THE IRISH FILM BOARD LAUNCH ‘IRISH FILM / IRISH CULTURE’
In a historic first, five Oscar laureates join forces with 27 of their Irish film peers in a Bord Scannán na hÉireann / the Irish Film Board - commissioned booklet entitled ‘IRISH FILM / IRISH CULTURE’ strongly urging the cultural and social case for direct government support for local filmmaking.Bord Scannán na hÉireann / the Irish Film Board, Ireland’s national film agency, will officially launch the booklet in Dublin on Saturday November 1st at the Irish Film and Television Awards at which BSÉ/IFB backed projects have garnered over 70 nominations.
“As INTERMISSION has just become BSÉ/IFB’s highest grossing film at home and GOLDFISH MEMORY, COWBOYS AND ANGELS and the award-winning CHAVEZ-THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED gain US sales, it is timely to have Ireland’s leading lights from the film community reflect on the importance of having secure government funding support for the creation of Irish films on Irish screens”, said Bord Scannán na hÉireann / the Irish Film Board Chairman, Ossie Kilkenny. “In just ten years, BSÉ/IFB has been central in helping to build solid foundations for a sustainable and viable national film industry.
“We are reaching a critical mass and we need to build on this momentum. Only through adequate and secure funding as set out in the Government’s own report, Strategic Development of Irish Film and Television Industry 2000-2010, can we fully and properly achieve this”, added Kilkenny. “With BSÉ/IFB, it truly is a case of a lot done and more to do”.
In ‘IRISH FILM / IRISH CULTURE’, Oscar nominated director Louis Marcus echoed Kilkenny’s remarks saying, “The rest of the world..goes to great pains and expense to ensure that their screens, both cinema and television, are not completely dominated by American attitudes - that the distinctive flavour of their own lives and cultures will also be expressed in this powerful medium”.
“The Crying Game, Disco Pigs, The Magdalene Sisters - we have our films, but we don’t have enough of them”, added WHEN BRENDAN MET TRUDY writer Roddy Doyle in his essay. “We need to see old Ireland on screen, and the new. We need to see the new Irish, with their new stories and accents. We’re only starting”.
Neil Jordan, in his contribution, maintains that .“…to define a country as a country….it needs two things. An airline, and an industry, And by industry [ that does not mean] Coca Cola plants or Microsoft outposts but ..a film industry.”
“One of the arguments for supporting a film industry is that it allows a country to express itself…..” opines director John Boorman, noting that recent contemporary Irish films are allowing “Ireland’s real current psyche [ to ] finally reveal itself”.
For his part, Jim Sheridan, writes of film as a means for Irish people “to gain control” of the media environment that surrounds them.
“Films are like popular cultural milestones for the rest of the world”, argues WHEN BRENDAN MET TRUDY helmer Kieron J Walsh. “As for the cultural role of Irish films for Irish people, simply look at the phenomena of Veronica Guerin, The Magdalene Sisters, Give Up Yer Aul Sins. Films like these act as mirrors into which we gaze, examining ourselves, criticising ourselves and more often than not, laughing at ourselves”.
“The cinema is the greatest popular art form since the classical theatre of ancient Greece”, acclaimed writer John Banville offers. “Ireland has contributed strongly to cinema…. It could be argued that our talent for filmmaking is a logical extension of our talent for literature. It is vital for the cultural, as well as the economic, life of this country that we continue to be active in the medium of film and the work of Bord Scannán na hÉireann / the Irish Film Board is vital for that activity.”
“There can be no greater ambassador to convey our uniqueness”, concludes two time Oscar winner Michele Burke about Irish film, “Can there be any greater cultural currency?”