WATCH: 'Eoin's Lost Footage' premieres at Foyle Film Festival

One of the highlights, albeit bittersweet, of this year’s Foyle Film Festival was the Nerve Centre premiere of ‘Eoin’s Lost Footage’.

Directed by Jason Bonner, the film was a homage to his friend and colleague, the late Eoin Coffey.

A talented director, producer, composer and musician, Eoin set up the film company Alien8 Films Ltd with the late Tony Doherty.

‘Eoin’s Lost Footage’ was composed of more than 100 digitised tapes from the personal collection Eoin left behind. 

Speaking to The Derry News following the screening of ‘Eoin’s Lost Footage’, Eoin’s mother Pat Heaney revealed she had discovered the tapes when she was going through Eoin’s bedroom following his death.

Jason Bonner, director at the Foyle Film Festival's 'Eoin's Lost Tapes' held in the Nerve Centre, with Eoin's mother, Pat, sister Sally and brother Thomas. 

“Eoin died on April 27, 2017 and it was a very traumatic death. Eoin died of an eating disorder. That was one of the things Jason’s film brought out,” said Pat. 

“After several months I was sorting out Eoin’s room. He had a lot of musical instruments. He was very musical. He composed the scores for his films. And I found a whole drawer full of video tapes. There must have been about 300 and I thought, ‘What am I going to do with these?’

I knew Jason was very technical so I phoned him wondering if we could get them digitised. So along he came and that was the beginning of the film,” said Pat. 

Jason began by digitising Eoin’s video tapes, documenting the whole process in Eoin’s Lost Footage’.

“Once Jason had looked at some of the tapes, he decided to make a documentary about Eoin,” said Pat, “for which he also interviewed Eoin’s sister, Sally, and brother, Thomas, and me. 

“I know I am their mother but I felt Sally and Thomas spoke very well in the film,” she added.

“I did not see ‘Eoin’s Lost Footage’ until it was shown at the Foyle Film Festival, with the encouragement of award-winning Dublin actor Ronan Carr, who was a friend of Eoin’s, and I was very impressed. 

“Sally and Thomas were speaking from their hearts about their brother.

“Jason introduced himself in audio and then interspersed that with some of the things I said and some of the things Thomas said. 

“He put it all together beautifully and then, each time he wanted to illustrate something, he would show footage of Eoin just talking about things and being silly, which is what he normally did,” said Pat, “or he would show bits of the films Eoin had made”.

Pat admitted she had been dreading the Foyle Film Festival screening of ‘‘Eoin’s Lost Footage’.

Pat with some of her sisters. From left, Terri, paula, Norah, Gabrielle and Stella.

“But when I arrived several members of my family were already there which was really good,” she said. 

“The night was pretty tough but at the same time it was really uplifting,” added Pat, who enjoyed seeing Ronan and Eoin’s Alien8 Films Ltd business Party, Tony Doherty, sadly also deceased, on screen. 

“My feeling at the end of ‘Eoin’s Lost Footage’ was that I was very, very very proud of Eoin because not only did they mention his film directing, they mentioned all the different things he did, and all and he did it all on a shoestring.

“He made ‘Agnes Jones’ for UTV in 2007. It starred Bronagh Gallagher, Dan Gordon and Aoife Madden. Felicity McCall from Derry wrote the script.

“The film told the story of the life and work of Agnes Jones, a young woman from Fahan in Inishowen who trained with Florence Nightingale.

Pat with her brother Tom, sister-in-law Deirdre, daughter Sally and son Thomas.

“She went on to almost single-handedly transform the horrors of the Liverpool Workhouse in the 1860’s. 

“Eoin saw the script and thought it would be a good idea to make a film about it, so  they applied and got a grant for it. Then they asked Bronagh if she would be interested. It was a very, very good film and received a lot of praise,” recalled Pat. 

“Tony and Eoin got on very well. In the film you realised how sick he was. He took Eoin’s death very badly,” added Pat, “and when he talked about Eoin, he was finding it very difficult,” she added.

“He spoke about Eoin being very good at filming, interspersed with clips showing them filming or rehearsing, and bits of it were very funny because it was just Eoin living, you know and Tony himself was a naturally good comic actor.”

According to Pat, Eoin, who would be turning 50 this Christmas Day, left his last film ‘Invaders’ unfinished.

She added: “Jason was very involved in that because he does a lot of special effects.”

“Everyone seemed to enjoy the film,” she reflected, “although it got very sad at the end when Eoin’s illness was being discussed. 

“It makes you realise, first of all, that men do get eating disorders, I think that is important to flag up, and also, the fact that they could see him deteriorating. I couldn’t really, mainly because I was living with him every day.

“I was very proud of the things that Jason brought up. He also talked about Eoin’s music.

“Ronan was doing a play in Dublin where he was introducing songs he had composed and he asked Eoin if he would come up to Dublin. Eoin arranged the songs and directed a little orchestra. 

“It is hard to say whether Eoin’s main love was making films or making music, I just don't know. He just was very, very talented and when I would tell him that he would say, ‘You're my mother. You think that anyway,” smiled Pat.

“Eoin loved Prince’s music and he was a great communicator by film and music. That was how he did it, rather than talk about it. 

Pat with her friends Philly Melaugh and jennifer King and her daughter Sally. 

“I was very pleased with ‘Eoin’s Lost Footage’ because even though it was very emotional, I thought Jason did a very good job, which was lovely,” said Pat.

Also speaking to The Derry News, Jason said Eoin and he became friends when they met at the Incubation Centre at the North West Regional College. 

“It was humbling to have ‘Eoin’s Lost Footage’ shown during the Foyle Film Festival. I didn’t expect there to be this big but it was something that needed to be done for Eoin. 

“I wanted people to remember his humour, his intelligence and his musicianship.”

The Foyle Film Festival said: “It was an honour to host this special film at our festival, and see Eoin finally get his moment on the big screen, in front of a sell-out crowd.”