WEIGHT

Short Talk with Dale Leadon-Bolger (director)

BEST SHORT FICTION FILM Category

22nd IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival 2025

Ireland, 00:16:33, 2024

Synopsis: A struggling flat-jockey's life begins to unravel after falling from his horse during a race. Fired by his trainer mother and grappling with his injury, he desperately tries to maintain his riding weight, whilst struggling to support his family.

Biography: Dale Leadon-Bolger is an award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter from Ireland. He was awarded funding from Screen Ireland for his short film Weight, a film that he wrote, directed and produced, which had its world premiere at the Academy Award qualifying Galway Film Fleadh in 2024. Dale was commissioned by Virgin Media Television and Screen Ireland to produce and direct the documentary When Horses Run, which looked at the mental health of Irish jockeys. Having broadcast, it subsequently played globally at festivals and was nominated for the Headline Mental Health Media Awards and won the Irish Consulate Award at the Chicago Irish Film Festival.

Dale Leadon-Bolger, director

Raya Hristova: This is a film you wrote, produced, and played the leading role in, but you also studied acting and directing.

Dale Leadon-Bolger: I studied in Ireland, and I was in a class with a lot of actors. I used to film all their stuff, and that’s when I realized I actually wanted to be a filmmaker more than an actor. Even with this film, if I could have worked with another actor instead of playing the role myself, I would have. But yeah, I’ve always been more interested in directing and writing.

Raya Hristova: The theme of the film is the mental health of Irish jockeys. This isn’t the first film you’ve done on the topic. What was different this time, and what was the previous work about?

Dale: A couple of years ago, I made a documentary about a new study into mental health and horse racing in Ireland, because before that, there wasn’t really anything like it. The study found that 86% of jockeys had presented with symptoms of mental health issues, but most had never talked about it with anyone. The main aim was to break the stigma. I interviewed one jockey for the documentary, and the more I did those interviews, the more I realized I wanted to represent the guys you don’t see on television. You usually just see the glitz and glam of horse racing, the winners. But there are so many jockeys out there struggling to support their families, riding every day, and if they don’t make weight, they essentially don’t work.

Raya Hristova: Were you inspired by your parents’ story?

Dale: They haven’t seen the film yet but it is inspired by their story. They’ve seen the documentary, but with this film, even the picture used in the film is of my dad. A lot of the costumes were taken straight from home. They’ll eventually see it, hopefully after it finishes its festival run. I just don’t want them to suddenly stumble across it.

Raya Hristova: And the actress who plays the role of your mother was wearing her clothes, and did she interview her?

Dale: Yeah,  Ally Ni Chiarain. She’s a fantastic actress, and I’ve worked with her a few times before. I actually wrote this role with her in mind. She’d played my mum in another film too. When I gave her the script, she asked if she could interview my mum. So she came down to our house, spent the day with my mum and the horses. After that, I rewrote a few parts of the script to suit her more. Because we’re such good friends, it was easy to build that on-screen relationship. She’s brilliant. Honestly, anything I make, I want her in it.

Raya Hristova: Where was it filmed, and how was shooting with the horses?

Dale: Yeah, when you’ve got an Arri Alexa camera and some very expensive lenses, you’re always worried about a horse’s hoof going somewhere it shouldn’t. We filmed in Kildare, which is kind of the horse racing capital of Ireland. We also shot some cutaways on my parents’ farm. And I used to work as a videographer at a racecourse, so they let me shoot there too. It was great, but tough, we shot the whole thing in two days. Trying to get horses to hit their marks in that timeframe? Tricky. But I had great friends and a crew I knew from film school. My film school, Bow Street Academy in Dublin, were actually the co-producers. They’re like a family, so there was a lot of support.

Raya Hristova: What about the financing?

Dale: It was micro, micro, micro-budget. The film was made through the Actors Creators scheme. During COVID, Screen Ireland launched it to help people make short pieces, initially, it was supposed to be something you could film in your bedroom. But people got more ambitious, and the scheme came back. A big chunk of the budget went toward insurance for the horses. But yeah, it was a very small budget, considering what we did.

Raya Hristova: Do you plan to keep working on this theme? 

Dale: I’d love to do something without horses next time. But this actually started as a feature film, so hopefully I’ll go back to that and do it properly, with another actor, and just direct.

Interviewer: Raya Hristova

Editor: Martin Kudlac