IFI Family Festival: Beast Hunt Results announced

Thank you to everyone who took part in our IFI Family Film Festival Beast Hunt. Congratulations to Frances, Ryan and Charlie and everyone else who completed the hunt.

Chata © Chris Judge

IFI Family Festival Beast Hunt Results:

1^st – Frances   12.20

2^nd – Ryan       12.22

3^rd – Charlie    12.23

Other participants: 

Tayler & Lara - 12.30

Elena & Jack - 12.32

Cian - 12.34

Jeff & Julia & Samuel - 12.35

James - 12.36

Keela - 12.38

Layla - 12.38

Mia - 12.40

Maya & Catalina - 12.40

Julia & James - 12.45

Maria & Liam - 12.54

Hugh & Rory - 12.56

Sarah - 12.58

Ashling - 12.58

Holly - 12.59

We would like to thank the amazing illustrator and painter Chris Judge for facilitating the workshop A Beasty Creation, and for his involvement in the Beast Hunt. As part of the IFI Family Festival, we screened his short film The Lonely Beast and Chris' illustrated book is now available at the IFI Film Shop. 

We hope you had fun. See you next year!

IFI Family Festival Team 

August at the IFI

Welcome to our programme for August which includes a focus on films representing the Traveller community, a season of Westerns and the first part of a retrospective on legendary French filmmaker Alain Resnais.

Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In 

The steady stream of strong Irish documentaries continues at the IFI this August with Ian Palmer’s Knuckle, a decadein-the-making exploration of the violent elements of Irish Traveller culture. Accompanying the release is a season of  Traveller films that gives a wider view of the way that the community has been represented, from Joe Comerford’s debut feature Traveller to Perry Ogden’s fine examination of Traveller life during the Celtic Tiger years in Pavee Lackeen. There will be a chance to debate and discuss the cinematic representation of Travellers during a panel discussion with filmmakers alongside community artists and representatives.

Travellers On Film: Southpaw

The IFI Western Season demonstrates what a particularly highly contested genre the Western has become. Alongside popular political films such as High Noon and Rio Bravo, the season also includes a rare screening of an example of the once-popular Eastern Bloc Westerns (or Osterns). Lemonade Joe gives a fascinating insight into how the iconography of the American West was successfully adapted and reimagined to suit Communist regimes.

High Noon

Heritage Week (August 20th – 28th) is traditionally a busy time for IFI National and 2011 is no exception. The Kingdom and I: Kerry on Film is a programme of rarely-seen silent and sound films from the IFI Irish Film Archive which will screen at St. John’s Theatre, Listowel on August 25th. Elsewhere, Willy Reilly and His Colleen Bawn (1920) will screen on August 25th at the Pearse Museum, Rathfarnham, where the film was shot in 1920, and Dublin in the Rare Oul’ Times will return to the Dublin City Public Libraries network.

August has a packed schedule of new releases that include Project Nim, James Marsh’s hotly-anticipated follow-up to Man on Wire; In a Better World, this year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner; and another journey into Pedro Almodóvar’s unique imagination with The Skin I Live In.

Audrey Tautou in Beautiful Lies

There’s also an exciting trio of new French films that include Kristin Scott Thomas in Sarah’s Key; Audrey Tautou in Beautiful Lies; and this month’s French Film Club selection, Eric Lartigau’s The Big Picture. We also honour one of France’s master filmmakers, Alain Resnais, to complement the re-release of Last Year in Marienbad. The season includes early masterpieces such as Muriel and Hiroshima mon amour as well as later films that consolidated his position as one of cinema’s most mesmerising and innovative storytellers.

Sarah Glennie

Director

Cars, rats and cupcakes... IFI Family Festival 2011

Sunday afternoon at IFI, Dee Quinlan is reading subtitles of  Short Tales, our Family Festival short film programme, to an eager and appreciative audience aged between 4 and 8 in the cinema. Outside on Meeting House Square, 20 young artists are waiting for the grand ‘opening’ of their mural,  created under the guidance of expert visual artists Re-Ink-Our-Nation and inspired by Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams. As Diana Bunici, tRTE presenter and our hugely energetic and willing festival patron steps up to cut the imaginary ribbon, cameras click and admiring parents clap at the work their youngsters have put in to transform the construction hoarding. And what a transformation – a quick walk around the hoarding reveals their ideas on viking lives, future lives and what is important to them today. Realised as part of Temple Bar Cultural Trust’s Made in Temple Bar Festival, it’s been a great collaboration.

