Ferdia Doherty speaks of the emotion he felt shooting Ann Lovett's story

The talented producer behind the double Irish Film and Television Award (IFTA) Nominee and Dublin International Film Festival Winner, Ann, has said it is important for teenagers to know they can always reach out and talk to someone.

Gaoth Dobhair native, Ferdia Doherty, said the tragic story made him consider how far Ireland has come as a nation since the death of Ann Lovett and how the tragic story resonated deeply with him, a father of three children - two of whom are teenagers.  

The award winning film directed by the talented director Ciaran Creagh has a release date of April 28 in Irish cinemas and can be seen at the cinema in Bundoran. 

Ann, an observational narrative drama, is set over one day, the January 31,1984, and is based on the true story of Ann Lovett,15, who gave birth in the grotto in Granard, alone.

Speaking from Chicago, Ferdia said the film was one that presented its own challenges being filmed during the pandemic in Ireland during the month of June, 2021. 

Ferdia is the son of former councillor Pádraig and Annette Ó Dochartaigh and he moved to Chicago almost three decades ago. 

“I am on the board of the Chicago Irish Film Festival - one of the longest Irish film festivals in the United States and a man from Dublin, Ciaran Creagh, a writer and director, called me and asked me to help him create a script in Chicago. The two of us spent two years working on a script.”

The two Irish men completed a script about a black Chicago policeman who had been shot 28 times: “We worked on that together and then he said to me ‘we need to set up a production company, we need to shoot this movie’ and he showed me the script and I said ‘absolutely.’ Then we needed to secure funding - one of the most difficult aspects of putting a film together so we raised the money and RTÉ came onboard,” he said. 

The move meant that the two men could come together and shoot the film Ann, in Ireland. The film is one of the only independent movies to come out of Ireland and has done very well on the film circuit in recent years. The film was shot on a shoestring budget but the people of the area felt so emotionally attached to the story that many of them worked on the production for very little money because they appreciated Ann’s story has to be told. 

“We put together a huge team in Boyle with great actors and we shot the film Ann in two weeks,” the Gaoth Dobhair man said. 

Ferdia can recall when news of Ann’s death made the headlines in Ireland: “It was just a tragedy of tragedies. At that time, the town of Granard shut down, the people of Granard shut down, the family shut down. The entire village of Granard closed their doors to the outside world and in those times did what any other town would do including Gaoth Dobhair or anywhere else.”

He said that since the tragedy, Ireland has come out as one of the leading countries in the world when it comes to important societal issues but back then it was completely different. 

“Many of the things we thought would happen, happened in Ireland quite dramatically so hopefully Ann’s story did lead to a change that occurred over the last ten or fifteen years which has been absolutely amazing,” he said. 

Ferdia is the father of a 15-year-old teenager so for him the film held many different dimensions: “When you are shooting it - all you are thinking about is your own and how they would react.”

Parents Ferdia and Nora brought their children, Bebhinn, 15, Aonghus,12, and Maude, 9, to see the film. They rented out a theatre to show friends, family and investors their work. Some people travelled to the film from Longford. 

“The children’s reactions to the movie were amazing. It was like, you can always  speak up, you can always talk to somebody - there is always someone there to talk to. That is so important for kids to know,” he said. 

Ferdia said his lasting memories of shooting the film will be the challenges that the pandemic presented and how the people and authorities in Boyle could not have been nicer and more accommodating: “They were absolutely unbelievable and they gave up the entire town to us.

Kinghouse, which is owned by Roscommon County Council, was given to us to use for free for a staging office and production office,” he said. 

There were moments when the production team found themselves in awe as filming progressed one such moment was when they discovered that neighbours of the late Ann Lovett were on set working hoping to help tell Ann’s story. 

“It was very interesting to see some of the people we came across in production and shooting,” he said.

Ann was made in association with RTE and stars Eileen Walsh, Ian Beattie, Zara Devlin,

Senna O’Hara, Frank O’Sullivan, Joe Mullins and Sean T. O’Meallaigh. It was shot with the assistance of the Film Office in Roscommon County Council.

The world premiere of Ann took place at the A category FIAPF accredited Tallinn Black Nights International Film festival in November 2022 where it had been selected for the main competition. Following on from its world premiere in Tallinn, it was selected for a further two A category FIAPF accredited festivals, also in November, that is Cairo International Film Festival and International Film Festival of India, Goa. Other festival outings include Chennai and Bengalura International Film Festivals.

At the 2023 Dublin International Film Festival, Ann has its Irish premiere where it picked up the Michael Dwyer Discovery Award for Zara Devlin’s portrayal of Ann Lovett.  Ann received two nominations for the 2023 Irish Film and Television Awards for Lead Actress (Zara Devlin) and Supporting Actress (Eileen Walsh).

The film is a Hill Sixteen production. 

This June, Ferida and his wife Nora will travel to Dublin to be present for the IFTA award ceremony.

“The goal is to get as many people to see the tragic story of Ann Lovett. Ciaran and I hope that this is a film that they teach in schools, show in schools. This is something that we hope as many people get to see,” he said. 

Please see the trailer for the remarkable movie here.

He hopes the film will be shown in Letterkenny during its showing in Ireland. He is delighted that Bundoran will be showing it on April 28. 

Ferida studied marketing and languages at the Dublin school after receiving his formative education in national schools in the area. His father Pádraig taught in the national school in Glassan and Ferdia recalls being at school there before attending both Bunbeg and Derrybeg national schools under the direction of Joe McFadden and later Joe Diver. He later attended Pobalscoil Chloich Cheannfhaola.  

During his time at the Dublin Business School, he travelled to both Germany and England during summers. He still enjoys travelling and returns home to Gaoth Dobhair as often as possible.