Category: Festivals

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Irish Film Review @ Cork Film Festival: Cellar Door

John Finbarr McGarr goes beyond the Cellar Door, which screened at this year’s Cork Film Festival.

Cellar Door is Viko Nikci’s second feature film as a writer (his debut being 2015’s Fading Away) and his first as a director. The film follows a young woman, Aidie, played by Karen Hassan, who is trying to recall the last thing she remembers and soon realises that her child is missing.

Cellar Door is both an interesting and frustrating film simultaneously. Nearly every compliment that can be given to this film can also be seen as a flaw, depending on the person. For one, it lacks the traditional narrative of most films, instead opting for what seems like a directionless montage of disjointed scenes. Simply describing it wouldn’t do it justice as it’s more akin to an experience than a story.

The audience is learning information at the same time as the protagonist is, allowing for one to get into the same state of confusion as the protagonist. The cinematography also plays an important role in this confusion; the majority of scenes are filmed with a handheld camera, giving a sense of disorientation and instability. Cellar Door also lacks any establishing shots, being filmed in either close-up or medium shots. This is crucial, as it makes the whole film feel entrapping and claustrophobic.

However, what makes it frustrating is when watching it (for the first time); one has no idea what is going on. It is also not very clear what is happening to the protagonist, as Nikci plays his cards very close to his chest. Because of this, everyone watching this film would each have their own individual theories as to what the true nature of the film is.

But the audience is not supposed to understand what is being presented on the screen, as stated by producer David Collins in a Q&A after the screening of the film at Cork Film Festival, who also went on to say how much of a subjective experience the film is. Depending on who you are, you may find the lack of tangible answers intriguing or off-putting.

Easily the best aspect about Cellar Door is the editing. Most scenes bleed into the next seamlessly in a dream-like flow. As a result, the film never feels jarring or disruptive, despite the drastic change in setting that can occur at any moment. These smooth transitions are what helps the film succeed; the protagonist hops from location to location so frequently that these transitions help ease the audience to the next scene.

The film borrows some elements from horror films, and I would consider this the least successful part of it. There are multiple jump scares where a character screams or makes a loud noise after a prolonged silence, which happens so often that you could predict when the next one is about to happen.

Regardless, Cellar Door is a great film with interesting cinematography, a solid performance by Karen Hassan and some fantastic editing. It is clear that Nikci and Hassan have put a lot of work and research into the creation of this film, allowing it to get better the more you think about it. While it may not be for everyone, I would recommend this to anyone interested in seeing something weird, different and unique, as it is an intense experience that won’t ever be replicated.

 

 

Cellar Door screened on Sunday, 11th November 2018 as part of the Cork Film Festival (9 – 18 November)

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Irish Film Festival London

 

Back for its 8th year, the Irish Film Festival London presents Ireland’s latest mainstream and independent films over 5 days across London with exclusive previews, panel discussions and director’s Q&As. Having recently announced Colin Farrell as its latest patron, IFFL is on a roll that’s not about to stop any time soon, given the growing strength and influence of Ireland’s talent on the global film industry.

 

Kelly O’Connor, Director of Irish Film Festival London said, “Ireland’s place in the global film industry is growing year by year, whether as a location for some of the most high-profile productions of recent times, or through the extraordinary quality of the talent and output being generated. Having received a raft of quality submissions for the Festival, our 2018 programme genuinely has something for everyone, including fans of comedies and thrillers, soundtrack and live music aficionados, documentary devotees, through to young children and family audiences.

 

“Once again, we have very strong female representation in the programme – in front of and behind the camera – particularly among the two shorts programmes, which indicates to me that the future of Irish Film will boast an abundance of world-class female directors and producers.

 

“Regent Street Cinema will be our home again this year and we encourage anyone looking for exposure to some of the highest quality film making, a new cultural experience, or just a taste of home, to join us in celebrating Irish talent in London.”

 

IFFL 2018 opens on a romantic note with Smithy & Dickie, Hannah Quinn’s delightful short about Irish 1940’s love letters, followed by Under the Clock, directed by Colm Nicell, which tells the enchanting stories of a generation of people whose relationships began under one of Ireland’s most iconic landmarks, Clerys clock.

 

The closing film is We Ourselves starring Aidan Gillen, Catherine Walker, Declan Conlon, Paul Reid, Seána Kerslake, Gavin Drea, and Caitríona Ennis. Paul Mercier’s second feature is an intimate and intense journey into the minds and hearts of a group of idealists and careerists as they go their separate paths in life, though are still bound together through a shared experience, a shared culture and a shared nation.

 

To officially launch the Festival, the Irish Film London Awards return to the beautiful setting of the Irish Embassy Ballroom on 13 November, honouring world-class Irish feature films, shorts and documentaries alongside Irish acting and filmmaking talent. Among the awards will be the annual Ros Hubbard Award for Acting, which identifies the performance of the year. Previous winners of the award include The Young Offenders’ Chris Walley and Alex Murphy. This year sees the addition of the Best Irish Music Video, in association with The Irish Jam.

 

Irish Film London Patron and Academy Award-winning director Lenny Abrahamson returns to London for the festival, providing a pre-festival teaser with an appearance on Mark Kermode Live in 3D at the BFI (MK3D) on Monday 19th November. He then joins his long-term musical collaborator Stephen Rennicks for a talk on music and sound in their films (Sounds Guys, Thurs 22nd November), which will be followed by a screening of his latest film The Little Stranger, starring Domhnall Gleeson and Ruth Wilson.

 

IFFL 2018 has plenty for the curious mind, with documentaries including Poc na Gael, in which Irish sporting legend Ger Loughnane traces the origins of Canadian ice-hockey all the way back to the Irish emigrant hurlers, and celebrates their legacy across the country today, and The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid, (screening at Bertha Dochouse), in which a small Irish farmer goes head to head with US microchip Manufacturer Intel in a land battle.

 

Part of Irish Film London’s mission is to support Irish filmmakers from the beginning of their careers, and this year’s line-up includes two programmes of Irish Short Films (Thursday 22nd & Friday 23rd November), full of up and coming Irish filmmaking talent. There will also be a panel discussion aimed at shorts filmmakers at The Union Soho as part of the festival, which reflects on the challenges and rewards of developing from shorts to feature films.

 

For family audiences, the heart-waring Grace and Goliath, from Cinemagic and Tony Mitchell, screens on Saturday 24th November at 2pm, in which an arrogant Hollywood big shot, Josh Jenkins sweeps into Belfast to make a movie, but before long he finds he needs the help of the very people he’s been overlooking.

 

As always, the festival’s Friday night film will be a special preview screening, from one of Ireland’s rising star directors, with details available only via the festival brochure or newsletter.

 

A duo of films highlighting the current Irish homelessness crisis screen on Saturday 24th November. Shelter Me: Apollo House, produced by Jim Sheridan, follows the world-renowned director, and a motley crew of inadvertent activists including Glen Hansard, Hozier, Damien Dempsey and Dean Scurry who were involved in the takeover of NAMA building Apollo House over the Christmas of 2016 to house Dublin’s homeless. It is followed by Rosie, a poignant moment in the life of a family displaced, with a show stopping performance by Sarah Greene. The creation of Roddy Doyle and Paddy Breathnach, two of Ireland’s leading storytellers, Rosie is ‘inspired by too many true stories.’

 

In keeping with the political times, IFFL 2018’s Sunday 25th November includes an afternoon focused on Northern Ireland, and the tensions arising around the border. Brexit: The Border Issue comprises a collection of short films on the topic, including the Financial Times’ recently commissioned Hard Border from Juliet Riddell and Clare Dwyer-Hogg which opens with Stephen Rea’s “Jacob Rees-Mogg you’re right. You don’t need to visit the border… you need to have lived here.” Later that day Tom Collins’ bi-lingual drama Penance reveals just what living in Derry felt like through the twentieth century, as a 1916 firebrand preacher priest later faces his demons during the 1960s era of The Troubles.

 

In the first collaboration of its kind, IFFL 2018 includes a joint event with the UK Jewish Film Festival, the Irish Film Institute, and the Barbican, with The Cohens and the Kellys, an uproariously funny 1926 silent film based in New York’s poorer quarters, accompanied by a live quartet of award-winning Irish and Jewish musicians.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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10th Annual Psychoanalytic Film Festival 2019. Same Time Next Week?

In its various guises, Psychoanalysis has never failed to provoke fantasies and controversy in the socio-cultural imagination and the cinematic screen with things “Freudian” invariably signalling a sexy and/or bizarre theme. From Hitchcock through to Lynch the Oedipus complex and the unconscious are often central and reliable foci, almost meriting a credit of their own. The figure of the psychoanalyst or “subject-supposed-to-know ” and the potentially endless process of analysis have also been the butt of many satirical and comic takes, not least in the prolific filmography of Woody Allen. Curiously however, Freud did not believe that psychoanalysis could be represented accurately through film and was himself resistant to appearing on camera.

This festival asks , what can film represent of Freud’s “talking cure” and the conception of the psychoanalytic clinic as it has existed both in its previous incarnations and today. What do these representations say about the relation of culture to psychoanalysis? What do these characterisations of therapy and/or analysis perform in 21st century culture?

Programme Friday 1st February.

Friday 1st February 6pm. Screening of The Meeting in the company of

Director Alan Gilsenan, Producer Tomas Hardiman, Psychotherapist Dr. Marie Keenan and Ailbhe Griffith.

Discussion hosted and chaired by Olga Cox Cameron

8.30 Wine Reception

Programme Saturday February 2nd.

Parallel Screenings 9.30am-11.50am.

Theme: From Neurotic Misery to Ordinary Unhappiness

Ordinary People – Barbara Fitzgerald

Jimmy P – Michelle Sludds Hickey

The Lives of Others – Gen Watters

Another Woman – Sarah Meehan

11.50- 12. 05. Coffee

12.05-1.30 p.m. Screening from the BBC Archives 1972 dramatization ofFreud’s Case study of The Rats Man

In the company of Prof. Dany Nobus

Respondent – Rik Loose

1.30-2 pm Lunch

2 -4.20pm Film Screening Session II: To be a Therapist?

Bad Timing – Carol Owens

Mad to be Normal – Donna Redmond and Ross Skelton

Spellbound – Veronica Johnson NUIG

Now Voyager – Marie Walshe

4.20 -4.35pm Tea

4.35-6pm First Irish screening of historical documentary:

Sigmund Freud, His Family and Colleagues. By Philip Rafael Lehrman

In the company of Prof. Dany Nobus

Respondent: Olga Cox Cameron

 

 

Tickets

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Call For: Submissions for Irish Animation Awards

Animation Ireland, the representative body for animation studios in Ireland are accepting entries for the 2019 Irish Animation Awards.

The 2019 awards ceremony will take place in Dingle on 23rd March 2019 and is Animation Ireland’s biennial awards ceremony to acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding, world-class creative talent within the Irish animation, VFX and gaming industries.

The ceremony will take place during the Animation Dingle festival, an internationally renowned annual event which has been hosted in the Kerry town for the past five years.

There will be a total of seventeen award categories, including Best Animation, Best Animation for Apps and Gaming and Best VFX in an Animated TV Series or Film.

Commenting on the call for entries, Animation Ireland Chairperson Moe Honan said; ‘’Over the past twenty years, Ireland has gained a reputation as a world leader in the animation industry. The Irish Animation Awards is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the amazing creative and technical talent we have in Ireland and all the hard work and dedication of the studios and producers across the country.’’

Moe went on to say; ‘’the entry process is now open in all categories and we welcome submissions from all. With so many amazing productions over the past eighteen months it will be an extremely tough year for the judges, which is just what we want.’’

Winners of each category will receive a statuette designed by animator, film maker and teacher Eimhin McNamara. The statuette resembles a Phenakistoscope which was an early animation device used to create an illusion of motion.

Visit the Irish Animation Awards website​ for further information about the awards and how to enter.

Entries close on the 10th December 2018.

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Aoife O’Toole, Dublin Feminist Film Festival Manager

Gemma Creagh talks to Aoife O’Toole, the Dublin Feminist Film Festival Manager, about what we can expect at this year’s festival with screenings in the Light House Cinema 21st and 22nd November plus Special Launch Events taking place on 20th November in The Generator Hostel, Smithfield. 

 

 

The Dublin Feminist Film Festival runs 20 – 22 November 

#DFFF2018 = Reframe/Refocus

www.dublinfeministfilmfestival.com

 

Film Ireland Podcasts

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Irish Film Review @ Cork Film Festival: Float Like a Butterfly

Loretta Goff finds a voice to the voiceless in Carmel Winters’ film Float Like a Butterfly, which opened the 63rd Cork Film Festival.

The second feature-film of writer-director Carmel Winters, Float Like a Butterfly was the Opening Gala of the 63rd Cork Film Festival and screened again the following day, with packed out audiences at both showings. Introducing the second screening of the film, the Festival’s Programme Director, Michael Hayden, described it as “highly intelligent” and “full of humanity”. This proved to be true as audiences connected with the story unfolding onscreen over the next hour and forty minutes, laughing, gasping, clapping and crying along the way.

Float Like a Butterfly, set in rural Ireland in the 1960s, follows the story of Frances (Hazel Doupe), a fifteen-year-old Irish Traveller, as she comes of age amidst turmoil and fights back against societal expectations. The film opens with a young Frances sharing a happy moment with her family—boxing with her father and listening to her mother sing. This is quickly shattered with the arrival of Guards demanding that Frances be brought to school. Trying to take the child leads to an altercation that results in the tragic death of Frances’ mother, who is pushed by a Guard, and the arrest of her father, who fights back.

Several years later, we see Frances carrying on her father’s fighting spirit while channelling her hero, Muhammad Ali. She stands strong against the discrimination and vitriol she and her family face, reminding herself that they are “the greatest” (like Ali), and resists prescribed gender roles, focusing on boxing rather than the marriage she is continuously pushed towards. However, when her father, Michael (Dara Devaney) returns from prison as a broken man struggling with alcoholism, Frances’ strength is put to the test as she tries to hold her family together.

