My Name Is Emily

My Name Is Emily (2016)

Packed off to a foster home after her father is insti­tu­tion­al­ized, a rebellious young Irish girl resolves to bust her dad out of the hospital where he's been confined.

Date of release
2016-04-08
TMDB
6.8 / 10 (38)
Runtime
1h 34m
Genres
Drama
Director
Simon Fitzmaurice

Casting

Interesting facts

My Name is Emily is a 2015 Irish independent drama film written and directed by Simon Fitzmaurice in his only feature film credit; on 26 October 2017, he died of motor neurone disease. The film stars Evanna Lynch, Michael Smiley and newcomer George Webster. 16-year-old Emily runs away from her foster home, trying to free her writer father (Smiley) from a mental institution after not receiving a card for her birthday. The film follows Emily (Lynch) and Arden (Webster) as they travel across Ireland in a coming of age tale/road movie.

Production

Fitzmaurice began writing the script shortly after his 2008 Sundance premiere of his short film, The Sound of People and before he was diagnosed with motor neuron disease; he learned of his illness the same day him and his wife, Ruth, a radio professional, discovered they were pregnant with their third child.

Lynch later stated in an interview some of the striking similarities between Emily and her former character of Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films:

There are a lot of similarities, I think, and it’s so true in [Emily's] family life as well. Even the fact that he’s the father of the philosopher and has all these crazy ideas and attracts this cultish following is very similar to Xenophilius [Luna's father]. What attracts me to all characters is just authenticity and that boldness of self-expression, which I think they both do.

Principal photography began on 17 September 2014 on location in Bray, County Wicklow and Dublin and lasted for five weeks. Due to his computer software being sensitive to direct sunlight, Fitzmaurice required special accommodations, such as being sheltered by darkened tents, in order for him to communicate through his computer to his cast and crew.

Prior to the production, director Frankie Fenton began shooting a documentary feature, It's Not Yet Dark following the progression of Fitzmaurice's disease and the filming of Emily.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended