Docs Ireland Launches 2024 Programme
Posted: 16th May 2024
Docs Ireland has launched the full programme of its 2024 edition. Taking place in Belfast from 18th to 23rd June, the documentaries screening at the festival will explore a wide range of topics including feminism, colonialism, music and health.
The festival will open on 18th June with the award-winning documentary The Flats, directed by Alessandra Celesia. Fresh from winning the prestigious DOX:AWARD at CPH:DOX, one of the largest documentary film festivals in Europe, the documentary follows four people from the New Lodge flats, a working class, Catholic community in Belfast as they revisit the collective memories that shaped their lives and the district they live in.
Docs Ireland’s annual Pull Focus competition which celebrates excellence in Irish documentary will feature a stellar line-up including Neasa Ni Chianáin’s The Alexander Complex, on the bizarre tale of a group of ‘gentlemanly explorers”, Colm Quinn’s Ransom '79, where a historic fraud case collides with immediate mortality and Andrew Gallimore's One Night in Millstreet, which captures the Celtic Tiger through a historic boxing match. Other Irish documentaries on the programme include Alan Gilsenan’s IFTA winning The Days of Trees, Ross Killeen's Don’t Forget to Remember, Éanna Mac Cana's Burkitt, Leo Regan's My Friend Lanre and Katherine Waugh and Fergus Daly, I See a Darkness. The festival will also present an eclectic selection of international documentaries across its line-up, including 3D screenings of classic documentaries, a selection of music documentaries in its Shellshock Music programme, the Maysles Brothers Competition for Observational Documentary which rewards the best in observational non-fiction filmmaking all over the world, and its Focus on Palestine and Focus on Finland programmes. Some of the best new short films in Ireland will be showcased through four Irish short film programmes.
The Industry programme will return with Docs Ireland's fifth Marketplace. Taking place over two days, it provides an opportunity for filmmakers to meet one-to-one with leading international documentary industry players, including international funders, broadcasters, distributors and exhibitors. The programme is packed with opportunities for those working or aspiring to work in the documentary film industry to attend a wide range of panels, workshops, talks and networking opportunities.
Docs Ireland is supported by Northern Ireland Screen through the Department for Communities, Belfast City Council, Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland and BFI/Film Hub NI, and is proudly sponsored by TG4, BBCNI and Yellowmoon.
More information and tickets can be found on docsireland.ie.
About Docs Ireland
Established in 2019 as the sister festival of the long-standing Belfast Film Festival, which happens annually in November, Docs Ireland takes place in June each year in the city of Belfast. It celebrates the best of new international documentary filmmaking, and showcases the work of Ireland’s indigenous non-fiction culture and creatives. The festival is a focal point for cross-border collaboration, international co-productions, sales and distribution through our pitching forum, the Docs Ireland Marketplace, which invites international documentary decision-makers to meet one-to-one with filmmakers. Alongside the marketplace, the festival hosts a fulsome industry programme including pitching sessions, masterclasses, a new talent focus & sessions focused on the important issues affecting the documentary industry at home and abroad.