The Irish Film InstituteSo I'm finally back to blogging. My EIFF summary will be forthcoming, and only about a month late, but in the meantime, here's what I saw at Stranger Than Fiction, the documentary film festival I attended in Dublin at the weekend.
I kicked things off with a double bill of made-for-TV documentaries relating to Ireland's fight for independence in the 20th century. The first of these, GET COLLINS, was about the intelligence network set up and used by Michael Collins in his fight against the British (and their attempts to thwart him). It was paired with NOW OR NEVER, a portrait of the relationship between Eamon De Valera and Winston Churchill, focusing on their clash over Ireland's neutrality in World War II. Both films are fascinating insights into a period of Irish history which greatly interests me, with GET COLLINS being the slightly better of the two.
Irish filmmaker George Morrison should be forever enshrined in Irish cinema history for his stunning documentaries MISE EIRE and SAOIRSE?, which rescued old newsreel footage of the period between the "failed" Easter Rising and the civil war a few years later. Here he premiered his new documentary film DUBLIN DAY, in which David Norris walks the streets of Dublin tracing the journey that formed James Joyce's Ulysses. I confess I've never read the book (it's on my to-do list) but as a lover of Dublin I found the film to be enchanting, working wonders to produce a beautifully shot vision of the city with very little budget. Norris and Morrison were present for a discussion after the screening, and it was a joy to hear that the 83-year-old Morrison is currently working on another film. Meanwhile, I'm currently reading Dubliners by Joyce. I'll get round to Ulysses one day.
MOSNEY is the tale of a former Butlins holiday camp north of Dublin that is now used to house asylum seekers during the limbo in which they have arrived but are yet to learn their fate. The contrast between the once happy holiday destination and the grim purpose it now serves makes for interesting viewing, by turns depressing and uplifting in quick succession.
The Gaelic language film IMEACHT NA N-LARLAI [FLIGHT OF THE EARLS] received its premiere at the IFI on the 400th anniversary of the events it portrayed. The Earl of Tyrone, along with many other members of the Irish elite in Ulster, took flight to Europe where the Earl embarked on a quest to seek assistance in raising an army to get rid of the English. His pleas were unsuccessful, they never returned to Ireland and the Plantation of Ulster was to follow, forever changing the face of Ireland. For this documentary, gorgeously shot on location in some parts while making theatrical use of a small soundstage for the rest of it, features re-enactments of the events (starring Stephen Rea, also in attendance, as the Earl) balanced against three history scholars discussing the story. It was a fascinating enough story to begin with, but the dramatic gravitas brought to it by Rea made the entire story seem less like a history lesson than simply one of the saddest stories I've ever seen.
JACK DOYLE: A LEGEND LOST presents a brief biopic of the Cobh boy who grew up to become a boxer, actor, singer and ladies man and never quite made a perfect job of any of them. Gambling, womanising, drink, disease... it all conspired to leave the man who should have been world famous a mere footnote in the grand scheme of things. The story of the flawed sportsman, movie star, etc. is nothing new, but nobody's life quite encapsulated the archetypal story like Doyle's. It's a story that this documentary captures perfectly.
Still on the subject of boxing, SAVIOURS is a no-budget film about a boxing club in Dublin and focuses on the aspirations of three young boxers in particular and what the club and the sport means to them. I'll be honest, I really don't like boxing, so that side of things put me off a little. All the same, the film is a sometimes touching insight into the lives of three young hopefuls and what a club like this brings to local communities.
A VERY BRITISH GANGSTER is a disturbing look at a criminal organisation in Manchester that does not spare the gritty details but also offers a look at the kind of poverty that leads to the activities the gang indulge in. In following the leader around as he goes about his business, investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre reveals just how dangerous a character this man is but also how charming he can be and, in a rare moment in the film, how human he is.
The short film competition threw up some good short documentaries, notably LOSING MYSELF: ANNIE, a brief look into the memories of an elderly Scottish woman; BIG MASSIVE PROTEST, in which a young filmmaker organises a protest group for hire; THE MEMORY BOX, an animated look at the plight of immigrants in Ireland; and 13 YEARS AND 10 MONTHS, about a young Polish girl suffering from cystic fibrosis. If my memory serves me correctly, the last two films I mentioned won the two prizes that were on offer.
