Former Post journalist is a banker
with the Swiss
 By
Trevor O’sullivan
A FORMER Irish Post journalist has been recognised for his skills as
a filmmaker.
Irish film-writer and producer Paul Hannon who worked for the paper in
the mid-70s won an award for his short film White Out at the prestigious
Les Diablerets Alpine Film Festival in Switzerland.
The six-minute short deals with the struggle of an injured skier to survive
an avalanche and has already been broadcast on Swiss television.
The film was co-produced by Parkgate Productions — a small Irish-staffed
film production company based in London.
The Dubliner describes the film as a psychological horror story but rather
intriguingly the filmmaker has drawn upon his own experiences in telling
the story.
He said: “It’s to do with an avalanche victim. One of the
aspects of it is that the guy is suffering extreme cold. I was trying
to portray visually on screen the effects of hypothermia.
“I suffered from hypothermia on one occasion in the 1970s and I’m
sure I did think at the time that I was going to die.
“My system was just shutting down and I thought the next stop was
the mortuary — but in fact the next stop was a hospital. I fell
into a semi coma on the Paris Metro and spent some time in hospital.
“So the experience of hypothermia and the intense cold and the delusions
one can experience are based on my own personal experience.”
The film’s technical quality and sense of realism have led to it
being featured in an avalanche awareness campaign.
Mr Hannon is also delighted his movie was honoured by the Swiss Film Festival.
He said: “The most recent festival the film was at was in Switzerland
and God bless their little cotton socks they gave us first prize in this
particular section called Freeride which was a true honour. I was really
delighted. I went over and collected the trophy and the prize which was
a £2,000 camera.”
Mr Hannon has a number of other projects lined up.
He has shot a documentary about gardens in Ireland which is part of a
trilogy the filmmaker hopes to do called Hostile Gardening.
He also has a drama series in development with Columbia Tristar and has
written some feature scripts that have been optioned.
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