The Irish Film Festival - It's All About Community

The inaugural University of Otago Irish Film Festival will hit the screens at Rialto Cinemas in Dunedin and Auckland this October.

Professor Peter Kuch, the Eamon Cleary Chair of Irish Studies and Director of the Festival, says the programme offers enjoyment and variety. "To my knowledge it is the first time that Irish films have been shown at such a festival in New Zealand."

More than 600,000 New Zealanders are of Irish descent. Professor Kuch says the film festival will provide an excellent opportunity for people to enjoy great films, learn about Ireland's past and present, and build a strong sense of community.

"The films we have chosen take radically different approaches to dramatising varieties of Irishness", he says. "There are eight 35mm feature films, none of which to my knowledge have been shown on the big screen in New Zealand. All are drawn from the Reel Ireland program developed by the Irish Film Institute in collaboration with Culture Ireland."

They range from high-energy films that explore the relationship between images of masculinity and violence in Mickybo and Me and The Mighty Celt: to light-hearted comedy and satire in Spin the Bottle and Goldfish Memory; to films that dramatise social, moral and ethical problems in Adam and Paul, Inside I'm Dancing and Song for a Raggy Boy.

Finally, reality is turned upside down by Short Order, an art-house all-singing all-dancing revenge comedy about food, sex, service and "paying the bill".

The Film Festival will run from Sunday 14 to Thursday 18 October at the Rialto Cinema in Dunedin, and from Tuesday 23 to Saturday 27 October at the Rialto Newmarket in Auckland.

Those who attend on the first night will receive red carpet treatment. For $25 cinemagoers will get their movie tickets, drinks, food and a sociable time prior to the showing of Mickybo and Me.

Professor Kuch says that one consequence of Irish films not being widely distributed in New Zealand and Australia is a loss of community. "The experience I had in running the Irish Film Festivals in Sydney and Melbourne is that it is an event the whole community can enjoy. It not only builds a relationship between the University and the community, but it also brings the community together."

"And it provides a stimulating way for people to keep in touch with contemporary Ireland. It is very easy for an images of a country to ossify into a collection of stereotypes - but film challenges that."

"It is also highly enjoyable to see the films on the big screen, which is where they belong - and to see them with friends and then have a passionate discussion about what you've liked and disliked."

The Eamon Cleary Chair was founded to establish a high-quality academic programme. Irish Studies will come on-line in 2008 with courses in Literature, History, Theatre and Film. It will provide students with the opportunity to study great creative works, investigate significant political, social and historical issues, explore the Irish heritage of New Zealand, and learn about Ireland’s place in the contemporary world.

Information on how to book is available on the Rialto Cinema website:
http://www.rialto.co.nz