EXCLUSIVE : Juno Films has acquired worldwide rights to Ciarán Cassidy ‘s documentary Housewife of the Year , ahead of its North American premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival. World premiering at CPH:DOX before going on to win Best Irish Feature Documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh, the film will be released in theaters next spring. Housewife of the Year tells the story of Ireland and the state’s treatment of women through the prism of a unique, surreal, live televised competition.
Running from 1969-1995, Calor Housewife of the Year was a primetime televised competition, which pitted housewives from around Ireland to compete for the title of Housewife of the Year and the prize of a luxury gas cooker. In front of a live audience, the contestants were quizzed by host Gay Byrne about how they met their partners, how many children they had and how they managed to remain glamorous, all while cooking live on stage. The film explores the gap between what the audience saw on screen and the reality at home for Irish housewives.
The competition began at a time when women were not allowed to work after they got married and it finished before the arrival of the Celtic Tiger. It was a different Ireland — especially for women — and the doc looks at the story of the competition from the perspective of the only people who can tell it: the contestants. Their stories reflect the gamut of experiences of women in Ireland.
They share their direct experiences of marriage bars, lack of contraception, Magdalene laundries, financial vulnerability, boredom, silence, secrecy, shame and of course, being contestants on the Housewife of the Year. “ Housewife of the Year is a dystopian memory of an era where women’s roles were narrowly defined, as wife, mother and housekeeper,” said Juno Films’ CEO Elizabeth Sheldon. “It reminds us of our grandmothers and mothers lives, where life outside the family and home was limited and that we should not take our progress for granted.
” Added Cassidy, “We are delighted to be joining Juno Films impressive slate and excited to bring our quintessentially Irish story to a wider audience in the US and beyond. Elizabeth appreciates the film as both a chronicle of a specific era and a piece of media history that has to be seen to be believed.” Sheldon negotiated the deal to acquire Housewife of the Year with producers Colum McKeown and Maria Horgan of Little Wing Films.
.
