JDIFF 2012: Irish Film Board Shorts

The Boy Who Lived In A Bubble

Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2012

Irish

IFB Shorts

Friday, 17th February, 6.00pm, Light House

The 2012 Jameson Dublin International Film Festival presented a selection of Irish Film Board short films this evening. On show was an impressive array of exciting talent whose short films came to life on the big screen at a sold-out screening in Dublin’s Light House cinema.

There’s always a buzz around a festival screening of shorts as an audience prepares to enter into the relatively unknown and it provides a rare opportunity to celebrate cinematically film in its short form. In a year when 2 Irish short films are in the running for an Oscar® that buzz was particularly palpable tonight as the the Light House played host to a fine display of creative storytelling and skilled craftsmanship.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to live in a bubble after having your heart broken, Kealan O’Rourke’s wonderful animation The Boy Who Lived In A Bubble provided the answer. Still Films’ We, The Masses explored some sort of apocalyptic anti-biosphere and was a perfect showcase for Robyn O’Neil’s expressive drawings.

Clare Dix’s beautiful Downpour eloquently encapsulates a history of romantic memories in the space of 4 minutes all under showers of rain. And a merman of sorts was found on a beach in the comically observed Washed Up Love

The documentaries sought to capture special moments in time breathing life into its subject matters. Home Turf celebrates the dying craft of turf cutting, shot with an elegant visual simplicity, while Remember Me, My Ghost is a beautifully crafted and haunting tale of one woman’s life living in the Ballymun flats.

There was Irish dancing with a twist (An Rinceoir), a swift return to roots in the animated Origin, a young rebel with a cause (Asal), death & birth on the rough seas (The Hatch), a journey to honour a father (The Fisherman), animated arctic adventures (23 Degrees 5 Minutes), and Tadhg O’Sullivan and Feargal Ward’s Quarantine, a tender and touching portrait of one one woman’s week-long stay in the Radioactive Iodine Suite in St Lukes hospital.

It’s one of the most important functions of festivals to showcase the talent working in the short film art form and always provides a fascinating snapshot of the standards of the inventive imagination of new filmmakers at work – and with the skill and craft on display this evening those standards are high.

Steven Galvin