COMRADES on UK TV

Film4 will be showing the epic COMRADES at 22:50 on Tuesday 1st September. Recently remastered and released by the BFI, the film is directed by Scottish director Bill Douglas and tells the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, a group of six men transported to Australia in the 19th century for trying to start a union. It's a good three hours long and is the only feature-length film he made outside of his more famous Newcraighall trilogy.

The great Scottish actor Alex Norton, of TAGGART fame, also stars... in fourteen different roles!

Powell classic at CCA

The St Kilda-inspired classic EDGE OF THE WORLD, directed by Michael Powell, will be shown at the CCA in Glasgow on February 11th 2010. How's that for advance notice? (Just saw it on the website and thought I'd pass it on.)

September at the IFI

Not much doing from my usual monthly trawl through the upcoming films at Filmhouse and Cameo - at least not from a Scottish/Irish perspective - apart from Hitchcock's THE 39 STEPS being the European matinee at the Cameo from 28th August to 3rd September, so it's over to the Irish Film Institute.

YELLOW BITTERN: THE LIFE OF LIAM CLANCY (do not miss) will be showing at the IFI on the 10th, 12th, 13th, 19th and 20th of September.

The Irish short film ENOUGH by Barry Dignam will be preceding screenings of the new Sam Mendes film AWAY WE GO.

This month's "Ireland on Sunday" screening on 20th September is the Irish documentary TODAY IS BETTER THAN TWO TOMORROWS, about two young boys in Laos who want to become monks.

On the archive front, there will be a free screening of THIS OTHER EDEN (1959) featuring a cast from the Abbey group which will take place in Meeting House Square just beside the IFI. It's at 10:30pm on September 25th.

Also, there's a brand new print of ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. I could make up an obscure reason for why that has some kind of Irish or Scottish interest (Frank Wolfe plays an Irish immigrant!) but to be honest I don't care, I'm just mentioning it because it's the second greatest film ever made, and it's a lovely new print. Don't miss it.

FRAN...

...is a new series developed by Richie Conroy and Mark Hodkinson, the men behind the short film UP FOR AIR, which has been mentioned a couple of times here before.

It follows the trials and tribulations of Fran Costello (Darragh Humphreys), a pathetic man who works as an assistant manager at a lowly Irish football team.

The series has been aired on Setanta Ireland and is to be shown on TV3 as well, with a DVD release to follow in September. Lots of extra information is available on the official website, along with the opportunity to view episode 1.

New St Kilda documentary

As previously mentioned, Saturday 29th August is the inaugural St Kilda Day which, as part of Scotland's first Homecoming year, will celebrate the life and culture of this fascinating group of islands at the edge of the world.

There are various film-related events including a live performance of THE ISLAND TAPES (mentioned previously) at the CCA in Glasgow and a couple of screenings of old film footage in Inverness.

If you can't get to any of the venues however, you'll be pleased to know that at 10pm on BBC Alba there will be a documentary AN T-HIORTACH [THE ST KILDAN] in which Norman John Gillies, the last remaining native of the island who was aged just 5 when the 1930 evacuation took place, returns to his homeland.

YELLOW BITTERN update

Just received the latest update regarding YELLOW BITTERN: THE LIFE OF LIAM CLANCY. The following cinemas are all confirmed for screenings.

IFI, Dublin
Movies at Dundrum
The Light House, Dublin
The Gate, Cork (Special Q&A with Liam on the 11th September)
SGC Dungarvin, Waterford (Special preview with Liam September 8th or 9th TBC)
The Eye, Galway

Keep an eye out for any further release info, and make sure you see this film if you get the chance.

Upcoming GFT screenings

There's a screening of SEACHD: THE INACCESSIBLE PINNACLE at the Glasgow Film Theatre at 11:30am on Saturday 28th November.

Before that, there's a couple of chances to see the excellent CRYING WITH LAUGHTER at the GFT in case you missed it at the EIFF. The screenings are Wednesday 23rd September at 8:30pm and Thursday 24th September at 6pm. Please note that the Wednesday screening will be attended by director Molotnikov, producer Mundell and lead actor McCole.

Films in Shetland

For those of you in the far north of Scotland, the Shetland Arts festival has plenty of interesting stuff on offer in Screenplay, its film strand.

Although I'm writing this mainly for my interest in Scottish films, they will be showing the Irish film INTO THE WEST starring Gabriel Byrne.

On the Scottish front, there are screenings for THE INHERITANCE, SEACHD: THE INACCESIBLE PINNACLE and a collection of locally made films.

(And nothing at all to do with Scotland or Ireland, but I do also recommend Terence Davies' OF TIME AND THE CITY, Miyazaki's HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE and the screening of animated shorts from the National Film Board of Canada.)

See the website for details.

Irish shorts screening in Dun Laoghaire...

