Devil's Rock

From the collection of

Launched in 2000, Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive spans from 1897 to the present day and currently contains an ever-expanding catalogue of 13,000 items. It comprises material from a variety of depositors including feature films, sport, documentaries, animation, amateur footage, light entertainment, and a significant proportion of broadcast material from the UTV Archive.

Devil's Rock

Northern Ireland Screen's Digital Film Archive
Bangor
1938
Sound
54m

Will new open-air microphone technology give Richard Hayward the chance to silence his critics? Watch as Cushendun and Bangor steal the show.

Enjoy the somewhat haphazard story of Sam Mulhern, played by Richard Hayward, in his attempts to put on a concert as well as save a young girl from drowning. Though the film was initially criticised for its amateurish storytelling and editing it still provides a landmark in Irish cinema as the first film to be made entirely on location in Ulster starring a full Irish cast. Don't forget to look out for Roger Casement's brother Tom as he robs the box office of Bangor's Tonic Cinema.

Richard Hayward was an energetic actor, producer, singer, songwriter, broadcaster, and author. He sought to highlight Northern Ireland as it was, with a focus on local accents, songs and landscape. The Cinematograph Films Act of 1927, provided incentive for low budget local films to be made called 'quota quickies'. This gave Hayward the opportunity to delve into the world of filmmaking. He lived up to his mantra ‘Irish players for Irish parts,' casting actors that spoke with authentic Ulster accents. The act effectively ended in 1938 and with it Hayward's feature film aspirations. However through his efforts and love of Ulster, the film industry of Northern Ireland was born.

Forgotten Features

A hand-picked assortment of hard-to-see British feature films, featuring mischievous mermaids, murderous minors and military mayhem.

Thanks to decades of DVD and online publishing, not to mention archive revivals and restorations, more of Britain’s screen heritage is available today than ever before. You might even be forgiven for imagining that the whole of British cinema is now just a click away.

But much of that history - from the silent era to the relatively recent past - remains out of reach. This selection from the vaults, hand-picked by the BFI's curators, goes some way to remedying that. These fresh rediscoveries offer something for all tastes: whether futuristic fantasy, battle-of-the-sexes comedy, subversive provocation or an Indian-British rarity.