Politics and westerns

THE second West Belfast Film Festival opens a week from tomorrow at Cineworld on the Falls Road and continues for eight days

THE second West Belfast Film Festival opens a week from tomorrow at Cineworld on the Falls Road and continues for eight days. The programme includes a tribute to Maureen O'Hara, whom the organisers hope will be in attendance; a James. Joyce day classics of political cinema, including the complete 320 minute version of Bernardo Bertolucci's epic, 1900, and a new print of Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers; daily morning screenings of movies for children, including Joe My Friend and The Boy From Mercury; and three film making workshops aimed at young people.

A season of westerns with a difference will include Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs Miller and Maggie Greenwald's The Ballad of Little Jo. New international cinema will include Carlos Saura's exhilarating dance movie, Flamenco, aptly programmed with the Stomp team's short film, Brooms; Darrell James Roodt's new South African version of Cry, the Beloved Country with Richard Harris and James Earl Jones; and the offbeat and well regarded Belgian love story, Mannekin Pis.

On the closing day, Augur 10th, there will be a discussion on drama documentaries - Do We Have to Make a Crisis Out of a Drama? which will explore some of the more controversial films made on Irish issues and their effects on the families involved. And the event will close with young Armagh film maker Enda Hughes highly inventive and entertaining The Eliminator, a popular success at the recent Galway Film Fleadh.