Tensions boil over when Michael takes Frances and her younger brother on the road. As the trio begin their journey, they come to a split in the path and, after pausing for a moment, Michael comments that “there’s no wrong way” and allows the horse to choose their direction. This neatly reflects the overall position of the film—that it is OK to follow your own path—and acknowledges the many directions one’s life might take. However, Michael does not seem to follow his own philosophy for most of the film, undermining his daughter’s passion for boxing and her more “masculine” strengths, while scolding his young son for being too “soft”.

The acting in this film is strong across the board, but Hazel Doupe stands out, expressing great emotional depth and variety throughout the film. Several shots focus on Doupe’s face, allowing it to guide the audience through both her character’s experiences and their own emotional responses to the film. Through Doupe’s subtle and nuanced performance, Frances becomes both a strong, determined individual and representative of humanity (and our fears, struggles, hopes and successes) more broadly. The audience connects with her, feels her pain and roots for her. In the Q&A following the film, Winters explained that the “character of Frances drove this… she had a story to tell and she didn’t let me go until I told it.”

Locating this film in the past gives it a mythological quality that softens and romanticises some of the tough issues the film addresses, but these remain affecting and the audience can easily relate to them. In the Q&A, Winters stated: “What I really want is everyone to open their hearts” and expressed that she hoped the film allows audiences to connect with their pain, but also find beauty. She explained: “That’s where I come from as an artist … how can I serve, whatever that might be … I want to give a voice to the voiceless.”

Float Like a Butterfly is a standout film that tells a unique story while simultaneously tackling a myriad of topical social issues relevant not only in Ireland, but across the world. It captures humanity at its best and worst, offering a message of hope throughout.

 

Float Like a Butterfly screened on Friday. 9th & Saturday, 10th November 2018 as part of the Cork Film Festival

 

 

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Vincent Lambe, Director of ‘Detainment’

Two ten year-old boys are detained by police under suspicion of abducting and murdering a toddler. A true story based on interview transcripts and records from the James Bulger case which shocked the world in 1993.

Eleanor McSherry was at this year’s Kerry Film Festival and got the chance to talk to Vincent Lambe about his docudrama, Detainment, which won Best Irish Short Film at the festival.

 

Killarney House is a gem of a building nestled in the heart of Killarney. The views from its gardens on a clear day, with the mountains behind it, are a vista worthy of any film. Sadly, I was not there filming but more excitedly, there to interview Vincent Lambe, a new Irish director/producer on the film landscape and winner of Best Irish Short at the festival.

According to Vincent Lambe’s website he is ‘an award-winning director and producer from Ireland. He is a graduate of the National Film School of Ireland and has worked with a wide range of companies and broadcasters including TG4, Nemeton Television, Vico Films, Sony Music and Universal Music.  He is a double winner of the Young Director Award at the Cannes Lions, winning both the Gold Screen Award and The Special Jury Prize and an unprecedented standing ovation for his latest film Detainment. The film premiered at the 58TH Krakow Film Festival where it won its first award and it won the Grand Prix at the Odense International Film Festival, which means it is officially Oscar qualified and goes on the longlist for the Academy Awards.

Vincent has a long distinguished list of films and accolades under his belt, which is not only impressive but a little intimidating. His docudrama Detainment is a story about the two ten year-old boys who are detained by police under suspicion of abducting and murdering a toddler in Liverpool in the early 1990s. ‘A true story based on interview transcripts and records from the James Bulger case which shocked the world in 1993’. This film is already on the longlist for the Oscars and is not for the faint-hearted; it is disturbing, heart-wrenching and also thought provoking.

This is a very timely short, in light of the rise of TV genre of True Crime documentaries. Viewers all over the world are switching onto Netflix and its ilk, wanting to see why some people commit murder.  What makes this film so compelling is that it not only looks at the murder of 2-year-old Jamie Bulger but also at the children, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who committed the crime. The film doesn’t glorify what they did or make excuses for them but puts the details in front of the audience in order for them to make up their own minds, which is a fantastic feat. So being able to interview Vincent, the mind behind the film was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Making a film like Detainment, was there a fear that no one will give you funding, what was the reception like for the idea?

Well, I didn’t get funding. I did try and it was tricky. I knew it was going to be tricky though, it was a risky one. I can understand that if RTE or the Film Board funded it, there is a risk that it could be either be really really good or just terrible. I just got so frustrated with the whole process I just saved up money and put €35000 of my own money into it.

How are you finding the reception from the Irish filmmaking establishment, now that the film is finished?  Are they taking notice of the film?

Yes, just lately, in Galway where the film had its Irish premiere, they showed the whole 30-minute film, which is tricky as this is long for a short film. It’s hard to programme for festivals and I knew this. I went against my own advice on it, short films should be short, thus easy to programme. I also knew that it is not right for all festivals either. The ones that it is right for seem to really like it. So Galway was first, now here (Kerry Film Festival) and the Richard Harris Festival. It’s not right for everything.

 

The timing is also important for a film like this.  If you think of when the boys were arrested, there was little media, not like we have today.  If they committed such a crime now there would be blogs, youtube, social media and it would have been all over the media and internet, so there would be little your film could offer to the discussion. But your film explores the story from an angle we never really were allowed to see at the time. Do you think now is the right time to re-tell this story?

I don’t think there is any good time to tell a story like this. I mean its 25 years since the murder happened and, while I had been thinking about this for such a long time, it had not been talked about in the media in such a long time. Then I saw it was back in the news due to the anniversary and it felt really strange, as I was not the only one thinking about it anymore. It was not good news stories either, Jon Venables going back to prison, which was bad. Also it was not a popular opinion I had, that this was a tragedy for three families. People are more comfortable of looking at those boys as those evil monsters.

The boys’ Liverpool accents in the film are so good, considering they’re from Dublin and Galway; did they have to work hard at it? What was the process that you used with them to get the accents so good?

They worked hard with a dialect coach and he was great, that’s Gavin O’Donoghue from the LIR. Leon is brilliant. He was able to drop in and out of the accent; he picked it up really quickly.  The dialect coach said he did very little with him. Ely found it trickier. He’s from Galway, and the vowel sounds are very different. He had a few sessions with the dialect coach, it made a huge difference. It was fascinating that it involved things like the placement of your tongue in your mouth to get that strong ‘th’ sound in things like ‘I think so’. They had to press their tongues against the roof of their mouths and the back of their teeth. Ely was saying ‘tink so’. I now know so much about the Liverpool accent that I didn’t know before; I could probably do a great job on it myself.

You’ve mentioned before that the two boys were not seasoned child actors but in fact natural non-actors? This seems to becoming more and more the way film directors want to go, directors like David Leigh and Ken Loach. Why did you do it?

I thought at first, to be honest that we would take one of the kids from the local drama schools. I was surprised who we ended up casting. It was as much about the right actor for the part rather than the most accomplished. Ely has never studied acting, never acted in anything or taken an acting class.  I knew that I could workshop with them and not have that unnatural ‘on’ acting that kids do on stage but rather reacting to the situation. Ely never tried to act, all he can do is tell the truth, which was a dream to direct. Leon had been doing drama but this was his first film, he’s also a really versatile actor. For example, his first audition for Jon was amazing. The fact that he could also do Robert, which was fascinating for me, as it is so far from who he really is. He’s shy and timid, which people really don’t get after they’ve seen the film. He’s such a sweet kid that if you forgot your lunch money he’d give you his lunch and not eat himself.

It’s hard to get them, the young actors, to get into the minds of Robert and Jon, as we can never really know why they murdered Jamie. How did you overcome this?

I tried to get to understand, as much as I could by the evidence that is there, for example Robert’s family dynamic. Robert was just left to his own devices, six boys in a house where, if Robert was beaten up, instead of taking it out on his older brother, he would take it out on his younger brother, Ryan, who was 6. So when they are in the shopping centre Robert says ‘let’s get a kid, I haven’t hit one in ages’.  That’s where that came from. What helped me understand was not that they came from disadvantaged backgrounds, that’s too easy to blame and plenty of people in that position don’t commit murders. For me it was the relationship and dynamic between the two boys, more so, than background that influenced what they did. Robert had this tough guy persona he created for himself and he had to live up to that and Jon was completely different, he was weak but didn’t want to look like that to Robert. So once the task was set, neither one of them could back down, for those reasons. For me that is more why what happened, happened. Their background and upbringing is relevant but it’s their toxic relationship which led them to do what they did.

I’m not sure if they even set out to murder Jamie. In the opening sequence of the film they are just hanging around the shopping centre to steal… whatever; it didn’t matter. The fun part is the stealing. Everything in the sequence happened; they poke an old women and steal a toy soldier, play with it on the escalator and break it, then throw it down the moving steps.  It’s almost like a metaphor for what they eventually do, there is no enjoyment in just taking the toy soldier and put it neatly back the shelf, then leave. After they have taken the boy, it’s like what do we do with him now and to just bring him to a police station wouldn’t have given them any satisfaction.  It’s very dark when you think of it. When you try to get into their heads, it’s like they didn’t know what to do. But there is also the fact that Jon wanted to look tough in front of Robert and Robert wanted to be the same, neither wanted to do the reasonable thing, it would have been lame. This is an example of that toxic relationship and its consequences. It’s a tricky concept to understand and most of us don’t want to understand. The case is so horrific a lot of people just want to shy away from it, than absorb all the facts about it.

The case is on most psychology courses now, to study, which is weird. Child psychologists are trying to understand the relationship that led to the awful murder. It’s a real interesting case to study.

 

 

 

Detainment screened on Saturday 20th of October, 2018, at Killarney Cinema as part of the Kerry Film Festival

 

 

Vincent Lambe: www.vincentlambe.com/

 

 

 

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Irish Film Festival London

 

We Ourselves

Back for its 8th year, the Irish Film Festival London presents Ireland’s latest mainstream and independent films over 5 days from 21 – 25 November 2018, across London with exclusive previews, panel discussions and director’s Q&As.

Kelly O’Connor, Director of Irish Film Festival London said, “Ireland’s place in the global film industry is growing year by year, whether as a location for some of the most high-profile productions of recent times, or through the extraordinary quality of the talent and output being generated. Having received a raft of quality submissions for the Festival, our 2018 programme genuinely has something for everyone, including fans of comedies and thrillers, soundtrack and live music aficionados, documentary devotees, through to young children and family audiences.

“Once again, we have very strong female representation in the programme – in front of and behind the camera – particularly among the two shorts programmes, which indicates to me that the future of Irish Film will boast an abundance of world-class female directors and producers.

“Regent Street Cinema will be our home again this year and we encourage anyone looking for exposure to some of the highest quality film making, a new cultural experience, or just a taste of home, to join us in celebrating Irish talent in London.”

 IFFL 2018 opens on a romantic note with Smithy & Dickie, Hannah Quinn’s delightful short about Irish 1940’s love letters, followed by Under the Clock, directed by Colm Nicell, which tells the enchanting stories of a generation of people whose relationships began under one of Ireland’s most iconic landmarks, Clerys clock.

The closing film is We Ourselves starring Aidan Gillen, Catherine Walker, Declan Conlon, Paul Reid, Seána Kerslake, Gavin Drea, and Caitríona Ennis. Paul Mercier’s second feature is an intimate and intense journey into the minds and hearts of a group of idealists and careerists as they go their separate paths in life, though are still bound together through a shared experience, a shared culture and a shared nation.

To officially launch the Festival, the Irish Film London Awards return to the beautiful setting of the Irish Embassy Ballroom on 13 November, honouring world-class Irish feature films, shorts and documentaries alongside Irish acting and filmmaking talent. Among the awards will be the annual Ros Hubbard Award for Acting, which identifies the performance of the year. Previous winners of the award include The Young Offenders’ Chris Walley and Alex Murphy. This year sees the addition of the Best Irish Music Video, in association with The Irish Jam.

Irish Film London Patron and Academy Award-winning director Lenny Abrahamson returns to London for the festival, providing a pre-festival teaser with an appearance on Mark Kermode Live in 3D at the BFI (MK3D) on Monday 19th November. He then joins his long-term musical collaborator Stephen Rennicks for a talk on music and sound in their films (Sounds Guys, Thurs 22nd November), which will be followed by a screening of his latest film The Little Stranger, starring Domhnall Gleeson and Ruth Wilson.

IFFL 2018 has plenty for the curious mind, with documentaries including Poc na Gael, in which Irish sporting legend Ger Loughnane traces the origins of Canadian ice-hockey all the way back to the Irish emigrant hurlers, and celebrates their legacy across the country today, and The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid, (screening at Bertha Dochouse), in which a small Irish farmer goes head to head with US microchip Manufacturer Intel in a land battle.

Part of Irish Film London’s mission is to support Irish filmmakers from the beginning of their careers, and this year’s line-up includes two programmes of Irish Short Films (Thursday 22nd & Friday 23rd November), full of up and coming Irish filmmaking talent. There will also be a panel discussion aimed at shorts filmmakers at The Union Soho as part of the festival, which reflects on the challenges and rewards of developing from shorts to feature films.

For family audiences, the heart-waring Grace and Goliath, from Cinemagic and Tony Mitchell, screens on Saturday 24th November at 2pm, in which an arrogant Hollywood big shot, Josh Jenkins sweeps into Belfast to make a movie, but before long he finds he needs the help of the very people he’s been overlooking.

As always, the festival’s Friday night film will be a special preview screening, from one of Ireland’s rising star directors, with details available only via the festival brochure or newsletter.

A duo of films highlighting the current Irish homelessness crisis screen on Saturday 24th November. Shelter Me: Apollo House, produced by Jim Sheridan, follows the world-renowned director, and a motley crew of inadvertent activists including Glen Hansard, Hozier, Damien Dempsey and Dean Scurry who were involved in the takeover of NAMA building Apollo House over the Christmas of 2016 to house Dublin’s homeless. It is followed by Rosie, a poignant moment in the life of a family displaced, with a show stopping performance by Sarah Greene. The creation of Roddy Doyle and Paddy Breathnach, two of Ireland’s leading storytellers, Rosie is ‘inspired by too many true stories.’

