Katrina Costello
- Director
- Cinematographer
- Producer
Multi Award Winner Director/Cinematographer creating films by dreaming, sheer love and will.
Hot Docs: Audience Award "This film will take you on a hypnotic journey to a place within you that you had long forgotten about."
Salem Film Festival American Cinematographer Award: The most lustrous and accomplished imagery: Costello's unerring eye for painterly compositions, exquisite rendering of natural light and tremendously artful approach to the subject matter transform The Silver Branch into a meditative, deeply contemplative tone poem that extols not only the beauty of natural landscapes, but their life- and soul-enhancing nourishments. It's a wistful and deeply felt documentary, and richly deserving of the top honour.
Wild and Scenic: Honourable Mention "The strength and tenderness of this extraordinary work of art, vast in scope, depth of song, and love of the web of life. Here, we are so gently conveyed into an activism born of profound earth, of simple magic. The integrated heart finds birds as metaphor and messenger, of body politic and brightest joy. I am so so glad to have lived to meet these lands and peoples... to have heard true embodied poetry as a deeply realized human voice... to have witnessed these struggles and triumphs. Such. Beauty"
Innsbruck: Best Documentary "A sustainable fairy-tale, that bridges a past era to current issues, in an unconventionally poetic form that is also visually mesmerising. We are presented with an intimate story of a unique place in Ireland, within a landscape that has been cultivated for centuries. Through the thoughts of the farmer and his everyday work we immerse ourselves in a traditional way of life that has been long forgotten. The powerful images are a true ode to nature"
Banff: Best Cultural Film "This film is both a lyrical portrayal of a place and an individual's philosophical take on life. It moved us by its nuanced and layered narratives, visual poetry, and its consistent and creative vision."
Wellington Film Festival Winner
IFTA "Plainly gorgeous. What elevates this film, however, is its extraordinary ability to pair its visuals with Patrick McCormack's narration. The film's poetry, visuals, and score combine to show us how sitting at the side of a dying cow can help us to discern some part of our uncertain place in this massive "web" and how that discernment informs how we interact with our landscape. In the mists that so frequently border sweeping shots of the farm, Costello and McCormack let us see our own ephemerality as well as the responsibility placed on us by our own temporary nature. That this film illustrates this reciprocity so well does it credit and, due to this achievement, the Irish film community should anticipate whatever Costello produces next."
Press Reviews RTÉ Film review: THE SILVER BRANCH: absorbing and deserving of garlands "The Silver Branch is an absorbing, brilliant film that should be honoured everywhere prizes are given, for delving delicately and drinking deep at the well of one man's story, one family's joy and heartbreak."
SUNDAY INDEPENDENT "A breath-taking cinematic essay on Ireland's natural beauty. Accompanying this visual beauty are the thoughtful, sometimes hypnotic poems and musings of McCormack, which emphasise the importance of nature and our need to embrace simplicity and beauty in modern life. Ireland has rarely been captured onscreen with such striking artistry."
HOTPRESS "So potent is the continuous conversation Costello's film has with its environment that a meditative quality takes hold that is as rich and rare as the Burren itself. What begins as just a sumptuous piece of local filmmaking starts to ring with a universal candour."
IRISH TIMES (Donald Clarke) "Beautifully shot, thoughtful documentary on the poet Patrick McCormack. It is a testament to the power of Costello's film-making that the picture can win over even those (ahem) not entirely on board with McCormack's pastoral philosophy."
TOTALLY DUBLIN "The Silver Branch is brilliantly layered and executed, a master class in documentary film making and a deep breath of fresh country air that everybody needs to take in."
DUBLIN INQUIRER "It's impossible to resist the charms of The Silver Branch, to get caught up in his world, to feel the weight of his struggles and the relief of his triumphs. Enthralling from beginning to end."
NO MORE WORKHORSE Film Review "Costello has created a documentary worthy of McCormack who is a quiet, great man. The clamour and strains that surrounds much of urban and indeed rural life is called into question. McCormack found in a remote part of County Clare an existential serenity which fortuitously for him was his birthplace. Costello has provided a worthy celebration of this unsung hero."
BRENDAN GLEESON - "Magical ... a unique and an important cinematic gift. It is film making as it should be in Ireland today, finding the universal in the local with a sure-footedness that is most unusual. "
Irish Film Review - "An immersive experience - sublime imagery and poetic narration."
HEADSTUFF "A beautifully shot meditation on the traditional farming life in the West, our relationship with the landscape and the forces that threaten a fragile equilibrium."
Chris Baldwin, European Capital of Culture 2020 (Formerly) " While the gentle, enveloping images of this film slow the heart beat the poetry and urgency of the narrative reminds us that some struggles are so continual, so universal, that they are not chosen by us but are a matter of the very meaning of our lives."
Audience Review This documentary is a beautiful, emotional, soul-touching experience which resonated with me from start to finish. Every sentence, sentiment, extraordinary cinematographic footage reminded me of how we've lost touch and are out of tune with nature and our inherited heritage. As falcons soared over limestone pavements, as aging farmers lovingly tended to their animals, as streams rushed through scrubland, as activists defiantly defended their place and plots, we are constantly reminded of our duty of safeguarding our environment for future generations and how this is incumbent on all of us before it's too late. Viewing this documentary, for me, was a sort of 'Road to Damascus 'moment. I've now begun a personal stocktake of my own relationships with my environment, with nature, with my own rich heritage. It's time again to embrace and welcome the flora and fauna, the oceans, mountains, plains and valleys.....it's time to rekindle the flames of love and beauty long since abandoned and extinguished. "As the ocean dreams to the joys of dance, May the grace of change bring you elegance." My advice is to go immediately and view this extraordinary wonderful documentary... sit back, enjoy, embrace and celebrate the journey
Salem Film Festival American Cinematographer Award: The most lustrous and accomplished imagery: Costello's unerring eye for painterly compositions, exquisite rendering of natural light and tremendously artful approach to the subject matter transform The Silver Branch into a meditative, deeply contemplative tone poem that extols not only the beauty of natural landscapes, but their life- and soul-enhancing nourishments. It's a wistful and deeply felt documentary, and richly deserving of the top honour.
