For a preview copy email: gareth.naughton@rte.ie
‘Fortune’s Wheel’ The Life and Legacy of the Fairview Lion Tamer
‘Fortune’s Wheel’ is a documentary feature film about Bill Stephens, an ordinary young man in 1950s Ireland with an extraordinary ambition: to become an international circus star. It is also a love story about Bill and his young and beautiful wife Mai, from East Wall. Their double act, Jungle Capers, Bill Stephens and Lovely Partner, was a series of death-defying feats with a troupe of lions and dogs designed to thrill audiences in the circus tent and on the stage. With this act they hoped to break free from the suffocating reality of Irish life, but things went terribly wrong when, in November 1951, one of their animals escaped. The story gained national and international attention at the time, but it is only now – after 60 years of silence – that two families and a community have come together to tell the story in full.
Fortune’s Wheel, August 15th at 9.35pm on RTÉ One
Director: Joe Lee
Independent filmmaker Joe Lee’s work includes Film and TV and a range of video documentation/archive projects with Irish national cultural institutions, as well as directing and curating public art projects.”
Principal Interviewees/Cast: Bill Whelan, Lorraine Kennedy, Joe Tracey, Martin Tracey, George Smith, Gerry Creighton Snr, Herta Fossett, Tom Duffy Snr, Michael Ingoldsby.
Producers: Lorraine Kennedy, Bill Whelan and Joe Lee.
Cameraman: Mick Doyle
Editor: Joe Lee