Special Events
WOMEN FOLK
Women Folk is set to be a beguiling and magical evening on the night of the summer solstice, celebrating the often overlooked contribution of women in traditional Irish music. It will feature live singing from Rois, Catriona Gribben and Stephanie Makem, the great-granddaughter of Sarah Makem, the renowned traditional source singer and subject of a David Hammond film which will also feature at the event in Rosemary St Church.
June 21, Rosemary Street Church, 9pm; £12/£10.
ASIF KAPADIA: IN CONVERSATION
Oscar- and Bafta-winning director Asif Kapadia takes part in a special ‘In Conversation’ event at Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast, with filmmaker Lisa Barros D’Sa.
Kapadia is one of the most influential documentary filmmakers of his generation, best known for his acclaimed trilogy of films Senna, Amy and Diego Maradona. In this long-form conversation, Kapadia will be discussing his past work and processes, as well as his upcoming project 2073, a genre-bending documentary set in the future which tackles the biggest challenges endangering our present, starring Samantha Morton and Naomi Ackie.
June 22, QFT, 6.30pm; pay what you can.
Irish film
RANSOM ’79
Charlie Bird
Ransom ’79 follows esteemed Irish journalist Charlie Bird as he races to uncover his final story while battling MND. Bird gets a lead about a ransom letter sent to a government minister in 1979 that threatened an act of criminal terrorism that would buckle the faltering Irish economy if its demands weren’t met.
Touching and thrilling in equal measure, the film captures Bird’s remarkable driving force for his work as he is witness to his own degeneration.
June 21, Ulster Museum, 2pm; pay what you can.
ONE NIGHT IN MILLSTREET
Docs Ireland’s strongest gaze falls on Irish film and this is exemplified in the annual Pull Focus competition which celebrates excellence in Irish documentary. It rates One Night in Millstreet, which tells the story of a prizefight between Steve ‘The Celtic Warrior’ Collins and champion Chris ‘Simply the Best’ Eubank in 1995 using archive footage and testimony from Collins and Eubank to set the scene.
June 20, Odeon, 7pm; pay what you can.
BURKITT
A documentary exploring the life of Irish surgeon Denis Burkitt, who discovered Burkitt’s lymphoma, as told by a survivor of this cancer. First-time filmmaker Eanna Mac Cana creates a unique experience combining his personal recordings as an inpatient being treated for Burkitt’s lymphoma with Denis Burkitt’s own astonishing archive of photographs and films from sub-Saharan Africa.
Through this fascinating exploration of Denis Burkitt’s life and work, Mac Cana reveals his own deep personal connection to the man from Co Fermanagh.
In Irish and English. The director will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.
June 22, Queen’s Film Theatre, 3.15pm; pay what you can.
International
THE WORLD IS FAMILY
Documentarian Anand Patwardhan directs a portrait of his parents, whose families were intertwined with Gandhi and India’s independence movement. His view on history extols unity between Hindus and Muslims, a value that needs reasserting in modern politics.
Until recently, it was rare to see homegrown works of non-fiction from India, with the vital exception of Patwardhan, whose explorations of social and political life have earned him both festival awards and government bans.
June 23, Queen’s Film Theatre, 2.30pm, pay what you can.
NO OTHER LAND
No Other Land
The festival’s closing-night film, No Other Land, has won countless prizes at festivals across Europe. It documents a young Palestinian activist who has been resisting the forced displacement of his people by Israel’s military in Masafer Yatta, a region in the West Bank, since he was a child. He records the gradual destruction of his homeland, where Israeli soldiers are tearing down homes and evicting their inhabitants. He befriends an Israeli journalist who helps him in his struggle.
June 23, Queen’s Film Theatre, 6.30pm, pay what you can.
THE TASTE OF MANGO
The Taste of Mango
In this hypnotically cinematic love letter flowing through time and generations, director Chloe Abrahams probes raw questions her mother and grandmother have long brushed aside, tenderly untangling painful knots in her family’s unspoken past.
Abrahams’ award-winning debut feature is an enveloping, hypnotic, urgently personal meditation on family, memory, identity, violence and love. At its centre are three extraordinary women: Abrahams herself; her mother Rozana and grandmother Jean.
This event is presented in collaboration with Reclaim The Frame. A post-screening discussion will take place at Brewed By Them.
June 23, Ulster Museum, 1pm; pay what you can.
MAHCCAN/HOMECOMING
The emotionally broken Sami people finally get back their stolen ancestral heritage. The indigenous film director, Suvi, faces the collective pains and starts to break the outside image of them, not only for herself but for the wellbeing of the whole nation.
Director Suvi will take part in a Q&A after the screening.
June 19, Queen’s Film Theatre, 6.15pm; pay what you can.
REMEMBERING GENE WILDER
A loving tribute to Gene Wilder which celebrates his life and legacy as a comic genius, featuring interviews from those who knew him best. From his first collaboration with Mel Brooks in The Producers to his enigmatic title role in the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to his inspired on-screen partnership with Richard Pryor in movies such as Silver Streak, the film tracks his rise to stardom from humble beginnings. It paints the portrait of a sensitive man who took being funny seriously.
June 23, Ulster Museum, 3pm; pay what you can.
HOLLYWOODGATE
Immediately after the US pull out from Afghanistan, Taliban forces occupied the Hollywood Gate complex, which is claimed to be a former CIA base in Kabul. This base is filled with weapons of war with which the Taliban equip a new combat unit.
Over the course of a year, filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at follows the development of ‘Hollywood Gate’ and provides an authentic glimpse into the Taliban’s rapid rise to power. The film manages to cleverly expose the propaganda games of the Taliban leaders.
June 22, Queen’s Film Theatre, 7pm; pay what you can.
Industry
THE YEAR THAT ROCKED IRISH DANCING
An observational, character-driven BBC Northern Ireland docuseries set in the competitive world of Irish dancing, The Year That Rocked Irish Dancing unexpectedly found itself embroiled in legal complexities when a scandal broke within the community it was documenting. This case study will look at how filmmaker Gillian Callan dealt with the unforeseen developments affecting the project.
June 20, Ulster Museum, 12pm; £3.
ANATOMY OF THE CUT
Centring the integral role of editors in the documentary-making process, this event will utilise the expertise of leading Irish and international editors to discuss the fundamentals of documentary-cutting and demonstrate its essential creative function in non-fiction storytelling.
The event will include a panel discussion, as well as an in-depth case study with Mick Mahon on some of his acclaimed non-fiction work.
June 22, Black Box, 10am until 12.30pm; £8.
NORTHERN IRELAND SCREEN PITCH
This pitch offers the opportunity for documentary makers, from established filmmakers to new and emerging talent, to receive an award of up to £9,000 towards a pilot for a documentary feature.
June 22, Black Box; free event (booking required).
Docs Ireland runs from June 18-23. For more information, see docsireland.ie
