Paddy Breathnach the Irish Film Institute
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AUGUST 2016 PADDY BREATHNACH THE IRISH FILM INSTITUTE The Irish Film Institute is Ireland’s national cultural institution for film. EXHIBIT It aims to exhibit the finest in independent, Irish and international cinema, preserve PRESERVE Ireland’s moving image heritage at the IFI Irish Film Archive, and encourage EDUCATE engagement with film through its various educational programmes. LAST CHANCE Commune The FRENCH FILM CLUB Some new releases carrying over from our July programme This month’s French Film Club screening – where IFI and include: Author: The JT LeRoy Story, the astonishing Alliance Française members pay just €7 a ticket – on August unmasking of the real story behind novelist wunderkind 17th at 18.30, is Guillaume Nicloux’s Valley of Love starring JT LeRoy, whose tough prose about his sordid childhood Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu as a divorced couple captivated icons and luminaries internationally; and drawn together by their son’s suicide note instructing them The Commune, Thomas Vinterberg’s new feature about the to travel to Death Valley where he will briefly reappear to clash between personal desires and tolerance in a Danish them. See page 8 for film notes. Please visit www.ifi.ie commune in the 1970s. or ask at the IFI Box Office for further details. IFI CAFÉ BAR DEAL IFI PLAYER We have a sizzling new summer menu in the IFI Café Bar The IFI Player launches in late August, and will create and a very special deal for the month of August, where free online access to a range of collections that have you can have a main course and film ticket for only €18. been digitised and preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive. Tuck into our King Kong Burger, or keep it light with our Audiences will have instant access to a selection of unique Crispy Sesame Chicken Salad. Offer is available Monday moving image content never been seen online before. – Wednesday only, see www.ifi.ie/cafebar for menu details. 2 DIRECTOR’S NOTE August sees the launch of the greatly anticipated IFI Player. AUGUST AT THE IFI Bobby Sands: 66 Days (See page 5) This month we’re delighted to officially launch the first Mark O’Halloran will join us for a Q&A on August 19th. phase of the IFI Player. Over the last number of years, the IFI This month also sees two fascinating Irish documentaries Irish Film Archive has undergone a major transformation – dealing with two very different subjects: Brendan J. Byrne’s no longer just preserving the nation’s moving image Bobby Sands: 66 Days is a powerful feature on the last days heritage on film, but also developing an archive to preserve of the hunger striker and Byrne employs a wonderful use of ‘born digital’ material. As custodians of over 30,000 cans of both archive footage and animation to tell the story; while on film and 10,000 broadcast tapes spanning from the 1890s August 26th, in Strange Occurrences in a small Irish village, to the present day, the IFI Irish Film Archive is a treasure Aoife Kelleher (One Million Dubliners) explores the world of trove of our nation’s political, social and cultural history. the people and pilgrims in the religious village in Co. Mayo. With everything from feature films, to newsreel, to amateur Also on release this month are some international gems footage, our collection is utterly unique and of critical including Pedro Almodóvar back on form with his recent importance as part of our country’s national heritage. hit from Cannes, Julieta: the sold-out closing film from last year’s Dublin Arabic Film Festival at the IFI, The Idol; and Due to the digital upgrade of the IFI Irish Film Archive thanks the hugely popular and thoroughly intriguing Valley of Love to the kind support of the Department of Arts, Heritage, (starring Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert) from the Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, and the subsequent most recent IFI French Film Festival. publication of our Digital Preservation and Access Strategy, the IFI has now begun the lengthy process of digitising part Ross Keane of our vast film and tape collections. One of the key aspects Director of the IFI Strategy 2013–2016 was to increase access to the Archive’s holdings for the general public. This month, through the launch of the IFI Player, everyone will now be able to get an initial glimpse into a selection of materials preserved here at the IFI Irish Film Archive. We will launch with a limited but representative selection, and this will be constantly added to over the coming months and years. There are also plans for further development of the IFI Player which will include giving audiences