I kicked things off with a double bill of made-for-TV documentaries relating to Ireland's fight for independence in the 20th century. The first of these, GET COLLINS, was about the intelligence network set up and used by Michael Collins in his fight against the British (and their attempts to thwart him). It was paired with NOW OR NEVER, a portrait of the relationship between Eamon De Valera and Winston Churchill, focusing on their clash over Ireland's neutrality in World War II. Both films are fascinating insights into a period of Irish history which greatly interests me, with GET COLLINS being the slightly better of the two.
Irish filmmaker George Morrison should be forever enshrined in Irish cinema history for his stunning documentaries MISE EIRE and SAOIRSE?, which rescued old newsreel footage of the period between the "failed" Easter Rising and the civil war a few years later. Here he premiered his new documentary film DUBLIN DAY, in which David Norris walks the streets of Dublin tracing the journey that formed James Joyce's Ulysses. I confess I've never read the book (it's on my to-do list) but as a lover of Dublin I found the film to be enchanting, working wonders to produce a beautifully shot vision of the city with very little budget. Norris and Morrison were present for a discussion after the screening, and it was a joy to hear that the 83-year-old Morrison is currently working on another film. Meanwhile, I'm currently reading Dubliners by Joyce. I'll get round to Ulysses one day.
MOSNEY is the tale of a former Butlins holiday camp north of Dublin that is now used to house asylum seekers during the limbo in which they have arrived but are yet to learn their fate. The contrast between the once happy holiday destination and the grim purpose it now serves makes for interesting viewing, by turns depressing and uplifting in quick succession.
The Gaelic language film IMEACHT NA N-LARLAI [FLIGHT OF THE EARLS] received its premiere at the IFI on the 400th anniversary of the events it portrayed. The Earl of Tyrone, along with many other members of the Irish elite in Ulster, took flight to Europe where the Earl embarked on a quest to seek assistance in raising an army to get rid of the English. His pleas were unsuccessful, they never returned to Ireland and the Plantation of Ulster was to follow, forever changing the face of Ireland. For this documentary, gorgeously shot on location in some parts while making theatrical use of a small soundstage for the rest of it, features re-enactments of the events (starring Stephen Rea, also in attendance, as the Earl) balanced against three history scholars discussing the story. It was a fascinating enough story to begin with, but the dramatic gravitas brought to it by Rea made the entire story seem less like a history lesson than simply one of the saddest stories I've ever seen.
JACK DOYLE: A LEGEND LOST presents a brief biopic of the Cobh boy who grew up to become a boxer, actor, singer and ladies man and never quite made a perfect job of any of them. Gambling, womanising, drink, disease... it all conspired to leave the man who should have been world famous a mere footnote in the grand scheme of things. The story of the flawed sportsman, movie star, etc. is nothing new, but nobody's life quite encapsulated the archetypal story like Doyle's. It's a story that this documentary captures perfectly.
Still on the subject of boxing, SAVIOURS is a no-budget film about a boxing club in Dublin and focuses on the aspirations of three young boxers in particular and what the club and the sport means to them. I'll be honest, I really don't like boxing, so that side of things put me off a little. All the same, the film is a sometimes touching insight into the lives of three young hopefuls and what a club like this brings to local communities.
A VERY BRITISH GANGSTER is a disturbing look at a criminal organisation in Manchester that does not spare the gritty details but also offers a look at the kind of poverty that leads to the activities the gang indulge in. In following the leader around as he goes about his business, investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre reveals just how dangerous a character this man is but also how charming he can be and, in a rare moment in the film, how human he is.
The short film competition threw up some good short documentaries, notably LOSING MYSELF: ANNIE, a brief look into the memories of an elderly Scottish woman; BIG MASSIVE PROTEST, in which a young filmmaker organises a protest group for hire; THE MEMORY BOX, an animated look at the plight of immigrants in Ireland; and 13 YEARS AND 10 MONTHS, about a young Polish girl suffering from cystic fibrosis. If my memory serves me correctly, the last two films I mentioned won the two prizes that were on offer.
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