Éanna Mac Cana and Moon Paw Print

Please tell us who you are and what you’ve been working on recently.

ÉM: I am an Irish visual artist and filmmaker. I primarily produce short film & documentary work using a number of techniques and formats. My work has been selected for numerous film festivals across Europe and North America. As well as several solo & group shows, both nationally & internationally. In 2020, I was commissioned by Northern Ireland Screen to make a mini documentary about Belfast City Hospital – ‘Yellowstone: A brief of the history of Belfast City Hospital’ – which premiered on the QFT Player. For this work I was awarded Best Director at the Indy Film Library Experimental Showcase while it was also selected for the Short Documentary Category as part of the Aesthetica Film Festival 2021 (BAFTA qualifying). This year I was also engaged as a peer mentor for the 21 Artists for the 21st century programme set up by the Northern Ireland Office.

MPP: I am an instrumental music artist, sound artist/designer and film composer from Ireland. I started my music project Moon Paw Print in 2015, playing my first live show in Jackson, Mississippi in 2016 and releasing a series of singles and albums that have been fortunate to be met with a global fanbase. In 2020, I released my debut conceptual album Dreams of Ü – a response to the reported lockdown dream phenomenon many had reported experiencing and also an ode to my love for Jungian psychology. 2021 had seen an even further personalisation within my music with my sophomore album The Importance of Flowers – the inspiration dating back to the Van Gogh paintings that hung in my childhood home (“A Starry Night” & “Sunflowers”). It was within this timeframe that I fell in love with music and subsequently art deep within a working class Belfast environment. I very recently got the chance to help soundtrack Japan’s first ever e-Gym based in Tokyo with the lead single to my sophomore album titled ‘Black Coffee’. I am now working on my third album titled ‘Post Impermanence’ which is my most emotionally charged and experimental to date and will be released within the first half of 2022.

What drew you to each other’s practice?

We are both inspired creatively by science and nature. Many of our creative conversations will touch on the subjects, themes and ideas of belief, panic, entropy and misinformation. The merging of ideas around order / disorder are key features within both our artistic practices. We are motivated by the desire to explore and understand the various strands of human behaviour in response to being faced with something unknown. In addition, we have a long creative partnership and close personal friendship together.

 

emcfilmworks.com
@emcfilms
@emcfilmworks

 

moonpawprint.bandcamp.com
@moonpawprint
@mppbeats

 

 

3D animation test visuals. Image: Gerard Carson
3D animation test visuals. Image: Gerard Carson