The 8th in Official Selection at Hot Docs
Posted: 15th April 2020
Although Hot Docs Film Festival has been postponed to a later date due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the international documentary festival revealed its line-up, with three Screen Ireland titles in Official Selection. Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland are delighted to congratulate the filmmakers behind The 8th, the feature-length documentary following the Together for Yes campaign in the lead-up to Ireland's historic abortion referendum.
Directors Aideen Kane, Lucy Kennedy and Maeve O’Boyle trace the struggle in Ireland to overturn one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the world and shows a country’s transformation from a conservative state in thrall to the Catholic church to a more liberal secular society—a place where women’s voices are heard. It follows the dynamic female leaders of the pro-choice campaign as they chart a bold strategy of grassroots activism and engineer the impossible. The film includes interviews with the pro-life campaign who feel that their way of life is under siege. This dramatic story is underscored by a vivid exploration of the wrenching failures that led to this defining moment in Irish history. An urgent narrative, a cautionary tale and a roadmap for progressive reforms in a modern era where authoritarianism is on the rise, The 8th shows a country forging a new progressive path at a time when reproductive rights are threatened all over the world.
Produced by Alan Maher for Cowtown Pictures, Aideen Kane, Lucy Kennedy and Maeve O’Boyle for Black Tabby Films, The 8th will receive its World Premiere at Hot Docs in Canada at a later date to be confirmed.
Two Screen Ireland short films were also selected for the festival: Cara Holmes' Welcome to a Bright White Limbo and Gar O'Rourke's Kachalka, both shorts funded under Screen Ireland's Real Shorts funding scheme, having premiered at the Cork Film Festival last November.
Welcome to a Bright White Limbo, directed by Cara Holmes and produced by Zlata Filipovic for Invisible Thread, is an innovative, poetic and visually arresting documentary, following dancer and choreographer Oona Doherty and the creative process of her award-winning show Hope Hunt.
Kachalka, directed by Gar O’Rourke and produced by Ken Wardrop for Venom Films, is a cinematic portrait of Kiev’s Soviet scrap metal ‘Kachalka’ gym – the world’s most hardcore gym.
You can find the full line-up for Hot Docs Film Festival here.