NTA Film & TV and Strandhill Film & Folk Festival are delighted to collaborate once again to present our Director in Focus evening with two Donegal Filmmakers, the prominent experimental documentary filmmaker Vivienne Dick and breakout visual artist Myrid Carten.
This intimate meeting will provide a unique and fascinating opportunity to explore the experiences of filmmaking across different generations. Their work reflecting a movement between worlds from rural, peripheral Ireland to major international cultural hubs, with Dick relocating to New York in the 1970s and Carten working between Donegal and London in more recent times.
Born in Killybegs Donegal, Vivienne was an integral figure in New York’s No Wave film culture in the 70s and 80s, her work having been part of two major retrospectives of American avant-garde film. According to The Irish Times, Dick is "one of the most important film-makers Ireland has produced". Her most recent feature film ‘New York Our Time’, contrasts New York's present-day realities with its gritty, bohemian 1970s post-punk art scene. A previous winner of Best Documentary at the Dublin International Film Festival.
Myriad Carten is an artist turned filmmaker from the Donegal Gaeltacht. She uses documentary and fiction, and often a playful combination of both, to interrogate the struggle for intimacy and the ways we are compromised by our pasts. Her raw, immersive and deeply personal first feature documentary ‘A Want in Her’, recently won the audience choice award at the Dublin International Film Festival, as well as three British Independent Film Awards. Described as “The work of an artist, one who is making her own rules about how to tell this story” - Screen Daily.
Both ‘New York Our Time’ and ‘A Want in Her’ will be screening at the festival on Saturday August 29th, please see the festival website for full details.
The session is recommended for filmmakers, artists and creatives at all career stages who are interested in hearing more about Vivienne’s and Myrid’s work and experiences.
The panel will be followed by an NTA Film & TV Networking Reception, offering attendees an opportunity to connect with fellow filmmakers and creatives.
Vivienne Dick – Biography
Vivienne Dick grew up in Donegal in the 1950s, spending five years at school at Sligo Ursuline. After college in UCD, she moved to New York aged 23 and began making Super 8 films during a period of great creativity in downtown Manhattan, then later continued to make work in London before finally returning to Ireland. Her films combine elements of documentary, performance and fiction and are concerned with gender and social issues, ecology and possible futures.
Recent retrospectives/surveys include Queer Porto, Jeu de Paume, Paris IMMA, Her films have screened at Hawaii Triennial, Echo Delay Reverb at Palais De Tokyo Paris, (2026) Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, (2025), Women in Revolt, Tate Britain (2024),) ‘Who are you staring at, Pompidou (2023) and The Wayward Eye, Temple Bar Gallery (2021) Her feature documentary New York Our Time, received the Dublin Film Critics Award at DIFF in 2020 and Best Documentary at Irish Film Festival London in 2021. Her work is distributed by Lux UK.
Myriad Carten - Biography
Myrid Carten makes films for cinemas and galleries. Originally from the Irish Gaeltacht, she trained in Artists’ Film at Goldsmiths, University of London, and in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins. Her work interrogates the struggle for intimacy and the ways we are compromised by our pasts. Carten’s films have screened internationally and received support from the Doc Society, Screen Ireland, NI Screen, the New Dawn Fund, and the Netherlands Film Fund. Her work is in the collections of the Arts Council of Ireland and NI.
A Want in Her, Myrid's debut, received its World Premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival 2024 (IDFA) and went on to win several awards over the course of its festival run, as well as three British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) last year. It also won the IFTA George Morrison Feature Documentary Award 2026 and was nominated for Outstanding Debut at the 2026 BAFTAs.
Key Dates and Duration:
Friday, 28th August 2026 at Shells Seaside Cafe Standhill, County Sligo, Ireland (Eircode: F91 EF40)
Panel will run from: 19.30 - 20.30Follwed by a networking reception from 21.00 - 22.00
How to Register:
Please register for a ticket HERE
One registration per person.
Once you have registered your name on the guest list, you will be sent a confirmation email on Friday, 21st August.
Advance registration is essential, as places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
Deadline to RSVP: Friday, 21st August at 12 noon, or earlier if capacity is reached.
Further Information:
The National Talent Academies are an initiative of Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland. NTA Film & TV is managed by Ardán.
Strandhill Film & Folk Festival 2026 is proudly supported by the Arts Council, the Creative Ireland Programme and Sligo County Council.
If you have any questions, please contact: filmandtv@nationaltalentacademies.ie
Please note that alcohol will be served at the networking reception.