Catfish Special Event at IFI

The IFI was delighted to present a special preview of the eagerly-anticipated Catfish last night. The special preview came in advance of the film being released at the IFI from this Friday. Watch the trailer here.

The film will change the way you view social networking, and is a fascinating examination of the ways in which we choose to communicate in a modern world, and how everything is not always as it may first seem. To say too much about the film would give too much away. It really is one of those films that the less you know, the better, so all we can simply tell you is to go and discover this bizarre world for yourself before you hear too much.

Following the preview, we were delighted to take part in an interactive Q&A. The IFI, along with 16 cinemas in the UK, all participated in a simultaneous Q&A with the audience sending questions via Twitter. All very hi-tech! Nev Shulman, the New York dance photographer who is the central figure in the film, was on hand to answer the various questions. We were proud that the very first question in the interactive Q&A came from an IFI audience member here in Dublin!

We hope to have the Q&A up online soon (but we would strongly advise that you don't watch this until AFTER you have seen the film!)

Ross Keane
Head of Marketing & Communications

IFI Education Winter Blog

As winter abruptly tightens its icy grip upon us, it’s perhaps a good time to reflect on IFI Education’s Autumn/Winter programme for schools as it reaches its midpoint.

Launched to teachers on 29th September with a special preview screening of Made in Dagenham, this term our schools programme has hosted some great events and welcomed many full houses already, despite the snow related disruptions. Here are some of the highlights:

Inception

Transition Year

• His & Hers - Ken Wardrop’s unmissable treatise on Midlands women discussing the men in their lives. Ken kindly attended for a Q&A and his film clearly made an impression on the students as a lively conversation ensued which was hard to stop!
• Inception - A full house for Christopher Nolan’s divisive arthouse blockbuster (read Peter Walsh’s previous blog entry). In the post-screening workshop, students examined the various cinematic techniques and tropes used to represent dream worlds and alternative realities. Was it all just a dream?! Unanimous verdict from the students: no. 
• Nowhere Boy - Despite being set in the '50s, students of today found plenty to relate to as a teenage John Lennon negotiates adolescence and escapes into a world of art and rock n roll. 
• Lebanon - Samuel Moaz's Golden Lion winner about his unforgettable experiences during the opening salvos of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. This film is highly effective in conveying the horrifying sensory experience of war, and the students concurred; not the action-packed war film they expected, but a powerful and affecting insight into conflict nonetheless.

32A

Senior English

• 32A - Marian Quinn’s excellent coming-of-age story set in 1970s Raheny; a new addition for the Leaving Certificate Comparative Study for 2012. Teachers and students were also able to take away copies of a comprehensive studyguide on 32A, a perfect classroom resource for follow-up work. Download it here.
• Also showing for Senior English: The Constant Gardener

Persepolis

Modern Languages

• Persepolis - the sixth year of our French Film Project, Persepolis will tour over twenty venues nationwide. It’s been a hit so far, with many sell out shows in Dublin and beyond to date. A new French language film studyguide accompanies Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s award winning animation – download it here.
• John Rabe - Florian Gallenberger’s dramatised biopic of a wealthy German businessman and Nazi party member who saved more than 200,000 Chinese at his factory during the Nanjing massacre in 1937. Despite the tough subject matter, response has been overwhelmingly positive and it has played to big audiences so far this term.

Ponyo

Primary

No education programme is complete without the sound of a cinema brimming with excited primary pupils. They came in droves for our free preview of Ramona and Beezus and Miyazaki’s stylistic Ponyo, and our Christmas treat this year is a chance to once again see Woody and the gang in Toy Story 3, with one lucky school winning a free in-school workshop.

The Social Network

IFI Teen Film Club

Finally, our IFI Teen Film Club started up once again this term with a huge turnout for David Fincher’s The Social Network. The club is open to those aged 15 – 18 and each month we select one suitable film from the IFI general programme for members to watch.

And that’s only the half of it – highlights still to come:

Neukolln Unlimited (Dec 9), Good Hair (Dec 14), Fermat’s Room (Jan 12), Home (Jan 18) and Exit Through the Gift Shop (Jan 19).

Our Spring/Summer Education programme will be available from February so keep an eye out for that. For further details on IFI Education activities, please email schools [at] irishfilm.ie, phone Baz or Dee on 01 679 5744 or check www.ifi.ie/education

Baz Al-Rawi

Education Officer

The Pipe & the Gala Opening at the IFI

We were delighted to have the Gala Opening of The Pipe at the IFI on December 2nd. Despite the snow and ice, the audience braved the elements and we had a packed cinema for the special screening.

