On a River in Ireland

On a River in Ireland, a film version of highly-acclaimed RTÉ nature series The Secret Life of the Shannon, has won three awards at the world's leading nature film festival, the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, known as the Oscars of wildlife film-making.
Production Company Crossing the Line saw off competition from 540 films including the BBC's Africa and Frozen Planet series and Disney's Chimpanzee feature to take the overall Grand Teton Best of Festival Award along with awards for Best Editing and Best Wildlife Habitat Program for On a River in Ireland.
The Shannon is Ireland's greatest geographical landmark and the longest river in these islands. For 340kms the river carves its way south through the heart of the country almost splitting Ireland in two. It is both a barrier and highway - a silver ribbon holding back the rugged landscapes of the west from the gentler plains to the east. On its journey, the Shannon passes through a huge palette of rural landscapes; where on little known backwaters, Ireland's wild animals and plants still thrive as almost nowhere else.
Camping on its banks, wandering its islands and paddling its many tributaries in his canoe, the series is hosted by internationally renowned wildlife presenter Colin Stafford-Johnson. Over the two years of production, Colin journeyed the length of the river dozens of times to bring to Irish viewers this remarkable portrait of Ireland's greatest geographical feature.
The filmmakers have used a host of techniques to bring never before filmed Irish sequences and stories to viewers. Most notably, the team used the cutting edge Phantom High Speed Camera, used to such great effect in Christopher Nolan's film 'Inception', to slow down and capture fast moving animals in all their glory.
From the hunting adventures of Daubenton's Water Bats, to the acrobatic antics of our Red Squirrels leaping through the forest, and the magnificent Whooper Swans to the exquisite Orange Tipped Butterfly filmed at 1000 frames per second, the world of slow motion opens up new vistas in appreciating Ireland's wild animals. The filmmakers also gained access to a series of remote places few ever experience - filming high in the tree canopy for weeks following the intimate goings-on of a Little Egret colony as parent birds brood their young in a giant nesting platform thirty feet in the air. The hunting sequence captured of the elusive kingfisher is breathtaking. Slowed down by 40 times, viewers suddenly see the exquisite beauty of these remarkable animals in action. The camera team also ventured underwater capturing for the first time on film in Ireland the mating behavior of Pike during the spawning season in Lough Allen. (official distributor synopsis)