The inaugural Fem Fest at Mary Immaculate College will run from 5-15 February. The festival seeks to highlight experiences and achievements of women.
A panel featuring Vanessa Gildea, Marie Therese Garvey and Megan K. Fox, will focus on the work and industry experience of three women in different roles in the Irish film industry.
‘Her Story: Women in the Irish Film Industry’ takes place on the 6th Feb at 4pm in T115 at MIC.
Vanessa Gildea is a writer/director, and former MIC student. Her work includes the IFTA nominated films The White Dress and The 34th (with Linda Cullen). The 34th is the story of marriage equality in Ireland and is now available on Netflix.
Marie Therese Garvey is co-writer/producer of the experimental documentary There will be some who will not fear even that void (2013) and producer of the IFTA nominated documentary Atlantic (2016). Marie Therese is currently a student on the MA in Media Studies in MIC.
Megan K. Fox is a writer/director who has won a number of awards for her short films. They include Slow Down (2015), Girl (2016) and The Shift which recently won the Film in Cork Award, 2018.
Fem Fest 2019 Programme
Fem Fest MIC opens on Tuesday 5 February with the first in a series of lunchtime performances and talks, and runs until Friday 15 February.
Two art exhibitions will run throughout the festival: Hunting the wren, female head pieces, an exhibition by former MIC lecturer Sinéad Dinneen, which depicts contemporary ceremonial headpieces with ancient and historic connotations; We are the flock by MIC lecturer Tanya de Paor, an installation of video, narrative and lens-based work from an ecofeminist perspective in MIC’s meditation room.
Lunchtime Performances & Talks
Tuesday 5 February: Pre-concert talk on Fair Plé, a movement dedicated to achieving gender balance in all aspects of Irish traditional and folk music. Traditional music concert with Niamh Dunne and Emma Langford.
Venue: G10 (talk) / Main reception foyer (concert)
Time: 12pm-12.55pm (talk) / 1pm-2pm (concert)
Wednesday 6 February: Lecture on representations of girlhood in J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan by Jade Dillon, MIC PhD candidate.
Venue: G08
Time: 1pm-2pm
Thursday 7 February: Poets Sarah Clancy, Ilyana Kuhling and Kathryn Keane read from and perform their own work.
Venue: G08
Time: 1pm-2pm
Friday 8 February: MIC PhD candidate Aideen Wylde presents her play, Here Shall We Rest. Aideen’s performance forms part of her PhD dissertation process. Tickets are €8/5; bookings through www.limetreetheatre.ie.
Venue: Halla
Time: 1pm-2pm
Tuesday 12 February: Lecture on Bridget Cleary who was killed by her husband in 1895. Bridget’s husband believed that his real wife had been abducted by fairies and a changeling left in her place. This lecture will be delivered by Molly Daly, MIC.
Venue: G10
Time: 1pm-2pm
Wednesday 13 February: Lecture on the first graduates of MIC, 1902 by Dr Paul O’Brien, MIC.
Venue: G10
Time: 1pm-2pm
Thursday 14 February: Lecture on Paula Meehan’s poetry by Dr John McDonagh, MIC.
Venue: G10
Time: 1pm-2pm
Friday 15 February: Lecture on the representation of the female migrant in contemporary Irish literature by Dr Marita Ryan, MIC.
Venue: G10
Time: 1pm-2pm
Other Daytime Events
One-day Event on Women in Public Life in the Early Years of the 20th Century takes place on Friday 8 February.
Irish Women’s Writing Network Seminar (co-organised by Kathryn Laing, MIC and Caoilfhionn Ní Bheacháin, UL). More details on www.irishwomenswritingnetwork….
Venue: G08
Time: 9.30am-12.30pm
Venue then changes to T116, from 2pm-5pm.
Invited speakers: Martina Devlin reads from her newly published collection of short stories, Truth and Dare: Stories About Women Who Shaped Ireland.
Donna Gilligan, museum archaeologist, talks about women’s suffrage.
Lizzie Nunnery is interviewed about her critically lauded play, To Have to Shoot Irishmen, which is based on the lives of Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington and her husband. A short scene from this play will be performed by students on MIC’s BA in Contemporary and Applied Theatre programme.
As part of the scheduled lecture timetable, the following lectures are open to the MIC community and members of the public.
Wednesday 6 February: Viewing of a BBC documentary on Jesus’s female disciples, facilitated by Fr Michael Wall.
Venue: T118
Time: 11am & 3pm
Monday 11 February: Comhar na míosa 1969: Amhrán Grá Vietnam le Caitlín Maude agus Bed-in John Lennon agus Yoko Ono leis an Dochtúir Róisín Ní Ghairbhí. Bhí cur chuige ar leith ag gníomhaithe síochána na seascaidí lena dteachtaireacht a chur in iúl le lucht údaráis. Ach cén bhaint a bhí ag seo le file ban ó Chonamara? Fáilte romhat bualadh isteach agus cur leis an bplé!
Venue: T117
Time: 1pm
Evening Events
Thursday 7 February: MIC PhD candidate Aideen Wylde presents her play, Here Shall We Rest. Aideen’s performance forms part of her PhD dissertation process. Tickets are €8/5; bookings through www.limetreetheatre.ie.
Venue: Halla
Time: 7.30pm
Friday 8 February: MIC PhD candidate Aideen Wylde presents her play, Here Shall We Rest. This performance will be followed by a talk-back. Tickets are €8/5; bookings through www.limetreetheatre.ie.
Venue: Halla
Time: 7.30pm
Tuesday 12 February: An evening to acknowledge and highlight the achievement and leadership of women in sport who have strong links with MIC either as past or present students and staff. Máire Treasa Ní Dhubhghaill of TG4’s Rugbaí Beo will act as MC.
Venue: T118
Time: 6pm
Thursday 14 February: Dolmen Productions presents Weighing In, a play by Ger Gallagher, starring Isobel Mahon and Rose Henderson. Directed by Caroline Fitzgerald. Tickets are €20/18; bookings through www.limetreetheatre.ie.
Venue: Lime Tree Theatre
Time: 8pm
