Austin Shorts to Air in Ireland on St. Patrick's Day

RTÉ, Ireland's national TV broadcaster, will be showing a series of pieces this St. Patrick's Day celebrating Irish diaspora and heritage, called "How to Be Irish." Included in this special will be two shorts by Austinite Jake T. Powell and his production partner Micha L. Crook. The two partners make up Monthly Adventures Productions, based out of Austin and Syracuse, New York -- both are Syracuse University grads.

Their first documentary short from 2008, The Feast of St. Patrick: Family, Friends and Food, focuses on the celebration of family history on St. Patrick's Day. The short first showed at London's Wyllie O Hagan Film Festival that year.

"I'm pretty pumped about this showing because it's the second time one of our shorts has screened internationally," Powell said. "I think that the reason it has appeal to the folks in Ireland is that we take a look at Irish-ness which isn't about silly stereotypes but is still a very American perspective. I like green beer as much as the next guy, but growing up around so many people of Irish descent I know it's a lot more than that, and that's what we want to illustrate."

RTÉ asked them to do a follow-up piece along the same lines to show in tandem with the 2008 short, so the duo filmed Fáilte: Irish Hospitality in Central New York earlier this year. "Fáilte" is Gaelic for "welcome." This second documentary short includes thoughts about the theme of hospitality from some Central New Yorkers with Irish ties.

Monthly Adventures starts principal photography on their first fictional short in the fall of 2012.

[Photo credit: Still from The Feast of St. Patrick, courtesy of Jake T. Powell]