More than 60 feature films and a wealth of shorts and documentaries are set to be showcased in the attractive and wide-ranging international programme assembled by Pat Collins for the 12th Galway Film Fleadh, which opens next Tuesday and continues for six hectic days and nights. Actors Woody Harrelson and Michael York, and directors Stephen Frears and Goran Paskaljevic, are among the international guests already confirmed to attend the fleadh, and the many Irish features and short films will be represented by their directors, producers and cast members. The principle venues are the Town Hall Theatre and the Omniplex cinema.
New Irish Cinema
This year's fleadh is bookended by world premieres of new Irish films. The opening presentation on Tuesday is Steve Barron's Rat, a black comedy written by Wesley Burrowes and starring Pete Postlethwaite, as a Dublin bread delivery man who turns into a rat, along with Imelda Staunton, Frank Kelly, Peter Caffrey, David Wilmot. Selected as the closing film on July 16th is Kevin Liddy's rural family drama, Country, featuring Gary Lydon, Lisa Harrow, Des Cave, Pat Laffan and young newcomer Dean Pritchard. An Irish premiere for Galway is the film of Brendan Behan's The Borstal Boy, the first feature from the theatre director and author, Peter Sheridan, whose short film, The Breakfast, won many awards on the festival circuit. The Borstal Boy features Shawn Hatosy, Danny Dyer, Michael York and Eva Birthistle.
First showcased at the Berlin festival in February, Saltwater is another first feature from an Irish playwright - Conor McPherson, who based the film on his stage play, This Lime Tree Bower. It features Peter McDonald, Brian Cox, Conor Mullen, Lawrence Kinlan and Brendan Gleeson. Already seen at the Cork Film Festival, Fintan Connolly's Flick features David Murray as a young Dubliner whose life is changed when he meets a German visitor played by Isabelle Menke. The cast also includes David Wilmot, Mannix Flynn, Catherine Punch and Alan Devlin. The programme also includes John Stephenson's Irish-made film of George Orwell's Animal Farm, which blends animatronics with live animals.
International Cinema Programme
A strand of new French cinema will include the Claire Denis movie, Beau Travail, set among a French Foreign Legion unit; Sam Karman's Kennedy et Moi with Jean-Pierre Bacri and Nicole Garcia; Un Pont Entre Deux Rives, co-directed by Gerard Depardieu (who stars in the film with Carole Bouquet) and Fred Auburtin; Phillippe Garell's La Vent de la Nuit, starring Catherine Deneuve; and fresh from its critically acclaimed launch at Cannes in May, Dominik Moll's stylish and intriguing Harry, He's Here to Help, starring Sergi Lopez.
The diverse international programme includes the European premiere of Kevin Jordan's well-regarded US indie, Goat on Fire and Smiling Fish, along with Abbas Kiarostami's The Wind Will Carry Us (Iran), Louis Belanger's Post Mortem (Canada), Nora Hoppe's The Crossing (Netherlands), and Eric Valli's Nepalese film, Himalaya (aka Caravan), which was nominated for the Oscar for best foreign-language film this year.
The Stephen Frears film of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, starring John Cusack as the music-obsessed thirtysomething protagonist, will also be screened, as will the recontructed version of the late Donald Cammell's Wildside and Icelandic director Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's schizophrenia drama, Angels of the Universe.
Goran Paskaljevic
The Yugoslavian director will be present for the fleadh's focus on his work which includes the award-winning recent drama, The Powder Keg (aka Cabaret Balkan), set over one turbulent night in Belgrade in 1995, along with And the Days Are Passing (1979) Special Treatment (1980), and Some- one Else's America (1994).
Paskaljevic will give a workshop for directors at the Town Hall Theatre on July 16th at 11 a.m.
International Documentary Programme
The selection includes Ron Mann's Canadian Grass, a history of recreational marijuana use in the late 20th century, which is narrated by Woody Harrelson; Kevin Macdonald's riveting, Oscar-winning One Day in September; Deborah Hoffman and Frances Reid's powerful Long Night's Journey Into Day, which examines the stories of human suffering behind the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa; and Barbara Kopple's A Conversation with Gregory Peck featuring footage from the 84year-old actor's touring one-man show and clips from key films in his career.
