A SHORT FILM BY DAVID BOLGER

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH WILDFIRE FILMS

A film about hope, love and the joy of dancing.

BREAKIN’ BROTHERS is the story of Cristian & Cosmo, two brothers who arrive in the Irish seaside town, Tramore, from the Dominican Republic in 2014. This energetic film describes their coming of age, where their award-winning break dancing skills are the key to gaining acceptance into contemporary Ireland. Building on the success of their previous collaboration on DEEP END DANCE, which has been screened around the world at festivals and venues as varied as car park roofs and underground swimming pools, BREAKIN’ BROTHERS reunites David Bolger and Martha O’Neill to shape a hybrid drama / dance /documentary film that will entrance audiences from the first beat.  Through lead producer Wildfire Films, BREAKIN’ BROTHERS was awarded BAI funding under Round 34 of the Sound and Vision scheme. The broadcast partner is RTÉ.

WORLD PREMIERE

AT DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (DIFF) 2024

CoisCéim Dance Theatre and Wildfire Films are delighted to present the world premiere of BREAKIN’ BROTHERS at DIFF 2024 as part of their Dublin Double Bill screening.  Join us at the Lighthouse Cinema and meet Cristian & Cosmo, two brothers who arrived in the Irish seaside town, Tramore, from the Dominican Republic in 2014, and found their break dancing skills vital to acceptance in a new homeland.

WHEN | 29 February | 6.30pm
WHERE | Lighthouse Cinema, Dublin 7

Ahead of the premiere screening, Composer Denis Clohessy will take part in a DIFF panel discussion on SCORING THE STORY, A FOCUS ON COMPOSING FOR DOCUMENTARY at The Complex, Dublin 7 on Wednesday 28 February at 2.30pm. Find out more here…

CREDITS

CRISTIAN CRISTIAN EMMANUEL DIROCIE
COSMO 
JOSÉ GUILLERMO DIROCIE
BODHRÁN RÓNÁN Ó SNODAIGH

WRITTEN, DIRECTED & CHOREOGRAPHED BY DAVID BOLGER
BREAKING CHOREOGRAPHY CRISTIAN EMMANUEL DIROCIE & KEVIN DIROCIE

PRODUCER MARTHA O’NEILL
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER BRIDGET WEBSTER
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
 JASS FOLEY
EDITOR
 GUY MONTGOMERY
COMPOSER DENIS CLOHESSY
COSTUME DESIGNER
 CIARA FLEMING
HAIR & MAKEUP
 VAL SHERLOCK

PRODUCTION MANAGERS RORY LORTON & SARAH LATTY
FIRST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR CLAIRE CORRIGAN

DAY ONE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR BARBARA HUGHES
ASSISTANT TO CHOREOGRAPHER JONATHAN MITCHELL
SOUND RECORDISTS NIALL CREAVAN & NIALL O’SULLIVAN
SECOND CAMERA OPERATORS CONOR MCGUINNESS & CHRISTOPHER O’SULLIVAN
FIRST ASSISTANT CAMERA SARAH DILLON
SECOND ASSISTANT CAMERA LAUREN O’BRIEN & EMMA SWIFT
GRIP MARK O’ROURKE
GRIP ASSISTANT CONOR MCGUINNESS
GAFFER BEN CONDELL
LIGHTING ASSISTANT STEPHEN CONKEY
CAMERA ASSISTANT JAZMIN MARIN
CAMERA EQUIPMENT HIRE JASS FOLEY & MEDIA LAB
STILLS PHOTOGRAPHER HAZEL COONAGH
SCRIPT SUPERVISOR KARLA FARRELL
PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS KATIE BEDFORD, EVAN KEOGH, SARAH KEANE
TRANSPORT SHANE POLLARD, JAMES ROWLEY
FLOOR INSTALLATION GUS MCDONAGH & DANNY HONES
EGG POST PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR IRENA WILLIAMS
ONLINE EDITOR GORGAN KVRGIC
COLOURIST NIKOLAS PANTERIS
SOUND MIXER EOIN RYAN
INSURANCE MEDIA INSURANCE
STUDIO LOCATION COISCÉIM STUDIO, FAIRVIEW STRAND, DUBLIN

THANKS TO IMMA, DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL, SEÁN Ó FIONNALÁIN, DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL FILM OFFICE, EIBHLÍN MCGARRY & BOBBY WISE, ST MARY’S NATIONAL SCHOOL, FAIRVIEW APLEONA IRELAND REAL ESTATE LTD

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Cristian is a professional dance and music artist from the Dominican Republic lauded by the critics for “the flowing, electrical intensity” of his performances. He specialises in the Street Dance styles – Breakdance, Krump and HipHop and has won many national and international competitions including SOAR UK – HipHop Masters (2017) and Rep Your Style (2018). He has been based in Ireland since 2014 working as a freelance dancer, musician, dance teacher, choreographer, and Nike Model. Cristian is an associate artist of Human Collective Dance Theatre, recent co-creative and performance credits with the company include Blame Game that will premiere as part of Cork Midsummer 2019, Origins, The Eternal, D2C Lab Dance Ireland and the recent collaboration with Liz Roche Dance Company as part of the 2019 LIR Academy Lighting Mentorship. He also participated in the mentorship programme with Canadian Dance Company, Tentacle Tribe. He made his CoisCéim debut in David Bolger’s FRANCIS FOOTWORK in 2019. 

