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Galway City of Film is delighted to welcome filmmaker Mark Cousins back to Galway for the screening of his new documentary, ‘The Eyes of Orson Welles’. The film will screen at 7pm on August 23rd in An PÁLÁS, followed by a Q&A with Mark, hosted by Declan McGrath.
Places for the screening event is limited and tickets are priced at €5. To book please book through EVENTBRITE.
Executive produced by Michael Moore, ‘The Eyes of Orson Welles’ brings vividly to life the passions, politics and power of this brilliant 20th-century showman, and explores how the genius of Welles still resonates today in the age of Trump, more than 30 years after his death. Parts of the documentary were filmed in Galway city and Connemara, retracing the steps of Welles’ solo trip to Ireland as a teenager.
Welles’s films as an actor and director, such as ‘Citizen Kane’, ‘Touch of Evil’ and ‘Chimes at Midnight’, are among the greatest and most innovative ever made and he is one of the most famous cultural figures of the past hundred years. But one aspect of his life and art has never been discussed; Welles loved to draw and paint and as a child prodigy, he trained first as an artist. A solo drawing trip to Ireland in his mid-teens took his career in a whole new direction. He talked his way onto the stage at Dublin’s Gate Theatre, and instant stardom followed. Yet Welles continued to draw and paint throughout his life, for his own pleasure, and now, for the first time, Welles’ daughter Beatrice has granted Mark Cousins access to this treasure trove of imagery, to make a film about what he finds there.
Cousins travels to key locations in Welles’ life – Ireland, New York, Chicago, Kenosha, Arizona, Los Angeles, Spain, Italy, Morocco – to locate the artworks, and to dramatize some of the defining moments in Welles’ career and personal life. Mark shot the film with two handheld cameras, one tiny HD camera and one 4K camera which gives a new “Steadicam- style” of tracking shot without the need for tracks and dolly. It’s the sort of technology that Welles would have loved, and could only have dreamed of as he spent a lifetime wrestling with the creative and financial limitations of traditional film-making techniques.
In the end, this essay film is about much more than the drawings and paintings. This film is an encounter with the imagination of this great artist, who extended cinema, was profoundly political, engaged with questions about power, existentialism, memory, destiny, filliation, psychology, space and light. These ingredients make ‘The Eyes of Orson Welles’ not only a portrait of a great man, but an account of the 20th Century, and a meditation on the continuing relevance of his genius in what Mark describes as these “Wellesian” times.
Mark Cousins is an Irish-Scottish director and writer. His films – ‘The First Movie’, ‘The Story of Film: An Odyssey’, ‘What is This Film Called Love?’, ‘Life May Be’, ‘A Story of Children and Film’, ‘Atomic’, ‘I Am Belfast’, ‘6 Desires’, ‘Here be Dragons’, ‘Stockholm My Love’ – are about childhood, cities, recovery, walking and cinema. He is currently editing a 22 hour film, ‘Eye Opener’, which looks at cinema from the perspective of women directors.
Galway City of Film had the pleasure of hosting Mark in Galway City on June 21st 2017 for a special screening of ‘I Am Belfast‘, see some photos here from the event.
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Following the movie-making maxim of ‘show, don’t tell’, we’re not going to spend a lot of time waxing lyrical about the past thirty years. Instead, you can visit our 30 Years of the Galway Film Fleadh photo exhibition in Tribeton on Merchants Rd. Or check out our retrospective of award winning shorts from the past thirty years, playing daily throughout the festival, free-of-charge. See early works from Lenny Abrahmson (3 Joes), Brown Bag Films (The Last Elk), Nora Twomey (From Darkness) and many many more.
Looking to the future, you will discover amazing new talent. Of the one hundred and seven feature films playing the 30th Galway Film Fleadh, fifty-five are first features. Twenty-one are World Premieres.
Among them, the atmospheric Magdalene Laundry drama, Cellar Door from director Viko Nicki, whose documentary Coming Home won Best Irish Documentary in 2013.