In keeping with the political times, IFFL 2018’s Sunday 25th November includes an afternoon focused on Northern Ireland, and the tensions arising around the border. Brexit: The Border Issue comprises a collection of short films on the topic, including the Financial Times’ recently commissioned Hard Border from Juliet Riddell and Clare Dwyer-Hogg which opens with Stephen Rea’s “Jacob Rees-Mogg you’re right. You don’t need to visit the border… you need to have lived here.” Later that day Tom Collins’ bi-lingual drama Penance reveals just what living in Derry felt like through the twentieth century, as a 1916 firebrand preacher priest later faces his demons during the 1960s era of The Troubles.

In the first collaboration of its kind, IFFL 2018 includes a joint event with the UK Jewish Film Festival, the Irish Film Institute, and the Barbican, with The Cohens and the Kellys, an uproariously funny 1926 silent film based in New York’s poorer quarters, accompanied by a live quartet of award-winning Irish and Jewish musicians.

 

 

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2018 IFI French Film Festival

The 2018 IFI French Film Festival will run for twelve days at the IFI from Wednesday 14th to Sunday 25th November. Featuring 19 Irish premières, the festival will welcome special guests Cédric Kahn, Claire Burger, Andréa Bescond, and Eric Métayer. Tickets are now on sale from www.ifi.ie/frenchfest.

Highlights of this year’s festival include Cannes favourite Girl, directed by Lukas Dhont, Agnès Jaoui’s Place publique, Christophe Honoré’s Sorry Angel, Gilles Lellouche’s delightful swimming comedy Sink or Swim, and Camille Vidal-Naquet’s Sauvage.

The festival will open on Wednesday 14th with a Gala Screening of Claire Burger’s moving family drama Real Love; the IFI is delighted to welcome Claire Burger to the festival for an opening night Q&A. The festival will close on Sunday 25th with the Irish première of Mia Hansen-Løve’s latest film, Maya, which centres on a stricken war photographer who returns to India where he spent part of his childhood.

Acclaimed writer-director-actor Cédric Kahn, most recently seen in Paweł Pawlikowski’s Cold War, will visit the festival with his latest film The Prayer. This stunning new work follows 22-year-old Thomas (Anthony Bajon, Best Actor at this year’s Berlin Film Festival) as he joins a community of reformed drug addicts living in isolation in the mountains. Kahn will also give a Masterclass on Saturday 17th at 13.00 in association with Screen Training Ireland, and introduce a screening of his critically acclaimed 2001 film Roberto Succo.

Speaking about this year’s programme, Festival Director Marie-Pierre Richard commented, ‘The IFI once again brings a rich and eclectic mix of French cinema to Dublin with highlights from the Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Venice, and Toronto film festivals. These films bear witness and bring insights of our times, showing through fiction or documentary works a cinema that is vibrant and alive, audacious, engaging, and richly visual. The programme includes poignant portraits of family and individuals, men and women facing many challenges in their daily life, dealing with social injustice, migration, gender inequality and issues, prostitution, sexual abuse, and young people looking for their place in an increasingly fragmented world.’

Also scheduled to appear at the festival are directors Andréa Bescond and Eric Métayer, who will present their award-winning new film Little Tickles. In the film, Bescond takes the lead as Odette, a professional dancer who comes to realise that she was sexually abused as a child by a family friend. The film, which screened in the Un Certain Regard section of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, is an imaginatively conceived exploration of childhood trauma.

Notable other films to screen from this year’s Cannes programme include: Girl, Lukas Dhont’s Queer Palme-winning story of a gender non-conforming aspiring ballerina; Stéphane Brizé’s At War, an urgent and topical film which portrays the battle of a group of workers when their profitable factory is shut down; Guillaume Senez’s Our Struggles features Romain Duris as a father battling to raise his children when his wife leaves the family home; Sauvage, Camille Vidal-Naquet’s visceral portrait of a rent boy on the streets of Strasbourg; Sorry Angel, Christophe Honoré’s vibrant queer drama focusing on a burgeoning relationship in 1990s Paris; and Yann Gonzalez’s Knife + Heart, a stylish 1970s-set thriller starring Vanessa Paradis as a low-rent pornographer.

To tie-in with the 50th anniversary of the May 1968 protests, the festival is delighted to screen the full three-hour version of Chris Marker’s seminal documentary A Grin Without A Cat. The film, a fascinating account of the New Left from 1967 to 1977, features many interviews with French Communist leaders, sociologists, and students. The Prague Spring is also chronicled, along with the rise of Salvador Allende, and the Watergate scandal.

Following on from the success of last year’s Jean-Pierre Melville retrospective, this year the focus will fall on Henri-Georges Clouzot with screenings of four of his best-known works: 1943’s The Raven, starring Pierre Fresnay as a small-town doctor who receives anonymous threatening letters; The Wages of Fear, the 1953 thriller focused on four men transporting nitro-glycerine 300 miles across treacherous roads; Les Diaboliques, a heart-stopping murder mystery starring Clouzot’s wife Véra; and The Mystery of Picasso, a 1956 documentary focusing on the work of the master Cubist. The retrospective is supported by Institut Français Paris and the Embassy of France in Ireland.

Other films screening over the twelve days include: Meryem Benm’Barek-Aloïse’s Moroccan drama Sofia; Emmanuel Finkiel’s Memoir of War, France’s official entry for the 2019 Academy Awards; School’s Out, Sébastian Marnier’s chilling thriller; Pierre Salvadori’s sparkling comedyThe Trouble With You; Philippe Faucon’s Amin, starring Emmanuelle Devos; a fascinating film-essay focusing on 1980s tennis star John McEnroe, In the Realm of Perfection; Matthieu Bareyre’s compelling portrait of youth 50 years after May 1968 Young and Alive; and Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern’s I Feel Good, starring Oscar-winner Jean Dujardin.

Finally, younger audiences will delight in our family screening of Clovis Cornillac’s Belle and Sebastian, Friends For Life, which will take place on the closing day of the festival at 11.00.

Tickets for the IFI French Film Festival are now on sale from the IFI Box Office on 01-6793477 and from www.ifi.ie/frenchfest. Multi-ticket packages are also available for 5 and 10 films, only from the IFI Box Office – terms and conditions apply.

 

 

 

http://filmireland.net/2018/06/26/film-festivals-2018-here-abroad/

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Irish Film Preview @ 2018 Cork Film Festival

The 63rd Cork Film Festival, running from 9-18 November, is jam-packed with a range of fabulous Irish and international films.

Below we take a peek at the Irish films screening at this year’s festival, including Carmel Winters’ highly anticipated and award-winning second feature Float like a Butterfly, the Irish premiere of Yorgos Lanthimos’ feminist comedy The Favourite and The Dig.

 

Float Like a Butterfly (Carmel Winters)

09/11/2018 – 19:30 & 10/11/2018 – 16:00

In rural Ireland during the 1960s, Frances  is a teenage Traveller who has coped with tragedy from a young age. With her father Michael in prison, she has learnt to fend for herself and her devotion to Muhammad Ali has inspired a passion for boxing. When Michael is released, though, he has forthright opinions about how a young woman should behave. As Michael decides to uproot his family and go roaming, fiery Frances begins her own journey of discovery.

Cast: Hazel Doupe, Dara Devaney, Johnny Collins

Tickets

Irish Shorts 1 

10/11/2018 – 14:00


Films Screenings & Tickets

Sooner or Later (Luke Morgan)

10/11/2018 – 19:00

With the unwitting assistance of his granddaughter Alice, the roguish and cantankerous Thaddeus and his girlfriend Sally escape from their nursing home to carry out their plan in a coastal hideaway. It’s unusual for a debut director to focus in on themes of death and ageing, albeit in a comic drama, but it is to Morgan and his leads’ credit that they do so with little vanity.

Cast:  Aeneas O’Donnell, Muireann Ní Raghaillagh, Anna O’Donnell, Peter Shine

Tickets

The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)

10/11/2018 – 21:00

England, 1704, and Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) heads a country at war. While her army battles the French, there are squabbles in her parliament between the hawkish Whigs and the landowning Tories. In poor health, Anne relies heavily on confidante  Lady Marlborough  (Rachel Weisz), though when poor relation Abigail (Emma Stone) starts gaining influence at court a dual of wit begins, with the queen’s affections dangled as a prize.

Cast:  Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone

Tickets

Jumpman (Ivan I Tverdovskiy) 

10/11/2018 – 21:15

Russian teen Denis lives in an orphanage where he and his friends play at testing how much pain Denis can withstand, and Denis just happens to have an almost superhuman resistance to pain. One day, to Denis’ delight, his mother Oksana arrives to take him out of the orphanage to live with her. However, will Oksana’s ulterior motives for springing Denis from the orphanage threaten their relationship?

Cast:  Vilma Kutaviciute, Anna Slyu, Daniil Steklov

Tickets

The Curious Works of Roger Doyle (Brian Lally)

11/11/2018 – 12:15

Known as ‘The Godfather of Irish Electronica,’ Roger Doyle has, over the course of five decades, created an impressive body of work ranging from minimalist piano and electronic pieces to orchestral works. Doyle might have been alone in his chosen field but he has always surrounded himself with remarkable creative types, forming Operating Theatre with Olwen Fouéré as well as providing distinctive soundtracks for the exciting wave of late 70s Irish filmmakers such as Bob Quinn, Cathal Black and Joe Comerford. And here he is captured embarking on Ireland’s first electronic opera.

Tickets

Irish Shorts 2 

11/11/2018 – 14:45

Films Screenings & Tickets

Cellar Door (Viko Nikci)

11/11/2018 – 20:30 & 12/11/2018 – 16:15

Aidie doesn’t know who or where she is. As she searches for a baby that she may or may not have had, and who may have been taken from her, she struggles to decipher her past by repeatedly re-visiting it: dancing with her lover Aidan, visiting her artist mother, escaping from the unmarried mothers’ home and being in various stages of pregnancy, childbirth and searching for her child. Constantly at sea but tantalisingly close to the truth, revelation comes in a surprising and poignant ending that provides a fragile anchor for Aidie, through an exploration of love regained and loss re-lived.

Cast:  Karen Hassan, Catherine Walker

Tickets

Free Radicals 

12/11/2018 – 20:30

A selection of experimental film works to disturb and delight. In memory of Josephine Massarella 1957 – 2018.
Please note this programme features the use of stroboscopic effects.

Films screenings & Tickets

Irish Shorts 3 

13/11/2018 – 13:45

Films Screenings & Tickets

Town of Strangers (Treasa O’Brien)

13/11/2018 – 20:30

Using the device of an open-call film audition to meet the locals in the County Galway town of Gort, this documentary encounters a diverse cast, including young Irish Travellers, English New Age hippies, Brazilian factory workers and Syrian refugees and asks them to share their dreams and stories.

Tickets

Irish Shorts 4 

14/11/2018 – 15:45

Films Screenings & Tickets

Five Red Roses – One for Every Syllable of Your Name (Cathal Black)

14/11/2018 – 18:30

Máirín de Burca’s name may only be familiar to a certain generation but, in the current era of social justice and women’s rights activism this documentary is nothing if not timely. An imposing figure, de Burca held the post of Sinn Fein Secretary General before turning her focus on social action and feminist causes in the 70s and founding the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement.

Tickets

Irish Shorts 5 

15/11/2018 – 15:45

 

Films Screenings & Tickets

Maeve (Pat Murphy)

15/11/2018 – 18:00

Pat Murphy, Film Artist in Residence at UCC and one of Ireland’s most radical filmmakers, best describes her debut feature: ‘Maeve was asking how does a woman position herself against the background of what was going on in the North and within the history of republicanism and memory and landscape. At the time, people were pushing competing narratives. But my experience was that there was no clear narrative, only a fractured one. I was influenced by Godard and Brecht. But, more than that, with Maeve, anytime I sat down and tried to create a straightforward film with a beginning, middle and end, it just wouldn’t work.’

Cast:  Mary Jackson, Mark Mulholland, Brid Brennan

Tickets

The Dig 

15/11/2018 – 20:45 & 16/11/2018 – 13:30

In the Tohill brothers’ tense drama, Callahan returns to his abandoned family farm-home having served 15 years for murder. His plan to sell up and move on is thwarted by the presence of the victim’s father on his land. Convinced that Callahan buried his daughter in the bog land, the father has spent every day of the previous 15 years digging it patch by patch. Knowing the only way he’ll get him off his land, and perhaps satisfy his own alcohol-shot recollection of events, Callahan joins him in the grim task. Dark secrets eventually surface.

Cast:  Moe Dunford, Emily Taaffe, Francis Magee and Lorcan Cranitch

Tickets

Irish Shorts 6 

16/11/2018 – 16:00

 

Films Screenings & Tickets

The Belly of the Whale (Morgan Bushe) 

16/11/2018 – 21:00

Having been sent away from his home following a tragedy some years before, 15-year-old Joey Moody  returns to the now-derelict caravan park his parents once ran in rural Ireland. With a notion to revive the place, though lacking the wherewithal to do it, he finds himself committed to an unlikely partnership with Ronald Tanner, a recovering alcoholic struggling to raise funds to help his sick wife. Resentment for corrupt arcade owner and aspiring politician Gits unites the pair

Cast:  Art Parkinson, Michael Smiley, Lewis MacDougall

Tickets

The Overcoat 

17/11/2018 – 11:30

When a grandfather offers his shabby old overcoat as a Christmas present to his disappointed granddaughter it reminds him of a story he was told from the old country, Russia, about Akaky, a lowly and lonely office worker whose purchase of an extravagant overcoat makes him the centre of attention. But then, fate takes a ghostly hand…

Cast: Cillian Murphy, Alfred Molina, Michael McElhatton, Fiona O’Shaughnessy

Tickets

One Million American Dreams (Brendan Byrne)

17/11/2018 – 13:15

Though Hart Island has been mythicized by New Yorkers for over two centuries, for the over one million people who are buried here, there has been no eulogy. Laying claim to the unclaimed dead, they are interred in trenches; without memorial or ritual. Through the vignettes of four families reconciling the plight of their kin buried on the island, One Million American Dreams captures the alienation and anonymity of the city of New York through honest reflections on the rich tapestry of lives of those who find their final resting place here.

