Element Pictures Distribution will be releasing The Yellow Bittern - the Life and Times of Liam Clancy, on September 11th 2009.

This intimate, confessional yet highly cinematic film charts the remarkable rise to fame of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem from their small-town beginnings in County Tipperary in Ireland to the folk hey-day of Greenwich Village in the Sixties where they absorbed black musical influences and out-sold the Beatles. But these devil-may-care Irish actors (as they were then) were, in turn, to influence a host of artists from Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger to The Pogues.

But this darkly revealing portrait also goes behind the mask of the performer and delves into the psyche of Liam Clancy and his troubled personal life where the excesses of rock-and-roll found their way in to the world of folk.

Drawing on unseen (and behind-the-scenes) footage of the band at their height as well as on Clancy’s own personal archive, the film is a compelling look at an iconic and influential life lived to the full.

“Alan Gilsenan’s first-class The Yellow Bittern: The Life and Times of Liam Clancy made a good case for Liam as a storyteller of genius … a fleshy portrait of such a fascinating figure.” – The Irish Times

“An intimate epic…Warmly told and beautifully filmed.” – The Boston Globe

The Yellow Bittern is in selected cinemas around Ireland from September 11th. Join the Facebook group for updates and visit the website for more details about the film

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