There’s the masterclass in independent filmmaking that is The Dig from first feature directors Ryan & Andrew Tohill.
And an ode to a particular kind of Irish upbringing in the revelatory Around Here from debut director Martin Beirne.
Speaking of debuts – and continuing the current wave of genre-refreshing horror films helmed by women – Aislinn Clarke’s The Devil’s Doorway is a found-footage horror film set inside a former Magdalene Laundry.
This year, the Film Fleadh debuts a new program dedicated to genre cinema. What the Fleadh?! will showcase independent horror, sci-fi, fantasy and action films from around the globe.
And lest you think we’ve been distracted by the new and shiny, our 2018 programme balances debut films with the latest work from some of our Fleadh favourites. We are delighted to showcase new work from Cathal Black (Five Red Roses – One for Every Syllable of Your Name), Bob Mullan (This Weekend Will Change Your Life) Muayad Alayan (The Reports on Sarah and Saleem) and Madeline Olnek, who marks her third appearance at the Film Fleadh with Wild Nights with Emily and is also the subject of our Director’s Masterclass.
In a milestone year for what was conceived of as a ‘post-colonial film festival,’ it seems appropriate to reassess our relationship with our closest co-production partner, the UK. With Brexit threatening to disrupt existing paradigms of European cinema, we take a look at some of the best new UK fiction and documentary in this year’s country in focus strand, and welcome a delegation of UK producers to the Galway Film Fair to strengthen our spirit of cooperation in the face of division and uncertainty.
Borders and resistance are driving narratives in the current cinematic landscape. Globally, filmmakers are using the power of cinema to speak truth to power. Our Framing Borders programme portrays the real lives of people living within oppressive borders and of refugees seeking sanctuary outside them, in ways the twenty-four hour news cycle cannot.
Our #Resist programme meanwhile, documents the fights worth fighting and the inspiring, everyday people who fight them.
This year we are proud to present a total of twenty short film screenings in our ever growing and increasingly diverse shorts programme. Showcasing the best in homegrown short film, Irish talent and international co-productions from the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Spain, the United States and Pakistan. Our competitive short film programme showcases an exciting mix of drama, documentary and animation, with the winners of the Tiernan MacBride Award for Best Short Drama and the James Horgan Award for Best Short Animation gaining eligibility for Oscar consideration.
The shorts programme provides a platform for established and emerging filmmakers and covers a diverse range of topics. Here at the Fleadh you will find shorts made by students and seasoned directors side by side – from shoe string budgets to bigger budget films.
In addition to screening over seventy short films in a mix of Irish, English and foreign language we are delighted to screen short films funded by the Irish Film Board including the World Premieres of their Short Stories films and IFB Frameworks Animations. Broadening our boarders this year we have invited short filmmakers from across the globe to present their work to Galway audiences. Showcasing three programmes of world shorts and a special screening of shorts from the European Union National Institutes for Culture.
After a bumper turnout last year, we welcome the return of our short film panel for this year’s festival. This panel is dedicated to emerging and established short filmmakers. Following the panel there will be an opportunity for discussion debate and networking for anyone interested in the art and commerce of short filmmaking.
We are proud to present work from Galway based filmmakers in our Way Out West category and we welcome the return of the Galway Film Centre’s One Minute Film Festival. In association with Little Cinema and Galway City of Film we welcome a screening of the winner of the 48 hour film competition. The shorts programmes run every day from Wednesday 11th to Sunday 15th of July.
Welcome to the 30th Galway Film Fleadh. The above is just a sampling of our full programme, visit our website www.galwayfilmfleadh.
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The 30th Galway Film Fleadh have launched their full programme!