...and it's free. Underground Cinema is a new initiative from the Blue Moon Theatre Company to aid new Irish filmmaking. The first event takes place at 7pm on Thursday 3rd September at the Kingston Hotel, Dun Laoghaire.

I won't go through all the films on the programme (I've seen a few of them) but will go as far as saying that THE MAN IN THE BOOT, BLEEDING LOVE and GOD AND NAPOLEON are three of my personal favourites from the list. Full programme available at the website.

Admission is free. Sounds like a great night.

The Island Tapes in Glasgow

If The St Kilda Tapes interested you, you may be interested to know that The Island Tapes (also by David Allison, but accompanied by other musicians and featuring a selection of films of various Scottish islands) will be coming to Glasgow later this month.

It's on at the CCA (see their website for full details) on Saturday 29th August as part of what is apparently St Kilda Day (go to this website for details of other events). There's also a ceilidh afterwards if that's your thing.

For more details on this and David Allison's other shows, head to the Island Tapes website, where you can also buy a CD/DVD of the soundtrack and the films.

Scottish/Irish on TV

Another couple of films to watch out for.

Tomorrow night (Tuesday 11th August) on BBC1 (at varying times and in various regions) you can see the 1990 Scottish drama THE BIG MAN in which Liam Neeson (sporting a wavering Scottish accent) plays a Scottish miner who turns to illegal bareknuckle fighting to make some cash. It's a terrific film (whoever thought of combining grim Scottish housing estates with a score by Ennio Morricone is a genius) and is criminally unavailable on DVD either here at home or even on R1 in the USA. I had to buy my copy from Spain and frankly the sound quality isn't the greatest. Short notice but if you read this in time, don't miss it.

Meanwhile, on Channel 4 at 22:50 the same night you can catch another showing of OMAGH, the Greengrass-produced dramatisation of the horrific event and its aftermath which happened 11 years ago in the titular Irish town.

YELLOW BITTERN in Irish cinemas

Good news as it is now being reported that the documentary YELLOW BITTERN: THE LIFE OF LIAM CLANCY is going on selected release in Ireland from September 11th. Don't worry if you're not familiar with the Irish folk singer - personally I'd never heard of him before I saw this, but it's still one of the best films I've seen this year.

LA Irish Film Festival 2009

The 2nd Los Angeles Irish Film Festival takes place 23rd to the 27th September 2009.

It's already been announced that the opening film is Conor McPherson's THE ECLIPSE, which I really, really want to see. When's it going to get shown somewhere over this part of the world? Okay, so it was made for RTE, but I can't get RTE so I'm still hoping for a festival screening somewhere. A screening in Cork would be good, given that it was filmed in the lovely Cobh.

Sorry, I got a bit distracted a bit there. What I was going to say is that THE ECLIPSE is opening it but the rest of the programme has now been announced.

Highlights include the features KISSES, THE SECRET OF KELLS and PEACEFIRE, the documentary GABRIEL BYRNE: STORIES FROM HOME and from the world of Irish shorts, Conor Ferguson's excellent ATLANTIC and Nicky Phelan's animation GRANNY O'GRIMMS SLEEPING BEAUTY.

There are a quite a number of films screening, some of which I've not yet seen so if you're interested, see the website for more details.

Duffy's Cut - a follow-up

I mentioned the other day that the documentary THE GHOSTS OF DUFFY'S CUT was available online via iTunes. If you're interested, a follow-up item on the story has now appeared on Irish Central indicating that the gentlemen investigating the mystery may be one step closer to finally laying the Irishmen to rest. Click here to read it.

Irish DVD releases... in Australia!

I've mentioned previously that THE LAST CONFESSION OF ALEXANDER PEARCE, which is partly Irish and is based on the same story that inspired the recent VAN DIEMEN'S LAND, is available on DVD in Australia. Well there's more news for those of you with multiregional capacity or who just happen to live down under.

The dark comedy A FILM WITH ME IN IT is also currently available on DVD in Australia. This is particularly unusual given that it hasn't yet been released on shiny disc in the UK, USA or even, as far as I know, in its home country.

Similarly, the 2005 Irish film TROUBLE WITH SEX, starring Aiden Gillen and directed by Fintan Connolly, is released on DVD in Australia on the 26th August. It remains unavailable over here.

View the Mutant Shorts

I mentioned a wee while back that Mutantspace was running a short film competition in Cork during June, which involved filmmakers crafting a short film inside of a week on a set theme. I've just discovered that three of the six films shown are available for viewing on the Mutantspace channel on Youtube. If you're one of those ultra-modern Facebooky-type people you can view more of them on Mutantspace's page over there.

The story behind BILL, FOR SHORT

If you're outside Ireland, as I am, you won't be able to view anything on the RTE Player, but you may be glad to know that you can access the occasional programme. This is how I managed to discover that you can view an excerpt from the film BILL, FOR SHORT, a documentary directed by Frank Kelly (the man behind 140).

