John Ford: Dreaming the Quiet Man

Dreaming the Quiet Man’ includes interviews with aficionados of Ford like, Martin, Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovicz, Jim Sheridan, William Dowling, and Joe McBride. There is mesmeric archive and rare photographs of the making of the film. The main location of the documentary is Ford’s ancestral homeland of Connemara, on the west coat of Ireland, where his parents were born. We meet Ford’s cousins, the Feeney’s who tell the story of Ford’s parent’s departure from Ireland after the Great Famine and the young Ford’s return to Ireland in 1922 to visit his cousins the Thornton’s and saw their house being burned down by the infamous Black and Tans. Ford, under the pretense of scouting locations for a movie, gave money to the IRA. We travel to Portland Maine where Ford grew up and went on to become a director in the first bloom of Hollywood. The boy made it good but Ireland was always on his mind.

Directed by Sé Merry Doyle, John Ford: Dreaming the Quiet Man leans on a strong ensemble — Gabriel Byrne, Maureen O'Hara, Peter Bogdanovich — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about documentary titles of 2012.