Desperate Optimists is the creative partnership of Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, which began in 1992.
In an interview in 2008, Lawlor explained how they took inspiration from the title of Nicolas Mosley's book Hopeful Monsters.
Featuring sometimes hundreds of extras and complicated set-ups, all shot on 35mm, the production of each short film involved close collaboration with the communities in each area.
Sight and Sound described this aspect of their filmmaking process as ‘communitarian’ in the introduction to their interview by film critic and writer Sophie Mayer.
He also described Civic Life as 'a project pitched between visual art and cinema' highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of much of Desperate Optimists' work.