Full details on all features, shorts, docs, animations, talks, masterclasses, panels and the Film Fair are available on their website: www.galwayfilmfleadh.com
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Galway Film Fleadh are hosting four Masterclasses this year:
Director’s Masterclass with Madeline Olnek | Thursday July 12th
In association with Screen Training Ireland
Madeleine Olnek is a New York City based playwright and filmmaker. Her debut feature Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same premiered at Sundance 2011. It went on to screen at MoMA and The Viennale. It was also nominated for a Gotham award and had a theatrical run in LA and NYC. The masterclass costs €25 and will take place on Thursday 12th July from 10am to 1pm in the Galmont Hotel, Galway (Formerly Radisson). To apply for a place, contact Emma by email: masterclasses@filmfleadh.ie The closing date for applications is Friday 29th June 2018.
https://www.galwayfilmfleadh.com/project/madelineolnek/
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Screenwriter’s Masterclass with Ed Solomon | Friday July 13th
In association with Gréasán na Méan Skillnet
Ed Solomon began his career in his teens as a joke writer, playwright, and stand-up comedian. He was hired (while still in college at UCLA) as a staff writer on ABC TV’s hit comedy show Laverne and Shirley, which made him the youngest member of the Writers’ Guild at the time. He went on to write hundreds of episodes of television and dozens of feature films, both credited and uncredited. His film credits include the critical and box office hits Men in Black, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, Now You See Me 1 & 2, Charlie’s Angels, X-Men (uncredited), and many others. The masterclass costs €50 and will take place on Friday 13th July from 10am – 1pm in the Galmont Hotel, Galway (Formerly Radisson Hotel). To apply for a place, contact Emma Owen by email: masterclasses@filmfleadh.ie The closing date for applications is: Friday 29th June 2018
https://www.galwayfilmfleadh.com/project/edsolomon/
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Casting Workshop with Maureen Hughes Casting and Carla Stronge Casting | Saturday July 14th
In association with Maureen Hughes Casting, with special guest Carla Stronge Casting from Northern Ireland and Spotlight, we will host ‘Spotlight on Actors’, a unique casting workshop unlike any other, on Saturday 14th July, 2018 from 12:30p.m. to 3:30p.m. PLEASE NOTE: Places on the casting workshop are limited to 30 places. Places allocated on a first come, first served basis – all successful applicants MUST bring an updated CV and headshot with them on the day and have a one-minute long duologue prepared and ready to perform live (no longer than 1 minute). Applicants will also be required to provide a self-tape of their duologue – this can be done by sending a downloadable Vimeo or WeTransfer link or have your audition filmed at Spotlight’s headquarters in Dublin. The self-taping dates at the Spotlight Dublin office are: Monday 2nd July / Tuesday 3rd July / Wednesday 4th July, and there will be a very limited number of slots available for taping in Galway for anyone who is unable to travel to the Dublin office. You must book a slot for your duologue in advance for the self-taping. The casting workshop costs €50 and takes place on Saturday 14th July from 12.30pm – 3.30pm in the Galmont Hotel, Galway (formerly Radisson Hotel). Please also note there is an age restriction on this workshop – applicants must be at least 16 years of age and over. Deadline for all applications is 9th July 2018. For further information or to apply for a place, contact Emma Owen by email at: masterclasses@filmfleadh.ie
https://www.galwayfilmfleadh.com/project/casting-workshop-3/
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Actor’s Masterclass with Andrew Scott | Saturday July 14th
In association with Screen Training Ireland
Andrew Scott is a much-acclaimed Irish actor, who has starred in a diverse array of projects across film, TV and theatre. Andrew has starred in a vast number of successful feature films. Recent work includes Denial, starring alongside Rachel Weisz and Timothy Spall; Spectre from the James Bond franchise; Alice Through the Looking Glass with Johnny Depp, Ken Loaches Jimmy’s Hall, as well as his acclaimed role in hit British film Pride for which he received the British Independent Film Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. The masterclass costs €25 and will take place on Saturday 14th July from 9am – 12pm in the Galmont Hotel, Galway (Formerly Radisson). To apply for a place, contact Emma by email: masterclasses@filmfleadh.ie The closing date for applications is Friday 29th June 2018.
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Galway City of Film is delighted to be taking part in the 12th UNESCO Creative Cities Network Annual Meeting in Krakow and Katowice, Poland from the 12th to the 15th June 2018.
