2004 San Francisco Irish Film Festival

Filum 04
San Francisco Irish Film Festival
March 10th and 11th 2004

Delancy Street Screening Room
600 Emarcadero (at Brannan)
7pm – 10pm – $10

THURSDAY – SOLD OUT!!

Filum 04 (a play on the Irish for “film”) is a celebration of new Irish cinema that is achieving international acclaim with movies such as The Magdalene Sisters, Veronica Guerin and In America. Ten full-length features were made Ireland last year. These award-winning features are among the many equally good yet lesser known Irish movies. The mission of the Irish Film Festival is to bring these features, shorts and animations to the film lovers in the Bay Area.

Wednesday – March 10th

Yu Ming is Ainm Dom
(My Name is Yu Ming
Date of Release: 2003
Director: Daniel O’Hara
Producer: Grainne O’Carroll
Total Running Time: 13mins

Daniel O’Hara’s Yu Ming is Ainm Dom won both the Best Irish Short and the Best First Short Awards while Graham Cantwell’s A Dublin Story was second in the Best Irish Short and was also the recipient of the Jury Commendation which led to both films receiving screenings in Los Angeles sponsored by Kodak. Short-listed for Academy Award

——

Black Tunnels
Date of Release: 2003
Director: Hilary Dully Producer
Susan Liddy
Camera: Joe Comerford, Conor O Mahony
Editor: Mary Crumlish
Running Time: 52 minutes

Ireland has one of the highest suicide rates in the world for young men. This bi-lingual documentary explores Irish attitudes to suicide from the time it was met with silence, shame and guilt to the present search for answers and solutions. Why are young Irish men opting out of life in such large numbers? Why is there such an absence of hope in a world that seems to offer endless possibilities? As Irish society transforms from being a traditional, catholic society and becomes a hard- edged, consumer culture the suicide rates, especially for young men, increase dramatically. Black Tunnels explores Irish attitudes to suicide and tries to unravel some of the reasons why so many young Irish men are choosing death over life. Black Tunnels is a co-production funded by the Irish Film Board and TG4.

——

Give Up Yer Aul Sins
Date of Release: 2000
Director: Cathal Gaffney
Producer: Darragh O’Connell
Animator: Alan Shannon
Total Running Time: 6 mins

More than 30 years ago, young Dublin children were recorded on a battered tape recorder as they gave their interpretation of stories from the bible. The story of John the Baptist, is told by a little girl with great passion and an obvious delight in the telling of it… nominated for an Academy Award

——–

HEAD RUSH
Date of Release: 2003
Director: Shimmy Marcus
Producer: Edwina Forkin, Tristan Orpen Lynch
Script: Shimmy Marcus
Editor: Joe Marcus
Cast: Wuzza Conlon, Gavin Kelty, Laura Pyper, Tom Hickey, Maura O’Neill

‘Headrush’ is a crazy caper comedy about two young stoners Charlie and T-Bag, who hope to solve all their problems by working for a notorious Underworld Criminal, The Uncle. Charlie conceives an elaborate scam to smuggle a consignment of Cocaine back from Amsterdam, but as their scam unfolds, a series of comic coincidences begin to unravel their carefully laid plans. The proverbial Fish out of Water story, ‘Headrush’ is a finely smoked blend of action and adventure, comedy and drama, rolled together with the best of cinematic ingredients, providing a truly memorable movie high!

——-
——-
——-

Thursday – March 11th

A Dublin Story
Date of Release: July 2003
Director: Graham Cantwell
Producer: Tamara Anghie
Total Running Time: 14 minutes

This is a timeless urban tale about “Clocker” and “Sanga”, two young street kids whose innocence is starkly contrasted by the harsh environment in which they both live. Short-listed for Academy Award, won the LIM Award for the Best Irish Short and the Foyle Film Festival in Derry.

——-

Valley of Ghosts
Director: Emer Martin
Producer: Emer Martin
Total Running Time: 16 mins

If you don’t record everything, you vanish. Valley of Ghosts is a film about memory and loss in Silicon Valley – the new Wild West. Mary, a laid off high tech worker makes a film for her unborn child whom she is forced to sell to Michael and Sangita, dot com Millionaires.

——-

Guy’s Dog
Date of Release: 1997
Animator: Rory Bresnihan
Total Running Time: 11 minutes

The story of an alcoholic dog who is completely dissatisfied with life and dreams of becoming human, enlisting the help of guy’s pet lizard. But Guy, his owner, is hardly a model human being.

——-

Zulu 9
Date of Release: 2001
Director: Alan Gilsenan
Producers: David McLoughlin, Clare Scully
Total Running Time: 11 mins

Kevin Montford has seen a lot of life, even before he started driving long-haul. He trusts himself to take the right turns, make the right choices. But sometimes life doesnÕt give you the right choices. Sometimes life walks in and walks all over you. Alan Gilsenan has written and directed this tension-filled mini drama which unfortunately captures all too well, a particularly tragic incident in the contemporary phenomenon of asylum seekers. Awards: Audience Award — Cork Film Festival 2001

——-

I could read the sky
Date of Release: July 2003
Director: Nichola Bruce
Producer: Janine Marmot, Nicholas O’Neill
Script: Nichola Bruce, based on the book by Timothy O’Grady & Steve Pyke
Photography: Seamus McGarvey
Editing: Catherine Creed
Cast: Dermot Healy, Jake Williams, Stephan Rea, Roy Larkin, Lisa O’Reilly, Rachel Pilkington, Maria Doyle Kennedy
Total Running Time: 86 Minutes

In Adapted from the photographic novel by Timothy O’Grady and Steve Pyke, this is a film about music, memory, love, identity, loss and exile. Layer upon layer of images create this visually based account of the life of an immigrant. Dermot Healy plays a laborer who has journeyed from rural West of Ireland to the building sites of England.