Irish Films Screening at Guth Gafa Documentary Festival this Weekend
There is an exciting range of award-winning Irish documentaries set to screen at the 5th Guth Gafa International Documentary Film Festival, which kicks of in Gortahork, Co. Donegal this weekend from 11th-13th June.
Included in the line-up are the features Colony, His & Hers and Horses while If These Walls Could Talk, Bye, Bye Now and The Herd will appear in the Special Irish Shorts Programme.
Colony, the debut feature documentary from director duo Carter Gunn and Ross McDonnell, examines the unexplainable phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder which has left empty beehives across America, threatening the beekeeping industry and food supplies.
This beautifully shot film, produced by Macdara Kelleher and Morgan Bushe for Fastnet Films with funding from the IFB, had its world premiere at the renowned Toronto Film Festival last year.
Ken Wardop's multi award-winning His & Hers explores a woman's relationship of the men in her life, following 70 women throughout the midlands from little girls to elderly women.
This enchanting and intimate film was produced by Andrew Freedman for Venom Films and was financed by the IFB. It has picked up a host of awards since its premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh, including Best Cinematography at Sundance Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Jameson Dublin International Film, amongst others. It is set for a theatrical release in selected Irish cinemas from 18th June.
Horses, written and directed by Liz Mermin, follows the lives of three race horses over the course of a difficult racing year, as we watch them train, rest, play and race, with distinct characters emerging.
The documentary was produced by Aisling Ahmed for West Park Pictures and was co-financed by the IFB, RTÉ and BBC Storyville. It was officially selected to screen at Hot Docs Festival in Canada earlier this year.
Anna Rodger's If These Walls Could Talk, takes a look at the closed units of Irish psychiatric institutions as they approach their demise and stories of the people who spent the best part of their lives committed in them. Produced by Siobhán Ward for Yellow Asylum Films, this haunting documentary scooped the Best Short Award at the IFI Stranger Than Fiction film festival last month. It was funded by the Reality Bites short documentary scheme.
Bye, Bye Now, co-directed and co-produced by Ross Whittaker and Aideen O'Sullivan, follows the proposed removal of a number of phoneboxes from around the country which sparked many fond memories in the lives of the rural Irish communities. Produced by True Films and also funded through the Reality Bites, it has picked up the Audience Award at the Corona Cork Film Festival and the IFI Stranger Than Fiction festival.
The Herd is a quirky documentary also directed by Ken Wardrop and produced by Andrew Freedman for Venom Films. It has previously won the Short Documentary Grand Jury prize at the Seattle International Film Festival and received Print Provision support from the IFB.
Located in the beautiful and remote Donegal, Guth Gafa aims to promote the use of Irish in the documentary film industry by developing a festival that operates through Irish and that is Gaeltacht based; to attract internationally renowned film directors to Ireland and to introduce them to a national and local audience.
The 5th Guth Gafa International Documentary Film Festival takes place this weekend in Gortahork, Co. Donegal from 11th- 13th June.
See the official website http://www.guthgafa.com/ for further information on the event-packed programme.