Tickets

Cork On Camera 

17/11/2018 – 14:45

An exciting new programme of short films from the collections of the IFI Irish Film Archive. The programme features a wide range of films about Cork city and county and includes: silent films of Patrick St. and Cork Harbour in 1902; local newsreels by the Horgan Brothers from Youghal (1910s); the charming Oscar®-nominated Three Kisses about a young Cork hurler (1955); a lively canoeing film, Blackwater Holiday (1964); the elegiac Irish Village about Crookhaven in 1959; and a series of Amharc Éireann newsreels from the 1960s. The silent element of the programme will be accompanied by pianist Morgan Cooke.

Films Screenings & Tickets

Technology, Nature and the Essay Film Form 

17/11/2018 – 15:15

Three non-fiction films linked by shared themes of man’s interaction with nature and distinct formal approaches.

Films Screenings & Tickets

Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland World Premiere Shorts 

17/11/2018 – 16:00

Premiere screening of short films produced under Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland’s Focus Shorts and Real Shorts schemes.

Films Screenings & Tickets

Best of Cork 

18/11/2018 – 15:00

Films Screenings & Tickets

 

Full festival programme here

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Dublin Feminist Film Festival 2018

The Dublin Feminist Film Festival returns from 20 – 22 November.

Dublin Feminist Film Festival has established firm roots on Dublin’s cultural calendar, shining a spotlight on women in film. DFFF promotes and celebrates female filmmakers, hoping to inspire and empower others to get involved in filmmaking.

The theme for #DFFF2018 is REFRAME/REFOCUS. The programme this year will feature films not only directed by women, but also shot by female cinematographers. In emphasizing the role of the cinematographer, the festival aims to expand the notion of who ‘makes’ a film and what ‘Films by Women’ means, while also raising questions about whether and how films shot by women feature a different or other gaze.

 

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  • GENERATOR HOSTEL (MAP)

 

FREE TALK: Women and Cinematography

FREE TALK: Women and Cinematography

  •   
  • GENERATOR HOSTEL (MAP)

A consideration of the often distinctive contribution of women directors and cinematographers to developments in film style and spectatorship.

Shorts Programme + Parklands Combined Screening

Shorts Programme + Parklands Combined Screening

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  • LIGHT HOUSE CINEMA (MAP)

2018’s 10 Shorts Award Finalists.
Followed by Feature PARKLANDS
Winner Announcement and Award Presentation by Megan K Fox and Mia Mullarkey.

Prizes have kindly been donated by MediaDrives.ie.

Tickets €13/€11

IRISH PREMIERE! The Seen and Unseen

IRISH PREMIERE! The Seen and Unseen

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  • LIGHT HOUSE CINEMA (MAP)

Director Kamila Andini, Cinematographer Anggi Frisca, Indonesia 2017 (1hr 23mins)

Tickets €11/€9

XXY

XXY

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  • LIGHT HOUSE CINEMA (MAP)

Director Lucia Puenzo, Cinematographer Natasha Braier, Argentina 2007 (1hr 26mins)

Tickets €11/€9

Cameraperson

Cameraperson

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  • LIGHT HOUSE CINEMA (MAP)

Director and Cinematographer Kirsten Johnson, US 2017 (1hr 42mins)

Tickets €11/€9

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Cork Film Festival Industry Days

Are you going to the Cork Film Festival later this month? Here are a few important dates for your calendar.

On top of a fantastic line-up, the Cork Film Festival’s designated ‘Industry Days’ really knocks it out of the park when it comes to getting the top names from the Irish film scene. Their First Take and Doc Day will be extended to include a new event, Focus: Filmmaker Forum. These Industry Days provide invaluable opportunities for established and emerging filmmakers to connect, and to explore all aspects of the film industry.

First Take – Thursday 15th November

First Take is a training and development event aimed specifically at newly established film professionals, emerging filmmakers, and film and media students. Case studies and panel discussions will promote fresh thinking amongst attendees and to inspire them to be proactive in promoting their own film work.

 

Read More & Book Now

Doc Day, In Partnership with Screen Ireland – Friday 16th November

Cork Film Festival’s annual documentary-focused Industry Day, Doc Day is a major event that engages and connects Irish and international documentary filmmakers and industry leaders, it provides a vital platform to promote Irish documentary film and filmmaking talent.

Read More & Book Now

 

Focus: Filmmaker Forum – Saturday 17th November

This new event compliments the Screen Ireland-supported Focus Shorts World Premiere programme at The Everyman. It will provide attending filmmakers with the opportunity to take part in informal networking and a series of roundtable sessions, which will help guide participants through the process of developing their first feature; from development and financing, through production, festival strategy and distribution.

Participants will sign up to partake in five 20 minute sessions, where key Irish and international film sector professionals will take their questions and advise on the vital components of making the transition from short to feature filmmaking, and explore strategies to efficiently produce and exploit their film.

Read More & Book Now

 

http://filmireland.net/2018/10/18/irish-film-preview-2018-cork-film-festival/

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Richard Harris International Film Festival Announces 2018 Programme

 

The Programme for the 6th Richard Harris International Film Festival was launched at events in Fade Street Social (Dublin) and the George Boutique Hotel (Limerick), with a strong theme of harking back to the golden age of Hollywood. The festival runs from the 25th to the 29thof October in Limerick.

The dual launches, to packed houses, followed on from earlier launches at Shannon Airport and the Irish Consulate, New York, as this year the festival is part of the Global Irish Festival Series – an initiative funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, supported by Failte Ireland and Limerick City and County Council. Game of Thrones’ actor Liam Cunningham was among the guests at the Dublin Launch, together with many film-makers, representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Failte Ireland and the Embassy of Ukraine

Mayor of Limerick City and County Council Cllr. James Collins opened the Limerick event and spoke about Limerick’s emerging importance as a destination for the film industry to an audience of local film-makers, artists, business people, representatives of the Council and cross-party Councillors.

Festival Director Zeb Moore announced highlights of the 2018 programme that includes a fascinating documentary from Brian Reddin on tragic Hollywood actress Constance Smith that will open the festival on the 25th of October, followed by a 1950s themed night. On Saturday the 27th  of October, Cass Warner – the granddaughter of Harry Warner and daughter of legendary director and producer Milton Sperling – will introduce her documentary The Brothers’ Warner about the founding of the Warner Brothers’ studio.

Other highlights include the live script read of a feature in development by De Warrenne Pictures on Sunday the 28th of October and an acting masterclass with IFTA Winner – John Connors on Saturday 27th.   The Limerick to Hollywood Memorabilia – Richard Harris & Constance Smith will take place on The Glazed Street of LCCC Buildings from 19th October and runs through November.  Further memorabilia will be on display in the Gallery space of the Belltable and the foyer of LIT over the weekend of the festival.

Wrestling Ernest Hemingway – the Richard Harris Retrospective will close-out the feature screenings, prior the live-streamed, red-carpet awards night in LIT and closing gala party at the Savoy Hotel. The circus-themed black-tie awards night will feature live music and dance numbers.

The feature films selected include the international premiere of Juliette Lewis’s new film Anthem of a Teenage Prophet based on Joanne Proulx’s novel, the Irish & UK premiere of The Stolen Princess from Ukraine; the World premiere of Darrell Roodt’s The Furnace and Paul Bushe’s and Brian O’Neill’s Killers’ within and from Australia ‘The Pretend One’.  Also, screening is Ronan Tynan’s searing documentary Syria: The Impossible Revolution followed by a Q&A on the Syrian conflict.

The festival boasts a very strong shorts programme this year, with shorts from the US, the UK, Slovenia, Iran, Spain, Mexico, France and the Netherlands among the selection eligible for awards.

Between Shorts and features, the festival will screen over 130 films this year. Producers’ panels, networking events, Acting workshops and VR/AR workshops will take place over the course of the festival from the 25th to the 29th of October in various locations in Limerick City.

See www.richardharrisfilmfestival.com and social media for details on how to get tickets.

 

 

 

http://filmireland.net/2018/06/26/film-festivals-2018-here-abroad/

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Global Issues at the Fore for 63rd Cork Film Festival

The 63rd Cork Film Festival, running from 9-18 November, is to showcase Irish and international films with a focus on current global issues.

The 2018 programme for Ireland’s first and largest film festival, launched today (16 October), features films with themes centred on LGBT, mental health, child poverty, gender equality, and human rights. Over 250 Irish and international features and shorts will be screened across the Festival, with 90% being Irish premieres. For further details see corkfilmfest.org.

Speaking on today’s programme launch, Festival Producer and CEO Fiona Clark said: “Our mission is to bring people together through an outstanding programme of films and events and to create an unforgettable festival experience over 10 days in Cork.

“As a destination for great storytelling on film, this year’s programme includes numerous award-winners from the 2018 international festival circuit, alongside fresh new voices, together showcasing the latest and best independent cinema. For many films presented, this is the only opportunity to see them on the big screen in Cork and Ireland.”

Special presentations include a cine concert of the 1920s silent horror Nosferatu (13 November) at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, with a new score by Cork composers Irene and Linda Buckley. This year’s collaboration with the National Sculpture Factory is Alan Butler’s On Exactitude in Science (12 – 14 November) a work comprising Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi (1983) in synchronicity with Butler’s 2017 remake.

Speaking on the representation of Irish film in the Festival, Programme Director Michael Hayden stated: “It is fantastic that we can open the Festival with a film with such distinct Cork connections. Carmel Winters’ highly anticipated and award-winning second feature Float like a Butterfly is a special film that fiercely challenges patriarchy and stereotypes. Carmel, and many of the cast and crew, will be in attendance for this European premiere on 9 November.

“Selecting Float like a Butterfly as the Opening Gala is indicative of the Festival’s commitment to celebrating Irish film, and we have secured some of the most celebrated films of the year. These include the Irish premiere of Yorgos Lanthimos’ feminist comedy The Favourite on 10 November, produced by Element Pictures and starring Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz; and The Dig, directed by Ryan and Andrew Tohill, starring Moe Dunford, which was awarded Best Irish Feature at Galway Film Fleadh earlier this year.”

The Closing Night Gala will also feature the work of an outstanding female director, with the Irish premiere of Nadine Labaki’s multi-award-winning Capernaum (18 November). This urgent and important film is on child poverty and the denial of an individual’s human rights. Other Irish premieres of international features include The Old Man and the Gun, starring Robert Redford as a septuagenarian bank robber; Peter Strickland’s sumptuous and spooky tale, In Fabric; and Wash Westmoreland’s period biopic, Colette, starring Keira Knightley.

The programme features 40 documentaries, with highlights to include veteran auteur Frederick Wiseman’s Monrovia, Indiana, and Werner Herzog’s Meeting Gorbachev, cementing Cork Film Festival as the destination festival for documentary in Ireland.

Illuminate, the Festival’s unique series of film and discussion events exploring mental health and wellbeing, is presented in association with Arts+Minds, the HSE Cork Mental Health Service and Irish Rail Iarnród Éireann. Screenings include Trauma is a Time Machine, For the Birds, and Ordinary People.

The fun-packed family strand will be screened throughout the Festival at The Gate Cinema. The programme includes the highly-anticipated family friendly animations, The Grinch (10 November) and The Overcoat (17 November), which features the voice of Cork actor Cillian Murphy.

In total, 117 world-class shorts will be presented across the 10 days and will be considered for either the Grand Prix Irish Short or the Grand Prix International Short Awards. The winners of both, announced at the Awards Ceremony on 18 November at the Triskel, will be automatically longlisted for the Oscars®.

 

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Kerry Film Festival  – INDUSTRY EVENTS

 

The 19th Kerry Film Festival will run from 17th – 21st October 2018 screening short and feature films from around the world along with national and regional short film programmes. The festival will also host industry and networking events along with the annual awards ceremony.

 

Kerry Film Festival presents industry networking events to encourage film makers to network and to engage with industry professionals. On Friday 19th October, Film Network Ireland bring their speed networking event, Coming down here, Watching all our Films to Killarney bringing film makers from around the world together to connect and network.

 

On Saturday 20th, Festival Formula present an event, You’ve made your film, now what? to help filmmakers understand the importance of film festivals, the benefits they can bring, and how best to prepare for the film festival circuit.

 

Panel Discussions and In Conversation events will include a panel discussion on working with children in film,Children On Screen with director, Vincent Lambe and young actors, Ely Solan and Leon Hughes from Detainment and director David Lam and assistant producer Louise Ashby  from Misplaced.

 

A panel discussion on the making of documentary film called Building the Picture – Creating the Documentary, features Leslie Ann Coles (Melody Makers), Keith Walsh (When All is Ruin Once Again) and Moira Sweeney (Keepers of The Port) and director, Hugh O’Conor (Metal Heart) will discuss his debut feature and more in an In Conversationevent at Killarney House.

 

Kerry Film Festival will present the Maureen O’Hara Award 2018 to Deirdre O’Kane at a special event on Saturday 20th October followed by the annual Awards night event.

 

The Kerry Film festival runs from 17-21st October in Killarney.

 

Full details on  kerryfilmfestival.com

 

 

                                                                                        

 

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Kerry Film Festival – Highlights

 Hero

The 19th Kerry Film Festival will run from 17th – 21st October 2018 screening short and feature films from around the world along with national and regional short film programmes. The festival will also host industry and networking events along with the annual awards ceremony.

 

Short film programmes are a vital part of the Kerry Film Festival programme and the festival will screen selected world premieres alongside new programme categories, music video and advertising. The shorts programme features significant acting talents including Luke Norris, Jessie Buckley, David Gyasi and Dominic West while the European premiere of short film, Hero starring Charles Dance and directed by Freddie Fox will screen as a featured short.

 

In the Children Through the Lens shorts programme, powerful performances from young children feature in Misplaced, a true story about two half Chinese children and their Irish mother abandoned in rural 1980’s Ireland and award winning film, Detainment,a true story based on interview transcripts and records from the James Bulger case which shocked the world in 1993.

 

Other festival highlights include, the Irish premiere screening of Melody Makers,from director Leslie Ann Coles telling the true story of the rise and fall of the most influential music publication in history, Melody Maker magazine. The Irish premiere of Mad Hannans directed by Martin Shore is a film about brothers and musicians Jerry and Seán Hannan, chronicling their rise, fall, and ultimate reconciliation. A live performance with Jerry Hannan and band in J.M Reidy’s, Killarney will follow the screening.

