Irish Documentaries at the Stranger than Fiction Documentary Festival
The Stranger than Fiction Documentary Festival and Market is screening this week from Thursday 28th October to Sunday 1st November. Irish Film Board funded documentaries in the festival include Children of Allah, Bloody Sunday - A Derry Diary and Here to Stay.Directed by new Irish directors Keith Walsh and Jill Beardsworth Children of Allah, is a courageous documentary portraying daily life at an Indian orphanage, getting to know some of the boys who live there and revealing how this orphanage provides a home for them, something their own homes could not do. Children of Allah screens at 2pm on Friday 29th September at the Irish Film Institute.
Bloody Sunday - A Derry Diary is directed by Margo Harkin and follows the course of the Tribunal of Inquiry, into the incident on January 30th 1972, when the British Army shot dead thirteen unarmed civilians on a civil rights march in Derry, Northern Ireland. This documentary explores the subject matter from the point of view of the families of the victims, as they travelled between Derry and London over a five year period. The Inquiry report is expected in early 2007. Bloody Sunday - A Derry Diary will screen on Sunday 1st October at 1pm in the Irish Film Institute.
Here to Stay is directed by A. O’Brien & A. Grossman tells a timely story about the human side of labour migration into Ireland. Shot in observational and interactive style, the filmmakers follow Filipino nurse, Fidel Taguinod, over a two-year period wherein he flowingly enacts the roles of nurse, migrant activist and bakla (gay) performer. Here to Stay will screen in the Irish Film Institute at 6.15 on Friday 29 September.
The Irish Film Board has also organised a public panel to discuss ‘Documentaries and the International Audience’ inviting audience discussion on how recent theatrical documentaries such as An Inconvenient Truth, One Day in September, Etre et Avoir, March of the Penguins have helped to create a newfound commercial confidence in theatrical documentary. The panel will explore how Irish filmmakers can capitalise on these increased market opportunities and growing international audiences; and the role of the Irish Film Board in financing documentary.
The Stranger than Fiction Documentary Festival and Market takes place in the Irish Film Institute from Thursday 28th Oct to Sunday 1st November and the market is sponsored by Bord Scannanna hEireann / the Irish Film Board.