Welcome to the Majority Screening BAFTA
Hello there lads and lassies,
So for those of you who don’t already know.. and aren’t HUGE dedicated fans of Catch Coco already..! – My name is Avril Brady and I’m a Dublin born actress. I like to act. Actually, I love to act.. My passion for acting led me to make the move to London, in order to train at East 15 Acting School, where I completed an MA in Acting for Film, TV and Radio.
Last year, I had the pleasure of working with an incredible cast and crew on a feature film called ‘Welcome to the Majority’ which I’m thrilled to announce will be previewed at BAFTA Picadilly on Friday 23rd March. I’m really looking forward to seeing the finished product, that collaboratively we all worked so incredibly hard on. I can’t imagine I’ll be able to sit through it without physically squirming. It will be the first time I get to watch it, along with a room full of other folk.. YIKES!..
Director, Russell Owen has warned me that the animal rights people will be on my back after this one.
Cat lovers be warned.
Check out the trailer below my dears.
A x
InStyle London Fashion Week Street Style Photographer
Thanks everyone for all your votes…and all your friends votes..and all their friends votes!! I am absolutely delighted to be the winner of InStyle‘s competition – I will keep you all posted! Big thanks to Avril, Cailin, Roberta & Sara for their great style! Emma x
Uh Huh Her video by Tasya Van Ree
As you know, I find Tasya Van Ree’s work very inspirational.. She’s the epitome of cool! I love the distinctive dark edge found in the majority of her work. Check out this video made recently for the Uh Huh Her, featuring herself. I really can’t praise her enough.. so I won’t even try..!
CREATIVE GENIUS! xxx
Video made by Tasya Van Ree and image by Tasya Van Ree
As if I am not there screening BAFTA
I recently attended the screening of Irish feature film ‘As if I am not There’ at the BAFTA HQ London. Selected for the Oscars as Ireland’s entry for the best foreign language film, this epic Bosnian war drama left the shell shocked audience completely silenced. I felt similar to how I felt after watching Steve Mc Queens ‘Hunger’ upset, uneasy and slightly disturbed. Nonetheless, I also felt inspired and excited that there are artistic film makers are out there, actively telling gritty real life stories. There are so many more stories to be told!
There was a Q&A after with Irish director Juanita Wilson and it was very interesting to hear all about the film making process, first hand from her point of view. She spoke of her initial reading of the book, to funding, to script, to casting, to filming particularly difficult scenes and the practicality of language barriers on set.
The story, told through the eyes of a young girl (Natasa Petrovic) is at times so real that it’s painful to watch. There is little dialogue and Petrovics performance is incredibly faultless, considering she was a drama school student in her first major film role. The film looks at the use of systematic rape as a form of torture. This is a film about horrendous war crimes, it wasn’t a pleasant film to watch, yet it has been imprinted on my brain. A difficult story to tell, it is so incredibly important that it was so beautifully told. It made me think about war and humanity and its lasting affects and it made me cry.. a lot!
Best of luck at the Oscars and congratulations Juanita Wilson and all the cast and crew. The determination and hard work has really paid off and you have an extraordinary piece of film to show for it.
above image of myself and Irish actress Amy-Joyce Hastings at BAFTA HQ London, taken from the Irish Film and Television website.
Karima Francis
Congratulations to Blackpool born singer-songwriter Karima Francis, who last night signed a record deal with Mercury Records.. literally moments before taking to the stage as support act for Smith and Burrows. Understandably over whelmed, she gave a very heartfelt, emotional performance, saying how she wanted to tell her life story in a half an hour, but it just wasn’t possible.. well eh.. maybe for the best karima!
It was already crystal clear, she had hard earned her position and subsequent record deal.. none of it came easy to her.
Needless to say you can really feel the pain and emotion in her voice, its all soul and heart.. nothing like a singer who sings from their heart.
I must say, style wise? this girl is just the coolest looking dude I’ve ever seen. I love her authentic, androgynous look.. IT IS HER! without a doubt and unapologetically. I have never seen skinny jeans on legs so skinny.. and that hair!?… She just emulates rock star, oozing cool in a Bob Dylan kind of way.
Its always a pleasure to see a young talented artist work hard and succeed.. so congratulations Karima. Fair feckin play!
Now that you’ve noted her style.. Have a listen to her incredible voice below.. love this song x
Florence on the cover of British Vogue!
The stunning Florence Welch graces the cover of Vogue- the January 2012 issue… doing Redheads everywhere proud.. Nice one!..
Shot by Mario Testino, the issue features an in depth interview inside. I must say I don’t think this is the shot I would have chosen for the cover.. as I don’t really think she looks like herself. I love her everyday quirky look and style, this lady is a real style icon. I think its a pity they couldn’t have more of that quirkiness in this shot. Its a beautiful shot.. but I personally feel it’s lacking something.. perhaps a tad too airbrushed and safe. Nonetheless its good to see her on the front cover of Vogue.
She’s only pure deadly! x
Corinne Day: Heaven is Real: 1965-2010 RIP
Last Sunday I dragged myself out of bed for the screening of ‘Diary’ a documentary on the life of the legendary photographer Corrine Day, shot over ten years by her boyfriend Mark Szaszy. Credited with discovering Kate Moss, the shots she took of the fifteen year old waif, half naked on the beach changed both their lives forever. These shots are beautiful and were revolutionary. You can see Kate Mosses freckles and laughter lines, which was unusual for the time.. this girl is REAL and beautiful!.. Day’s controversial shots taken of Kate looking gaunt in boyish underwear caused out roar. Day was lambasted in the media and accused of glamorizing heroin and promoting paedophilia and anorexia.
I highly recommend watching the documentary as you can hear first hand how she dealt with this. I really felt that she was so frank and honest bout everything, including her own drug use. Honesty is at her core and it’s so incredibly refreshing. It made me cry when she wrote her deceased grandmother’s name in the dew on a window.. you could see that she stopped to really feel that moment and then photographed it.. She was documenting atmosphere.. a feeling.. she was photographing life. She lived it and she never stopped. You just have to love and respect that.
Day is an inspiration, I like that she didn’t give a sh*t.. I mean her photography was daring, gritty, upsetting and often lets be frank, a bit fucked up.. Nonetheless it was real and not airbrushed beyond recognition. She got out of bed one morning looked down and took a snap shot of her period stained knickers.. It made me think about what it’s like to be a woman. It’s good to make people think.. right? even if it’s not very pleasant. Seeing something you didn’t want to see makes you feel something.. whether that be anger or disgust!.. you felt something. I think in the documentary, Day came across as a very clever woman, but at times a total dim wit too, caught up in drugs and excess.. I liked that she appeared to be multifaceted and in a sense debatable.
The intimate shots of friends and drug use were horrendously dark and disturbing and made me feel somewhat guilty for looking, they certainly didn’t glamorize drug use and would turn anyone off that route. Day said herself that, “Photography is getting as close as you can to real life, showing us things we don’t normally see. These are people’s most intimate moments, and sometimes intimacy is sad.”
Notice how I haven’t included the bloody knickers image! I guess I’m not in the mood for anything too real!.. I don’t want to feel sad or disturbed right now but I’m glad I saw these images and I will remember how they made me feel.
I’ll leave it for you to have a look at some more of her work here
Corrine died of cancer last year aged 45. Rest in peace Corrine, no doubt you will be greatly missed x
