Portrait: Zosia Kuczyńska

Zosia Kuczyńska is an academic and poet, specialising in the literary archives of playwright Brian Friel. She completed her PhD on ‘Time and Space in the Plays of Brian Friel’ in 2016 at Trinity College Dublin, where she was a Government of Ireland Postgraduate Research Scholar.

In 2018, Zosia was awarded a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Research Fellowship under the mentorship of Emilie Pine at University College Dublin, based at its Humanities Institute. In this capacity, Zosia has conducted original interdisciplinary research into the Brian Friel Papers at the National Library of Ireland. A monograph, Brian Friel’s Models of Influence, is forthcoming with Palgrave Macmillan.

Zosia is the author of two poetry pamphlets with The Emma Press, Pisanki (2017) and With others in your absence (2021). Her work was featured in the Lifeboat anthology Queering the Green (2021) and has appeared in The White Review, Poetry Ireland Review, and The Tangerine. She has performed regularly with Tonnta.

Portraits

These portraits capture a specific moment in time for eight individuals. The unwavering single-shot focus of the camera offers a poignant and intimate closeness to each subject. They were filmed in April 2021 in locations specially chosen by each subject: a place of sanctuary within the five-kilometre radius of their home. The films are inspired by Andy Warhol’s Screen Test from the 1960s and Jane McCormick’s This Moment capturing the significant people behind the TownHall Cavan Arts Space. The films pay homage to the dedication and talent which sustained the Don’t anticipate the ending project.

Directed by Robbie Blake
Filmed and Edited by Steve O’Connor