Risteard O Domhnaill, Director

Director Risteard Ó Domhnaill's documentary about how the local people of Rossport took on the might of Shell, objecting to plans to lay a gas pipeline through their land and fishing areas, has played to critical acclaim on the Festival circuit garnering both awards and positive reviews. Beautifully shot and providing a powerful insight into the local community and their struggles, the response to the film at the Gala Opening was overwhelmingly positive. In attendance were Director Risteard O Domhnaill, Producer Rachel Lysaght, and members of the Rossport Community (who had managed to make the journey from Mayo despite the adverse weather conditions).

H.E. Mr. Øyvind Nordsletten, Ambassador of Norway to Ireland,

Lelia Doolin & Risteard O Domhnaill

Alicia McGivern, Head of Education at the IFI, welcomed the audience to the IFI for the special event, while director Risteard O Domhnaill introduced his film, talking of its success at previous Festival screenings and how the film evolved.

Members of the Rossport community
(John Monaghan, Maura Harrington, Pat O'Donnell, Mary & Willie Corduff)
 along with the filmmakers, Lelia Doolin and Bjørn Asle Teige of Norwegian Oil Workers Union

Following the screening, Lelia Doolan (filmmaker, producer, writer and campaigner) chaired a Q&A which evoked a passionate response from the audience. Participating alongside Lelia, Risteard and Rachel were the 'stars' of the film John Monaghan, Maura Harrington, Pat O Donnell, and Willie and Mary Corduff.

Mary & Willie Corduff

The debate proved to be an interesting precursor to a second panel discussion (held on Saturday December 4th). Chairing the discussion was Lorna Siggins (Irish Times correspondent and author of Once Upon a Time in the West: The Corrib Gas Controversy), Terence Conway (Shell to Sea), John Monaghan (Rossport Community Spokesperson), Fergus Cahill (Irish Offshore Operators Association), Brian O Cathain (Managing Director of Petro Celtic and formerly of Enterprise Energy Ireland), Risteard O Domhnaill and Rachel Lysaght. It was crucial for the IFI to provide a neutral space for this important debate so all sides could air their various issues.

Lelia Doolan, Pat 'The Chief' O'Donnell & a guest at the Gala

 The next event in the series is on Saturday December 11th at 13.30 and is entitled The Pipe: Politics and Film and will explore the roles that art and filmmaking can play within a political campaign. Producer Rachel Lysaght will be joined by filmmakers and artists, including Seamus Nolan and Jesse Jones, to explore the complex relationship between art and politics. The event is free but ticketed.

Click here to book tickets for screenings of The Pipe.

Ross Keane
Head of Marketing & Communications

December at the IFI

The December programme at the IFI is full of compelling reasons to postpone your Christmas shopping (unless it’s at the IFI Film Shop!) and come to the cinema instead.

December sees the release of some of the big prize winners from the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals – Of Gods and Men, On Tour and Somewhere – and the much-anticipated Catfish, a ‘reality thriller’ exposing the darker side of social networking.

Of Gods and Men (Opens Dec 3rd)

In a year that has seen the IFI showing more Irish film than ever before, it is appropriate that we end 2010 with the release of The Pipe, which comes to the IFI in December on the back of critically-acclaimed screenings at Galway, Toronto and London. This compelling and thoughtful film documents the impact of the controversial Corrib Gas Project on the local Rossport community, and the issue itself will no doubt invoke impassioned responses from both sides of the debate. We are delighted that we will be joined by the filmmakers and members of the Rossport Community for a special Gala Screening on December 2nd. Also scheduled is a separate panel discussion on December 4th which will debate the Corrib Gas Project, chaired by Irish Times journalist Lorna Siggins, and will involve contributions from both sides of the issue. One of the themes that The Pipe raises is the role that filmmaking plays in political campaigns and the film’s producer Rachel Lysaght will take part in a discussion on December 11th about the complex relationship between art and politics.

The Pipe (Gala Preview Dec 2nd, Opens Dec 3rd)

Amongst all this controversy (not to mention the Budget!) we haven’t forgotten it is Christmas and there are plenty of great films for family outings over the season, from a Christmas-themed Archive at Lunchtime programme showing every day during Christmas week to The Red Shoes and It’s a Wonderful Life. We have two special IFI Family events on December 29th and 30th to help keep our younger audiences occupied in the post-Christmas lull: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The March of the Penguins (the latter is followed by two special animation workshops).

IFI Family: The Chronicles of Narnia, Dec 29th

As we come to the end of what has been a bumpy year for Ireland, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you for making 2010 a great year for the IFI. We started on a real high with the Open Day in February to launch the refurbished building and new Cinema 3, and continued with a packed programme of great cinema, new and old, including Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, and seasons on Woody Allen, Kenneth Anger, Audiard, Ozu, Hitchcock and new African cinema. Both our audiences and membership have grown significantly during the year, and your loyalty and shared passion for all that cinema has to offer ensures that we continue to be one of Ireland’s busiest and most relevant cultural organisations.

