It would seem that Mimi Wilcox’s flight to the UK was fortuitous. Her journey to meet long-distance partner Michael-David McKernan on the day the UK’s lockdown was announced had almost cinematic timing.
Wilcox and McKernan decided to go one step further, filming their story on iPhones. The duo were awarded part of the Art Council’s €1 million Covid-19 Crisis Response Award, established in April in order to both support artists and to promote original work in the public sphere. It worked. Their film, How to Fall in Love in a Pandemic, won Best Short Documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh.
McKernan notes: “Because Mimi’s a film-maker as well, we both had an instinct to start filming stuff to look back on in years to come,” continuing: “We didn’t intend to make a film; it was only when I sat down with the footage a month into her being here, and I didn’t have any prospect of work, that I thought there might be something interesting for an audience.”
The grant allowed McKernan to purchase an iMac, which he says: “meant that I could grade it myself, not have to send it to a post-production studio, and I could then make the deadline for Galway”.
Yet for McKernan, supporting the arts sector is far more of a long-term project. He notes: “It’s pretty well documented that there isn’t enough support for artists in this country.”
McKernan concludes: “I think we all really value art now more than ever — so it would nice for artists of all kinds to be supported.”