New Irish Documentaries
New Irish documentaries on the programme will include Sinead O'Brien's Brian Friel, Se Merry Doyle's Alive Alive O, Shimmy Marcus's Aidan Walsh - Master of the Universe, Steve Woods's Estella, Ian Graham's The Trials of Ulysses, Liam McGrath's Ahead of the Class, Donal Haughey's Tales From Townland, and Peter Canning's Patrick Carey - Film-Maker, which celebrates the life and work of the Dublin-born cameraman and director who died in 1993.
Films And Nature/Patrick Carey Retrospective
Three of Patrick Carey's films, Errigal, Waves, and the Oscar-nominated Yeats Country, will be shown as part of the fleadh's programme on the theme of nature, which also will include the Greek film Earth and Water, the Iranian The Colour of Paradise and Terrence Malick's superb 1978 film, Days of Heaven.
New Short Films
This year's shorts showcase sets a new fleadh record with 58 films selected. It includes four programmes of short fiction films and one programme of short documentaries, all of which will be screened between July 13th and 16th. Awards, to be determined by the viewing audience, will be presented in the following categories: Best First Short, Best Short Documentary and the Tiernan McBride Award for Best Irish Short. There is also an award for Best Short Animation.
The awards will be announced at 5.30 p.m. on July 16th at the Town Hall Theatre.
The Fleadh Public Interview: Brendan Gleeson
The prolific Irish actor will discuss his varied film career in Irish films such as I Went Down, The General, Saltwater (which is showing in Galway) and Wild About Harry, E television production, The Treat, and in the his Hollywood movies, Lake Placid and Mission Impossible II, and playing Michael Collins in the RTE television production, The Treat.
The Town Hall Theatre, July 16th, 5 p.m.
Directors' Masterclass
This year it will be given by the versatile English film-maker, Stephen Frears, whose work includes two Roddy Doyle adaptations, The Snapper and The Van, along with such notable films as My Beautiful Laundrette, The Hit, Dangerous Liaisons, The Drifters and his latest production, High Fidelity.
Victoria Hotel, July 14th, 2 p.m.
Actors' Masterclass
The presenter is Woody Harrelson, one of the few US actors who successfully made the transition from television (the Cheers series in his case) to feature films. Even more surprising has been his willingness to move from innocuous comedy to provocative material such as Natural Born Killers (which has a free late-night screening in Galway on July 14th), The People vs. Larry Flynt, Welcome to Sarajevo and Kingpin.
Victoria Hotel, July 15th, 10 a.m.
The Fleadh Debate
This year's theme is The Future of The Creative Documentary. It will be chaired by Hugh Linehan of The Irish Times and the panel will include Kevin Dawson from the Independent Productions Unit at RTE, independent film-maker Alan Gilsenan and producer Catherine Tiernan.
Town Hall Theatre, July 13th, 4 p.m.
Forum: Screening Art?
Five short films will be shown - Joe Comerford's Waterbag, Clare Langan's Forty Below and Footlight, and Paddy Jolley's The Drowning Room and Seven Days 'Til Sunday - after which the three film-makers and IMMA director Declan McGonagle will engage in a discussion on the relationship between art and film. In the chair is Sheila Pratschke, director of the Film Institute of Ireland.
Town Hall Theatre, July 14th, 4.30 p.m.
Seminar On Drama In Irish
Do the challenges of producing drama in Irish hide the opportunities within? Does a different language demand a different perspective? These questions and others will be explored by a panel including Anne McCabe, commissioning editor for drama at TG4, and writer-director Paul Mercier. It will be preceded by a screening of Owen McPolin's new TG4 drama, Tri Sceal.
Town Hall Theatre, July 14th, 2.30 p.m.
The Fleadh Fair
The EU-backed Fleadh Fair, which runs over three days (July 14th to 16th), gives Irish and European film-makers a rare opportunity to meet and pitch international producers, financiers and distributors.
For further information contact: Galway Film Fleadh, Cluain Mhuire, Monivea Road, Galway. Tel: 091-751655. e-mail: gafleadh@iol.ie
