Director's Works
Two For The Road Lochlainn McKenna
I’m LOCKY (A.K.A Lochlainn McKenna). I'm a director and writer from Cork, Ireland. I started off acting before moving into assistant directing, casting and then producing before eventually stumbling on to directing... which I fell in love with. I’m mostly interested in directing work about humans and how we connect with each other. Stories about: relationships, families, heart-break, survival, courage and love. I’m fascinated by time and how we choose to spend the time we’re given on this planet. Some of the brands I’ve directed ads for include Specsavers, Tesco and Guinness and some artists I’ve worked with include Westlife and Keane. I’ve won some awards including ‘Best New Director’ at Kinsale and the Discovery Award at the Dublin Film Festival (following in the footsteps of Barry Keoghan and Jessie Buckley). My short film, Two For The Road, was nominated for an IFTA amongst a bunch of other awards.
As someone who traditionally never took the time to sit down and write I was finally forced to put pen to paper through sheer boredom and ennui during the pandemic. I decided to start jotting down anecdotes from my atypical upbringing and realised that this was as good a place as any to start. 3 years on and with the film finally finished I can say that this first foray into personal filmmaking has been one of the most dizzying rollercoasters I’ve ever ridden. My weekends with my father were packed to the brim with adventures, strangers, chaos, endless car-journeys, a superabundance of illegalities and to be honest, an awful lot of fun! And, as I’ve slowly metamorphosed into a 'proper' filmmaker, I can finally see with some perspective the abnormality of it all and I understand now the importance of turning it into a film. Not just for my own catharsis but also because the film itself is a vessel for people to ponder their own relationships with their parents. To look at the scenarios that have maybe enveloped them through their lives. The trauma that has perhaps shaped them as adults and, in fact, made them into people they should, actually, be quite proud of. ‘Two For The Road’ I think was as important for me to make as it might be for you to see. I think it explores the malleability of children and the influence our parents have on us and that love really can triumph… and that that, perhaps, isn’t always a good thing. We shot the film on glorious 16mm Kodak stock on the Beara Peninsula in West Cork and for me the whole film looks and feels like a 90s memory. When you watch it, I hope that you can experience this memory with me but I also hope it invokes some memory in you and, who knows, you too might find yourself healing unexpectedly.