He is currently on the Board of Fighting Words, a creative writing centre for young people founded by Sean Love & novelist Roddy Doyle.
A graduate of Trinity College Dublin – he won First Class Honours in Modern English and Sociology – Gilsenan received the inaugural A.J.
Having made an acclaimed film of Samuel Beckett's TV drama, Eh Joe, Gilsenan came to note with his controversial, award-winning documentary for the U.K.'s Channel 4 The Road to God Knows Where in 1990.
With producer Martin Mahon, he formed Yellow Asylum Films and made a number of documentaries on challenging aspects of Irish life.
Gilsenan's works also include a documentary on the folk singer Liam Clancy entitled The Yellow Bittern; as well as portraits of the poet Paul Durcan in The Dark School, the visual artist Sean Scully in The Bloody Canvas and the playwright Tom Murphy in Sing On Forever.