Cork's 50th film festival got under way with a nostalgic gala opening night at the Opera House, writes Olivia Kelleher
The festival continues today with a screening of The Exorcism of Emily Rose, based on the story of Anneliese Michel, a German college student who believed she was possessed by multiple demons, including Lucifer, Nero, Judas Iscariot and Adolf Hitler.
Homeless people will share their stories this evening as a short documentary film is shown as part of the festival. People Places Things centres on the personal stories of five homeless people in Cork city.
It was entirely produced by residents and service-users of Cork Simon Community - most of whom had no experience of film or documentary-making. They performed all the creative and technical roles , acquiring and learning the skills as the production progressed.
People Places Things also includes poetry and music from members of the homeless community. The director of the documentary, Cork Simon Community's settlement manager Hugh Bradley, says "the word 'community' is used frequently in Simon. This is the most I've seen it in action; not just among the crew, but the way it has worked wherever we went to film: people haven't been defensive - they've been like, 'come in, how can we help, what can we do?'"
People Places Things will be screened at the Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin Street, Cork, this evening at 5pm.
Other highlights of the festival programme include Oscar-tipped Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, starring Joaquin Phoenix, and Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown. This year's festival provides an expanded programme of feature, documentary, animated and short films, all to be shown over eight days.
Documentaries feature heavily in the programme, including GuinnessSize me, Ireland's answer to Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me, in which the American film-maker charted his attempts to live solely on fast food from McDonald's.
In the Irish version, Chris Kelly and Robert James do something similar with Guinness - a week without food living, solely on porter.
The festival is also a platform for Irish film and each year there are premieres of Irish features. There is also a special focus on local filmmakers through the festival's "Made in Cork" programme.
This year's list of features includes Stoned, a take on the life and death of Rolling Stone Brian Jones, and the Morgan Freeman-narrated documentary March of the Penguins.
Beloved Enemy, a 1936 film based on the life of Michael Collins and recently restored by the Irish Film Archive, will also be premiered.