Clea Film Productions

Cléa van der Grijn is a visual artist who transitioned seamlessly into art filmmaking, bringing a deep-rooted understanding of the visual experience into every frame. While her painting and film practices are independent, they remain conceptually and emotionally intertwined — each probing the fragilities and complexities of the human psyche. Her films are crafted with the same visual sensitivity and compositional rigour as her paintings, where each frame is treated as a work of art in its own right.

Cléa FILMPRODUCTIONS exists to distinguish this body of work from van der Grijn’s visual arts practice. Under this banner, she has created four large-scale, multi-disciplinary, internationally recognised films: JUMP, FLUX, The Disembodied Adventures of Alice, and Elisa in Wonderland. These works have garnered international awards and have been supported by both the Arts Council of Ireland and Culture Ireland.

Van der Grijn continues to push boundaries in moving image, creating immersive film experiences that are emotionally resonant, visually meticulous, and conceptually bold.

Elisa in Wonderland

Following a period of rehabilitation, Elisa (Nora Ní Anluain Fay) returns to her ancestral stately home, Stradbally, where she is haunted by acute anxiety, mental illness, and struggles with addiction. Despite the tender ministrations of Mary (Hilary Bowen-Walsh), the devoted housekeeper, she finds herself unravelling as reality and imagination blur and the paintings in her room come to life to pull her into their surreal narratives.

Inspired by “The Raven” and other works by Edgar Allan Poe, this powerful and unsettling cinematic journey delves into the depths of the human psyche to explore themes of loss, madness, and the shadowy forces within.

This second feature from internationally acclaimed visual artist Clea Van der Grijn, was the 2023 recipient of the Arts Council Authored Works Award which is presented in partnership with IFI.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn.

The DISEMBODIED Adventures of Alice

This hallucinatory trip, an adult fairytale, travels through a long, dark night, conjuring otherworldly scenes of kink, gender-swapping, mental illness, loss and loneliness. Reimagining Lewis Carroll’s iconic Alice, the film’s protagonist journeys through a warren of bewildering scenarios where she encounters characters who are at once beguiling and alienating –gliding, writhing, gorging, dancing and uttering passages from Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. Their world promises as much danger as sensual delight.

FLUX

Flux creates a space between now and then. An oneiric land cinematically beautiful and psychologically disturbing. A world exploring death, loss, love, isolation and mental fragility.

JUMP

A woman stands at the edge of a pier. She wilfully jumps. Slowly she falls through water where time catches her breath. What are the memories between the transitional period of jumping and hitting the water when life becomes momentarily suspended. Alive not dead. What memories would be placed to validate existence. Memories to record. Real or perceived. Fact or fiction.