 

Young street artists and visual duo from Re-Ink-Our-Nation

 

Back inside, we’re just about recovering from having let a few beasts loose around Temple Bar, looking for The Lonely Beast, the character of Chris Judge’s children’s story and animation. Face-painting rules, with river rat whiskers sprouting on three-year-old faces. Said rats had made their first appearance on the banks of the Liffey with Diana, tRTE’s Stephen Byrne, and a handful of young film fans, posing and smiling behind beautiful painted boards featuring the Light of the River characters. The boards, painted by artist Li Aiken were a huge hit – with parents, kids and all posing behind them for photos over the weekend. Li turned her talents to the foyer too and, with volunteer Deirbhle, decorated the place with road markings, bollards and stop signs in preparation for Saturday’s Cars 2 rally - starring members of the audience in their own cut-out cars and waved off by Stephen in full rally mode. 

 

At the preview of Cars 2 

Volunteers truly got into the Festival spirit, and we really couldn’t have managed without the help and enthusiasm of them all –‘old’ hands Lauren, Gabrielle, Scott, Colm, Chloe were back for a 2nd year as well as newcomers: Odhran, who made the steps; Marina, Faye, Hazel, Eoghan, Kay, Michelle, Siofra, Rachel, Breffni, Veronica, Michael, Nicole, all of whom got stuck in blowing up balloons, facepainting, leafleting, minding workshops, running errands, tearing tickets and generally lending a hand - they were an amazing asset to the Festival. The street art was a huge project to manage, and this was made possible by the willingness and professionalism of our volunteer Sarah, who was invaluable throughout the whole event.

 

IFI Family Festival 2011 - one of the workshops

Back to the films, full houses for The Gruffalo and Cars 2, with appreciative and keen audiences for Light of the River, On the Sly and The Crocodiles Strike Back. We’d audiences from Donegal and Skibbereen, who travelled specially for the event, as well as new faces and IFI regulars, bringing young family and friends to experience some of the best family cinema from around the world. ‘Best day ever’ said Beibhin after attending Fergal’s music workshop. ‘Brillant’ and ‘Deadly’ were claymations with Estrella, ‘I’ll give it five and a half stars’ said one discerning viewer after the opening film. And for those who didn’t want a big screen, we set up a Secret Cinema too, with room for four viewers who could sit in the darkened room, with fairylight decor and cushions at their feet. As the lights go down on our closing film from France, On the Sly, stepping outside into the light and frequently bursting balloons, it’s hard not to think that alternative cinema has a great future here, if the openness and enthusiasm of this young audience is anything to go by. 

See more photos from the IFI Family Festival 2011 [here].  

Alicia McGivern
Head of Education

IFI Family Festival 2011 is on!

Summer holidays too long? Then take your family to see some water rats, crocodiles, mice, bears and gruffalos this summer! No, not a long hot day at the zoo but a visit to IFI Family Festival where our programme of films from around the world tell stories about some wild and wonderful creatures – and humans too!

Light of the River

                                                 

Starting with Light of the River, a Japanese animation in the Studio Ghibli style, with an eco-message too. It’s a funny and heart warming story about a family of river rats who are forced to swim upriver to find a new home. Many laughs in little Chi Chi’s adventures and the wise father’s endeavours to save him from sewer rat enemies...

In the Attic: Who has a Birthday Today?

From Ireland, A Shine of Rainbows stars Aidan Quinn and Connie Nielson as a couple who bring  young Tomas into their coastal home. Great performances from young John Bell as Tomas and Dubliner Jack Gleeson as one of the local boys.

When wizardly adaptations have been eagerly awaited in cinemas here, in Germany huge audiences look forward to the adaptations of a very popular book series about a gang of friends who call themselves the Crocodiles. In this latest film, The Crocodiles Strike Back, the friends look like going their separate ways owing to job losses for some of the parents. So they set out to do all they can to stick together, even if that means breaking into the local factory to find out what exactly is going on. ..

