‘Johnny Splitz’ has won third place for Best Overall Film in the country at the Fresh Film Festival based in Limerick! Among the entries was also St. Aidan’s School in Brookfield who took away an Audience Choice award in the Dublin Regional Heat. ‘Johnny Splitz’ is a short film made in 2008 by a group of talented young people from fifth year in Killinarden Community School Tallaght. It was one of the first featured shorts as part of the launch of Dublin Community Television (DCTV) during the summer of 2008. Dublin Community Television (DCTV). DCTV is Ireland’s only democratically-controlled and only advertising-free TV channel with broadcasting programmes made by, about and for Dublin communities.

Johnny Splitz looks at the familiar story of teenage pregnancy and it’s effects in an unusual, entertaining and orginal way. Johnny is a typical teenager. He has just broken up with his girlfriend and is quite happy about it. Little does he know that soon he will be begging her to take him back, buying bigger pants and making history… as the first pregnant man in Ireland! Students worked with filmmakers, Olivia Fitzsimons and Orla Russell Conway, throughout the project, which took place over the 2007 - 08 school year. The students scripted, acted, directed, filmed and helped to edit the piece. Since the completion of the project they have attended acting and directing masterclasses. Some members of the group have become part of a new youth-led filmmaking group funded and supported by the Arts Council and South Dublin County Council’s Arts Office, Tallaght Young Filmmakers (TYF).

Produced by Dublin Community Television, the film was funded by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) and made as part of a collaborative project between DCTV and Olivia Fitzsimons, Film Coordinator for South Dublin County Council. The project was part of the work supported under the Film and Visual Arts Programme, which was initiated by South Dublin County Council’s Arts Office, is supported by the Council’s RAPID Programme, and is in part funded by the Dormant Accounts Fund.