JOSÉ GUILLERMO DIROCIE (Lil Cosmo) is a professional Bboy (breakdancer) with a background in Martial Arts & Parkour from Dominican Republic. Jose G. Dirocie began his journey in a local park at the age of 8 where he was introduced to HipHop Culture by his brother Cristian. It took Jose a year to learn all fundamentals breakdancing steps to start competing on big stages. Since he moved to Ireland in 2014 he’s been Top8 bboy finalist & placed 1st in events such as Battle of Dublin, HipHop House Party vol.1, Show Your Skills & Waterford Got Talent 2019 (synergy club). He has worked with the Official GAA in their SOUNDS OF SUMMER promo video for the GAA WORLD GAMES 2019 held in Croke Park Dublin, Ireland. Now based in Tramore Co. Waterford, he runs weekly breakdancing classes for all ages with Synergy Dance Club.

Rónán Ó Snodaigh is a founding member of the celebrated traditional Irish/world music band Kíla,  He is one of Ireland’s best and most innovative bodhrán players and a highly original singer songwriter and composer.

Rónán is a multi instrumentalist but is most widely recognized for his bodhran, (Irish hand drum) and percussion playing’, touring with 90’s band Dead Can Dance and recording on many albums including Damien Rice’s My Favourite Fantasy. 

Rónán has composed music for a number of shorts, animations, advertisements and most notably a series of nature documentaries produced by the multi award winning Crossing The Line films based in Ireland. These include Wild Journeys, The Eagles Return and the award winning RTÉ/BBC/PBS The Secret Life of the Shannon (On a River in Ireland/ Ireland’s Wild River) for which he won Best soundtrack award at the Green screen Nature Film Festival in and was nominated for a Best Music Emmy in the News and Documentary category, 2015. His compositions also featured on the BBC production Wild Ireland; the Edge of the World (2017).

Rónán has a considerable back catalogue of solo and instrumental works which are available for license and for which he controls all rights.

David is the Artistic Director and co-founder of CoisCéim Dance Theatre. His work has been seen by millions of people worldwide and has received prestigious awards for its innovation, performance and choreography. David has directed and choreographed over 30 original productions for CoisCéim, including Go To Blazes, Francis Footwork, the highly lauded The Wolf and Peter, Body Language, and the major international co-production These Rooms (Irish Times Theatre Award, London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT), TATE Liverpool). His work for the company has been presented at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and Peak Performances in the USA, Spring Loaded (The Place) and the Brighton Festival in the UK, Ten Days on the Island (Tasmania), Arts Centre Melbourne and Sydney Opera House (Australia). David has received numerous choreographic commissions for theatre and opera including Druid (Ireland), Spoleto Festival (USA), Guthrie Theatre (USA), RTÉ (Ireland), National Theatre (UK), Abbey Theatre (Ireland) and Opera Ireland. He is a member of Aosdána. www.coisceim.com/about-us/

Jass works in Feature Film as well as TV series for Netflix, Amazon, RTE, TG4 and TV3/Virgin Media. Commercial work includes brands such as the Wall Street Journal, Disney, SuperValu, Ryanair, Chef, Mitsubishi, Skoda, Lucozade Sport, Woodies, Sudocrem, Homestore & More, Google, Tiger Beer, Microsoft, EBS, Sixt, Land Rover, Nissan, UTV Ireland, Kerry Foods, LinkedIn and AIB.

Jass has worked across every corner of Ireland as well as internationally in Italy, Germany, USA, Canada, Northern Ireland, England, Wales, France, Holland, Switzerland, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. He’s equally comfortable adrift in the Indian Ocean for a documentary as on a feature film on soundstage.

Jass carries a full Arri Alexa Mini, Arri Amira and Arri Alexa Plus packages, including lenses and grip solutions for Ronin 2 gimbal, Black Arm stabilised hard mount, Rickshaw, Car mounts, Doorway Dolly and track, 21ft Crane, 10ft Jib and EasyRig Stabil. Get in touch for full equipment list, availability and pricing.

Denis has worked with numerous dance and theatre companies. He won the Irish Times theatre award for Best Design Sound in 2019 and 2010 and was a nominee in 2015. Work with CoisCéim includes BREAKIN’ BROTHERS, OUR FATHERS and FRANCIS FOOTWORK. Denis was an associate artist with the Abbey in 2008 and was a participant on Rough Magic’s ADVANCE programme in 2012. In 2016 Pat Kinevane’s play SILENT (Fishamble) won an Olivier award for which Denis composed the music. His work in film includes music for the feature films OLDER THAN IRELAND (Snack box Films), THE IRISH PUB (Atom Films) and HIS AND HERS (Venom Film).