RTE presenters Diana Bunici & Stephen Byrne

with young film fans at the launch of the Festival

Oh yes, several of the films are subtitled. But that’s not a problem as we have experienced readers who will read to the audience. And you’ll be surprised when you see how effective this is. Some people describe it as having a story read aloud. Kids love it. Speaking of stories, one of our guests - author and illustrator, Chris Judge - will present his own story, The Lonely Beast, on Sunday morning – before that very popular beast, The Gruffalo, hits the screen. And if that’s not enough beastly business, we’ll be letting a crowd of beast hunters loose in Temple Bar just after the film, led by our Festival Patron, tRTE’s Diana Bunici. Diana will be popping in and out of several Festival sceenings, workshops and events, introducing her favourite film and talking to audiences.

Young films fans at the launch of the Festival

What makes a film festival for young people really different is that it offers a glimpse into lifestyles and cultures from all over the world. None more so than in this year’s very special screening of Wind and Fog by Iranian filmmaker, Mohammed Ali-Talebi, in which ten-year-old Sahand is growing up in wartime. A wonderful film, beautiful in places and truly insightful into a very different life experience. From the other side of the world, Minnie and Junior features in one of our shorts programme, about two Aboriginal children. Minnie just can’t understand why Junior is more interested in fishing than her!

On the Sly / A Pas de Loup 

                                                                              
Our Festival starts with the natural world and finishes there too: On the Sly (A Pas de Loup), showing on Sunday, brings viewers right into a French forest where six-year-old Cathy goes to hide from her parents and finds that living on berries, avoiding wolves and sleeping under the stars is quite an adventure! Fabulous performance from the young actor; a story about being brave, and knowing when it’s ok not to be.

We’d love to see you and your young film fans at the IFI Family Festival.

See some photos from the Opening Night on our Facebook Page.

Alicia McGivern
Head of Education

July at IFI

July looks set to be an extraordinary month of three special directors’ seasons and our annual IFI Family Festival. It’s going to be busy!

Apichatpong Weerasethakul is one of the world’s most exciting and unique filmmakers working today, and during July and August audiences in Dublin will have the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in a major retrospective of his cinematic works at the IFI (from July 16th) and a multimedia exhibition at IMMA (For Tomorrow For Tonight, opening July 27th). Apichatpong came to the IFI in November for a special preview of his 2010 Palme d’Or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, and captivated the audience that night with an eloquent and thought-provoking discussion of his work. We are delighted then to be welcoming him back to the IFI on July 23rd for an in-depth interview about his career with Dr. Maeve Connolly. This is a free event presented in collaboration with IMMA and one not-to-be-missed.

The Tree of Life

There are some great films out this month and prize winners abound. The much-anticipated 2011 winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, The Tree of Life, hits our screens and, to mark the momentous event that a new Terrence Malick film represents, we are showing three Malick classics: Badlands, The Thin Red Line and The New World.

A Separation astounded audiences at this year’s Berlin Film Festival (picking up the Golden Bear) and confirms an increasingly strong position for Iranian cinema on the world stage. Poetry was one of the most memorable films from Cannes last year, and is a powerful and masterful portrayal of an older woman’s struggle to find her place in Korean society; and the master of modern cinema Jean-Luc Godard brings us what he claims to be his last ever film: Film Socialisme.

Light of the River at the IFI Family Festival

The IFI Family Festival opens on July 14th, bringing our young film fans a packed four days of the best films from around the world, as well as workshops and free festival activities in the foyer. Art, music and technology group Synth Eastwood join us again for the opening night with a free spectacular interactive family event followed by the delightful, award-winning Japanese animation Light of the River. Other festival highlights include: A Shine of Rainbows, a family drama set on the west coast of Ireland; In the Attic, a beautifully crafted stop-motion animation from Czech animator Jirí Barta;  Wind and Fog, a heart-rending film about a 10-year-old boy from Iran; and our closing French film, On the Sly, about a young girl’s adventures in a forest. Don’t just come for the films – join us for plenty of fun and exciting workshops, ranging from stop-motion animation, claymation and illustration to a large scale public graffiti art project and an interactive beast hunt around Temple Bar. Each day will be packed with choices for children of all ages. Check online for details of the full programme or pick up one of the festival programmes in the IFI.

