Saoirse takes a trek through time . . .
Our favourite Carlow girl Saoirse Ronan will be soon be seen as a time traveller.
She'll be pictured amid the fighting during the War Of Independence, watching JFK during his visit to Ireland in 1963 and caught up in countless home movies.
But when the 17-year-old went on set in Ardmore Studios last week, it wasn't as the new Doctor Who, but to front a new appeal.
All of the above material is included in the Irish Film Archive which preserve Ireland's film heritage for future generations.
But with its vaults in Dublin's Temple Bar now full, the Irish film community is mobilising to raise funds for an additional storage facility.
Among those approached to help was musician and filmmaker Nick Kelly, who with zero budget, was given the task of creating a cinema ad.
"We were thrilled to find out that Saoirse wanted to help but all we had to work with was hundreds of old Irish newsreels and films going as far back as 1897," Nick told The Diary.
But before you could say 'Tardis', the award-winning filmmaker had come up with a clever way of planting Saoirse into the archive footage of Irish life over the past 114 years using blue screen technology.
"Myself and Richard Chaney, of production house, Piranha Bar, jointly directed the piece and many other people gave up their time for free," he said.
The writer and co-director couldn't praise Saoirse enough for her contribution to the 50-second short film.
"Not only was Saoirse stepping through time, she had to simultaneously deliver a script which explained the work of the Irish Film Archives' work.
"She was such a professional as well as giving up her time for free," he added.
The Irish Film Archive's Appeal is due to be launched in mid-October with the new cinema ad running in the IFI before films.
Meanwhile, former Fat Lady Sings frontman Nick Kelly takes his SEE:HEAR multimedia show, which mixes his genius tunes and prize-winning short films to the Blackstairs Film Society in Borris House, Borris in Carlow on September 30, the Mermaid Centre in Bray on October 1, and the Seamus Ennis Centre in The Naul on October 14.
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