 

Irish feature film, Metal Heart,starring Jordanne Jones and Moe Dunford will screen on Friday 19th October with director, Hugh O’Conor in attendance. The festival will host the Irish Premiere of 2018 SXSW grand jury prize winning feature film Thunder Road from Jim Cummings. The Discovery Feature programme presents No Party for Billy Burns and Around Here.

 

There are screenings of award winning documentary films, When All is Ruin Once Again and The Man Who Wanted To Fly while the festival features a 100th anniversary screening of 1918 silent film, Knocknagow with live music accompaniment.

 

Romanian feature film Hawaii brings a story of 1980’s Romania to the big screen while documentary Keepers of the Port looks at Dublin Port and those who work there. Kerry feature films Tradition and Con screen on opening night and closing night respectively.

 

The annual Maureen O’Hara Award will be presented to Deirdre O’Kane in 2018. In presenting the Maureen O’Hara Award, the festival acknowledges the wealth of female talent in all sectors of the film and television industry, women in front of and behind the camera, who shine through for their exceptional talent and commitment to their craft.

 

Speaking about the 2018 Kerry Film Festival, festival director, Maeve McGrath noted, “The quality of films submitted in 2018 was outstanding, the short films in the 19th edition of the Kerry Film Festival are the cream of the crop from around the world. There is a marked rise in the appearance of high profile actors starring in short films submitted to the festival and it reflects the importance of the short film form”

 

Maeve added,“We are incredibly proud of our feature film presentations this year, we feel that there is something for everyone in the 2018 programme and we look forward to sharing the KFF 2018 programme with the local and visiting audience.”

 

The Kerry Film festival runs from 17-21st October in Killarney.

                                                                                                

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Emmet Kelly Wins Best Actor at DISFM 2018

Emmet Kelly has won The Best Actor Award at The Dublin International Short Film and Music Festival.  The Awards Ceremony was hosted at The Sugar Club in Dublin on Sunday last, 7th October.

The Waterford-born actor won the prestigious Award for his lead role in Lost Memories, which screened alongside an incredible 160 films from around the world.

“We were delighted just to be part of the 2018 Film Festival, but to come home with the Best Actor Award was a truly humbling experience. I watched so much talent on screen during the Festival, both national and international, that it is truly a privilege to be chosen for this Award” said Emmet Kelly.

The film, directed by Eamonn Murphy, tells the story of Sean who races against the clock to a family emergency while dealing with inter-family politics over the phone. The film stars Emmet Kelly (Fair City, The Current), Aoife King (Mammal, Fair City) and John Kavanagh (Vikings, Braveheart). The film was a joint production between Army Of Id and Burning House Productions.

Over the past few months, Lost Memories has won numerous awards at The Boston Irish Film Festival, The Eindhoven Film Festival, The Richard Harris International Film Festival, The Underground Film Festival, The Discover Film Awards London, Fastnet Film Festival and Feel The Reel Film Festival.

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Light Moves Returns

Man With A Movie Camera

 

Light Moves, Ireland’s international festival of dance, film and media arts, will be back for its fifth edition this year, running 8-11 November. Following sell out successes in previous years, the 2018 edition will offer a programme of fascinating and cutting-edge film, dance, music and unique encounters that represent the future of dance on film, with artists and thinkers from across Ireland and around the globe.

 

The festival will open on with a free performance of Forecasting – a performance of one actress and her laptop, based on a collection of amateur videos ranging from the funny to the poetic to the gruesome, taken from the world’s largest video-sharing website: YouTube.

 

Among this year’s highlights will be a screening of Dziga Vertov’s 1929 masterpiece documentary Man With A Movie Camera, accompanied by a live score. Set in Odessa, Kiev and Moscow, few films have introduced the unique possibilities of film so completely as Man With A Movie Camera. Light Moves is delighted to present a new commissioned music score by two of Ireland’s most innovative musical voices, Dunk Murphy (also known as Sunken Foal) and Neil O’Connor (aka Somadrone). The artists, both known for significant bodies of work that span experimental music, music for concert audiences and music for film, will perform this new commission live.

 

Feature films being screened will include All These Sleepless Nights, winner of the Best Director prize in the World Cinema Documentary category at Sundance Film Festival 2016, and Gingerella (Rockafela) which weaves together 13 universal Cinderella tales with the contemporary story of a dancer’s search to rediscover her will to dance.

 

This year’s installation at Dance Limerick Finncycling-oumi-Perkele! Volume 2 from director/choreographer Martta Tuomaala dives into the dark side of Finland. A combination of politics, dark humour and protest rap in a form of an indoor cycling exercise, this is one woman’s gritty protest againstall-male austerity politics. The director of the work serves as the fitness instructor programme – and audiences can experience this film installation first hand, mimicking the protagonist’s actions on exercise bikes!

 

Light Moves attendees will have unprecedented access to the intimate and unconventional creative process of renowned British choreographer Siobhan Davies, who will have an open studio during the festival in Limerick Printmakers.

 

A series of programmes from the festival’s open call will offer audiences a chance to see short films from as far afield as China and the Russian Federation. The Ballet at Belltable programme offers explorations of the world of ballet. Films from Ireland include Company B about Ireland’s only dance group for young males; award-winning director/choreographer Ingrid Nachstern’s look at the restrictive nature of women’s clothing through the ages Shoe Horn / Office, and Ceara Conway’s Dóchas: Hope Parts 1 & 2, drawing inspiration from the journey taken by five fishermen from Carna who brought their boats from CillChaoill to Connemara in the 1950s. From very close to home, Swerve from Limerick-based dancer/choreographer Robin Palmer will be screened as part of the Remembering programme, and John’s Query from Angie Smalis, Mark Carberry and Colin Gee looks at the lives of three characters living in Limerick’s John’s Square in different eras – following a performed version of this work that took place in Dance Limerick in December.

 

At the end of the festival, the Light Moves 2018 Festival Awards (with a monetary worth of over €2750) will be presented. This year Dublin Dance Festival sponsors the Light Moves Outstanding Choreography and/or Performance Award.

 

TICKETS & FURTHER INFORMATION

Light Moves Festival Passes and Tickets are available from: www.lightmoves.ie or
Dance Limerick, 1-2 John’s Square, Limerick (cash/cheque only).

For more information on the Light Moves festival: www.lightmoves.ie

 

 

 

http://filmireland.net/2018/06/26/film-festivals-2018-here-abroad/

 

 

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‘Float like a Butterfly’ Opens Cork Film Festival

 

The 63rd Cork Film Festival has announced that this year’s Opening Night Gala will be the award-winning Irish film, Float like a Butterfly. The European premiere, to be attended by the film’s writer and director Carmel Winters, takes place on 9 November at The Everyman.

Float Like a Butterfly is an inspirational coming-of-age story of an Irish girl from the Travelling community and the pursuit of her dream to be a boxer. It won the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) prize for the Discovery programme at the Toronto International Film Festival last month.

This year’s Closing Night Gala is the Irish premiere of Nadine Labaki’s multi-award-winning film Capernaum, also at The Everyman on 18 November.

Capernaum, which took the Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival, and Audience Awards at further international festivals, is set in Beirut and tells the courageous story of a 12-year-old boy who sues his parents for bringing him into a world of poverty.

Tickets for both films are now on sale at www.corkfilmfest.org. The much-anticipated full 10-day programme for Ireland’s largest film festival, which will showcase the very best in new cinema, will be announced on Tuesday, 16 October.

Festival Producer and CEO Fiona Clark said: “We are thrilled to be premiering these two significant films, directed by two outstanding female directors, in Cork. Their stories reflect and resonate with the times we live in – life on the margins of society seen through the eyes of a child; the reality of personal and social struggles; and the human need to achieve a sense of belonging. We are honoured to share these films with our audience at the 63rd Cork Film Festival.”

Speaking on the Opening Gala for the 63rd Cork Film Festival, Cork director Carmel Winters said: “I love the worlds that met in the making of this film. I am so proud that these worlds will come together again to celebrate our European premiere in Cork. I couldn’t wish for a better home-coming for Float Like A Butterfly.”

Cork Film Festival Programme Director Michael Hayden added: “We want Cork Film Festival to be a place of discovery and provide a platform for films that challenge perceptions and provoke debate. We are delighted to be able to celebrate these two outstanding new films as our Opening and Closing Galas. We look forward to sharing the full programme of Irish and international films at the launch on 16 October and to welcoming Festival goers to explore and discover 10 days of the best world cinema in November.”

Further announcements in the 2018 programme include the Festival’s Industry Days, on 15-17 November, comprising of First Take which explores all aspects of the Irish filmmaking landscape; Doc Day, Ireland’s premier Documentary Industry Day presented in partnership with Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland; along with a new event for emerging filmmakers. Cork Film Festival extends its successful partnership with the IFI Education Department to present a comprehensive Schools Programme in The Gate Cinemas in Cork City, Midleton and Mallow. Eight specially selected titles will be presented in support of Junior and Senior Cycle Second Level curricula.

 

 

Cork Film Festival runs from 9-18 November 2018

 

 

 

 

http://filmireland.net/2018/06/26/film-festivals-2018-here-abroad/

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IFI Horrorthon Returns

The Devil’s Doorway

The IFI Horrorthon returns October 25th to 29th opening with the Irish premiere of the J.J. Abrams-produced World War II action-horror Overlord, directed by Julius Avery, and will also feature the Irish premiere of Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Dario Argento’s Suspiria on Sunday 28th.

The festival will welcome a number of high-profile guests including Aislinn Clark of new Irish film The Devil’s Doorway. Another Irish production, Killers Within from directors Paul Bushe and Brian O’Neill, will screen on Sunday 28th. 

Other highlights of this year’s slate include John McPhail’s horror-musical Anna and the Apocalypse, which will screen on Saturday 27th; André Gower’s Wolfman’s Got Nards, a new documentary which focuses on the beloved 1980s horror-comedy The Monster Squad; Nicolas Pesce’s Piercing, starring Mia Wasikowska and Marin Ireland; Andy Palmer’s Camp Cold Brook, which comes from executive producer Joe Dante and stars Danielle Harris; and Darren Lynn Bousman’s St Agatha. Crazy Rich Asians star Constance Wu headlines All the Creatures Were Stirring which will screen as a late show on Thursday 25th.

Perennial festival favourite, the Horrorthon Surprise Film, will return this year in its regular Sunday evening slot.

Finally, Shin’ichirô Ueda’s kinetic One Cut of the Dead, which opens with a single 37-minute take and has been called the best horror comedy since Shaun of the Dead, will close the festival on Bank Holiday Monday.

Individual tickets for Horrorthon films are on sale now in person at the IFI Box Office, by phone on 01-6793477, or online at www.ifi.ie/horrorthon. Multiple film deals are available priced at €45 for 5 films, or €80 for 10 films, while a range of passes ranging from one- to five-day passes are also on sale either in person at the IFI Box Office or by phone.

FULL FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

Thursday, October 25th
19.00 Overlord
21.15 What Keeps You Alive
23.10 Boar
23.15 All The Creatures Were Stirring
23.15 Camp Cold Brook

Friday, October 26th
13.00 The Cleaning Lady
14.50 Framed
16.30 Knuckleball
18.20 The Devil’s Doorway + Q&A
20.20 Nightmare Cinema + Q&A
23.00 Double Bill: Critters 2 / The Fly II + guest (TBC)
23.10 Double Bill: The Axiom / Living Space
23.20 Double Bill: Road to Hell / The Tokoloshe

Saturday, October 27th
13.00 Horror Express + guest
15.00 Wolfman’s Got Nards
17.00 Lifechanger
18.50 Secret Santa + guests
20.45 Anna and the Apocalypse
22.50 Book of Monsters + guests
23.00 Lady Frankenstein
23.10 Lust

Sunday, October 28th
13.00 Sir Christopher Frayling – On Frankenstein + Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell
16.00 St. Agatha
18.05 Surprise Film
20.20 Suspiria
23.00 The Dark
23.10 Killers Within + guest
23.20 Sleepwalkers + guest

Monday, October 29th
12.00 Short Film Showcase
14.00 Ravers
15.45 Videoman
17.40 Piercing
19.20 Await Further Instructions
21.10 One Cut Of The Dead

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Programme announced for the 4th Dublin Greek Film Festival

Polyxeni

The fourth Dublin Greek Film Festival takes place from Thursday 18 October to Sunday 21 October at Chester Beatty, The New Theatre and The Sugar Club. The Festival will be presenting cinematic visions of Greece through features, documentaries and special events.

Dublin Greek Film Festival will kick off with the pre – festival screening of the movie While You Live, Shine (2017) directed by Paul Duane. This mesmerising film uses its swirling music and beautifully choreographed camerawork to delve into the human need for communal experience through music and dance, as shown in the ancient ‘panegyri’ of Epirus in Northern Greece, a three-day festival of ecstatic music & dancing. The screening will take place at Chester Beatty on Saturday October 13 at 6pm followed by Q&A with Paul Duane and a wine reception sponsored by Gaia Wines.

The lunchtime free screening of shorts awarded at Drama International Short Film Festival 2017, Greece, will be held at Chester Beatty on Thursday October 18.

On Friday October 19 the Festival invites cinema lovers to watch Polyxeni (2017), the Greek entry for the Best Foreign Language Film 2019, directed by Dora Masklavanou. This Greek period drama tells the story of an orphaned girl who is adopted by a family of Greeks in Constantinople and everyone expects from her a certain behavior that she is not prepared to follow. The New Theatre, 7pm.

On Saturday 20 October the Festival invites cinema goers to the screening of Up To The Last Drop – The Secret Water War in Europe (2018) documentary directed by Yorgos Avgeropoulos. Filmed also in Ireland and other 5 European countries this documentary film about water and its privatization, reflects contemporary European values and the quality of the current European democracy. 5.30pm at The New Theatre.

Also on Saturday the Festival is pleased to present the latest movie of the world- renowned Pantelis Voulgaris, The Last Note (2017).  In his new film, Voulgaris deals with one of the most important chapters of modern Greek history: the execution of 200 Greek resistance fighters by the German occupiers on May 1st, 1944 in Kaisariani, as reprisal for the Greek Resistance ambush against Nazis. The New Theatre, 7pm.

