May at the IFI sees a wide range of events throughout the month, with something for old and young alike at the Irish Film Institute (IFI).
Their nine-film season of international thrillers from the 1960s and 1970s, Trust No One, opens on Saturday 12th. Student uprisings in France, domestic terrorism in Italy and Germany, and the Watergate scandal on the other side of the Atlantic contributed to an atmosphere of fear and paranoia that produced classics such as Costa-Gavras’s Z, Fred Zinnemann’s The Day of the Jackal, and Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View. Each of those films will screen, alongside Elio Petri’s Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, Schlöndorff and Von Trotta’s The Lost Honour of Katherina Blum, and Roland Gräf’s The Flight.
The IFI will host the Irish jury of the European Film Academy’s Young Audience Award on Sunday 6th, in association with Creative Europe Desk Ireland. The panel, which has been meeting since last August, will watch the three nominated films, Girl in Flight (Italy), Hobbyhorse Revolution (Finland), and Wallay (France-Burkina Faso), and will vote on their favourite. For the first time, one of the jury screenings, Hobbyhorse Revolution, will be open to the public. A warm and funny documentary from Finland, the film depicts the weird and wonderful sport of hobbyhorse riding, which encourages teenagers in Finland to stand up for themselves through their shared passion.
The IFI’s previously announced day-long look at the cultural legacy of Lady Augusta Gregory will take place on Saturday 12th, while the IFI, in collaboration with Bliain na Gaeilge 2018, will welcome director Bob Quinn to introduce a screening of his first Irish language feature, Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoire (Lament for Art O’Leary), on Thursday 17th. The story of the 18th-century Irish rebel Art O’Leary (played by Seán Bán Breathnach) is used to examine questions of national identity, Irish culture and the nature of history itself.
The IFI’s ever-popular Rock’n’Roll Cinema strand this month features home-grown heroes U2 with a screening of David Barry’s U2: Dream Out Loud on Saturday 5th. The documentary is a conversation between 200 people and comprises a heartfelt collection of experiences from fans representing 25 countries ranging in age from 12 to 72. Their stories bring to life the incredible journey that U2 fans have been on since 1980 through shared experiences of joy, loss, strength and empowerment.
The music continues as the IFI welcomes Boston guitarist/composer Chris Brokaw (Codeine) and Dublin musician Matthew Nolan (3epkano) to present an evening exploring the silent films of the late experimental filmmaker Peter Hutton on Wednesday 16th. Stories from the Half Light is a collection of 16mm short silent films, primarily of landscapes and cities, made by Hutton over a period of 18 years from 1979-1997 and accompanied by music from Brokaw and Nolan. The screening will also be followed by a Q&A.
Partnering once again with Bealtaine @ Temple Bar, the IFI’s strand for the over 55s, Wild Strawberries, will this month include an additional screening on Friday 4th at 11.00. Clint Eastwood’s Sully stars Tom Hanks as Chesley Sullenberger, the aircraft pilot who dramatically landed his damaged plane on the Hudson in 2009, saving the lives of his passengers and crew. Regular Wild Strawberries screenings continue later in the month with Hannes Holm’s A Man Called Ove on Friday 25th and Wednesday 30th at 11.00.
Gráinne Humphreys, Festival Director of the Audi Dublin International Film Festival, will introduce What’s Up, Doc? for May’s Bigger Picture screening on Thursday 31st. In Peter Bogdanovich’s comedy classic starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal, chaos ensues as four identical plaid bags with very different contents are checked in to the same hotel.
With their regular busy calendar of events plus exclusive documentaries A Cambodian Spring and Filmworker, exclusive features Michel Hazanavicius’s Redoubtable and Lucrecia Martel’s Zama, and re-releases of Tony Richardson’s Look Back in Anger and Sergei Parajanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates, the IFI is your one-stop-shop for all things cinematic this May!
Tickets for all the IFI’s special events are on sale now from the IFI Box Office on (01) 6793477 and from www.ifi.ie.