care about you, but they're good for you. Your days get faster, tougher and louder. It's a wake-up call living in England; we think about them a lot more than they think about us.
'London's a good place to hear "I'd love to visit Ireland" from nice people who don't mean it in the slightest. We believe in the breadth of wherever we go, but it's easy to take your own city for granted. I grew up in the city center. I'm back there now and I've heard horses' hooves outside while writing this. I know I get more out of my day here. I know I laugh more here.'
For more from David Tynan follow him on @dave_tynan.
Read more: Returning to Ireland to live harder than emigrating, says leading priest
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