New Derry boxing film gets ready to feature at the IndieCork festival

Co-directed by Séan Coyle and Fiachra O’Longain, the title of the film is ‘Chaos and Quiet.’ The story focuses on professional Derry boxer Tyrone McCullough and his father Vin McCullough. Séan Coyle describes the film as a “story of madness, tragedy and boxing: told through the lives of a father and son”.

Pre-production began in 2019 and the lads wrapped in June of this year.

“It started out as a much broader project,” said Séan.

“Originally we were aiming to do a feature length documentary on the history of boxing in Derry. For such a small place it has had an amazing history of producing top quality fighters. We did a lot of research and conducted several interviews but unfortunately were unable to obtain funding so the project didn’t get off the ground.

“During our research and interview stage, however, we interviewed Tyrone and his father Vin, and noticed a strong, almost unspoken bond between them that we thought would make for a great story to tell. It sort of developed organically from this historical overview to a much more focused and intimate piece of work.”

Chaos and Quiet will run at the Gate cinema in Cork from September 19-26. The film can also be viewed on IndieCork’s website until October 3. Fiachra believes the sport of boxing and Derry “mirror” each other in many ways.

“The film mirrors the story of Tyrone’s quest for glory in boxing with the ups and downs of their family’s story,” he said

“We thought boxing mirrored the story of the city itself in some way. A lot of grit and tragedy, but also triumphs. As part of that, we got talking to Tyrone McCullagh and his father Vin, who I knew already. From there we decided to instead focus on making a more concentrated film about their story and we were lucky that they were receptive to the idea.

“The film probably took longer than it should have to get finished, mostly because of COVID. At least a year. Vin and Tyrone must have the patience of saints to have put up with us coming back time and again to get new bits and pieces filmed.”

The film will also be screened in Derry on September 29 at the Brunswick Moviebowl. The night begins at 7pm, and will showcase several short films made by local directors.

“Séan and I are part of a small circle of filmmakers in Derry,” said Fiachra.

“Derry isn’t exactly Hollywood, so we’re a bit overlooked when it comes to the sort of thing we do. But that just makes it all the more a tight-knit community, with a number of very creative people here who’re always willing to help each other out. For example, Colm Herron and William Ayton who helped us make the film, Colin Norrby who wrote the film’s soundtrack, and Sean Mullan and Michael Barwise, who are arranging the limited screening later this month for our film and theirs - all of them are from Derry.”

Chaos and Quiet has featured in other film festivals throughout Ireland. Séan says that he is “very proud and honoured” to be part of them.

“We have been very proud so far that our documentary has went on a really good festival run.” he said.

“We have been to Docs Ireland and the Underground Film Awards, and have Disappear Here, Louth International Film Festival and IndieCork coming up. We feel even getting into one festival, on no budget, is an achievement so getting to a lot of highly respected festivals already has been great and we’re very proud and honoured to be a part of them.

“We have had some discussions about the next project and have a few ideas that we want to look at a bit more closely. At the minute we are seeing how Chaos and Quiet does on its festival run and hopefully it reaches as many people as it can. We hope that it can show funders, and decision makers, that there is a growing film scene in Derry which needs support, and with a bit of luck hopefully more projects can get off the ground and local filmmakers can take the next step forward.”

Fiachra believes there are more stories to be told about Derry and its historic boxing scene.

“We started filming just before lockdown one, so COVID was probably the biggest challenge we had to work around,” he said.

“Not just because it made it difficult to film, but also because it prevented Tyrone from being able to train properly or get the fights he wanted. When we initially started filming, Vin was also a full time carer for his wife, which only added to the pressure for him. We’re very grateful that they were able to find time to work with us.

“There are people working on getting more productions to Derry on an official basis right now. Even so, our attitude and that of the other filmmakers in Derry has always been to not wait for someone to come along and start something; just to work with what you have to hand and tell the stories you want to tell.

“We still think there are a lot of interesting stories to tell from the world of boxing in Derry. We were lucky enough that Charlie Nash, the family of Spider Kelly, Connor Coyle and many more were willing to talk to us on camera before lockdown one. With any luck, we’ll get to tell all their stories too. We have a lot of mutual friends, who are also into filmmaking, and we just ended up working on a lot of similar projects together.” said Séan.

“It sort of took off from there, as we realised we had similar interests and tastes in regards to what sort of films, particularly documentaries, that we wanted to make. Fiachra handled the technical side of things, camera and editing, whereas I took control of production and then we both directed it so it all fell into place very nicely.

“We have had some discussions about the next project and have a few ideas that we want to look at a bit more closely. At the minute we are seeing how Chaos and Quiet does on its festival run and hopefully it reaches as many people as it can. With a bit of luck hopefully more projects can get off the ground and local filmmakers can take the next step forward.”

As an amateur Tyrone won bronze at the 2010 European Championships in Moscow, Russia. He turned professional in 2015 and secured a second round knockout in his professional debut. Tyrone says the filmmakers “deserve a lot of credit”.

“Boxing is everything to me, for the last 20 years it has been my life,” he said.

“It has given me some of the best experiences in my life but at the same time, some of the worst. I’ve travelled the world because of it and met some friends for life.”

In his boxing career Tyrone has shifted between super-bantamweight and featherweight divisions. His record currently stands at 15 fights, 14 wins and just one defeat. Six of his 15 victories were won by knockout. Tyrone says his father has been his influence in life.

“Outside of boxing there’s my dad, he got me into boxing,” said Tyrone. “He took me training every night, came to every fight, paid for training gear, hotels, boxing trips, everything basically until I started making my own money from it. I wouldn’t have done or stuck at it without him.

“I’ll let people take their own message away from the film. Séan and Fiachra have done excellent in capturing what they did and editing. I had no complaints and wanted nothing changed when I first watched it so they deserve a lot of credit.”