outside of Dublin the opportunity to view selected parts of the IFI’s artistic programme. We’re extremely excited about the launch of the first phase which will provide audiences with a window into the amazing breadth of material in our moving image archive, preserved on the nation’s behalf here at the IFI. One of the many new releases not to be missed this month is the Irish and wonderfully touching Viva which provides a fascinating glimpse in the Cuban drag scene, and we’re delighted that both director Paddy Breathnach and writer 3 NEW RELEASES, IFI SEASONS & DOCS & IFI CLASSICS EVENTS CALENDAR BOBBY SANDS: 66 DAYS OPENS AUG 5TH DATE SCREENING TIME SID AND NANCY OPENS AUG 5TH 2ND IFI CAFÉ BAR PUB QUIZ (FREE EVENT) 21:30 SWEET BEAN OPENS AUG 5TH TUE 5TH BOBBY SANDS: 66 DAYS + Q&A 18.30 INGRID BERGMAN: OPENS AUG 12TH FRI IN HER OWN WORDS 9TH THE BIGGER PICTURE: BLAZING SADDLES 18.30 THE CONFESSION: OPENS AUG 12TH TUE 10TH FROM THE VAULTS: SOME MOTHER’S SON 18.30 LIVING THE WAR ON TERROR WED THE IDOL OPENS AUG 12TH 16TH IRISH FOCUS: PUSHTAR + Q&A 18.30 VALLEY OF LOVE OPENS AUG 12TH TUE 17TH THE CONFESSION: LIVING THE WAR ON TERROR* 20.40 WIENER-DOG OPENS AUG 12TH WED BEHEMOTH OPENS AUG 19TH 18TH THE CONFESSION: LIVING THE WAR ON TERROR* 13.50 THE CHILDHOOD OF A LEAEDER OPENS AUG 19TH THU THE CHILDHOOD OF A LEADER + Q&A 20.00 19TH VIVA + Q&A 18.30 TICKLED OPENS AUG 19TH FRI VIVA OPENS AUG 19TH 20TH ELAINE MAY RETROSPECTIVE: A NEW LEAF 16.00 JULIETA OPENS AUG 26TH SAT 21ST IFI FAMILY: SONGS, PUFFINS AND SHORTS 11.00 STRANGE OCCURRENCES OPENS AUG 26TH SUN ELAINE MAY RETROSPECTIVE: HEARTBREAK KID 16.00 IN A SMALL IRISH VILLAGE 23RD FEAST YOUR EYES: VIVA 18.30 TUE 24TH ELAINE MAY RETROSPECTIVE: MIKEY & NICKY 18.30 WED 25TH IFI FILM CLUB: TICKLED 18.15 GET SOCIAL! THU Excited about this month’s programme? So are we! 26TH WILD STRAWBERRIES: TRASH 11.00 Tell your friends which film you’re planning to watch, FRI STRANGE OCCURRENCES 18.30 share your movie reviews and show us your best pics on IN A SMALL IRISH VILLAGE + Q&A Instagram, Twitter and Facebook! 28TH THE HANGOVER LOUNGE: JOURNEY TO ITALY 14.00 SUN ELAINE MAY RETROSPECTIVE: ISHTAR 16.00 Join the IFI Community online: 31ST WILD STRAWBERRIES: TRASH 11.00 @IrishFilmInstitute WED @IrishFilmInstitute @IFI_Dub *There will be Open Captioned (OC) screenings on August 17th (20.40) and 18th (13.50). Audio Description will be available on all other screenings. See www.ifi.ie/accessible for more. Open Captioned screening Audio Described screening TIMES For a breakdown of times and dates of IFI New Releases, IFI Docs & IFI Classics, check out our weekly schedule on www.ifi.ie/weekly-schedule or the IFI ads in The Irish Times on Fridays and Saturdays. You can also sign up to receive our weekly ezine by joining at www.ifi.ie/signup. 4 AUGUST 2016 BOBBY SANDS: 66 DAYS IFI DOC OPENS AUG 5TH In the spring of 1981 Bobby Sands, body politic – on Sands’ beliefs as outlined a Republican prisoner in Belfast’s in his prison diaries, on the divided H-Block, began a sixty-six day hunger community into which he was born and FILM INFO: strike which drew the attention of the the Republican history which informed 105 mins, Ireland, 2016, Digital Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn world to his campaign for recognition his politicisation as a young man. as a political prisoner. This focus on the Northern Irish conflict would It is crafted with rigor and balance and eventually trigger efforts to resolve it. draws on a striking array of archive We’re delighted to welcome material, animation, reconstruction director Brendan J. Byrne to While Brendan J. Byrne’s energetic new and interviews from a range of political the IFI for a Q&A following the documentary chronicles Sands’ physical perspectives to understand rather than 18.30 screening on August 5th. deterioration over the course of the embellish the creation of a mythic martyr. sixty-six days, it is never prurient or See page 17 for this month’s From the Vaults screening of mawkish and focuses instead on the Some Mother's Son. SID AND IFI CLASSIC NANCY OPENS AUG 5TH In October 1978, former bassist for where Spungen had moved from New the Sex Pistols and infamous poster York as a teenager. Unflinching in its FILM INFO: child of punk, Sid Vicious, was arrested depiction of their heroin-fuelled and 114 mins, UK, 1986, Digital in a squalid Chelsea Hotel room and sordid romance, the film has gained Notes by Alice Butler later charged with the murder of his cult status for its improvisatory style, American girlfriend and then manager moments of dark humour and inspired Nancy Spungen, who was found dead cinematography (the film was shot by from a stab wound on their bathroom the legendary Roger Deakins).