Steve Pyke | ICRTS dvd
I Could Read The Sky
film directed by Nichola Bruce
I Could Read the Sky is adapted from the photographic novel of the same name which has been recently published to rave reviews and explores the sense of identity, loss and exile. It is the moving story of an old man living in a bedsit in London, remembering his life, growing up on the West coast of Ireland and his journey to London. In the author's words:
"I Could Read The Sky is a novel which tells its story through words and photographs. The story is that of an Irish emigrant struggling to possess his life in acts of memory. He is old. He is alone. He is lying in bed at night in the darkness remembering a life of dislocation, of loss, of descent into madness and of redemption through music and through the love of a woman. Some of the time he is remembering on prose and some of the time in pictures. Neither is meant to illustrate the other. They are distinct acts of memory in their own right. The act of remembering itself becomes a way of completing his life."
The film was directed by Nichola Bruce, and was her first feature film. She had previously made documentaries and experimental films. Stars acclaimed Irish writer Dermot Healy and includes cameos from actors Maria Doyle Kennedy, Brendan Coyle and Stephen Rea, writer Pat McCabe (Butcher Boy) and the author Timothy O'Grady and photographer Steve Pyke.