So on behalf of everyone at the IFI: thank you. We look forward to bringing you an exciting programme in 2011 and we wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas and New Year.

Sarah Glennie
Director

The Pipe comes home for General Release

The last 6 months have been like a rollercoaster for The Pipe ever since it premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh back in July. Indeed, after 3 years of shooting and a year in the edit, I had no idea what the reaction would be from people, especially the locals, given that they had no idea what was in the film. That night of Thursday the 8th of July in Galway was a really nervewracking experience as people began to arrive, a large section of them from Rossport and the surrounding villages close to the Corrib project. Having filmed these people during their daily lives, at the protests and during some very difficult and painful times over the past 3 years, I had no idea how the community would react to seeing their souls bared on the big screen.

The reaction was really incredible, especially from people whose lives had been so intensely affected by the Corrib project, and all the emotions of the past 10 years seemed to flood back in those 83 minutes in the Town Hall Theatre; the joy, the humour, the pain of the jailings and the heartache of seeing their own community ripped apart by infighting. And although parts of the film were difficult for many of the people to watch, they seemed to really appreciate seeing their story told for the first time without being manipulated or spun.

Risteard Ó Domhnaill (Director) & Lelia Doolin at the premiere

in the Town Hall Theatre at the Galway Film Fleadh

Winning Best Doc at the Galway Film Fleadh then acted as a springboard internationally. Although Galway is a relatively small festival, it has a great profile abroad and success here was crucial in getting recognition by the Toronto Film Festival, one of the two big North American festivals. Selection for Toronto was a massive achievement but it did bring its own worries, as we were now competing against the best documentaries in the world. However, instead of getting lost among the 300 or so films there, we managed to carve out a really good profile for ourselves. We got fantastic coverage in the Toronto papers and amazingly got 7 minutes on Canada’s prime time news features show on CBC. The reason for so much attention before the screening was timing; it was directly in the wake of the devastating Gulf Oil spill and peoples' minds were very focused on the oil industry and its relationship with the environment and small communities. Also, in Canada there is a very divisive national debate going on regarding the extraction of massive amounts of oil from Canadian tar sands, despite huge environmental impacts.

Risteard Ó Domhnaill (Director), Rachel Lysaght (Producer),
Áine Ní Dhúil and Nigel O'Regan (Editor) at Toronto International Film Festival 

Having sold out all of our screenings beforehand, I was a bundle of nerves going into our first screening as I had no idea if the Canadians would actually ‘get’ the story. Remember, here was a small community in one of the most isolated corners of Ireland with a very particular story, sense of humour. and a very unique way with words (at times more like Irish in terms of sentence construction). Remarkably, the Canadians, traditionally a fairly conservative audience, reacted very emotionally to the film and gave us a standing ovation! That was the point for me when I knew that this story would travel, and I was delighted that the audience could empathise with the people on screen. People saw in the characters their own neighbours, friends and relations, and felt that this could be a  community anywhere - Canada, Nigeria, Russia – any community whose rights have been set aside by their own government in favour of a very powerful private interest – in this case it just happens to be Shell. Off the back of Toronto we got a lot of interest from ordinary people and distributors, and from there on we were ‘out the gap’.

We screened in the London and Amsterdam film festivals with great success, just narrowly missing out on the top prize in the prestigious ‘Green Screen’ competition to Into Eternity by Michael Madsen, but the judges felt The Pipe deserved an ‘honorable mention’ none the less. We screened at the Cork Film Festival to a sell-out crowd of 250 at the Gate cinema who then offered us a 2 week cinema run on the back of the success of that screening on a cold, wet Monday night. The Cork audience was probably the most vocal audience I have ever experienced - laughing out loud, expressing their shock at the treatment of some of the characters in the film, and taking me on in a very frank and challenging debate in the Q&A afterwards. Only last week we screened at the Foyle Film Festival in Derry and picked up the award for Best Documentary, and I was amazed at the depth of knowledge people had up in Derry regarding the politics and history surrounding Corrib!

Now that we are on the verge of a national cinema release, I just find it hard to believe that the story of this small isolated community is now going up against the big Hollywood blockbusters like Narnia and Harry Potter in cinemas around the country. However, I think it is crucial that the film is released at this time, despite it being the most competitive time of the year in cinemas. We are now in the middle of possibly the worst crisis to hit this country since the foundation of the State, our politicians having put powerful private interests ahead of the greater good of the citizens with devastating consequences, and I feel that the Corrib story is a microcosm of that larger picture.  Hopefully The Pipe will in some way give people an insight into this, but also show them that even in times of great despair and seemingly insurmountable challenges, people can find amazing resources within themselves, and within their communities, to get through the hard times, and even share a joke every now and then!