Guy is Ireland’s premier documentary editor, with award winning credits ranging over 30 years. Recent highlights include Bordering on Brexit (RTE/ ARTE), 24 Hour Baby Hospital- Series 1 & 2 (More 4), We Need To Talk About Dad (RTE), Trauma (RTE- IFTA Nominated), Ireland’s Property Crisis (RTE), The Crossing (RTE- IFTA Winner, 3rd place TV Doc, Prix Europa) Keeping Ireland Alive: The Health Service in a Day (RTE- IFTA Nominated) Children of the Revolution (RTE- IFTA Nominated) Bullyproof (RTE- IFTA winner), My Homeless Family (RTE- IFTA Nominated), Broken Song (Audience Award- Dublin Film Festival), Who Do You Think You Are? (RTE- IFTA Nominated), Surgeons (RTE- IFTA Nominated) Ronnie Drew – September Song (Channel 4) and RTE Prime Time Investigates: Home Truths Leas Cross (RTE- IFTA Nominated). As well as editing Guy is now also bringing his knowledge and experience in powerful storytelling to projects as an Editorial Producer.

Guy also has experience in episodic drama, The Clinic, and feature film, Parked.

Ciara is a director and costume designer who was the first Resident Assistant Director at the Gate Theatre Dublin in 2023. Ciara was a 2021 recipient of the Arts Council Next Generation award, to advance her work on the intersections between directing and design. Ciara has participated in the Dublin Theatre Festival programme Next Stage, and in the Fast Forward festival for young European stage directors, collaborating with emerging directors from across Europe, furthering her investigation of design-led theatre practice. Her writing on Music in Irish Theatre is published in the Palgrave Handbook for Contemporary Irish Theatre and Performance. Ciara has also taught youth drama, and at Trinity College Dublin, modules on design in performance.

Val has worked as a hair and makeup artist as well as a wigmaker for a quarter of a century. As well as television, film and advertising work, Val has worked for all major theatre companies in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Val has had the pleasure of working across all aspects of theatre, opera, contemporary dance, and ballet. He has worked on multiple productions for the Lyric Theatre, Druid, Rough Magic Theatre Company, CoisCéim Dance Theatre, Fishamble: The New Play Company, the Abbey Theatre/Peacock Theatre, The Corn Exchange and Landmark Productions, amongst others.

ABOUT THE PRODUCERS

Martha O’Neill of Wildfire Films is an established producer of film, tv drama and tv and feature documentary. In addition to countless hours of tv documentary on subjects as diverse as GAA to filming the creation of theatre at Druid Theatre Company to an underwater dance film, she has also produced six feature documentaries, has one in post-production and two in development.  She also has two tv dramas currently in development. Martha won the Circom Award in 2018 for Best European Drama for her production of Grace Harte for TG4 and the BAI. She is currently co-producing feature documentary projects with Finland, Estonia and Canada and she raised finance from Screen Ireland, RTÉ, BBC, History Channel, Arte, Channel 4, YLE, TG4, BAI, the Arts Council and sources in Estonia, Finland, the Netherlands and Canada to name but a few.

Bridget is a co-founder of CoisCéim Dance Theatre working with the company until the end of 2002 and then returning as Executive Producer in July 2013. She has produced numerous new works for the company, including international presentations at the Place, London,  Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival & Peak Performances in the USA, Ten Days on the Island (Tasmania), Arts Centre Melbourne & Sydney Opera House, Australia.  She co-produced the multi award winning dance films Hit and Run and How to Sink a Paper Boat.  Other recent credits include Go To Blazes, The Wolf and Peter, Body Language/In the Magic Hour and lead producer on the major international multi-partner collaboration, These Rooms presented as part of ART2016, 14-18NOW at the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT2018) and at Tate Liverpool.   In 2020/21, she oversaw CoisCéim’s move to, and refurbishment of, the landmark building at 42 Fairview Strand that resulted in a distinctive new space for dance in Dublin’s north city.

As an independent producer/mentor, Bridget works with a small number of people including visual artist Siobhán McDonald. She sits on the advisory panel of the Emma O’Kane Bursary and has also been closely associated with Aerowaves – where she was Ireland’s first partner for 7 years, co-programming three platforms for the Dublin Fringe Festival.  More recently, as a board director, she was integral to the relocation of the company to Ireland to secure the network’s future following Brexit.  Other notable board memberships have included Project Arts Centre, Irish Theatre Institute (formerly known as The Theatre Shop) & The Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annamakerrig.  An alumni of Common Purpose,  Bridget holds engineering degrees from Glasgow University and Imperial College, London and worked for over twenty years in the oil industry world-wide.  She is a lifetime member of SPE, its professional body.