Stuart, Head Programmer for Docs Ireland, talks with us about some of his favourite collaborations over the years.

I started working with the Digital Film Archive around 20 years ago, tricking school children into thinking they were learning about digital filmmaking when they were secretly learning about the World Wars. We can all be fooled when we hear the word 'archive'. You could feel that it's just some old dusty tapes in an attic somewhere, but at its best it will describe our human history like nothing else, and given the right context, can say so much about the current moments in this ever evolving world of ours.

I have done many projects throughout the years with the footage from DFA, mainly as one-off, live, often musical events for Docs Ireland and the Belfast Film Festival. Their staff's openness and enthusiasm for any and all creative ideas has been inspiring and allowed us to really experiment with the footage, meaning incredible fun in the filmmaking process, and, hopefully, unique experiences for our audiences.

These events include High Rise/Low Rise at the giant Masonic Lodge on Rosemary St, a double billed live score on Utopia (Blue Whale) and Dystopia (Gross Net), that considered the successes and failures of modernism in Northern Ireland, and 100 Years of Happiness (The Organauts) which presented, irony-free, the successes and failures of Northern Ireland. We looked for The Weird & Eerie (Vendetta Suite) - an audio-visual, hauntological experiment, and considered television legend Jim Boyce in the Battle for the Boyce. I've had the pleasure to do long-form interviews with some of our country's legendary filmmakers in After/Image, and documented Northern Ireland's rave history and culture in Shapes Between Us (Phil Kieran).

A highlight for me would be the live film EQUINOX, which Rosie Le Garsmeur from the Ulster Folk Museum commissioned, funded by Film Hub NI. I collaborated with the Irish musician Róis on a brand new archive film and live score which moves chronologically through both the eons of time, and a single harvest day in Ireland - weaving together astrological visuals, and the abundance of nature and harvests past. We were then honoured to again perform this show at a festival in Italy, late at night in an ancient Roman town square. As our show ends Róis sings a beautiful serenade to the moon – just as the full moon rose above our heads. Your beauty indeed.

In this world of corporate overreach – the great ivory tower of archive is increasingly unreachable to the ordinary, independent filmmaker. It always feels like a massive privilege to access and use these wonderful Irish archives in this way. It is an incredible learning process as a filmmaker and certainly something other archives could and should be offering.

Lastly, I cannot say enough about the archivists – they have always been so generous, knowledgeable and delightful to interact with. I can only hope they allow me to work on many more projects!