Always open to change
Mick Hannigan is the first to admit that the Corona Cork Film Festival needs to keep pace if it is to retain its relevancy. The CEO of the festival acknowledges that, while the event has always been comfortable it its own niche, audience expectations change.
“I think if you look at all types of festival around the country, there is a huge hunger to participate and learn,” he says. “Audiences don’t necessarily want to passively look at a screen and then leave. Particularly with documentaries, we have always strived to have the director present during the screening and to participate in Q&A sessions. Increasingly we need to look at these types of active experiences for our audiences.”
One participatory and culinary experience which is always popular is the Slow Food Gala, which features the film Step Up To The Plate (Entre les Bras). It sees classical French Michelin starred chef Michel Bras hand over his business to his son Sebastian. On the other end of the spectrum, Sminky’s witty animations of animals and exaggerated catchphrases have received over 6m hits on the internet.
“Jason Sullivan is a multimedia student in CIT and it is remarkable how popular something can become if it grabs the public imagination,” says Hannigan. “It is also shows that although there is a myriad of influences out there, people are drawn to their own vernacular language and humour.”
More than 3,000 films were submitted to the festival this year, of which approximately 2,500 were shorts. After much sifting, the 57th festival — which opens on Sunday, Nov 11 and closes on Sunday, Nov 18 — will include 300 screenings, from big budget premières to short local documentaries. Ancillary events include musical performances and workshops for industry professionals, and there will be a tribute to influential film maker Paddy Jolley, who died earlier this year.
Documentaries which deal with local or national issues often draw the biggest crowds, and the screening of 161 Days: The Vita Cortex Workers Struggle, introduced by director Declan O’Connell, will be of interest to many in Cork. Similarly, Skin In The Game, which examines the current financial crisis through the work of a number of Irish artists, is directly relevant to the times we live in.
In the international category, screenings to catch the eye include an investigation of the global waste problem by Jeremy Irons in Trashed; Very Extremely Dangerous, which follows a former rock star turned bank robber on a crime spree across America; and Road Map to Apartheid, narrated by author of The Colour Purple, Alice Walker, which looks at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“A good documentary needs to have the right subject for its audience and a well constructed narrative, but it also needs to be extremely well made,” says Hannigan. “Am An Ghátair (Times of Trouble) manages to tick all the boxes. It tells the remarkable story of Josephine Brown, who agreed to spy for the IRA in 1919 if they kidnapped her son, who was living with her in-laws in the UK. Her contact was IRA intelligence officer Florrie O’Donaghue, whom she later married. As it happens, O’Donaghue was one of the founders of the Cork Film Festival.” This docudrama is also showing on TG4.
Another powerful documentary to look out for, Another Way Home, looks at the issue of mental health, the stigma attached to it and one family’s battle to overcome prejudice. Director Michael Twomey will introduce the screening.
Short films are a staple of the festival and there are a number of programmes running this year. These include programmes from the National Film School, from the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland and international short films and documentaries. Participants range from accomplished film makers to talented newcomers and the result is an eclectic mix of stories and images which will almost certainly contain a few gems.
This year’s festival also sees a focus on Belgian cinema, with four programmes of shorts entitled Love, Mystery, The Daily Life of Belgians and Surreal. “It gives a fantastic opportunity for Irish filmmakers to see what their Belgian peers are doing and provides something new and fresh for the audience,” Hannigan says. “It isn’t always wise to generalise, but Belgian cinema does have an interesting dark humour to it.
“Themes running within the festival are important, and music is an important element within the overall programme,” he adds. “The festival opens with The Great Flood, inspired by the Mississippi River Flood of 1927, and will be accompanied by a live performance by legendary jazz guitarist and composer Bill Frisell.
“The feature Good Vibrations tells the story of a punk record shop in 1970s Belfast, and the documentary My Father And The Man in Black by director Jonathan Holiff recounts the experience of his father Saul, who was Johnny Cash’s manager in the 1960s and 1970s.”
The plots and subject matter of the features are many and varied. The reality of life in a nursing home is realistically shown by The Patron Saints; Hail follows career criminal Danny from Australia as he seeks redemption; Dollhouse from Kirsten Sheridan is a punk style morality tale; Pilgrim Hill looks at middle age isolation in rural Ireland; and Reality follows Neapolitan fishmonger Luciano as he becomes seduced by the promised fame of Big Brother.
The festival will finish with the Irish premiere of Seven Psychopaths, from director Martin McDonagh. Featuring the idiosyncratic talents of Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson and Christopher Walken, it promises menace, blood spattered tension and the minimum of frills as a group of oddball friends tangle with the LA criminal underworld.
“It is obviously very gratifying to see filmmakers like Martin McDonagh and Kirsten Sheridan who won awards at the Cork Film Festival early in their careers move on to greater things,” Hannigan says. “In fact, there are a huge number of high profile film makers out there who started their careers at the Cork Festival, and in these uncertain times their support may well be an important element for the festival in the future.”
* www.corkfilmfest.org
The Great Flood Sunday, 8.30pm, Sun Nov 11
Bill Frisell and his quartet will perform live at the only Irish screening of Bill Morrison’s film, based on the Mississippi great flood of 1927.
Step Up To The Plate (Entre Les Bras) 9pm, Wed Nov 14
The Irish premiere of Paul Lacoste’s documentary on the Michelin starred French chef Michel Bras and his son Sebastian, who prepare three extraordinary dishes together to mark the passing of the family business from one generation to the next.
Tinker Bell: Secret of the Wings 3D 12pm. Sun Nov 18
Peggy Holmes’s film for Disney takes one of JM Barrie’s most loveable characters, Tinker Bell, on a whole new adventure from Pixie Hollow to Winter Woods, where she discovers she has a sister.
Seven Psychopaths 8.30pm, Sun Nov 18
Martin McDonagh made a name for himself in the theatre before turning his attention to film. His short Six Shooter won him an Oscar, and his first feature, In Bruges, continued his love of dark comedy. Seven Psychopaths stars Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson and Christopher Walken. This is its Irish premiere.
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