George Morrison (documentary maker)
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George Morrison (b. 1922) is an Irish director of film documentaries. His works include Mise Éire and Saoirse?.
Morrison was born in Tramore, Co. Waterford.[1] His mother was an actress at Dublin's Gate Theatre, while his father worked as a neurological anaesthetist.[1] Morrison studied medicine at Trinity College, Dublin but dropped out in order to pursue his ambition to work in films.[1]
Early in his career he assisted director Hilton Edwards in two of the latter's films: From Time to Time and Hamlet of Elsinore.[1]
For Mise Éire, Morrison painstakingly assembled original footage of the 1916 Rising from archives across Europe. The result, released to great acclaim in 1960, was the first feature-length Irish language film.[1] The sequel, Saoirse?, was not as popular with the Irish public, perhaps due to its focus on the Irish Civil War, a subject that remained divisive for many years after peace was established.[1]
Morrison was elected to Aosdána in 2005. In 2007, he released Dublin Day, his documentary on James Joyce's Ulysses.[1]
George Morrison lives in Shankill, County Dublin.