On Sunday the Festival will come to an end with the screening of Happy Birthday and a concert of Kourelou at The Sugar Cub. ‘Happy Birthday’ (2017), directed by Christos Georgiou, mixes two highly volatile subjects: politics and adolescence. In this joint Greek and French production, its message is to bridge the divide between a father and daughter and opposing viewpoints within the context of family in hopes of mending a fractured nation. The screening will commence at 4.30pm. It will be followed by a concert of Uk based Kourelou (6.30pm). The band which has performed in many international music festivals (Womad 2017 etc) draws on Greek roots as well as music from other areas of the South Balkans to produce a vibrant musical mash with a contemporary twist. It offers the audience to experience music that has unbelievable traditional diversity and wealth in a way that is engaging, jazzy and dynamic.

For more information about the programme and to purchase your tickets visit  www.greekfilmfestival.ie

 

 

 

http://filmireland.net/2018/06/26/film-festivals-2018-here-abroad/

 

 

 

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19th Kerry Film Festival

 

The 19th Kerry Film Festival will run from 17th – 21st October 2018 bringing exceptional films from around the world along with national and regional short film programmes. The festival will also host a curated programme of feature films alongside school screenings supported by the IFI. In 2018, Kerry Film Festival have announced a film exchange partnership with Bolton Film Festival.

 

On October 17th, the opening night film, sponsored by Randles Hotel, is the premiere of Tradition. Starring Paul Ronan (Veronica Guerin, The General), Pascal Scott (The Young Offenders), Brendan Grace, Marty Morissey and Micheál Ó Muírcheartaigh. This second film from OC Productions, written by Damian O Callaghan and Claire Corrigan, tells the story of a Judge (Paul Ronan) who, on his last day on the bench, finds himself presiding over the most controversial case that his court and his town has ever seen.

 

In keeping with the festival’s emphasis on music in film, there will be the Irish premiere screening of Melody Makers, from director Leslie Ann Coles telling the true story of the rise and fall of the most influential music publication in history, Melody Maker magazine. The Irish premiere of Melody Makers directed by Martin Shore is a film about brothers and musicians Jerry and Seán Hannan, chronicling their rise, fall, and ultimate reconciliation and will be followed by a live performance in Killarney from Jerry Hannan and band.

 

Kerry Film Festival are delighted to host the Irish Premiere of SXSW grand jury prize winning feature film Thunder Road.  Based on the 2016 award winning short film of the same name. Jim Cummings plays Officer Arnaud who raises his daughter as a love letter to his late Mom.

 

Screenings of award winning film, WHEN ALL IS RUIN ONCE AGAIN and The Man Who Wanted To Fly add to the growing presentation of documentary feature film in the KFF programme.

 

Each year, awards are presented in seven different categories. Many winners have gone on to success in other festivals and the Kerry Film Festival has screened a significant number of films that have been nominated for Academy Awards including the 2018 Oscar winning short film, The Silent Child.

 

More screenings and events to be announced.

 

The Kerry Film festival runs from 17-21st October in Killarney. 

 

 

 

 

http://filmireland.net/2018/06/26/film-festivals-2018-here-abroad/

 

 

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 Call For: Entries for Celtic Media Festival 2019

The Celtic Media Festival, the biggest media festival in the Celtic nations and regions has opened its call for Entries. Film and programme makers may submit entries for the prestigious Torc Awards for Excellence online at www.celticmediafestival.co.uk.

The Celtic Media Festival 2019, the 40th anniversary, will take place in Aviemore, Scotland, the first time the festival has been held in the town. A total of 23 Torc Awards will be presented at the 2019 Festival. Full details of the festival programme, delegate registration, and how to purchase tickets, will be announced early next year.

The 40th Celtic Media Festival takes place from the 4th-6th of June 2019 and will see hundreds of delegates enjoy a packed festival programme in Aviemore. Supported by BBC Scotland, RTÉ, TG4, BBC Wales, Northern Ireland Screen, BBC Northern Ireland, Television De Galicia, XPO North, MG ALBA, S4C and the Highland Council, the festival consistently attracts international delegates wherever it is held and offers a programme that celebrates the influential media industry of the Celtic nations and regions, as well as providing networking opportunities for delegates and speakers alike.

For full information on the Call for Entries and award categories, and a first look at the 2019 Festival identity, go to www.celticmediafestival.co.uk

 

http://filmireland.net/2018/06/30/festivals-funding-schemes-deadlines-2015/

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Ocean Film Festival World Tour

The Ocean Film Festival World Tour visits Ireland in September.

This brand-new selection of films features seafaring adventurers rowing treacherous oceans, intrepid surfers riding the world’s biggest waves, and explores our planet’s spectacular hidden depths.

Now in its fifth year, 2018’s UK Tour is the biggest yet – and it’s also first time the Tour has visited Ireland, with dates in Dublin on 13 September and Cork on 14 September.

“We’re really excited that more people than ever before will be able to celebrate their love of the ocean with our largest Tour to date – and we’re especially excited to be extending the Tour to Ireland for the first time ever!”  says Tour Director Nell Teasdale. “Through stunning cinematography and mesmerising storytelling, audiences can expect to be wowed by the magic and mysteries of the world’s oceans… coming at you through the big screen!”

As well as thrilling films, each screening will see a free prize giveaway to win ocean-related goodies too.

The Ocean Film Festival World Tour began in Australia, with the aim of inspiring people to explore, respect, enjoy and protect the oceans. To find out more about the UK and Ireland Tour, watch the trailer and book tickets, visit www.oceanfilmfestival.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Wexford Documentary Film Festival 

They Call us Warriors 

 

The Wexford Documentary Film Festival takes place every year in the working fishing village of Kilmore Quay located in county Wexford on the south east coast of Ireland.
 
This festival provides the opportunity to see the best of award-winning national and international documentary films.​
 
In tune with the festival’s strong focus on films that explore social, political and environmental issues it will also host a number of lively post-screening discussions with filmmakers, invited guest speakers and representatives from local organizations.​
 
The festival is run as a voluntary not-for-profit event.
 
All events are free. But to secure a place on a workshop or film please book HERE

This year’s festival takes place from 21st – 23rd September 2018.

 

 

Schedule:

Films 2018

Friday 21st September 

7.30pm 

Another News Story  Director: Orban Wallace • UK • 2017 • 90 mins 

View trailer here

Debuting director Orban Wallace’s feature-length work engages the European refugee crisis, but the young British director turns the camera lens in a direction rather different from the rest of the documentary scene investigating recent events. He trains his penetrating gaze on the journalists sent by their employers to the Mediterranean to cover the unfolding humanitarian tragedy. By juxtaposing the stories of reporters and the experiences of Middle East emigrants, he has fostered a new meta-reading of media content. In today’s chaotic era, what is the “who, how, and why” of news spewed forth on world conflicts and crises? “Sometimes you feel you’re making a noise, but not helping really,” laments Lorenzo over the sensationalized treatment of human misfortune;he’s one of those who, in the months-long hunt for fresh information, accepts a nomadic lifestyle. When faced with immeasurable suffering, is it possible to maintain your humanistic sensitivity, or, glazed, do you just go after another news story?

 

Post screening discussion with director Orban Wallace, Vukasin Nedeljkovic, Artist, Activist in the campaign to end the Direct Provision system in Ireland and creator of The Asylum Archives and Dr Harry Browne, Senior Lecturer, School of Media Dublin Institute of Technology, author of the book The Frontman: Bono (In the Name of Power) and Irish Times Journalist.

 

Saturday 22 September – Cinema 1

Kids at Kilmore

11.00am

‘Stop motion’ animation films made by young people at MediasKool’s Summer workshop in Gorey School of Art. (ages 10-14).

 

11.30am

Swallows and Amazons Director: Philippa Lowthorpe • UK • 2016•97mins 

View trailer here

This film chronicles the story of the Walker children on their holidays in the Lake District in England. They want to camp on an island in the lake. When they get there in the boat Swallow, they soon discover they are not alone. Two other children, the Blacketts, also known as the Amazons, have set up camp there, and a battle for the island begins. But with Britain on the brink of war and a secret agent looking for the Blackett children’s uncle, they have a series of adventures quite different from their plans.

 

1.00 pm

Life is Waiting Director: Iara Lee • Western Sahara • 2015• 61 mins •Subtitles

In the territory of Western Sahara, the end of European rule only gave way to a new occupation, this time by Morocco. This film shows how the Sahrawi people, four decades on, continue to face arrests, torture, and disappearances for non-violently demanding their independence. This is their story.

2.15pm

The Welsh Connection • 40 mins

Aberwystwyth University in Wales has strong ties with Co. Wexford as many Wexford students study in their Media Department. A number of their students will travel to present their work at the festival this year including:

Meri Wells – Gwenno Tomos & Lawri Page (5 mins).

On Air – Julia Pawlikowska (11 mins)

Ride to Redemption – Paige Brookes, Paul Kehoe,  Michael O’Gorman (15 mins)

Dat – Elen Williams (9 mins)

 

The films will be introduced by Elin Morse, Lecturer in Film Practice, Aberwystwyth University.

 

3.30pm

Maeve Director: Ciara Horan • Ireland • 2018

This short film will be screened prior to Berlin Rebel High School as a double bill. Maeve Widger was a drama teacher and much more. She influenced the lives of thousands of children who passed through the doors of her drama school (in her back garden). The film tells the story of how she did this, through the voices of some of her former students.

 

 

3.45pm

Berlin Rebel High School  Director: Alexander Kleider • Germany • 2016• Subtitles

 

Germany’s most unusual high school has no headmaster, no hierarchy and no pressure. The Berlin based school is entirely organised by its students without any outside funding. The adult pupils pay their own teachers and decide what they want to learn. The film follows three students from different state schools who have one thing in common: they failed. Now they experience a new way of learning. Berlin Rebel High School is a tribute to curiosity, to the joy of life and to a new way of learning.

 

Post screening discussion includes: Director Alexander Kleider, Musician Brian Flanagan, Cinematographer, Youth worker and Educator Colm Mullen, and Community Education Facilitator with Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board (WWETB) Sarah Lavan.

8.15pm

Freedom for the Wolf Director: Rupert Russell • Germany/US • 2017

View Trailer here

A new generation of elected leaders are dis-mantling freedom and democracy as we know it. Discover people from all over the globe – students of Hong Kong, a rapper in Tunisia, the viral comedians of Bollywood, fighting against these leaders who trample on human rights, minorities, and their political opponents.

 

Post screening discussion includes Aislinn Wallace – Wexford activist and organiser for ‘Pro Choice Wexford’ and ‘Wexford Homeless Housing Action. Memet Uludag activist with United against Racism, and Tina Mac Veigh socialist, women’s rights activist and Dublin City councillor for Kimmage/Crumlin for PBP

 

 

Saturday 22 September – Cinema 2

12.45 pm

Golden Dawn: A Personal Affair Director: Angélique Kourounis • Greece • Subtitled • 90 mins

View Trailer Here

The documentary tries to take an incisive glimpse into the minds of people who make up  the Greek neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn. The party’s almost non-existent electoral gains skyrocketed in 2012, in response, many argue, to deepening austerity, to 6 percent of votes and 18 seats in the Greek Parliament, gains that it has since maintained. In 2013, after a series of violent attacks that culminated with the murder of Pakistani worker Shahjad Luqman and Greek anti-fascist Pavlos Fussas, the party’s head and key members were charged with forming a criminal organization, and taken to trial, ongoing since April 2015. The director, Angelique Kourounis, spent more than five years of filming Golden Dawn members in public events and private settings, including their own homes. Among other things, the film aims to show the continuities between the ideologies and practices of Golden Dawn and deep-rooted ideologies and structures of Greek society.

2.45 pm

Marie-Madeline: A Female Chief Director: Florence Ayisi • Cameroon • 2018•70 mins • Subtitles

View Trailer here

In a break with tradition, a woman is enthroned as chief in a small village in Cameroon. This documentary presents a rare glimpse into a community in transition; men speak candidly about the importance of women in development – “women are doing more to encourage development than men. I believe a female chief will bring new things.”Even though villagers consider Marie-Madeleine a ‘stranger’ because she lives and works in the capital city of Yaoundé, she is determined to learn about her culture and integrate into village life. As she beats the traditional drum on her enthronement day, the gentlesounds signal a break with tradition – It is the dawn of a new era. Villagers are hopeful that she will bring much needed development to the village.

4.30pm

A Light in the Darkness Director: Shane Campbell • Ireland • 2018• 20 mins

 

This short documentary portrays Wexford Marine Watch, a community organisation aiming to end suicides off Wexford Harbour.

 

 

4.50pm

Between a Rock and a Wave  Director: Manuel Lógar • Spain • 2016 • 90 mins • Subtitles

View Trailer here

Living among the percebeiros (barnacle hunters) of the ‘Coast of Death’, Galicia, this documentary focuses on the relationship between man and the sea. An environmental fable, a radiograph of rural Galicia, where years after the Prestige oil spill disaster, the percebeiros are facing an uncertain future.

 

Sunday 23 September – Cinema 1

11.15am

3 minute Film Challenge

 

 

22 of the best short films selected from over 3,000 films submitted to the festival by filmmakers from over 40 countries.

 

1.Mexican Embroideries – Camila García (Colombia)

2.What It Feels Like – Steven Fraser (UK)

3.The War – Jaime Ekkens (US)

4.All Apologies – Roisin O’ Mahony (Ireland)

5.Protect the animals – Donghai Su (China)

6.Wasted World – Jamillah van der Hulst (Netherlands)

7.London’s Dig It Sound System – Jamie Lowe (UK)

8.Daddy Issues – Fia Karma Wren (Ireland)

9.Threat Count – Tao of Bobo – Daniel Appleby (US)

10.Lola why so lonely – Catalina Zuloaga (Chile)

11.Franca – Antonella Barbera/Patrizia Fazzi (Italy)

12.I Don’t Know – Vivek Jain/Kirti Pherwani (India)

13.At First Sight – Arshia Zeinali (Iran)

14.The Journey – Angie Young Angela Sanina & Una Murphy (Ireland)

  1. Untitled – Zachary Jonathan Ntim (UK)
  2. The Fools – Dominic Palmer (Ireland)

17.Periods and Other Lady Bits – Katrina Nilles (US)

18.Dead – Declan Cody (Ireland)

19.Different – Tom Fisher (UK)

20.Unnecessary Illusions – David Monaghan (Ireland)

21.Computer Virus Cure – Bill Cox (US)

  1. On Life’s Shore – Can Yalman (Turkey)

 

12.50 pm

Gayby Baby  Directors: Maya Newell • Australia • 2016• 85 mins

View Trailer here

Kids that are being raised by same- sex couples are growing in numbers worldwide. We are in a Gaybe-Boom. But who are these kids? What do they think about having same-sex parents? And do they face different issues to other kids? What do they think about having same-sex parents? And do they face different issues to other kids? At a time when the world is debating marriage equality, these questions are more pertinent than ever. Told from the perspective of the kids, Gaybe Baby is intimate and sometimes humorous account of four children and their families.

