For ten years Manchán Magan and his brother Ruán have travelled the world making a series of documentaries titled GLOBAL NOMAD. They have filmed in India, Europe, the Middle East, South America, North America, Greenland and China.
As the Global Nomad, Manchán Magan’s perspective is challenging and fresh: life must be celebrated where possible – a refreshing perspective in a world where pessimism is sometimes mistaken for intelligence. The documentaries are personal and informal, providing intimate glimpses into the lives of people who live beyond our daily experience. They are watched by people throughout the world from Hungary to Zambia.
The programmes were originally commissioned in the Irish-language by TG4.
Manchán's last play Broken Croí/Heart Briste was nominated for 2 Irish Times Theatre awards, a Fishamble New Writing Award and a Bewleys Cafe Theatre Award New Play Award. It won the Stewart Parker Irish language play award.
A richly amusing debut novel of loners and eccentrics, a kooky, deranged love story with its heart in just the right place.
Oddballs introduces us to a range of true eccentrics in a remote Irish coastal village, including a deluded coke-snorting witch, a burnt-out fisherman who dances for tourists and a boy who is fixated on freeing electricity from sockets. All are nursing past hurts and only together do they have any chance of healing.
Manchán explores the extraordinary stories of our houses and who lived in them before us.Who was murdered in our basement, who made love in the back bedroom and who hid under the stairs during the Civil War?We unlock the real stories hidden in our walls.
Manchán travels overland from London to Nairobi in a truck with a group of squabbling, treacherous cast-offs of Thatcher's Britain, including privately educated schoolgirls, a predetary market gardener, a former torturer from the British Army, a locksmith claiming to be a UFO abductee, three conniving nurses and a prim quantity surveyor. A rollercoaster of adventure, anecdote and fresh observations about the nature of Africa and what it means to travel through. (For Reviews click here)
In 2007 Manchán journeyed round Ireland trying to survive through Irish alone and made the TV series No Béarla. In 2008 he made No Béarla 2 which looks more deeply at why the journey was so difficult forhim. In a humorous exploration of the Irish language, he sets out to. . . more
MANCHÁN'S TRAVELS: A JOURNEY THROUGH INDIA (Brandon, 2007) A true story of deluded maharajahs, murderous environmentalists, sex-obsessed yogis, and bizarre high-society belles - stretching from women throwing themselves on funeral pyres in the deserts of Rajasthan, to mind-reading children in Himalayan forests and devious missionaries on the shores on the Ganges. Brandon
“His writing is unashamedly sensual and he has an engagingly confessional narrative voice; his adventures are as poignant as they are hair-raising.“ Sunday Telegraph
MANCHÁN SHOWREEL (2.40 minutes) Clips from Manchan Magan's programmes in Poland, China, Jordan, Canaries, Hungary, Gobi desert and various RTE studio programmes....
THE GLOBAL NOMAD TEAM:
MANCHÁN MAGAN – writer & presenter
Manchán Magan has written, presented and co-produced a series of 50 travel documentaries exploring the people and cultures of China, the Middle East, India, South & North America, Greenland, Ireland and Eastern Europe for Irish television, as well as making a major historical movie on the Irish Civil War, The Struggle for RTE.His programmes appear on Travel Channel, TG4, RTE, YLE, SVT, Canal+ and France 5. He isa regular contributor to Irish television and radio. His Global Nomadseries has been sold to over 25 territories world-wide, from South Africa to Sweden to Russia.
When not traveling he occupies himself with writing and forestry. In 1998 Manchán wrote the first Gaelic travelogue on Africa, Manchán ar Seachrán. A follow-up, Baba-ji & TnaG won the 2005 Oireachtas Prize for Non-fiction. In May 2006 Brandon published his first English book, Angels and Rabies, part of a series of works inspired by his years living in India, Africa, Canada and South America, including Manchán's Travels: a journey through India. (Brandon, 2007) and Truck Fever (Brandon, 2008). Having knocked his straw bale cottage, he now lives in a grass-roofed house in an oakwood in Co Westmeath, Ireland.
Having worked as locations manager and ass. director on films such as Far & Away, Braveheart, Devil’s Own and Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins, Ruán Magan turned to directing and producing documentaries in 1996. He has made over 100 documentaries primarily focusing on the diverse cultures of the world. Recent projects include producing In Search of the Pope's Children and Generation Game, (Tyrone Production/RTE), directing Who's Afraid of Islam (Animo/RTE & American Dream: dead or alive? and directing the emmy-nominated, drama-documentaries, The Ghosts of Duffy's Cut and Death or Canada (Tile/RTE), The Rookes of Vicar's Hill.His television company, Create One Ltd, has been in operation since 1994. www.ruanmagan.com
Specialising in the production, archiving and composition of global/world music, Ronan Coleman has written music for movies, television & commercials, including Volvo, Lufthansa & Apple computers. He composes all Global Nomad music and is chief sound recordist.
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