The IFI takes to the road again with Local Films for Local People, an exciting and varied programme of county-specific films presented in collaboration with a range of cultural partners around the country. Now in its third year, Local Films for Local People provides an accessible route for a broad range of audiences to their county’s film heritage which is preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive.
The programmes carry invaluable documents of domestic life, school days, agriculture, industry, sport, music and more. Many of the programmes, which date from the earliest days of cinema to recent times, include ciné-concerts featuring silent films accompanied by local musicians.
Sunniva O’Flynn, Head of Irish Film Programing at the IFI said: “Local Films for Local People engages communities in a really dynamic and rewarding way. Thanks to the combined efforts of the team at the IFI and our partners in festivals and arts centres around the country, audiences come together to experience their county heritage on film, pooling local knowledge and sharing memories of people and places in a process that enhances our understanding of the films in the collection”.
The schedule starts at the Celtic Media Festival, Dungarvan on April 20th with Down Waterford Way, a programme of films about Waterford dating from the 1950s to the ‘70s and including a montage of Amharc Éireann newsreels about herring fishing at Dunmore, winter beagling at Tallow and the 1957 Flea Ceoil at Dungarvan; Water Wisdom, a public information film urging rural modernisation made in Ring in 1962; Louis Marcus’ luminous, Academy Award-nominated Conquest of Light about the craftsmen of Waterford Glass; that All Ireland Senior Hurling victory in 1959; and The One Nighters, Peter Collinson’s affectionate documentary following the road-trip adventures of Waterford’s Royal Showband fronted by ‘Ireland’s Elvis’ Brendan Bowyer. Down Waterford Way is supported by Nemeton TV.
Screening on June 24th, Kerry Kaleidoscope reprises a programme of Kerry-connected films from the IFI Irish Film Archive, which screens at the Carnegie Arts Centre, Kenmare. The programme – which has a particular focus on films made in Kenmare and its environs – dates from the early years of the 20th century to modern times, with films including a recently discovered travelogue of Kerry circa 1934; the Blaskets in the 1930s; closure of Kenmare train line in 1960; holidays in Ballybunion and steeple building in Kenmare in 1963. A highlight of the programme is the recently discovered and meticulously restored Ballycashel Ferry. Directed by Richard Bigham, the film tells the tale of Oxford chums visiting Kenmare in the 1960s with a copper-mining money-making scheme and features a cast of visitors and Kenmare locals.
Tipperary Tales at Damer House Gallery, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary on July 1st presents a varied programme of films which document life, leisure and livelihoods in Tipperary towns and villages. Working with the Roscrea Heritage Society, the programme will focus on Roscrea itself and on farming methods of yesteryear and efforts to modernise farming practices. The selection includes amateur and professional, fiction and non-fiction, sound and silent material: Silent Order (1948) a document of life for the Trappist Monks in Roscrea; Three Kisses (1955) an Academy Award-nominated hurling film with sequences shot in Thurles; Country Magazine (1955) a wet fair day in Borrisoleigh; Amharc Éireann newsreel stories from Holycross, Clonmel, Fanur and Thurles; Leading the Way – A Story of Irish Farming (1964) promoting farm mechanisation and farmers co-operatives, and finally, Tony Donoghue’s delightful A Film from My Parish – 6 Farms (2008) made in Terryglass-Kilbarron.
The IFI will revisit the Galway Film Fleadh (July 5th – 10th) with Yet More Glimpses of Galway, a new programme of local footage, including a Welsh film from 1963 about emigration from the West of Ireland in the 1960s; a rarely-seen English film about a West of Ireland farmer in The Life of Michael Flagherty (1941) and the extraordinary Ireland by Air, a film probably never seen on these shores before about pilot Miss Winnie Drinkwater’s aerial visit to Ireland in 1933. The programme will also include amateur films made in and about the county.
On Culture Night (September 16th), the IFI brings Leitrim on Film to The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon. A programme of sound and silent films includes: De Valera Election Campaign: Drumshambo (1933); Ireland at Home: An Tostal (1953); Radharc: Water, Water (1968) – piped water comes to Aughnasheelin; Lovely Leitrim, a 1970s travelogue; and Songs of the Emerald Isle (1955). The programme highlight is a ciné-concert featuring The Farm below the Mountain (1958), a film made by Scotsman, Ernest Tiernan, on the occasion of his honeymoon in Leitrim with local girl Kathleen (née) Durkin when they visited Carrick-on-Shannon, Drumshanbo and Cornamuckla farm. The film is presented with live musical accompaniment by local musicians Patrick Carayannis, Rodney Lancashire and Seamus Hernon.
On a Clare Day is programme of films with a distinct musical accent made in and about the county and presented at the Glór Arts Centre, Ennis on October 21st. The Memory of a People, a French TV film from 1972, provides a broad sweep of the Irish musical landscape before focusing on the Clare experience and the musical talent of Patrick McCarthy, Willy Clancy and Mrs O’Tuama; My Irish Diary (1996) is a film about a young Danish boy at school for a year in Ballyvaughan; and also featured will be Amharc Éireann newsreel stories. The highlight of the programme will be the presentation of a series of short, silent films made in Clare and accompanied by Ennis-based fiddle avant-gardist and free improviser Eoghan Neff.
LOCAL FILMS FOR LOCAL PEOPLE: SCHEDULE & BOOKING
April 20th – ‘Down Waterford Way’ at Celtic Media Festival, Dungarvan, Waterford.
Booking: www.celticmediafestival.co.uk
June 24th – ‘Kerry Kaleidoscope’ at Carnegie Arts Centre, Kenmare
Booking: www.carnegieartskenmare.ie
July 1st – ‘Tipperary Tales’ at Damer House Gallery, Roscrea, Co Tipperary
Enquiries to: damerhousegallery@gmail.com
July 5th-10th – ‘Yet More Glimpses of Galway’ at Galway Film Fleadh (date tbc)
Booking: www.galwayfilmfleadh.com
September 16th (Culture Night) – ‘Leitrim on Film’ at The Dock, Carrick on Shannon, Co Leitrim
Booking: www.thedock.ie
October 21st – ‘On a Clare Day’ at Glór, Ennis, Co. Clare
Booking: www.glor.ie