
Sentinel
12:00 | Ireland | 2021
DIRECTOR:
Tj O'Grady Peyton
FILM TYPE:
Short
SYNOPSIS
With his father’s dementia progressing, things quickly take a turn for the worse when Carl hears news that his dad is nowhere to be found in his new care home.
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY
TJ O’Grady-Peyton first gained industry recognition in 2013 when he was shortlisted at the Young Director Award in Cannes for his Adidas “Super” film after graduating from the London Film School’s filmmaking MA program. Since then, he has directed an array of work all over the world for clients such as Asics, GoreTex, Volkswagen, Gatorade, Diesel, Peloton and BMW.
TJ was awarded the Discovery Award in his home town of Dublin by the Dublin Film Festival. His short film “Wave” which TJ starred in and co-directed was picked up by The New Yorker after winning an Irish Film and Television Award for Best Short as well as top prizes at Flickerfest, Toronto Shorts, Galway, Leeds, Cork, Kerry and Aesthetica. Wave has played 75 festivals including BFI, Melbourne, Aspen and Clermont Ferrand after having its world premiere at Tribeca 2017.
In 2018 TJ was invited to take part in a filmmaking masterclass with Werner Herzog in the Amazon, Peru. He was also a participant in Les Nuits en Or 2019 hosted by the French Academy of Film, The Cesars, along with 30 other filmmakers from across the globe that won their nations top prize for Best Short Film.
In 2020 he became a member of the Director’s Guild of America. This year his latest short film “Silence” had it's world premiere at Tribeca 2021. TJ also won the Bingham Ray New Talent Award at this year's Galway Film Fleadh.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Sentinel is the most personal creative project I have worked on, a film that I am very proud of and excited to share with you.
Seven years ago my father was diagnosed with dementia and last year he had to move into a care home full time. Our writer, Tony Kiernan, lost his father to the same illness in the middle of 2020 so both of us are very familiar with the challenges and sad realities families face when dealing with this tragic disease.
Our story is about a son looking for his father in one such facility, while trying to come to terms with this new chapter in his family’s life.
The idea of Sentinel came about after Tony was taking care of his dad in a home a few years ago. We developed the project with an Irish production company called Carbonated Comet Productions over the course of a few months before Kildare County Council kindly came on board to support us.
We are thrilled to have been able to gather together such a talented pool of artists based in Ireland to make a piece that deals with a very serious and unfortunately universal subject matter.
The film stars Peter Coonan (Peaky Blinders , Love/Hate) and Valerie O Connor (Red Rock). It is shot by one of Ireland's leading cinematographers, James Mather's (Adam and Paul). Stephen Rennicks, whose credits include Normal People and Room scored the film. Sentinel also features a cameo from the Tony Award winning actress, Marie Mullen.
Year:
2021
Runtime:
12:00
Language:
English
Country:
Ireland
Premiere:
US
Director:
Tj O'Grady Peyton
Executive Producer:
Producer:
Ronan Cassidy, Gregory Burrowes
Writer:
Tony Kiernan
Cinematographer:
James Mather
Editor:
Allyn Quigley
Cast:
Peter Coonan, Valerie O'Connor, Eve Connolly, Marie Mullen, James Akpotor
