Top Hollywood director visits local school

STUDENTS
at St Kilian’s Deutch schule, Clonskeagh, Co Dublin, got to meet one of the
world’s top movie directors and animators earlier this month.

World
renowned Jimmy T Murakami was invited to the school by teacher, Ms Nuala
Holloway, to speak to transition year students about his life and work.

Film
studies is one of the many modules which students complete during the year at
the school and they were delighted to have a rare opportunity to speak to one
of the industry greats.

Mr
Murakami was warmly welcomed by Principal Ms Alice Lynch who spoke about his
outstanding achievements and amazing life story. She also said that it is the
first time the school has been visited by a person of his calibre.

Mr
Murakami who has received many awards including two Oscar nominations and a
BAFTA is best known for

‘When the Wind Blows’.

When
he talked to the students about his work in animation in California, New York and
London there wasn’t a whisper from the 40 or so students because of their keen
interest.

He
also showed some of his films and talked about animation and the work involved
in putting a film like this together. He spoke about how computers have sped up
the process of animation today.

He
considers it a very good career as the interest in animation is very buoyant
and says that Ireland is very well equipped for this business because of the
number of qualified technicians.

He
pointed to this as a possible reason why companies like Google have set up in
Ireland.

Both
the students and the teachers who attended his talk said they found it to be
very enlightening and enjoyable.