And, finally, we are delighted to welcome back GAZE International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival with a special Fassbinder season presented in collaboration with the IFI.

Weerasethakul, Fassbinder and Malick all in one month – only at the IFI!

Sarah Glennie
Director

The IFI at MOMA May 20 – June 2nd

The IFI has now returned to Dublin from New York after a great two weeks at MoMA presenting the film series Revisiting the Quiet Man: Ireland on Film which we curated with Gabriel Byrne.

The two week programme brought MoMA audiences on a journey through a rich and diverse selection of representations of Ireland on film; from Disney’s technicolour extravaganza, Darby O’Gill... to Steve McQueen and Enda Walsh’s stark and uncompromising Hunger. Each film in the series added a very different dimension to the overall question asked by Gabriel Byrne as curator of how Irish identity is represented on film.

John Ford’s iconic portrayal of rural Ireland The Quiet Man was the starting point for the series, with key themes in the film - an emigré’s sense of ‘home’, politics, religion, the role of women in society and Irish identity - informing the selection of the 14 other films. The programme began on May 20th with a special screening of The Quiet Man to a packed audience of over 400 in MoMA’s impressive Roy and Niuta Titus Theatre 1. The beautifully restored print from UCLA meant that we were seeing The Quiet Man at its absolute best – on film and with an audience – very different from most peoples' Paddy’s day memories of the film on TV. The universal response after the screening was one of rediscovering an old favourite, of fully appreciating the film’s greatness for the first time.

Over the next two weeks over 4000 people both discovered and rediscovered great films including In the Name of the Father, This Other Eden, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, The Magdalene Sisters, Kisses and The Dead. Many of the films are not widely known in the US, with some such as This Other Eden receiving their Stateside premiere at MoMA.

The programme was animated by some great discussions with special guests who joined us over the two weeks. Starting with Gabriel himself who discussed his love of the film The Quiet Man with Dr. Luke Gibbons on the opening night, and explained how he saw it as central to any discussion of Irish identity. Two great Irish actors made surprise appearances – Maureen O’Hara via video message to launch the programme at MoMA, and Milo O’Shea to poignantly introduce This Other Eden – his first film role as an actor. No discussion about Irish film would be complete without Jim Sheridan who joined us to introduce Darby O’Gill..., proclaiming this as his favourite film and Disney as a genius, and for an interview with Gabriel Byrne after In the Name of the Father. This frank and revealing discussion, between two people who have done so much to establish Irish film on a global stage, gave a fascinating insight into their motivation to address Ireland’s past in their work. In contrast Enda Walsh (Hunger) and Lance Daly (Kisses) both provided very interesting perspectives on how a younger generation of filmmakers see their work in relation to the legacy left by the first generation of international Irish directors, and the extent to which an Irish identity informs their work.

Milo O'Shea introducing This Other Eden

It was evident from the audience that, collectively, the films offered a unique insight into Irish culture, both historical and contemporary, and challenged previously held perceptions of what it means to be Irish. This is the power of film and the value of preserving our film heritage as it offers a uniquely powerful and accessible tool by which to communicate with both ourselves and a wider international audience.

Many of the films came from the IFI Irish Film Archive and our preservation of these titles creates a rich resource from which Ireland’s story can be told. One aspect of the project that will have lasting legacy for the IFI Irish Film Archive was the discovery in the MoMA archives of the last ‘O’Kalem’ film, Come Back To Erin, an extraordinary film made in Ireland in 1914 and which was believed lost. Thanks to a joint preservation project by MoMA and IFI, it has now been fully restored and returned to Ireland and the IFI Irish Film Archive for the benefit of future generations.

Sarah Glennie
Director

IFI Open Day 2011

We survived the IFI Open Day 2011! With 15 free films on offer and queues running up Dame Street, this year's Open Day was another huge success.

