The biggest-selling show at this year's Corona Cork Film Festival, which opened last night, is neither a Hollywood blockbuster nor an award-winning art house film but two locally-produced documentaries about beloved former Cork institutions.
Festival director Mick Hannigan said that demand to see the documentaries on music venue Sir Henry's and on Cork City fans who used to congregate at the Shed end of Turners Cross has been so huge that the festival had had to schedule two extra screenings.
"In all the years I've been working on the festival I've never seen such a demand for tickets. And the people wanting tickets are not your traditional festivalgoers. They are people with warm memories of one or both venues," he said.
"Neither Sir Henry's nor the Shed were particularly salubrious, but they had great atmosphere. It was the punters who made these places and it's the punters who are clamouring for tickets," he added.
Mr Hannigan confirmed that additional screenings of the films Sir Henry's - 120bpmand The Shedhad been scheduled for the Bodega next Friday, at 6.30pm, and next Saturday, also at 6.30pm.
Mr Hannigan was speaking before the festival's gala opening screening of the Coen brothers' adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel No Country for Old Men, which has been hailed by critics as their finest offering since their award-winning Fargo in 1996.
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