Alan Gilsenan

Alan Gilsenan is an Irish writer, film-maker and theatre director. His diverse body of film work extends across documentary, feature films and experimental work. His latest film The Days of Trees - a reflection on trauma and memory - premiered at the 2023 Cork International Film Festival last autumn, and won the George Morrison Feature Documentary Award at the IFTAs.

He is a former Chairperson of the Irish Film Institute and also a former member of the boards of both Screen Ireland and Ireland’s national broadcaster RTÉ. He is currently Chairperson of Fighting Words, a national organisation that facilitates creative writing for children & young people.

His many film productions include the feature dramas Timbuktu, The Meeting and Unless; the documentary features The Yellow Bittern, The Ghost of Roger Casement and Meetings with Ivor; the experimental film A Vision: A Life of WB Yeats; a film installation inspired by Joyce’s Ulysses for Dublin’s MOLI entitled ULYSSES | FILM; the film-poem Ghosts of Baggotonia that combines personal memory and the literary ghosts of bohemian Dublin. Other more recent films include The Seven Ages of Noël Browne and An Buachaill Gealgháireach/The Laughing Boy as well as Paul Muldoon: Loathe is Lirici (A Life in Lyrics).