Simon Fitzmaurice
{{Short description|Irish filmmaker}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Use Irish English|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox director
| name = Simon Fitzmaurice
| image = Simon Fitzmaurice at adiff 2016.jpg
| caption = Fitzmaurice at ADIFF 2016
| birth_date = {{circa|1973}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{death date and age|2017|10|26|1973|df=y}}
| nationality = Irish
| notable_works = It's Not Yet Dark
My Name Is Emily
| parents = Damien and Florence Fitzmaurice
| spouse = Ruth O'Neill
| children = 5
}}
Simon Fitzmaurice ({{circa}} 1973 – 26 October 2017) was an Irish filmmaker. A resident of Greystones, County Wicklow, Fitzmaurice published a memoir titled It's Not Yet Dark in 2014 about his experience with motor neurone disease. He directed My Name Is Emily while living with the condition in 2015.
Career
Fitzmaurice's second short film, The Sound of People, premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Soon after, he was diagnosed with a motor neurone disease, which gradually left him completely paralyzed.{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/movies/movie-news/his-dreams-were-bigger-than-his-illness-tributes-paid-to-filmmaker-simon-fitzmaurice-who-passed-away-at-43-36266434.html|title='His dreams were bigger than his illness' - filmmaker Simon Fitzmaurice |accessdate=31 October 2017|work=Irish Independent}}
With the disease, he wrote and directed the feature film My Name Is Emily, which was released in 2015.{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/director-simon-fitzmaurice-s-funeral-told-of-love-of-life-family-1.3272963|title=Director Simon Fitzmaurice's funeral told of 'love of life, family'|first=Ciarán|last=D'Arcy|date=28 October 2017|accessdate=31 October 2017|newspaper=The Irish Times}}{{cite web|url=http://people.com/books/simon-fitzmaurice-talks-als-new-memoir|title=Irish Filmmaker Battling A.LS. Calls Poignant New Memoir 'A Letter to Each of My Children'|first=Sam|last=Gillette|work=People|date=2 August 2017|accessdate=31 October 2017}} Starring Evanna Lynch, Michael Smiley, and George Webster, it tells the story of a teenager who leaves her foster home to free her father from a mental hospital.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/movies/simon-fitzmaurice-my-name-is-emily.html|title=In the Face of A.L.S., Simon Fitzmaurice Finds His Fire Inside|first=Kathryn|last=Shattuck|date=22 February 2017|accessdate=31 October 2017|work=The New York Times}} My Name Is Emily was nominated for eight Irish Film & Television Academy Awards; Fitzmaurice received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2016 London Screenwriters' Festival for the work.
It's Not Yet Dark, a memoir, chronicles his experience living in a motorized wheelchair and communicating using an eye-tracking computer.{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/greystones-based-film-maker-simon-fitzmaurice-dies-1.3271112|title=Greystones-based film-maker Simon Fitzmaurice|last=O'Brien|first=Tim|date=27 October 2017|newspaper=The Irish Times|archive-url=|archive-date=|accessdate=31 October 2017}} The memoir was followed by the documentary It's Not Yet Dark, directed by Frankie Fenton. The documentary was narrated by Irish actor Colin Farrell.{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/movies/simon-made-his-legacy-i-just-got-to-colour-it-up-a-little-director-of-its-not-yet-dark-documentary-about-irish-filmmaker-simon-fitzmaurice-who-has-mnd-36206940.html|title='Simon made his legacy - I just got to colour it up a little' - director of It's Not Yet Dark documentary about Irish filmmaker Simon Fitzmaurice who has MND|first=Aoife|last=Kelly|date=8 October 2017|accessdate=31 October 2017|work=Irish Independent}}
Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) conferred Simon Fitzmaurice with an Honorary Doctorate at a graduation ceremony at St Patrick's Cathedral in November 2016.{{cite web|url=http://dit.ie/newsandevents/news/archive2017/latest/title,151736,en.html|title=Farewell to inspirational Simon Fitzmaurice|last=|first=|date=27 October 2017|website=|publisher=Dublin Institute of Technology|archive-url=|archive-date=|accessdate=2 May 2018}}
Personal life
Fitzmaurice was married to Ruth Fitzmaurice, with whom he had five children.
His funeral was held two days later at St Kilian's Roman Catholic Church in Greystones, attended by, among others, Lieut Cmdr Patricia Butler (aide-de-camp to President Michael D. Higgins), Fianna Fáil politician Stephen Donnelly, broadcaster Maia Dunphy, and James Vincent McMorrow, who performed one of Fitzmaurice’s favourite songs "We Don't Eat".
References
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Category:People from Greystones
Category:Date of birth missing
Category:Place of birth missing
Category:Deaths from motor neuron disease
Category:Neurological disease deaths in the Republic of Ireland