Dublin International Film Festival releases Irish documentary line-up

With the main programme announcement just under a week away, the Audi Dublin International Film Festival (February 21 - March 4) gave a taste of their 2018 film programme by announcing this year’s Irish documentary line-up a week early.

Festival Director, Gráinne Humphreys said, ‘This year’s Irish documentary line-up, full of World and Irish Premieres reveals a preoccupation with the tensions between long-held traditions and the contemporary society. These extraordinary films ask questions of what we can treasure and protect, what can be re-invented and what we need to learn to let go of. These profound and searching documentaries give a glimpse of what’s in store when the full Audi Dublin International Film Festival programme is announced on 24th January’.

One farmer’s courageous struggle to maintain a centuries-old lifestyle in the shadow of a huge multinational is traced in the Irish premiere of Feargal Ward’s The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid; the walk of the Camino is re-invented as a Kerry curragh sea journey in the Irish premiere of Dónal Ó’Céilleachair’s The Camino Voyage (featuring Brendan Begley and Glen Hansard); and Paul Duane traces a hypnotic musical journey that brings us to the earliest Western music still in existence in the world premiere of While You Live, Shine.

A less welcome tradition, that of dissident Republican vigilantism in pockets of the North, is shockingly explored in the Irish premiere of Sinéad O’Shea’s much-anticipated A Mother Brings Her Son to Be Shot. The Troubles also reverberate through the Irish premiere of Donal Foreman’s The Image You Missed, which sees the filmmaker grapple with the legacy of his estranged father, Arthur MacCaig, and the decades-spanning archive of the conflict in Northern Ireland that he created.

Each year the Arts Council’s Reel Art scheme, in association with ADIFF and Filmbase, commissions two films that offer filmmakers a chance to make highly creative, imaginative and experimental documentaries on an artistic theme. Receiving their world premieres at this year’s festival in the IFI are Rouzbeh Rashidi’s Phantom Islands, a visceral exploration of the boundaries between documentary and fiction and Niall McCann’s reflective encounter with Irish musician and artist Adrian Crowley in The Science of Ghosts.

Lastly, major Irish filmmaker Pat Collins returns to documentary with Twilight, a beautiful evocation of the end of day, that was filmed over two years in Baltimore, West Cork.

Tickets for the Irish documentaries at ADIFF are available now at www.diff.ie or 01 687 7974.

Season Tickets are also now on sale alongside tickets for the Fantastic Flix young people’s programme, the Paul Schrader season, the Surprise Film, Immersive Stories: Conference and Exhibition, and the silent film presentations in association with the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. The full ADIFF Programme will be released on Jan 24th.

Irish Documentaries at ADIFF 2018 - Full Released Schedule

Saturday 24th February
18.30 The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid Light House 1
Filmmaker in attendance: Feargal Ward

Monday 26th February
18.30 The Science of Ghosts IFI
Filmmaker in attendance: Niall McCann

Tuesday 27th February
18.30 Phantom Islands IFI
In attendance: Rouzbeh Rashidi

Wednesday 28th February
17.50 Twilight Light House 2
In attendance: Pat Collins

18.45 While You Live, Shine Light House 2
In attendance: Paul Duane

Thursday 1st March
18.15 The Image You Missed Light House 2
In attendance: Donal Foreman

Friday 2nd March
18.15 The Camino Voyage IFI
In attendance: Dónal Ó Céilleachair

Saturday 3rd March
18.15 A Mother Brings Her Son to Be Shot Light House 1
In attendance: Sinéad O’Shea