Guth Gafa, 7th International Documentary Festival (16-19 May 2013, Donegal & City of Derry)
Guth Gafa have announced the programme for their 7th International Documentary Festival, which includes some of the top documentaries in the world. In the line up are 17 international feature documentaries from 14 different countries, many of which have won the top awards around the world, seven Irish feature docs and a selection of outstanding shorts.
Over the course of the festival 30 award winning features and short documentary films from 15 countries will be screened on five different screens on and around the village green in Malin.
Three world premieres of Irish films top the bill.
A selection of films will also be screening in Derry, as part of Guth Gafa’s partnership with Derry, City of Culture 2013. Included in this year’s bill are two films widely considered to be two of the best recent examples of international documentary film making: Alan Berliner’s First Cousin Once Removed, winner of the Best Feature Documentary competition at IDFA, the largest and most prestigious documentary festival in the world, and Searching for Sugarman, winner of the Oscar for Best documentary at this year’s Academy Awards.
These two will play alongside many other films that have won accolades in top international festivals and award ceremonies world-wide. Audiences will be taken to locations as varied as Switzerland, Israel, Azerbaijan, Africa, India and Cambodia to discover stories as wildly contrasting as a young man’s escape from the brutality of a North Korean labour camp in Camp 14: Total Control Zone, and a teenager’s ‘escape’ from the boredom and isolation of a remote village in the Arctic Circle in Village At The End of The World.
In the remarkable Wrong Time Wrong Place, John Appel examines the role played by coincidence and fate in the 2011 terrorist attack on Oslo and Utoya in which 77 lives were lost, by speaking to survivors. The charming Winter Nomads tracks shepherds, Carole and Pascal as they embark on a 6,000 kilometre trek through Switzerland with a flock of sheep in a winter grazing ritual as old as time. The Summit by Irish film maker, Nick Ryan focuses on the world’s most dangerous mountain, K2 and the 2008 tragedy which claimed the lives of 11 climbers including heroic Irish mountaineer, Ger McDonnell.
The Finnish film, Soundbreaker profiles Finland’s most vibrant and daring composer and accordionist, Kimmo Pohjonen as he breaks all the rules and shatters everything you know about the accordion. The remarkable Pohjonen, who has composed and toured with the Kronos Quartet and other famous musical names, comes to Ireland for the first time to play a live gig at the Foyle Theatre in Derry, after the screening of the film on his life. This is a gig you will not want to miss.
Among the selection of short films screening will be the world premiere of the TG4-funded film, Ponydance, by Derek O’Connor, about the Belfast-based dance troupe of the same name.
For the full list of feature films click here
