The Head On Him! Short film is written and directed by Seán Gallen

The Dublin International Film Festival will feature a film by a Dubliner about growing up in Clondalkin in the 1990s and encountering racism.

‘The Head on Him’ is a short film written and directed by Irish/Martinican artist Seán Gallen.

The narrative is about Jamie, a young child from Nigeria who immigrates to Ireland in the 1990s and cuts off his afro in order to blend in.

This keeps happening until it keeps getting bigger and bigger and ensnaring him in his room.

Wishing to portray that there is more to Dublin estates than “misery porn,” Sean uses this new film to tackle difficult subject matter with his own light-hearted touch and sense of charm, making for a humorous watch.

This week, we sat down with Sean to discuss ‘The Head On Him’, which will be screened as part of the Virgin Media Discovers collection of short films at the Light House Cinema on February 24.

How long have you had the idea for the story?

I was applying for the Virgin Media Discovers Fund in February 2023, and the idea came to me in the shower in March. I often get interesting ideas in the shower.

It may be one of the few places where my mind is almost blank and relaxed enough to allow ideas to come through.

In 2020, I published an article in the Irish Times about my experience growing up in Ireland. That was a bit like opening Pandora’s box; I was able to access and convey parts of growing up like never before.

I continued to write, and I processed that period of my life through writing.

So I was still swimming in ideas about growing up in Clondalkin since then.

Was it always planned to have a light-hearted tone?

Yes. My first love is comedy, and that’s where I started obsessively rewatching ”Blazing Saddles” as a teenager and doing like five open mics in Glasgow as a student.

Then I moved to Berlin, only wore black, and wanted to be taken seriously as a drama writer, but quickly realised I couldn’t keep a straight face and crawled back to comedy.

I love deceptively clever comedies that use humour to disarm audiences. You can make viewers comfortable through laughter and then sneak bigger ideas later in the movie.

Comedy is a great Trojan Horse for talking about bigger topics in a more indirect way. I also feel like a lot of depictions of Dublin estates are often bleak and morbid, misery-porn.

It was important for me to capture the joy and humor of that world. I wanted to show that it’s more than Garda, gangs, and crying mothers.

What kind of processes were involved in making the idea come to fruition?

The funniest and most challenging part was figuring out how to depict the giant Afro that grows and consumes our protagonist.

It was fun to write, but then we had to figure out how, in the Lord’s name, we were going to pull it off.

In the beginning, I thought we could just CGI it, but after some quick initial research, I discovered that even giants like Disney and Pixar are still struggling with animating hair, especially black hair.

In the end, we worked closely with a great VFX expert (Michael Hollinger at Mind Console), an amazing production designer, Tracey O’Hanlon, a masterful cinematographer in Rua Meegan, and an exceptional hair expert in Stephanie Nwambu of Callah Crowns to bring the hair to life with a combination of practical effects, in-camera effects, CGI, wigs, and styling.

How much time was dedicated to writing the film?

So as part of the Virgin Media Discovers initiative, after winning the first round, we were allotted some budget and time for development and pre-production.

I was assigned a brilliant mentor to guide me through this process (Elaine Walsh is a legend).

The first draft of the script came out after a couple of weeks, followed by months of redrafting all the way up until the first shooting day.

There was a period of ”punching up” where we wanted to make it funnier, and Virgin Media was really supportive.

They managed to arrange a call with Lisa McGee (the creator of Derry Girls), who gave me some excellent advice on comedy writing.

What are your plans for your career after this screening?

Here’s what I imagine in my mind when I’m daydreaming on the bus. ”The Head on Him” opens at DIFF, and people like it.

I celebrate with the cast and crew at the Cobblestone.

It then goes on to other festivals around the world, and more people like it. The important decision-makers like it enough to fund my first feature movie and are delighted to hear that I already have an idea or three ready to go.

I start making that feature film by the end of the year.

Who would you like to thank for helping you get to this point?

My family were the ones who first gave me a love of film and always believed in and supported me. Ciara Gillan and Kevin Napier of Rickless Fascination were the only producers to take a chance on me and have helped me immensely over the last couple of years.

The whole funding experience with Virgin Media was great; thanks to Elaine Walsh for her mentorship, Daniel Lloyd, and Sinead Stimpfig for their constant support and allowing me the freedom to write and shoot in my own voice.

It takes a village to make a film, and we were so lucky to find such a talented cast and crew to bring all of this to life.

I want to give special thanks to our lead actor, Ethan Lieghio, who was able to connect with the material on a deep level and deliver such a great performance, which is no easy feat for a young actor shouldering a whole production like that.