The Virgin Media Discovers scheme is a short film competition, run in conjunction with Screen Ireland, that awards €9,000 to 10 individual filmmakers to fund the development of their scripts. One of the 10 shortlisted scripts for 2020 belongs to Hiram Harrington, who graduated from Trinity last year with a degree in film studies and spanish.
“I was actually planning on studying medicine when I went to college”, Harrington tells The University Times over Zoom. “I wanted to specialise in forensic pathology because as a kid I was absolutely obsessed with The X-Files, but after a while I realised I wanted to write stories about these people, not be them.”
Harrington recalls finding a lot of comfort in movies during his teenage years. He became fascinated by film’s power to influence history and emotion, falling in love with the craft of filmmaking over time: “I just really wanted to be a part of that creative joy.”
Harrington explains that a lot of his background in direction came from theatre, citing his involvement in DU Players while in college. The society has “such a vast network of people”, he says, recalling how easy it was to get in touch with someone for every aspect of a show, whether that be costume, set or lights.
Comparing the two mediums, Hiram tells me, with a laugh: “I definitely prefer the immediate payoff of theatre – I’m a very impatient person.” However film is his “number one love”, preferring its longevity. “It’s quite a double-edged thing”, he confesses. “Everything I don’t like about either is also something I like.”
Harrington has been working as a script editor for television since last September, during which time he met director Janna Kemperman who recommended that he apply for the Virgin Media scheme. “The callout was for projects that championed diversity and inclusivity, and showing these different parts of society that maybe haven’t been shown before”, Harrington explains.
The premise of his script, Goodnight Girl, is about a group of trans friends who go to the funeral of a friend of theirs – a trans woman who is being buried under the wrong name – and decide to steal her ashes and hold their own funeral for her. “It’s kind of a fun take on a heist film, but also an intimate look at queer relationships and how they function.”
“In the film industry and particularly in Ireland, there hasn’t been much, if any, transgender representation created by trans people”, Harrington says, explaining that he wanted to create something that would facilitate the genuine trans representation he would like to see onscreen. Despite loving the concept of heist movies, he had never seen one with queer characters, and so, he wanted to make this a reality.
“You almost never get to see trans people just doing bits”, he says, adding that trans representation in the film industry is “always inherently very linked to who they are as a person”. However, he stresses that this isn’t his experience: “It’s not the sole facet of my personality – it’s just a small part of who I am.”
In addition, Harrington has “always had a fascination with death and the passing of one life onto another”, adding that he thinks “transness is inherently linked to that”. In a lot of experiences, he explains, your family and the people around you “mourn the loss of the person ‘you once were’ to them”. Harrington’s goal as a filmmaker is “to normalise transness”, and show that it can be fun and lighthearted, and doesn’t always have to be “a very gloomy, intense experience”.
Harrington tells The University Times that his experience studying with the film department in Trinity has been invaluable: “It’s because of that that I’m working in television and I’m able to get this spectacular opportunity based on my writing ability.”
The two finalists for the Virgin Media Discover scheme were announced on March 14th on a special episode of Virgin Media Television’s Box Office show, and unfortunately Hiram’s script was not one of the two finalists. There is no doubt however, that Goodnight Girl’s journey to the screen will continue.
