McElroy's documentary traced the journey of Philadelphia-based artist Stuart Shils to that little village along Mayo's northwest shores. The Ballinglen Arts Foundation—founded by Philadelphia art dealers Peter Maxwell and Margo Dolan to encourage economic development in the economically depressed region, as well as to benefit artists—awarded a fellowship to Shils to allow him time to live in Ballycastle, and to create a body of work  which reflects his stay in the village.

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McElroy's film, which documents Shils' activities here at home and in Ireland, premiered in August 2004 as part of WYBE's "Philadelphia Stories" series. It later aired on WHYY (now available nationally on PBS through the American Public Television network). The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Leeway and Claneil Foundations, and the 5-County Arts Fund supported McElroy's documentary project. McElroy's spare, exquisite documentary received a 2004 CINE Golden Eagle Award and first place for documentary excellence from the Greater Philadelphia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).

Frances McElroy

McElroy is the founder and executive director of Shirley Road Productions in Narberth, which has also produced other documentaries for public television. We spoke with her about Ballycastle—both the place and the film—and her experiences with Stuart Shils.  

How did you become involved in this documentary?

It goes back so far. It was in the early '90s when I became aware of the Ballinglen Arts Foundation. I guess I saw a press release about an exhibit of Irish arts that was going to be held at the Art Alliance. Margo Dolan and Peter Maxwell, who are from Philadelphia, are the founders. My interest initially was in the Ballinglen Arts Foundation. They were trying to use the arts to encourage economic development in this village. I thought there might be a documentary here.

I was actually working for a time at WYBE. We were producing short documentary pieces. I had read about Stuart in the newspaper, so I arranged to interview him, and then I found out that he had been a fellow at Ballinglen. So for me, in the beginning, he just provided a focus, a way to tell the story about the arts foundation. But as things turned out, the documentary turned out to be more focused on Stuart.

As with most good documentaries, I find you have to be driven by a character. Many successful documentaries are character-driven. And he's a real character. He's very passionate. He's extremely articulate and he really loves Ireland. It was also the Philadelphia tie-in. I like my stories to be rooted in Philadelphia but to have a broader appeal.

One of the things I noticed as I was watching a scene from the film was a long shot across a meadow that slowly zoomed down to reveal the town. The only sounds were, at first, the wind, and then the voices of people in the town. How important is sound to you? Is it something you're thinking about, along with the images?

It's terribly important. I don't think I was conscious of, oh, I'm hearing wind here. But I'm very interested in the natural sound. Some documentaries have music under everything. Often it's not the right music and it interferes with what you're hearing. It's wallpaper. I'm very interested in the natural sounds of a place."

I worked with a really fine editor, Ann Tegnell, and she loves working with audio. She was working on that long shot in which you're hearing the voices. To me, it said, "In this place, although visually remote, there is all this life going on. The voices draw the viewer into the village."

Our music choices were based on what Stuart listens to when he's over there. When he's painting looking out from his cottage window, as he often does, he'll be playing music: Beethoven. Arvo Pärt (an Estonian composer).

It's almost spiritual. He also listens to Irish music. The music in the beginning of the documentary almost sounds like a chant. You'd think it doesn't go at all. But he's very affected by it when he works.

Were you concerned that Ireland might be too easy or too obvious a subject? After the "Celtic Tiger," Ireland seemed to become the new hot date.

When I first started making this documentary, it was in '95. That was our very first shoot. So I don't think that whole Celtic Tiger thing had taken off. I am very sensitive to the fact so much of what we see dealing with Irish culture is trivial and superficial. I was conscious of not doing anything like that. It just makes my blood curdle. I felt that this was a way of looking at aspects of Irish culture in a different way, through the painting.

You have Irish roots. Do you expect to revisit Ballycastle?

I would love to go back. My background is Irish. My father was born here in Philadelphia, but when his father died, my grandmother took the children back to Ireland to be raised by relatives. He grew up on his grandfather's farm outside of Dundalk. I feel really, really close to the Irish, and I was extremely taken by Ballycastle. I would go back tomorrow and would even consider living there. I'd like  to make another documentary in Ireland. What's holding me back, as with all documentarians, is that you can't do it without raising the money first. Just going "on spec" is hard.

You started out your work life worked for the Kennedys. How did you make your way from politics and policy to documentaries?

I went to Rosemont College. I was a history and a political science major. I loved Robert Kennedy. When he was assassinated I thought about working for Ted. So I went down to Washington and, not knowing a soul, walked into Ted Kennedy's office and said I wanted to work there, and would they have any summer internships? It turns out they did. So I did that for one summer. When I graduated I went back down again. For the first six months I didn't get paid. Then I got a job there and stayed about 10 years.

After my time in Washington, I decided to move back to Philadelphia. I was always interested in the arts—I had handled arts and the humanities for Ted Kennedy—and one of the places I applied to was WHYY. That was the beginning of what I do now. Eventually one of the people I worked with gave me the opportunity to produce some little five-minute things productions. I'm a firm believer that that's a very good way to learn in this field. The best thing to do is get a good liberal arts background, and then learn on the job.Then I left there in the early 90s and started Shirley Road Productions. that's when I really started doing documentaries."

DVDs of "Ballycastle" are available from Shirley Road Productions for $24, plus 6 percent sales tax for Pennsylvania residents. To order, e-mail: info@shirleyroadproductions.org