Irish Film and Documentaries Set to Screen at Cork Film Festival
Irish talent will be well represented at the upcoming 55th Corona Cork Film Festival with over ten IFB funded feature films and documentaries such as the award-winning THE PIPE, THE RUNWAY and MY BROTHERS as well as a gala screening of DREAMING THE QUIET MAN and a host of shorts, set to screen over the week which kicks off on Sunday 7th November.
THE PIPE, the debut feature documentary from Risteard O'Domhnaill, follows the town of Rossport's struggle against the economic might of Shell and the tragic divisions that have split a once-peaceful and close knit community. This passionate film scooped Best Documentary at its premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh and has also recently screened at the Toronto and London film festivals and is set for nationwide theatrical release next month. Ian Power's THE RUNWAY, inspired by a true story, tells the tale of a South American pilot who crashed his plane in a field near an Irish town in 1983, and how the community came together to fix his plane and build a runway to get him home.
Paul Fraser's feature directorial debut MY BROTHERS, written by William Collins, about 17-year-old Noel who accidentally breaks his dying father's most prized possession - a cheap wristwatch. He and his two younger brothers "borrow" the boss' bread van for a clandestine quest to replace it, which turns into an emotional odyssey for the boys.
Sé Merry Doyle's documentary DREAMING THE QUIET MAN discusses an idealised vision of Ireland and features contributions from well-known commentators and filmmakers including Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese, Jim Sheridan and, exclusively, Maureen O'Hara, who will be in attendance of this world premiere, the first ever documentary to have a gala screening in Cork.
Also screening in the jam-packed programme is ALL GOOD CHILDREN, the debut feature from Alicia Duffy, which had its world premiere in the Directors Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. The film tells the story of Dara and his brother Eoin who are sent from Ireland to live with their aunt in France, following the death of their mother, where Dara falls under the spell of young girl, Bella.
Screening as part of the ‘Greenshoots' strand, which takes a reflective look at six examples of recent Irish filmmaking emblematic of a new spirit, are Carmel Winter's SNAP, a gripping psychological drama about three generations of a family poised to repeat the mistakes of the past, Conor Horgan's ONE HUNDRED MORNINGS, an apocalyptic drama about two couples hiding out trying to escape the consequences of a breakdown of society while Ger Leonard's FIVE DAY SHELTER, interweaves the lives of several characters in a contemporary urban setting over five days and portrays people living untenable existences of quiet desperation. Also included are Colin Downey's THE LOOKING GLASS, a portrait of a young man on the brink of fatherhood which moves quickly from familiar drama into dark fairytale, Margaret Corkery's EAMON, an entertaining and quirky tale of a young dysfunctional boy on doomed family holiday with his parents and Lenny Abrahamson's GARAGE, about a misfit caretaker of a crumbling petrol station in rural Ireland who finds his life changed forever over the course of a summer.
Representing Irish short film-makers in the International Shorts programme will be Miss Remarkable & Her Career, a darkly comic animation written and directed by Joanna Rubin Dranger and produced by Galway-based company A Man & Ink, Ken Wardrop's Return to Roscoff, an Irish/French co-production produced by Venom Films and The Trembling Veil of Bones, written, directed and animated by Matthew Talbot- Kelly, about an anachronistic clockmaker produced by Glimpse Digital (Ireland) in co-production with the Canadian National Film Board while Thomas Hefferon's The Pool will screen in the Irish Shorts programme.
The newest round of Signatures and Reality Bites short films and documentaries will also be premiering on Saturday 13th November at 4pm in the Opera House.
The 55th Corona Cork Film Festival takes place from the 7th - 14th November.
For full details on the festival programme check out the official website http://www.corkfilmfest.org/