Language & identity film (working title)
ireland

This film — still in early development — centres on language and identity as its core thematic territory, with a particular focus on language as a battleground: a marker of resistance, pride, and community within the Irish context, and in the broader digital world.

The project takes as its starting point the hidden labour of women in maintaining culture through tradition, drawing on the concept of the Bean an Tí (mother of the house) in Irish-speaking areas. It examines the role of language in relation to government control, cultural transmission, and technological change — including the contrast between analogue and digital dissemination of culture, prompted in part by the experience of finding cultural life operating through flyers and word of mouth rather than online platforms in rural Portugal.

The film should reflect its Europeanness rather than being exclusively focused on Ireland, with the artists' own experience informing the work — including Elayce Ismail's multilingual background and move to Portugal, and Dragana Jurisic's move to Ireland. Geographic scope for material collection is likely to be limited to Portugal, Ireland, and a Balkan country.