Last night Underground Cinema announced its line-up for the 5th Underground Cinema Film Festival, to be held in Dun Laoghaire from September 11th to 14th. The festival will feature a host of homegrown talent, Irish feature films and a large selection of shorts from around the world.
The festival opens with the beautiful A Nightingale Falling from directors Garret Daly and Martina McGlynn. The film, which is set in Ireland during the War of Independence, tells the story of two sisters, whose lives are changed forever when they care for a wounded soldier. What transpires is a tragic love story of a household & its inhabitants, caught in the crucible of dark deep secrets. Scannain had the privilege to watch this film recently and can confirm that stars Tara Breathnach and Muireann Bird give wonderful and captivating performances in one of the best looking Irish films in years.
The festival closes with Jeff Doyle’s dark and hilarious Jack and a Ralph Plan a Murder, which sees the writer/director play Jack , a timid office worker, who after being repeatedly bullied by a colleague at work teams up with his imaginary friend to exact revenge.
In between the festival boasts a ton of Irish feature films including Kerri Kutcha’s Maidens of the Sea, Van Poynton’s The Late Men, Michael McCudden’s Sodium Party, Patrick Ryan’s Darkness on the Edge of Town, Tom Ryan’s Trampoline, Ray Hyland’s Riffed, Donal Nugent’s North Circular Road, Michael Rob Costime, Mark Gaster and Brian O’Neill’s How To Be Happy, and the excellent Limp. from director Shaun Ryan. International features include Bittersweet Monday from Jaimie Lee, Indigo from John Hawthorne Smith, Saol from Paco Torres, and Uri L. Schwarz & Jason A. Sankey’s Stories Forlorn.
For the second consecutive year the festival will feature the Underground Cinema Expo. This event offers guests the chance to meet and make contact with some of the film industry’s service providers. The Expo will run from 2pm to 5pm of the opening day of the festival with free admission.
The festival also features various different workshops and panel discussions. This years workshops will be held by Ciaran Creagh, Len Collin, Debs Leonard, Stunt Media Services, Sean MacGabhann, and Paco Torres Admission to all work shops is free! The panel discussion, which takes place in the Laurel Suite of the Royal Marine hotel, features an extraordinary collection of Irish filmmakers, including Garret Daly (A Nightingale Falling), Ciaran Creagh (Parked), Terry McMahon (Patricks Day), Conor Horgan (One Hundred Mornings) and Mark O’Connor (King of the Travellers). The subject of the panel is ‘low budget doesn’t not mean low quality film making’.
Throughout the festival there will be 6 short film programmes with 65 films shown in all, highlighting the best in local and international short film-making.
As if all of that wasn’t enough the Underground Cinema Film Festival has one more ace up its sleeve, with a special 20th Anniversary Screening of Neil Jordan’s Interview with the Vampire. What makes this screening all the more special is the Q&A with Jordan that will follow directly after, with the director looking back of his storied 30 year career.
In addition the Underground Cinema will be bringing their new Drive In Cinema which will be located in the Ferry Terminal in Dun Laoghaire. The Drive In will begin on September 11th and will run throughout the festival and onwards until December 8th .
A champion of emerging filmmakers, Underground Cinema has the belief that no matter what the film’s budget or the director’s vision it’s the filmmakers passion that drives a film. Tickets are on sale now from UCFF.ie