 

“A delightful, meaningful, profound and politically relevant film that deserves plaudits for encompassing the simple beauties of modern family life.” 

– BFI London 

 

3.30pm

At the Philosopher’s School  Director: Fernand Melgar • Switzerland • 2018• 90 mins • Subtitles

View Trailer here

Five mentally and physically disabled children entering a special school have to learn to get along with the others; a huge task, as they seem to be closed to the outside world. Gradually the class takes shape, to the amazement and delight of their parents.

Post screening discussion includes Patrick Lydon and the ‘Nimble Spaces Initiative Group’ from Kilkenny and Ian Barry, member of both Down Syndrome and Special Olympics, Wexford.

 

6.00 pm

Made in Kilmore

Healing Shores 

A short documentary about the Memorial Trail and Garden in Kilmore Quay. Twelve adults based in south Wexford worked with filmmaker Terence White over five days in August 2018 to make this creative documentary. Tom Dunne, Killian Dove, Nicola Kelly, Mary Archer, Lucia Chisholm, Una Grant, Chris Clarke, Brigette Heffernan, Finn Roche, Eoin Byrne, Dave Connolly, Lisa Kinneen.

 

I Watched the White Dogs of the Dawn  Directors: Els Dietvorst • Ireland • 2018• 52 mins

View Trailer Here

“Sound. A polyphony of wind, breaking waves, shrieking gulls, and rattling ships. The sea: a place of memories for those who survive her, a mother who confronts us with the powers of nature. Circulating and all-encompassing”. Against the backdrop of a small Irish fishing village, Els Dietvorst has filmed the second part of her triptych about the relationship between humans and nature, the disenchantment of communities by a commercial market logic and our food chain.

 

Post screening discussion with Filmmakers Els Dietvorst and Terence White

 

 

Sunday 23 September – Cinema 2

11.30 am

Velvet Revolution Multiple Directors• Philippines, India, Cameroon, US, Bangladesh, UK • 2016 • Subtitles •57mins  

View Trailer here

Six women directors take their lens up-close to women making news. In a world riven with conflict and dictatorial regimes, where journalists are constantly under threat, what drives these women to do their jobs? This documentary brings you the testimonies of women journalists from Bangladesh, Cameroon, India, Philippines, Afghanistan, Syria, UK and Ajerbaijan on how they spoke truth to power. “I did not want to be a war correspondent… but the war came to my door-step” says award winning Syrian journalist, Zaina Erhaim, now living in exile in southern Turkey. “The President is wrong when he says that journalists are being killed because they are corrupt- who corrupts whom… who holds the power to corrupt?” asks Kimberlie Ngabit Quitasol, a young woman journalist from Philippines. “I could not leave my co-warriors in the middle of the battlefield” says Bonya Ahmed, the wife of slain Bangladesh blogger, Avijit Roy and the Editor of Muktomona, in her first ever documentary interview. The documentary profiles women journalists who have paid a high price for speaking truth to power.

 

1.00 pm

Short Films

A Momentary Lapse – Phillip Cullen (7 mins)

Wild Children Sanctuary – Bartłomiej Nowakowski (14 mins)

Eileanóir na Rún – John Whelan (15 mins)

So Different – Dylan Lawlor/Shannon O’Connor (9 mins)

My World – Sinead Curran (6 mins)

Dan Carey, found Objects – Marja van Kampen and Dick Donaghue (16 mins)

 

3.30pm

Tickling Giants Director: Sara Taksler • USA • 2017

View Trailer here

In Tickling Giants, the director follows Bassem Youssef who, in the midst of the Egyptian Arab Spring, changed his career from heart surgeon to full-time comedian. In a country where freedom of speech is increasingly restricted with each regime change, Youssef and his courageous staff of young writers develop creative ways to non-violently challenge abuses of power. Enduring physical threats, protests, and legal action, they test how far they can take the joke.

 

Outreach Films

They Call Us Warriors Directors: Jennifer Socorro, Edwin Corona, David Alonso •  Venezuela • 2018 • Spanish with English subtitles•82 mins

View Trailer here

Wexford Documentary Film Festival in association with the New Ross Town FC are holding a special outreach film screening of They Call Us Warriors. This is about the Venezuelan Women’s world cup soccer team and their fabulous exploits – an inspirational to all soccer fans.
Showing at:

St Michael’s Theatre, New Ross on Wednesday 19th of September at 8 pm

Free admission – first come first served
(300 seats).

– shop is open for sale of drinks pop corn etc.

 

Burkinabè Rising Director: Lara Lee • Burkina Faso • 2017 • English, French and Moore with English subtitles • 72 mins

View Trailer Here

A small, landlocked country in West Africa, Burkina Faso is home toa vibrant community of artists and engaged citizens, who prove that political change can be achieved when people come together. The beautifully filmed and intensely political documentary showcases the contemporary reality of creative nonviolent resistance in Burkina Faso. A small, landlocked country in West Africa, Burkina Faso is home to a vibrant community of artists and engaged citizens, who prove that political change can be achieved when people come together. Burkinabé Rising shows that Burkina Faso is an inspiration, not only to the rest of Africa but also to the rest of the world.

Date and location to be announced

 

Ketermaya  Director: Lucas Jedrzejak •Lebanon • Subtitled •78mins

View Trailer Here

Ketermaya is a film about the resilience of Syrian Refugees. On a dusty hillside surrounded by olive trees, the children of Ketermaya play far away from the horrors of Syria. But life in the Lebanese refugee camp is far from easy. Disrupted education, the loss of loved ones, and the scars of war and chemical weapons weigh heavily in this extraordinary portrait of family and childhood innocence. An important corrective to narratives surrounding refugees, and a moving fable of hope and resilience in unimaginable circumstances

Date and location to be announced

 

 

 

http://filmireland.net/2018/06/26/film-festivals-2018-here-abroad/

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Dublin Arabic Film Festival 2018

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jim Sheridan and Festival Director Zahara Moufid’s fifth annual Dublin Arabic Film Festival (DAFF) will open on Friday, October 5th at the Irish Film Institute (IFI) and runs until October 7th.

This year’s festival will include five films at the IFI including the opening film Looking for Oum Kulthum,Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari’s drama about Oum Kulthum, the legendary Egyptian singer and diva. Amr Salama’s Sheikh Jackson and Ziad Doueiri’s The Insult will screen on Saturday 6th, while Karim Moussaoui’s Until the Birds Return and Tala Hadid’s House in the Fields will screen on Sunday 7th.  The Chester Beatty Library (CBL) will also show Nadine Labaki’s comedy Caramel at 14.00 on Saturday 6th; admission to the CBL screening will be free of charge.

Looking for Oum Kulthum, the festival’s opening film, tells the story of Mitra, an ambitious artist in her forties who embarks on her dream project of making a film about the legendary Egyptian singer and diva Oum Kulthum. The film explores the struggles, sacrifices and the price of Oum Kulthum’s success as a female artist in a male-dominated society.

Affecting drama Sheikh Jackson tells the story of Khaled, a respected junior cleric in Alexandria whose seemingly stable life becomes derailed by the news of Michael Jackson’s death. Succumbing to long-suppressed feelings of turmoil and anxiety, he begins neglecting his wife and child and experiences flashbacks to his teenage years, when he was nicknamed ‘Jackson’ on account of love for the King of Pop.

Ziad Doueiri’s The Insult, which was shortlisted for this year’s Best Foreign Language Oscar, tells the story of how a minor altercation between a Lebanese Christian and a Palestian refugee escalates into a public dispute that comes to encapsulate the lasting legacy of the Lebanese Civil War.

Documentary House in the Fields centres on an isolated rural Amazigh village in the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco. A portrait of a community that has remained unchanged for hundreds of years despite the rapidly accelerating socio-political realities of the country, the film observes and faithfully records the lives of the villagers.

In Until the Birds Return, past and present collide in the lives three people in this gripping film that exposes the soul of contemporary Algerian society.

Finally, the Chester Beatty Library will show Caramel, a comedy set in a beauty salon in Beirut which provides a haven for five women, each with busy and complex personal lives.  With the support of their friends in their familiar salon, the women search for the answers to questions of life, love and happiness in Nadine Labaki’s charming 2007 film.

Tickets for screenings at the IFI can be booked online at www.ifi.ie/daff or by calling the IFI Box Office on (01) 6793477. Admssion to the screening of Caramel at The Chester Beatty Library is free and booking is not required.  For more information see www.dublinarabicfilmfestival.ie

SCHEDULE

Friday, October 5th
20.00     Looking for Oum Kulthum (IFI)

Saturday, October 6th
14.00     Sheikh Jackson (IFI)
14.00     Caramel (Chester Beatty Library)
16.10     The Insult (IFI)

Sunday, October 7th
14.00     House in the Fields (IFI)
16.00     Until the Birds Return (IFI)
 

Keep an eye on film festivals here and Irish film festivals abroad

http://filmireland.net/2018/06/26/film-festivals-2018-here-abroad/

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Bleeding Pig Film Festival

The Bleeding Pig Film Festival is back for its third edition from Monday 10th to Wednesday 12th September in Keelings Pub of Donabate and will feature two nights of short films and one feature film.

The festival has teamed up with FilmBath in the UK and have awarded 60% of the films on the programme the F-Rating. This rating applies to any film which is written and/or directed by a woman. Tuesday night’s screening will be solely dedicated to F-rated films.

The festival will launch with an Opening Night reception at 6.45pm on Monday 10th September. Doors open each night at 7.20pm with screenings kicking off at 7.30pm sharp. Each screening will be followed by an informal Q&A with the filmmakers.

There will be a special screening of Frank Berry’s Irish prison drama Michael Inside on Wednesday 12th September. Starring newcomer Dafhyd Fylnn , Lalor Roddy and Moe Dunford, Michael Inside won Best Irish Film and New Talent Award at the Galway Film Fleadh 2017 and Best Film at the 2018 IFTA’s and has just been selected for the European Film Awards.

Frank Berry will attend the screening and will participate in an audience Q&A afterwards.

Doors open at 7.15pm and film programme starts at 7.30pm.

This year the Bleeding Pig Film Festival will screen a selection of student films from the BA Video and Film Degree course of Wolverhampton which is facilitated by Colaiste Dhulaigh College of Further Education in Kilbarrick. The students had the opportunity to be mentored by filmmaker Leticia Agundo and director Frank Berry (Michael Inside). The audience will vote on the Best Student Film and the winner will receive a €250 voucher for Film Equipment Hire Ireland.

Full details here

All screenings are free.

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Wicklow Film Festival 2018

 

Wicklow Film Festival is back at Mermaid Arts Centre for a weekend of screenings and discussions between September 21st and 23rd2018. Now in its third year, this community film festival has gone from strength to strength, engaging local people in the selection of films that shine a light on some of the most relevant social issues impacting Ireland today.

This year’s festival is a collaboration between Mermaid and Bray-based filmmaking collective, No WiFi (North Wicklow Films). Founding members of No WiFi, David Butler and Gerry Cannon, lead the selection of films under the theme of ‘Ireland, Past and Present’. The 2018 programme is socially-minded but at the same time a hugely entertaining exploration of a country that has changed almost beyond recognition over the last 100 years. Each film will be accompanied by an engaging post-film discussion with filmmakers and social commentators.

Screenings will include CITIZEN LANE, a docu-drama examining the troubled life of Irish art collector Hugh Lane; PHILOMENA, a harrowing, true account of the devastating effects of forcibly removing children from unmarried mothers; DUBLIN OLDSCHOOL, a thought provoking examination of addiction and homelessness against the backdrop of a romp through the Dublin rave scene; MICHAEL INSIDE, an exploration of the effects of incarceration; THE BREADWINNER, an Oscar-nominated animation from Kilkenny-based Cartoon Saloon; and SHOT IN WICKLOW, a selection of film-shorts shot in Wicklow.

The festival is a part of Mermaid’s mission to promote the arts for all, and their belief that through film, theatre, music, storytelling etc. we can find meaning and broaden our minds. All screenings will take place at Mermaid Arts Centre.

 

Film Festival Line up

 

FRIDAY 21 SEPTEMBER

THE BREADWINNER – 11.00am (School Screening) & 5.00pm (Culture Night Screening)

 

In celebration of Culture Night, come along to a screening of The Breadwinner. Based on Deborah Ellis’ award-winning novel, director Nora Twomey’s The Breadwinner tells the extraordinary story of an 11-year-old Afghan girl who finds strength in the love of her family and the power of storytelling. This is the third Oscar-nominated film from Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon (The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea).

 

MICHAEL INSIDE – 7.30pm | Post-film discussion with the film’s Director, Frank Berry

 

Having announced himself as a storyteller of rare sensitivity with his previous film I Used to Live Here, Frank Berry brings something of a documentarian’s rigour to the tale of Michael, a luckless 18-year-old who is misfortunate to be sent to prison. Vulnerable and alone, Michael is taken under the wing of a score-settling older prisoner (a quietly unhinged performance by Moe Dunford). With not a hint of a soapbox and with deep humanity, Berry portrays a penal system that extends beyond the prison walls. Winner – Best Irish Feature, Galway Film Fleadh, 2017.

