Stranger than Fiction Doc Fest in the IFI This Weekend, Sept 26th-29th
Attention doc lovers! The brilliant IFI Stranger than Fiction documentary film festival is back at the Irish Film Institute this weekend, from September 26th to 29th.
Among the Irish films showing is the Cuban Missile Crisis nail-biter Here Was Cuba (Sunday, September 29th, 6.15pm. Post-screening Q&A with directors Emer Reynolds and John Murray); the personal story of a Bergen-Belsen concentration camp survivor, Close to Evil (Sunday, September 29th, 1.30pm. Post-screening Q&A with the director, Gerry Gregg, and the film's protagonist, Tomi Reichental); and the beguiling tale of young sean-nós singers
in rural Ireland, Aisling Gheal (Sunday, September 29th, 4pm. Post-screening Q&A with director Dónal Ó'Céilleachair).
The Festival will have two screenings of short films. The first is curated from Irish and international submissions in collaboration with dynamic short film promoters Eat My Shorts (Saturday, September 28th, 2pm). And later on Saturday will be the world premiere of films from the Reality Bites short documentary scheme, which was funded by the Bord Scannán na hÉireann/The Irish Film Board (Saturday, September 28th, 6pm). This programme features Rebirth, directed by Emile Dinneen; Analogue People in a Digital Age, directed by Keith Walsh; There’s No Charge for the Hat, directed by Shane Hogan; and Last Days of Peter Bergmann, directed by Ciaran Cassidy.
Bord Scannán na hÉireann/The Irish Film Board is also presenting a series of special events during IFI Stranger than Fiction. ‘Connecting with Modern Audiences' (Friday, September 27th, 10.30am) will feature the director of The Great Hip Hop Hoax, Jeanie Finlay. At ‘Building an International Documentary Company' (Friday, September 27th, 12pm), special guest Havana Marking of Sundance-winning Roast Beef Television joins a panel that includes Oscar-nominated animator Cathal Gaffney (Give Up Yer Aul Sins). ‘Breaking into Documentary' (Saturday, September 28th, 11am) will feature a host of leading Irish filmmakers including Men at Lunch's Seán Ó Cualáin, while at ‘Creating with Archive' (Saturday, September 28th, 12.30pm), we will hear from filmmakers including Nick Ryan (The Summit) and Andrew Gallimore (In Sunshine or in Shadow).
Tickets are on sale now. Find the full programme on www.ifi.ie.