Wild and Scenic: Honourable Mention "The strength and tenderness of this extraordinary work of art, vast in scope, depth of song, and love of the web of life. Here, we are so gently conveyed into an activism born of profound earth, of simple magic. The integrated heart finds birds as metaphor and messenger, of body politic and brightest joy. I am so so glad to have lived to meet these lands and peoples... to have heard true embodied poetry as a deeply realized human voice... to have witnessed these struggles and triumphs. Such. Beauty"
Innsbruck: Best Documentary "A sustainable fairy-tale, that bridges a past era to current issues, in an unconventionally poetic form that is also visually mesmerising. We are presented with an intimate story of a unique place in Ireland, within a landscape that has been cultivated for centuries. Through the thoughts of the farmer and his everyday work we immerse ourselves in a traditional way of life that has been long forgotten. The powerful images are a true ode to nature"
Banff: Best Cultural Film "This film is both a lyrical portrayal of a place and an individual's philosophical take on life. It moved us by its nuanced and layered narratives, visual poetry, and its consistent and creative vision."
Wellington Film Festival Winner
IFTA "Plainly gorgeous. What elevates this film, however, is its extraordinary ability to pair its visuals with Patrick McCormack's narration. The film's poetry, visuals, and score combine to show us how sitting at the side of a dying cow can help us to discern some part of our uncertain place in this massive "web" and how that discernment informs how we interact with our landscape. In the mists that so frequently border sweeping shots of the farm, Costello and McCormack let us see our own ephemerality as well as the responsibility placed on us by our own temporary nature. That this film illustrates this reciprocity so well does it credit and, due to this achievement, the Irish film community should anticipate whatever Costello produces next."
Press Reviews RTÉ Film review: THE SILVER BRANCH: absorbing and deserving of garlands "The Silver Branch is an absorbing, brilliant film that should be honoured everywhere prizes are given, for delving delicately and drinking deep at the well of one man's story, one family's joy and heartbreak."
SUNDAY INDEPENDENT "A breath-taking cinematic essay on Ireland's natural beauty. Accompanying this visual beauty are the thoughtful, sometimes hypnotic poems and musings of McCormack, which emphasise the importance of nature and our need to embrace simplicity and beauty in modern life. Ireland has rarely been captured onscreen with such striking artistry."
HOTPRESS "So potent is the continuous conversation Costello's film has with its environment that a meditative quality takes hold that is as rich and rare as the Burren itself. What begins as just a sumptuous piece of local filmmaking starts to ring with a universal candour."
IRISH TIMES (Donald Clarke) "Beautifully shot, thoughtful documentary on the poet Patrick McCormack. It is a testament to the power of Costello's film-making that the picture can win over even those (ahem) not entirely on board with McCormack's pastoral philosophy."
TOTALLY DUBLIN "The Silver Branch is brilliantly layered and executed, a master class in documentary film making and a deep breath of fresh country air that everybody needs to take in."
DUBLIN INQUIRER "It's impossible to resist the charms of The Silver Branch, to get caught up in his world, to feel the weight of his struggles and the relief of his triumphs. Enthralling from beginning to end."
NO MORE WORKHORSE Film Review "Costello has created a documentary worthy of McCormack who is a quiet, great man. The clamour and strains that surrounds much of urban and indeed rural life is called into question. McCormack found in a remote part of County Clare an existential serenity which fortuitously for him was his birthplace. Costello has provided a worthy celebration of this unsung hero."
BRENDAN GLEESON - "Magical ... a unique and an important cinematic gift. It is film making as it should be in Ireland today, finding the universal in the local with a sure-footedness that is most unusual. "
Irish Film Review - "An immersive experience - sublime imagery and poetic narration."
HEADSTUFF "A beautifully shot meditation on the traditional farming life in the West, our relationship with the landscape and the forces that threaten a fragile equilibrium."
Chris Baldwin, European Capital of Culture 2020 (Formerly) " While the gentle, enveloping images of this film slow the heart beat the poetry and urgency of the narrative reminds us that some struggles are so continual, so universal, that they are not chosen by us but are a matter of the very meaning of our lives."
Audience Review This documentary is a beautiful, emotional, soul-touching experience which resonated with me from start to finish. Every sentence, sentiment, extraordinary cinematographic footage reminded me of how we've lost touch and are out of tune with nature and our inherited heritage. As falcons soared over limestone pavements, as aging farmers lovingly tended to their animals, as streams rushed through scrubland, as activists defiantly defended their place and plots, we are constantly reminded of our duty of safeguarding our environment for future generations and how this is incumbent on all of us before it's too late. Viewing this documentary, for me, was a sort of 'Road to Damascus 'moment. I've now begun a personal stocktake of my own relationships with my environment, with nature, with my own rich heritage. It's time again to embrace and welcome the flora and fauna, the oceans, mountains, plains and valleys.....it's time to rekindle the flames of love and beauty long since abandoned and extinguished. "As the ocean dreams to the joys of dance, May the grace of change bring you elegance." My advice is to go immediately and view this extraordinary wonderful documentary... sit back, enjoy, embrace and celebrate the journey