SATURDAY 22 SEPTEMBER

CITIZEN LANE – 2.00pm | Post-film discussion with the film’s Writer, Mark O’Halloran

 

A multifaceted portrait of the art collector and gallery founder Sir Hugh Lane, this hybrid docu-drama boasts a standout performance from Tom Vaughan-Lawlor. Cleverly scripted by Mark O’Halloran, Citizen Lane combines careful reconstructions with insightful observations from contributors Roy Foster, Paul Rouse and Morna O’Neill. Charting Lane’s obsession in making his collection of impressionist painting accessible to every class of society, the film expertly locates Lane’s dream of a National Gallery open to all, within the political and social dilemmas of the time. “…A must-see for those with even a passing interest in the arts in Ireland.” – RTE.ie

 

SHOT IN WICKLOW – 5.00pm

 

Shot in Wicklow will be a screening of short films shot entirely or partially in Co. Wicklow. Amongst those receiving their Irish Premiere will be Remains by writer/ director Ian Campbell and featuring actor Niall Tóibín who came out of retirement for this shoot. Sinéad O’Loughlin’s Homecoming featured earlier this year on RTE2’s Shortscreen series will also be on view. The programme will also include some new work from the award winning Bray based film group NoWiFI (North Wicklow Filmmakers).

 

DUBLIN OLDSCHOOL – 7.30pm | Post-film discussion with the film’s Director, Dave Tynan

 

Wannabe DJ Jason (Emmet Kirwan) is preparing for a long weekend of parties in Dublin. As he fuels himself with drink and drugs, Jason is shocked to bump into his estranged, homeless brother Daniel (Ian Lloyd Anderson) – a smart but troubled heroin addict. As he struggles to reconnect with Daniel, Jason is forced to come to terms with the consequences of his own lifestyle. Adapted from Emmet Kirwan’s own play, Dublin Oldschool buzzes with energy. Featuring some of Ireland’s most talented young actors, this is one session you won’t want to miss.

 

SUNDAY 23 SEPTEMBER

PHILOMENA – 4.00pm | Post-film discussion with celebrated poet, Annemarie Ní Churreáin

Philomena (Judi Dench) has spent her life dreaming of and mourning her newborn son whom she was forced to give up for adoption as a young unmarried Irish woman. Philomena with the aid of a BBC reporter (Steve Coogan) sets out on a quest for the truth which takes her to Ireland and America. Philomena is an amazing true story filled with great swings of emotion. Winner – Best Adapted Screenplay, BAFTAs (2014), Winner – Best International Film, IFTAs (2014).

 

http://filmireland.net/2018/06/26/film-festivals-2018-here-abroad/

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Local Films for Local People – Archive Screenings at Thoor Ballylee @ Galway Film Fleadh

 

Deirdre de Grae reports from the IFI Local Films for Local People event screening at Thoor Ballylee, which took place as part of the 30th Galway Film Fleadh. The films screened were ‘Coole Park and Ballylee’, Queens University Belfast; ‘The Workhouse Ward’, dir. Ria Mooney; and ‘Cradle of Genius’, dir. Paul Rotha.

 

Entitled ‘Local Films for Local People’, a special screening of IFI archive films was presented at Thoor Ballylee, Co. Galway, a former summer home of W.B. Yeats. The curated selection celebrated the work of Yeats’ friend and co-founder of Ireland’s national theatre, Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory, who owned the nearby Coole Park estate. After her husband, Sir. William’s death in 1892, Lady Gregory welcomed many artists and writers to Coole, including: Yeats, Shaw, Synge, Hyde, and O’Casey. Together they created a renaissance of Irish literary, artistic and political thinking and action.

 

28-year-old Isabella Augusta Persse (Lady Gregory) on her wedding day (image from Coolepark.ie)

 

I was drawn to this film event because of a long standing romantic and nostalgic connection with Thoor Ballylee (and the neighbouring Coole Park estate). This fairy-tale tower, situated on a small rivulet, was – to my dramatic teenage self – visually and aesthetically straight out of a pre-Raphaelite painting (think Ophelia) and echoed lines to me from ‘The Lady of Shallot’. As a pre-teen in the late ’80s, I was assigned to complete a ‘research project’ on the tower, of which I remember little except detailed drawings (and swans). Sadly, the tower became inaccessible to the public for years following flood damage in 1995 and 2009-2010, but it has been renovated and is now re-opened to the public, thanks to the Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society. I had not been in many years and was delighted to be able to attend this event screening by the IFI here.

It was an intimate gathering of about 15-20 people and the highlights were the eloquent introductions given by Lelia Doolan (former Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre and board member of Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society) and the ever informative Sunniva O’Flynn (head of Irish film programming at the IFI), who has a deep knowledge of Irish archive film, and is generous with sharing that knowledge. It would be fantastic to have had longer time allocated to Sunniva, I would love to hear her give an entire lecture at a screening.

A downfall was that the films were shown on (quite a small) TV screen, which was a disappointment given that it was part of the Film Fleadh. A more pleasant experience would have been to watch the films in a cinemobile parked at the tower, and to visit the tower itself afterwards. Invasions and distractions were provided by the many video cameras (including an RTÉ news crew) who filmed before and during the screening (once retrieving a forgotten microphone left in front of the TV mid-film). It did feel like there were more people documenting the event than audience attending, maybe due to lack of transport to the location from Galway city.

I commend the Film Fleadh’s efforts to bring the festival to the county of Galway. An idea for realising this in future years could potentially use Element’s cinemobile – a ‘repeat screening’ of the most popular films the week after the Film Fleadh, in neighbouring rural locations. Another solution would be to use the already established film clubs in, say, Athenry and Gort, and screen the most popular films there, as an extension of the Film Fleadh.

 

Thoor Ballylee (Ballylee Castle)

 

Coole Park and Ballylee (1976), Producer: Queen’s University Belfast

The first film shown in Thoor Ballylee was the twenty-minute documentary Coole Park and Ballylee, made in 1976 by a crew from Queen’s. The film is a collage of Coole Park nature images, with a voiceover reading the poem by Yeats, ‘Coole Park and Ballylee’. It was an incredibly relaxing experience to simply watch the 1970’s bright Kodak colour images, while listening to the poem being read. The style of the camera work was wonderfully representative of the era, with high colour saturation and contrast and some gorgeous circular lens flares from the sun – and all actual film artefacts, not added on ‘in post’, as per J.J. Abrams!

This film was different than the others in the collection, being in colour and without actors, but it was the one I enjoyed the most. As children we used to climb in the ancient trees of Coole Park, so the place holds some memories for me. Lady Gregory is quoted as saying: ‘These woods have been well loved, well tended by some who came before me, and my affection has been no less than theirs. The generations of trees have been my care, my comforters. Their companionship has often brought me peace.’ (Coolepark.ie)

 

The Workhouse Ward’(1950), dir. Ria Mooney.
The second film screened was The Workhouse Ward, a 1950 adaptation of the eponymous one-act play written by Lady Gregory and starring cast from the Abbey Theatre Players.

The dialogue and writing is incredibly witty, capturing a certain type of cantankerous personality who would rather stick with the misery they know than have the courage to move to a better life. The outcome is exasperating, but all too familiar, and makes one wonder where Lady Gregory got her inspiration from. The observation and investigation of the two male characters (useless, inert) is both insightful and witty. The play was first staged in the Abbey in 1908, ahead of its time (or lost in time), preceding similar themed work such as Waiting for Godot, which was not staged until 1953. Lady Gregory wrote comedy, as well as tragedies and histories. Her prison-escape play The Rising of the Moon, first staged in the Abbey in 1907, was also later adapted for a John Ford film in 1957.

The Workhouse Ward, is available to watch free online, on three separate charming film reels, thanks to the British Pathé archive: https://www.britishpathe.com/video/the-workhouse-ward-reel-1

 

‘The Workhouse Ward’

 

Cradle of Genius (1959), dir. Paul Rotha

The final film screened was Paul Rotha’s Cradle of Genius, which was nominated for an Oscar in 1962 as the ‘Best Short Documentary’ for Plough Productions, produced by the late Tom Hayes. Hayes, feted as an ‘ingenious filmmaker and tireless advocate for the Irish film industry’ by the Irish Times, made his name as the producer of this film, in a time before Irish Film Board funding existed. The film was well received in Ireland and the US, with Irish distribution undertaken by the Rank Organisation.

This 42-minute scripted documentary, written by Frank O’Connor, features some famous Abbey actors, all draped in wonderful tweeds, with R.P. accents straight from BBC radio, and the deportment of Hollywood stars – despite their Irish origins. The adaptation of regional accents on arrival in Dublin is still a phenomenon today, but it did make me wonder if the cast reverted to their native tones when they left the Pale!

The documentary was filmed in the Abbey theatre, after a fire destroyed the building in 1951, and comprises monologues and conversations of famous Abbey performers, reminiscing about the theatre. The cast include: Barry Fitzgerald, Siobhán McKenna, Harry Brogan, May Craig, Ria Mooney, Shelagh Richards, Sean O’Casey and Ernest Blyth.

Cradle of Genius

 

If you are lucky enough to live or work in Dublin city, the IFI frequently screens films from their archive at lunchtime in their Temple Bar cinema, which are free to attend. More details here: https://ifi.ie/archive-at-lunchtime/

Otherwise, a huge array of archive films can be viewed online for free using the IFI Archive Player: https://ifiplayer.ie/browse/

 

Local Films for Local People – Archive screenings at Thor Ballylee took place on Thursday, 12th July 2018 as part of the Galway Film Fleadh (10 – 15 July)

 

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16th IFI Documentary Festival

 

The Irish Film Institute has announced the programme for the 16th IFI Documentary Festival (26 – 30 September), featuring fifteen features in total and a  shorts programme. This year’s festival will include the world première of Marcus Robinson’s The Man Who Dared To Dream and seven Irish premières, including the festival’s opening film Minding the Gap, winner of the 2018 Sheffield Doc/Fest New Talent and Audience awards. The event will also welcome a number of special guests from across the globe throughout the five days of the festival.

Opening film and Irish première Minding the Gap is a virtuoso début that follows the lives of three young men, including director Bing Liu, as they go from carefree skateboarders to responsible adults in the economically deprived town of Rockford, Illinois. Liu tackles the veiled subject of the trio’s variously damaged upbringings, cycles of abuse and toxic masculinity with nuance, insight and great visual flair.

Robinson’s The Man Who Dared to Dream, is a cinematic homage to Peter Rice, one of the most distinguished engineers of the late 20th century whose work includes the Sydney Opera House, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Lloyd’s building in London. The festival will also see a special preview screening of Tom Burke’s elegiac Losing Alaska which follows the inhabitants of Newtok, Alaska as their homes become endangered by coastal erosion; both Burke and Robinson will take part in post-screening Q&As.

Other guests scheduled to attend include Steven Eastwood, director of the intimate documentary Island which examines the final year in the life of four patients in the Mountbatten Hospice on the Isle of Wight; Almudena Carracedo, co-director of Sheffield Doc/Fest Grand Jury Prize winner The Silence of Others, will discuss her award-winning exploration of the battle to overturn a 1977 law that whitewashed the Franco regime’s crimes against the people of Spain; and Bernadett Tuza-Ritter, director of the unforgettable A Woman Captured which focuses on a Hungarian woman trapped in domestic servitude.

As always, the IFI Documentary Festival will showcase a number of superb Irish documentaries as part of its slate. Among the films shown, each followed by a post-screening filmmaker Q&A, will be Ross Whitaker’s Katie, a look at the notoriously private Olympic champion boxer Katie Taylor as she attempts to rebuild her career after a disastrous campaign at the 2016 Olympics; The Curious Works of Roger Doyle, a focus on the acclaimed Irish composer as he prepares to present his first opera; The Life After, an examination of the profound effect the Northern Ireland Troubles have had on the families of those who died during the conflict; When All Is Ruin Once Again, a richly-textured portrait of a rural Irish community as a motorway is carved through their land; and The Man Who Wanted to Fly, an endearing depiction of an 80-something Cavan bachelor who follows his dream to take to the skies.

Other Irish premières scheduled to screen are Erika Cohn’s The Judge, a focus on the first woman judge to be appointed to a Palestinian Shari’a Law court; Maxim Pozdorovkin’s amusing and troubling Our New President, which examines the election of Donald Trump in 2016 through the lens of Russian propaganda clips; and Paul Williams’s Gurrumul, a look at the fascinating career of the late blind Indigenous Australian musician Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu.

Rounding out the features programme will be the Irish première of Lovers of the Night, a gentle portrait of seven elderly Cistercian monks, residents of Bolton Abbey, Co Kildare, by German filmmaker Anna Frances Ewert; the film will be preceded by George Fleischmann’s 1948 short about Cistercian monks in Roscrea, Silent Order, and will also be followed by a Q&A.

Friday will see a panel discussion hosted in association with Screen Producers Ireland (SPI) examining the current state of documentary filmmaking in Ireland.

Finally, the highly anticipated Irish shorts programme, where the audience award is supported by Screen Scene, will return on Saturday afternoon with new films from Jamie Goldrick, Hugh Rodgers, Paul Power, Mia Mullarkey, Sean Mullan, Luke Brabazon, Paddy Cahill, and Maurice O’Brien.

Tickets for the IFI Documentary Festival are now sale. Individual screening tickets are €11, excluding the opening film which includes a post-show reception (€15). A special ticket package is available in person only from the IFI Box Office: 5 films for €45. Tickets for the Documentary Filmmaking Panel Discussion cost €5.

Tickets are available online from www.ifi.ie/docfest, the IFI Box office at 6 Eustace Street, Dublin 2, and over the phone at 01 679 3477.

 

FULL SCHEDULE

Wednesday 26th
20.20     Minding the Gap plus post-screening wine reception

Thursday 27th
18.00     The Life After + Q&A
20.20     The Curious Works of Roger Doyle + Q&A

Friday 28th
12.00     Screen Producers Ireland Panel Discussion
18.00     The Man Who Dared to Dream + Q&A
20.30     A Woman Captured + Q&A

Saturday 29th
13.30     Irish Shorts Programme
15.30     Losing Alaska + Q&A
17.00     Gurrumul
18.40     Our New President
20.30     Katie + Q&A

Sunday 30th
13.30     The Man Who Wanted To Fly + Q&A
15.30     Lovers of the Night + Q&A
16.00     The Judge
17.30     When All Is Ruin Once Again + Q&A
18.00     Island + Q&A
20.30     The Silence of Others + Q&A

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