Galway City of Film Director, Alan Duggan will join more than 350 delegates, including 40 mayors, representing the 180 cities of UNESCO Creative Cities Network who will attend the meeting with the theme of this years meeting being “creative crossroads.” Representatives from both Galway City Council and Galway County Council are also attending the meeting.
The annual meeting provides participants with an opportunity to exchange and share ideas and experiences on themes such as creativity and culture for a better quality of life in cities, the impact of digital arts on work and production, necessary changes in consumption and manufacture in the face of environmental challenges.
Jacek Majchrowski; Mayor of Krakow, Marcin Krupa; Mayor of Katowice, and Ernesto Ottone R; Assistant Director-General for Culture of UNESCO will open the meeting.The mayors of UNESCO Creative Cities, including Edinburgh (UK), Frutillar (Chile), João Pessoa (Brazil), Limoges (France), Madaba (Jordan), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Phuket (Thailand), Porto Novo (Benin) and Zahlé (Lebanon), will present their vision of creativity as a wellspring of innovation and sustainable development.
“Culture and the creative industries represent real levers of economic, social and environmental development,” declared Ernesto Ottone R. “By mobilizing very diverse cities, from metropolises to smaller towns, the Creative Cities Network serves above all as a space for exchange and for the sharing of experiences to invent the city of tomorrow. It offers a unique platform to support and enhance local and international actions undertaken by the Network’s members to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
Initiatives to be showcased during the meeting will include, for example, poetry on buses in Seattle (USA), an exchange programme for young creative talent between Asia and Africa in Changsha (China), a creative eco-fabric in Santos (Brazil), and measures in favour of music and social inclusion in Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo).
Launched in 2004 to promote creative and sustainable urban governance, the Creative Cities Network numbers 180 cities in 72 countries focusing on any of seven areas of creativity: crafts and popular arts, digital arts, design, film, gastronomy, literature and music.
More information on the Annual Meeting can be found here: https://en.unesco.org/creative-cities/events/krakow-katowice-host-cities-xii-uccn-annual-meeting-12-15-june-2018
#uccn, #krakowice2018, #creativecities
Galway City of Film and Little Cinema are delighted to announce the details of the launch and FREE public screening events of the Little Cinema & Galway City of Film 48 Hour Challenge!
Making a short film is a challenge enough, but making it in just 48 hours is another level of skill and ingenuity! On the 8th and 9th of June already registered filmmakers will make a short film – write, shoot, and edit – in just 48 hours! The challenge is a test of filmmakers’ wits, ingenuity and ability to work together and make a film in just two days.
Galway City Arts Officer James Harrold will help launch the 48 Hour Challenge at 7pm on Thursday 7th June in the Portershed where each of the ten registered teams will be announced and the public are welcome to attend and cheer on the teams. The Portershed will then also act as the headquarters of the challenge for the duration of the weekend.
Galway’s Town Hall Theatre will host a special FREE public screening of all completed films on the evening of Sunday 10th June at 7pm. The winning film will claim a cash prize of €500 and earn a slot at this year’s Galway Film Fleadh. There will be a line up of wonderful judges; Eibh Collins (short film programmer and festival manager), Alan Esslemont (chief executive TG4), Oisin Mac Coille (director) and Pat Comer (documentary maker).
This screening is FREE to attend but tickets need to be booked at either thelittlecinema.com or www.galwaycityoffilm.com
Galway City of Film worked in partnership with Little Cinema Galway to first develop the first 48 Hour Challenge in Galway in 2017. The inaugural filmmaking event took place across Galway City & County in June 2017, 80+ filmmakers took part over 48 Hours with 10 short film produced. The FREE public screening of the 10 completed films had a sold out audience in the Town Hall Theatre. The selected winning film ‘THE POSTCARD‘ by Liza Bolton and the team ‘Hasty Fellows’ has screened at the 2017 Galway Film Fleadh and has now been selected to screen on Aer Lingus transatlantic flights during August / September 2018.
Do join us to meet this years teams and to see Galway on film!
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