Risteard Ó Domhnaill
Director
The Pipe

• The Pipe goes on release from Friday December 3rd.

Special Events:

• There will be a Gala Opening at the IFI on December 2nd at 18.00 with a Q&A with Risteard and members of the Rossport community.
• On December 4th at 13.30 there will be a panel discussion entitled The Pipe: Rossport and the Corrib Gas Project chaired by journalist Lorna Siggins about the project and its impact on the community. Free but ticketed event.
• On December 11th at 13.30 The Pipe: Politics and Film will look at the role art and filmmaking can play within a political campaign. Free but ticketed event.

The Pipe is produced by Scannáin Inbhear with funding from Bord Scannán na hEireann / the Irish Film Board and TG4.

In the Beginning (A l'origine) review

A film about building a road to nowhere could just as easily be called The Road to Hell. The French drama In the Beginning (A l'origine), which played last night to a packed cinema as part of the IFI French Film Festival, was truly an exercise in how to take a small story and turn it into a highly watchable thriller,as well as a study of the human need to grasp glimmers of hope in desperate times.

Directed by Xavier Giannoli (The Singer) it tells the story of Philippe/Paul, a conman who travels up and down France scamming equipment from construction sites for re-sale. Small time stuff, really, 'til he gets caught up in a town where highway construction had ceased two years previously because of a beetle infestation. Assuming the name Philippe Miller, he claims to be the project manager for a contractor and sets about restarting the building. The town’s mayor (Emanuelle Devos, luminous and credulous) who tells him that ‘the boss left for India with our subsidies and machines, and we were left with the unemployed’, willingly falls in, desperate to get things moving again.

At the local cheap hotel, chambermaid Monika is a single mum whose feckless boyfriend, Nicolas, needs a job to ‘calm him down’. She is drawn to Philippe and multi-tasks her way around his new project office where she fends off creditors and accepts his promise that wages will come through. Of course it all goes horribly wrong, but not before Philippe totally falls for both the Mayor and his own trick; we see him rally the construction troops through torrential mud and rain, convince a small bank manager that he is for real (don’t think I was the only one wondering why he didn’t just go to Anglo Irish Bank!) and take an interest in Nicolas.

But Philippe’s past catches up with him, in the gargantuan shape of sleazy con, Abel, played by Gerard Depardieu. We know it’s not going to end well as soon as he hoists his leather-jacketed frame into view. Philippe’s mental stability, his newly found love and all about him tumbles into the slithering mud of the motorway.

A terrific film for the Festival that will hopefully get a cinema release.

3 more days of the Festival to go.

Alicia McGivern
Head of Education

In the Beginning (A l'origine) goes on tour with access>CINEMA to Waterford, Galway and Wicklow.

The Final Weekend of the IFI French Film Festival

We're about to head into the final weekend of the IFI French Film Festival and after record audiences this year, we're expecting to go out with bang!

Tonight we welcome our next Festival guest, Michel Leclerc, director of The Names of Love (Le Nom des gens) who will introduce the film and participate in a post-screening Q&A. The film is now fully sold out.

The Silent World

Another Festival guest in over the weekend is Éamon de Buitleár who will introduce both films in our focus on Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Digitally restored prints offer us a welcome opportunity to rediscover the work of the ethusiastic explorer, researcher, author and filmmaker (winner of three Oscars and the Palme d'Or) as we present two of Cousteau's films: The Silent World (Le Monde du silence) and The World Without Sun (Le Monde sans soleil) on Saturday and Sunday at 13.00 and 13.30 respectively. Éamon de Buitleár  will introduce both screenings. Éamon is an independent filmmaker, author and has been involved in natural history and wildlife programmes for many years.

Other highlights over the Closing Weekend include your second chance to catch Copacabana (after the first screening sold out) starring Isabelle Huppert and her real-life daughter Lolita Chammah in a very enjoyable comedy (Saturday 27th, 21.00). The legendary Jean-Luc Godard is saying that Socialism / Film Socialisme (Saturday 27th, 17.00) is his last film (we're not sure we believe him!) but come along just in case!

Babies (Bebes) follows four newborns in Japan, Mongolia, Namibia and the US over the course of their first year and was a surprise hit in the States when it went on release. It's beautifully shot and often hilarious, and a perfect Sunday evening film (Nov 28th, 18.30).

Money

If you enjoyed Metropolis back in September, you now have another chance to see it's star (Brigitte Helm) in action in Marcel L'Herbier's classic 1928 film Money (L'Argent), a visually spectacular film based on Emile Zola's 1891 novel about the allure and destructive power of money. A fitting film to watch after all the deliberations about our Four Year Plan!

We hope you enjoy the last few days of the Festival.

Ross Keane
Head of Marketing & Communications