I've never seen it myself, though it certainly seems like a tale that will both warm your heart and break it, but I mention it here because it's been to a number of festivals so I dare say many of you good people will have seen it.

You can view it on the RTE website by clicking here and waiting until the advert for a crap-looking Will Ferrell movie is finished. For more info, see the film's website.

RTE Storyland latest

Time for a few Irish updates after the recent batch of Scottish related items. I apologise for the lack of full reviews throughout August - it's usually a busy month for me but I'll still keep popping up with little updates.

Anyway... the results are in for the RTE web drama's latest round and the two remaining finalists are HARDY BUCKS and RENTAL BOYS. Hard lines to PSYCH WARD, which I'd actually been quite enjoying.

You can catch up with all episodes so far (and start voting on the finalist from 5pm on 31st August) over at the Storyland website.

EAGLE OF THE NINTH is in motion

THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND director Kevin Macdonald's EAGLE OF THE NINTH sees him return not just to literary adaptations but also Scottish-related material, bringing us the big screen version of Rosemary Sutcliff's tale of a young man's mission in Roman Britain. News has already come out that they're looking for Gaelic-speaking actors (upsetting academics the length of the country) and now I've just received this update:

Found out this morning that shooting for 'Eagle' will take place in Achiltibuie October 2 - 14. The producers are looking for accommodations for over 100 crew members. Pretty decent size production!

That comes from Ted, who maintains both the All Things Foe blog and the HALLAM FOE Myspace site, so thanks Ted. Between these two sites and Sweet on Sigma Films, you should be sorted for regular updates. Saves me making the effort too!

I'm very much looking forward to this one.

Edinburgh shorts in Edinburgh

As part of the Edinburgh Arts Festival, the Magic Lantern are curating a bunch of short films to be shown on the big screen in Edinburgh's Festival Square. Yeah, it's an eyesore, but at least it's getting put to good use. The films will be a mixture of international films and local archive footage, all showing images of city life.

You can read a bit more on the festival website - according to the update I've just received, they'll be shown on Saturday 8th August at 8pm, Saturday 22nd August at 3pm and Saturday 5th September at 2pm.

AN CEASNACHADH airing again

Heads up folks, the stirring Scottish Gaelic drama about Kay Matheson's part in the reclaiming of the Stone of Destiny is getting another airing on BBC Alba, this Thursday (6th August) at 9pm. Set recorders now! I guess that means you'll finally find out that lassie's name, too. (Trust me, that comment makes sense if you read my previous thoughts on the film.)

[EDIT: It's also repeated at 10:30pm the following Monday]

Trailer for CHERRYBOMB

I don't know much about this film - so far it has had festival outings at Belfast, Dublin and Galway and possibly others that I'm not aware of - or when it's supposed to be released but there is a trailer for the Belfast movie CHERRYBOMB now doing the rounds.

James Nesbitt is usually watchable and Robert Sheehan is a very promising young Irish actor, but the main hook on which most of the hype hangs is that it stars Rupert Grint of HARRY POTTER fame.

If the purpose of a trailer is to get people interested in a film and entice them towards seeing it, this one is a pretty abject failure but something tells me I'm probably not the demographic they're aiming for. Anyway, here's the trailer so you can form your own opinion.

HELEN on DVD

HELEN, directed by Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, gets a DVD release in the UK on September 9th. Extras to be confirmed, but early advertising mentions an interview with the directors and the short film JOY.

Irish docs on RTE

There's a bunch of documentaries showing on RTE from August 9th, focusing on the history of Ireland through photographs. You can find details of all the films being shown via this IFTN news story but I just thought I'd bring it to your attention since I covered the film ELUSIVE MOMENTS, about photographer David Farrell, when I went to Cork last year.

New filmspace in Edinburgh

Scottish Screen reports that there is a new centre for screen professionals in Edinburgh, so if you are involved in the industry in some way and want somewhere to hang out and collaborate, check it out. I've often walked past that building and never actually known much about it other than the fact that I thought it looked cool, so I'm glad to discover that part of it is being used for film-related purposes.

See the website for more details.

Short film on the Iolaire disaster

When the Iolaire sank on New Year's Day 1919 just off the coast of Lewis it marked one of the worst maritime disasters in UK history and for my money one of the most tragic stories in recent Scottish history. Over 200 men were lost within sight of home.

It's an emotional story and one which would without doubt make for a powerful feature, if anyone could bring themself to tell it (it has been the subject of documentary films on more than one occasion). Until then, here's a five minute short on the subject from Alasdair Macleod and Rehab Films, another recent discovery I came across while scouting the internet for new Scottish films.

More Irish archive material on tour

Didn't mention this in my previous post about August's IFI activity, but the Irish Film Archive is again going on tour this August. There are various presentations on subjects from the anniversary of the GAA to vintage Dublin material, and events will be taking place in Ballina, Dublin, Knock and Kilkenny.

For details on what's playing where, and when, go to the IFI website where you can download a copy of the latest programme.