Last year we decided to throw open the doors of the IFI with an Open Day of free screenings as our way of saying thanks for sticking with us during the major redevelopment we had undertaken the previous summer. When Cinema 3 was officially opened, we thought that an Open Day would be the perfect way to celebrate. The response to it was immense. Audiences came in their thousands and all tickets were snapped up within 60 minutes. The staff also really enjoyed the day, giving office personnel a rare chance to meet the audience and be on the front line. So when we debriefed after the event last year, everyone was in agreement that we'd have to bring it back again in 2011.

Shifting the month from February to June, and offering even more films than last year, the Open Day's lead programmer Kevin Coyne pulled together a varied selection of films that really showed the breadth of the ongoing programming at the IFI, incorporating strands such as IFI Family, IFI Stranger than Fiction and IFI Irish Film Archive. Audiences clearly responded to it as we had people queuing outside from a little after 7am to ensure that they would get their chosen tickets. First in line was avid cinemagoer John Egan, who was presented with an IFI Gift Voucher for this dedication!

Sarah Glennie with first-in-line John Egan

Such was the demand for tickets that the queue stretched from the door to Cinema 1, out of the IFI, up Eustace Street and down Dame Street, even passing the Olympia Theatre! Once 11am struck, the tickets began to be given away with Cave of Forgotten Dreams being the first film to 'sell out'. 

Queue up Eustace Street

The day went by in a whirlwind with the foyer constantly busy with comings and goings as people attended the packed-out screenings. We also operated last-minute queues for people who weren't lucky (early!) enough to get the tickets they wanted. If there were any unclaimed seats a few minutes before  a screening started, we made sure to fill them with our patient hopefuls! People were also taking advantage of the special offer on IFI Membership with reduced rates for IFI Open Day.

Queues on Dame Street

IFI Open Day offered audiences the opportunity to be the first to view many films that have not yet been released. We had special previews of Jack Goes Boating, the directorial debut of Philip Seymour Hoffman; Life, Above All, the South African film about a girl struggling to keep her family together; Cell 211, the gritty prison drama and winner of eight Goya Awards; the documentary Armadillo about Danish soldiers in Afghanistan; and the Irish film Sensation which was introduced by its stars Domhnall Gleeson and Kelly Campbell.

Aislinn Ni Uallachain and Mark Byrne get their free tickets

We also had some great classics on offer. IFI Education's Dee Quinlan introduced the IFI Family film Labyrinth featuring David Bowie's Goblin King; Cinemas Manager Peter Walsh introduced two of his favourites - cult film The Honeymoon Killers and Godard's Pierrot le fou; comedian John Colleary, a big Marx Brothers' fan, spoke about A Night at the Opera; Head of Education Alicia McGivern told audiences why she considered Donnie Darko to be the best film on offer at the Open Day; Director of the Kilruddery Film Festival, Daniel Fitzpatrick, discussed F.W. Murnau's silent classic Sunrise; while IFI Curator and author Lee Dunne introduced the IFI Irish Film Archive's slot, the controversial-at-the-time and rarely seen  I Can't . . . I Can't.

The day closed out with two popular films. Cave of Forgotten Dreams, a recent hit at the IFI, was brought back for one more outing and introduced by Professor of Archaeology at UCD Muiris O Suilleabhain who is an expert on prehistoric art.

Submarine

Our other popular film was very divisive amongst IFI staff! The Audience Choice screening... In the weeks leading up to the Open Day, IFI staff all selected their favourite three films of the past twelve months. This list was then compiled into a shortlist for the public to vote for their favourite in an online poll. Different staff members championed their favourite films in short online entries to try to garner support for their own choices, which resulted in a closely fought battle! We're all back on speaking terms now, but Head of IFI Irish Film Archive Kasandra O'Connell emerged victorious (after an exhaustive Twitter campaign!) with her choice Submarine. She happily gloated about her victory in her introduction to the film on Saturday night in Cinema 1!

All in all the day was a great success. Huge numbers poured through our doors and we were delighted to be able to throw open the IFI for free to the public once again.

All the staff put in trojan work to make the day run as smoothly as possible, from the programmers to the café bar staff dealing with the hungry (and thirsty!) masses, to the box office staff who had some considerable crowd management to oversee! And not forgetting the huge numbers of office staff who offered up their sacred Saturdays to come in and help out.

We hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did!

Ross Keane

Public Affairs & Marketing Director