Cork Cine Club: 'Our experience is different from going to a commercial cinema'
Cork Cine Club: Front trio, Steve Broekhuizen, David Gould, and Mandy Collins; rear, John Talty and Jamie Monagan. Picture: Larry Cummins
In early 2010, Cork Cine Club was founded with the goal of bringing independent world cinema to audiences.
Run as a non-profit by volunteers, organisers set out to bring films that were not widely available to movie lovers. Three hundred films and 16 years later, Cine Club is currently into its 29th season, with films from all over the world screened on Thursday nights at Cork College of FET’s Douglas Street Campus.
“We bite our fingernails every season and every season we then breathe a big sigh of relief — OK that went well,” says Cork Cine Club’s Jamie Monagan. “It shows that people do enjoy the experience of coming into the cinema and also, our experience is different from going to a commercial cinema, because there is a sense of community about it. People stand around before and after and we talk about the films.
"We also, for the first film and the last film every season, invite people to come early, and we have complimentary glasses of wine or sparkling water, sometimes a film-themed food, and it's social. We know so many of our regulars by name.”
The Cork club reflects a sense of community fostered by dozens of film clubs around the country, often with the support of Access Cinema, the resource organisation for regional cultural cinema exhibition in Ireland.
Supported by the Arts Council, Access Cinema sources a list of potential films for many of the film clubs around Ireland. Twice a year, Monagan explains, there are film-viewing weekends at locations including Cork International Film Festival, Dublin, Galway and Portlaoise. There are also a couple of screening days during the year.
The great benefit, she says, is that clubs are benefiting from the support of professionals who know how to work with international distributors. Cork Cine Club committee members, and other clubs, then choose from those films based on their programming experience and the previous loves of their audiences.
“We come back from those meetings and we have a meeting, and we choose them, and it's amazing how generally a committee is pretty much aligned in choices,” says Monagan. “We know what we like. We know what our audiences like. We also know about having a mix — we always strive to have that mix.”
Films featured in the current programme include the well-reviewed Irish drama, centred around four estranged adult siblings who come home following their father’s death. Others include the latest from acclaimed Belgian filmmakers the Dardenne Brothers; and Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s which won top accolade the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
“Over the last few years, we’ve gone almost completely digital. We are very lucky to have on our committee two fellows who are both in the film department at College of FET Douglas Street Campus, which everyone used to call St John's Central College,” says Monagan. “Stephen and Dave are absolutely invaluable to us in making sure that the sound is right, the projection is right, that the digital download is tested for 7.30pm on a Thursday night.”
There is a growing appreciation for the cinema club experience among audiences keen to see and interact around stories beyond the mainstream — in the past week alone, two new clubs have been announced. CIFF Selects Cine Club will see Cork International Film Festival curating a monthly series of films at the Arc Cinema.
Debuting later this month, Kerry International Film Festival (KIFF) launches the KIFF Film Club in Killarney. Supported by Screen Ireland, the club will open on March 25 with a screening of Brendan Canty’s highly regarded film set in Cork and winner of Best Film at this year’s Ifta Awards.
KIFF is also involved with the Siamsa Screen Film Club at Siamsa Tíre in Tralee, which was established a year and a half ago. “The Siamsa Screen Film Club was very much born from this desire to be able to screen alternative cinema that might not be getting its opportunity to screen in Kerry,” says KIFF Festival programming director Amy Louise O’Callaghan.
“We’ve got more and more of these amazing films coming out each and every year, not just Irish ones, but also international features. There's an element with Siamsa Tíre where people are encouraged to go into the bar afterwards for chats and build up more of a community. It's a big screen and it's a lovely venue to be able to watch films in.”
O’Callaghan has noticed both differing and universal interests among audiences in the films programmed. “There's definitely a lot of interest around Irish language programming, a huge interest in the recent Ukrainian-Irish documentary that was the Irish submission to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign feature.
“People do show up for Irish language films and we're looking at a wide age range going to these films too. which we screened, was shot down in Kerry and it's very much one for the whole family.”
For Jamie Monagan, who has lived in Ireland for 26 years having moved from the US with her young family with the aim of staying for a year, cinema clubs are a positive experience for volunteers as well as audiences. “It's good to give your time and your creative energy to something that people value and enjoy, I get to go see all these brilliant movies, and we have a really wonderful committee of people.”
- See corkcineclub.com
, March 12, 7.30pm, Cork College of FET: The latest from the Dardenne Brothers centres on five mothers who strive for a better future for themselves and their children in challenging circumstances.
, March 19, 7.30pm, Cork College of FET: US filmmaker Richard Linklater’s ( ) film pays joyful homage to the filmmakers who channeled the French New Wave.
, March 26, 7.30pm, Cork College of FET: A deliveryman and cyclist gears up for a crucial interview in this highly regarded French film.
, April 16, 7.30pm, Cork College of FET: Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s thriller begins in the aftermath of an accident and is nominated for Best International Feature at this year’s Oscars.
, March 25, 8pm, at Cinema Killarney: This new film club kicks off with a screening of the Ifta-winning story of a young Cork man’s search for independence as he leaves the foster-care system.
, April 22nd, 8pm, at Cinema Killarney: Gerry Adams tells his story in a documentary from filmmaker Trisha Ziff.
, April 7, 7pm, at Siamsa Tíre: Fred Astaire and Judy Garland work their magic in a lookback at this musical classic.
, May 5, 7pm, at Siamsa Tíre: Tadhg O’Sullivan’s film, which opens with a woman beginning a letter to an unknown correspondent, features Irish Oscar winner Brenda Fricker.
