Salmagundi: The Project

Jijo Sebastian conceived and facilitated Salmagundi: The Project in April 2023, alongside residents of Dublin’s North Inner City. The aim of the project was two-fold: to bring a culturally diverse group of people together to make a feature-length collaborative film and, through this process, to create a transcultural community which would outlive the film and go on to engage in other creative endeavours.

Following on from our successful partnership on the prestigious CAPP Commission in 2017, and in keeping with both The Hugh Lane Gallery and Create’s commitment to principles of equality, diversity and inclusion, Hugh Lane Gallery and Create came together in 2022 with a new commission inviting submissions from artists from a minority ethnic background and/or who have lived experience of displacement and/or are shaped by histories of intergenerational migration.

Filmmaker Jijo Sebastian was awarded the commission for his proposal to foster transcultural understanding, community building and the exploration of the complexities of migrant identities through a collaborative filmmaking process. Jijo Sebastian is a collaborative filmmaker with more than ten years of experience in participatory, collaborative and transcultural filmmaking in community-based contexts. He was awarded an Artist in the Community Scheme Project Realisation Award in 2015 and an Arts Council ‘Next Generation’ Bursary Award’ in 2016, in addition to an Arts Participation Bursary (2020). He has co-written, directed and edited eight short films and one tele-film collaborating with individuals, groups and families from the Keralite Indian community and others in Ireland. Selected films have been screened at international film festivals. His practice and films find coherence in their shared immigrant-oriented themes, participatory methodologies and suburban Dublin geographical context. The key concerns that underpin his practice and current thematics are transcultural space, intercultural relations, the complex nature of immigrant identity and its trajectory of transitioning.

Jijo conceived and facilitated Salmagundi: The Project in April 2023, alongside residents of Dublin’s North Inner City. The aim of the project was two-fold: to bring a culturally diverse group of people together to make a feature-length collaborative film and, through this process, to create a transcultural community which would outlive the film and go on to engage in other creative endeavours.

Under the name Salmagundi, a diverse group of individuals, many without prior experience in filmmaking, came together through an open call to develop, write and perform a feature-length film. Comprising six interwoven stories, the film reflects themes and issues central to the participants’ lived experience, celebrating a collective voice that underscores the power of community across cultures.

The Salmagundi members forged a community that extends beyond the project and is set to continue as a space for creative and social engagement; with participants gathering regularly for shared meals, trips together to cultural events, the beach, bowling, and the theatre.

The collaborative film and a process room was officially launched in the Hugh Lane Gallery by Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin Cllr Donna Cooney on 2 November 2024 and is view until 5 January 2025.

The collaborative Salmagundi film is accompanied by a process room that documents the group’s journey through the highs and lows of making collaborative art and the challenges of trying to build an authentically transcultural community.

Jijo Sebastian said: ‘Project Salmagundi has been a challenging, self-revealing and transformational experience for me. It has activated in me a process of reframing my practice as a socially engaged filmmaker’.

Screening Times

Salmagundi (dur. 1 hr 47 mins ) Wednesdays 1pm and Sundays 1pm

Children’s Screening: Free4aDay (dur. 26 mins ) Saturdays 1pm

Read more about Salmagundi: The Project here

Film Screenings

Screening Times

Salmagundi (dur. 1 hr 47 mins ) Wednesdays 1pm and Sundays 1pm

Children’s Screening: Free4aDay (dur. 26 mins ) Saturdays 1pm

Film Screening

Salmagundi and Free4aDay

Gallery 18

The two films on show in Gallery 18 are part of a collaborative project, conceived and facilitated by filmmaker Jijo Sebastian, and commissioned by Hugh Lane Gallery and Create, the national development agency for collaborative arts. The aim of the project was two-fold: to bring a culturally diverse group of people together to make a feature-length collaborative film and, through this process, to create a transcultural community which would outlive the film and go on to engage in other creative endeavours.

Over the course of the following 18 months, participants – most of whom had no prior experience of scriptwriting, acting or film-making – met in person and online to workshop ideas, write scripts, rehearse, and shoot a feature-length film made up of six loosely connected segments dealing with issues of importance to members of the community. The full film, Salmagundi, contains all six segments and deals with issues more suitable for an adult audience, while the children’s segment, Free4aDay, can be viewed separately and is suitable for younger viewers. A display tracing the journey through the project and the making of the film is on view in Gallery 6.

Screening Times

Salmagundi (dur. 1 hr 47 mins ) Wednesdays 1pm and Sundays 1pm

Children’s Screening: Free4aDay (dur. 26 mins ) Saturdays 1pm

Salmagundi Project

Salmagundi Project

Salmagundi Project

Salmagundi Project

Salmagundi community at Hugh Lane Gallery

Salmagundi: The Project launch community at Hugh Lane Gallery

Áine Crowley, Programme Manager Arts and Engagement with Create, Damien McGlynn, Director of Create, film-maker Jijo Sebastian, Barbara Dawson, Director of Hugh Lane Gallery, and Jessica O’Donnell, Head of Education and Community Outreach, Hugh Lane Gallery, pictured at the launch of the Salmagundi Project