Belfast Film Festival
BELFAST FILM FESTIVAL 11 - 20 APRIL 2019 th
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Dawn of the anthropocene
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OUR FUNDERS
ACCOMMODATION PARTNER
VENUE PARTNERS
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OFFICIAL MEDIA PARTNERS
INTRODUCTION Welcome to the 19th Belfast Film Festival, this year’s programme brings films from 34 countries around the world and includes 90 features, 80 short films and an exciting range of guests, special events and virtual reality work. With a recharged focus on inclusion, we start this year with a new five-year ‘cultural diversity in film’ project. As part of this initiative we have gathered some incredible stories to spotlight Polish, Chinese and Indian film. We are honoured that Aamir Khan, an exciting and truly inspiring figure in Indian film will join us in Belfast on his first ever trip to Ireland. Local talent shines brightly on opening night in the premiere of Shelly Love’s accomplished directorial debut ‘A Bump Along the Way’, which stars Bronagh Gallagher in a tour de force central performance; The exhilarating and beautiful ‘Beats’ by Brian Welsh is our closing film; Other highlights include an ‘in conversation’ with Oscar nominated Irish director Lenny Abrahamson; a series of brilliant new Irish features including Carmel Winters’ ‘Float Like a Butterfly’; ‘Dark Lies the Island’; and ‘Papi Chulo’, John Butler’s new film; the University of Atypical put disability rights and activism centre stage in ‘Atypical Shorts’; Strictly Ballroom is in the Titanic Hotel Ballroom; there’s the Pop-up Puppet cinema; and an unmissable ‘all female’ live read version of Glengarry Glen Ross. It’s tough to pick a top 3 films ‘The Angel’ exquisite, funny and highly disturbing; ‘Worlds of Ursula Leguin’ a pure gem of a film; ‘Eighth Grade’ understated, heart-aching brilliance and ‘Gloria Bell’ starring the brilliant Julianne Moore. Our Outstanding Contribution to film award will this year be presented to the exceptional talent that is BAFTA winning actor, Robert Carlyle. Robert will participate in a number of events including a public Q&A. A big thank our funders and sponsors, and a special thanks to you our community of film lovers who, like us, believe in the transformative power of film. Without you all none of this would be possible. We hope you enjoy the 19th film festival and I look forward to bumping into you in a darkened room in April. Michele Devlin. Festival Director Belfast isn’t the most glamorous city in the world but, with your help, we could be one of the most movie-loving. We’ve always been devotees of film. The Troubles held us down, but then we bounced back. We can bounce higher still. The Belfast Film Festival is part of that. We’ve got striking films, and some of the great people in cinema will visit. Lenny Abrahamson is a jewel of a filmmaker. Robert Carlyle cut a path through the movies, with films like Trainspotting, the Bond movie The World is Not Enough, The Full Monty, Summer - which he’s chosen to show here - and the great TV series Once Upon a Time. And the Indian movie icon Aamir Khan has made film matter. His reach is massive and his cinema makes you feel alive. Lenny, Robert and Aamir could go to any film festival in the world, but they’ve chosen to come to ours. What an honour. What a sign that we’re going places. Let’s raise the roof for them, for our other filmmakers, and for our city in transition. Mark Cousins. Festival Chairperson
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The Belfast Film Festival Team Film Spirit Animals...
Michele Devlin
Stephen Hackett
VITTORIA CAFOLLA
LAURA MCKEOWN
MARY LINDSAY
Caoilfhionn MacEoin-Manus
FESTIVAL DIRECTOR
FESTIVAL PROGRAMMER
FESTIVAL MANAGER
FINANCE manager
MARKETING MANAGER
MARKETING INTERN
ROSE BAKER
STUART SLOAN
ASSISTANT PROGRAMMER
MAYSLES ASSISTANT DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMER PROGRAMMER
Rebekah Davis
JASON MILLS
NEIL JACQUES
Marko Truyen
MARKETING ASSISTANT
VENUE MANAGER
VENUE MANAGER
Guest Services Manager
Simeon Costello
Roisin Geraghty
Richard Davis
Box Office Manager
events Co-ordinator
Volunteer Co-ordinator
BOARD MEMBERS
PATRONS
KEVIN JACKSON BRIAN HENRY MARTIN LOUSIE O MEARA MARK COUSINS LAURENCE MCKEOWN CAHAL MCLAUGHLIN LISA BARROS D’SA YAN LIU
STEPHEN REA TERRY GEORGE DAVID HOLMES PAT MURPHY WILLIAM CRAWLEY WEBSITE DESIGN LADYGEEKGEEK PROGRAMME DESIGN STEPHEN HACKETT
Due to its impending closure, 2019 will be our last year at the Movie House, Dublin Road. It is with sadness that we bid a fond farewell to the place that has been a much loved festival venue for the past 20 years. We will cherish our memories of opening nights, special events and packed houses there. A heartfelt thank you to Michael and his staff team especially Nuala Stewart, Teri Kelly, Hugh Brown, Tamara and Peter. John Cusack with Brian Henry Martin at the Moviehouse, Dublin Road in 2017. 4
book tickets In Person:
Please Note: When booking online or in person at Visit Belfast you will not receive a physical ticket. You will receive a booking confirmation email with a link to download your tickets. You can choose to download your tickets and print at home or bring along your confirmation email. Both will guarantee entry into the event. Save paper and download to your phone.
Refunds: The Belfast Film Festival can only refund money or exchange tickets for screenings that are cancelled. For more information on the festival contact us on 02890325913 or email: info@belfastfilmfestival.org
Visit Belfast 9 Donegall Square North, Belfast., BT1 5GJ Monday to Saturday: 9.00am to 5.30pm. Sundays 11.00am to 4.00pm At Festival Venues: from half hour before screening or event time.
Or Telephone: +44 (0) 28 9024 6609
Book Online: www.belfastfilmfestival.org
www.facebook.com/BelfastFilmFestival
@BelfastFilmFes1
Belfastfilmfestival
Our Address is: Belfast Film Festival. 23 Donegall Street, Belfast. BT1 2FF. Northern Ireland For General Information call us on: 028 90325913
FESTIVAL PASS ONLY ÂŁ60 Enjoy 11 days of screenings in a variety of venues across the city including; the very best new cinema. As a pass holder for the 19th Belfast Film Festival you will be able to select and book films in a few easy steps.
BOOK YOUR PASS AT WWW.BELFASTFILMFESTIVAL.ORG 5
Proud to be a funder of the Belfast Film Festival
www.northernirelandscreen.co.uk
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Our Venues AND TEAM BEANBAG CINEMA
QUEENS FILM THEATRE
5 Exchange Place. Belfast BT5 2FF TEL: 028 9032 5913 www.belfastfilmfestival.org
20 University Square. Belfast BT7 1PA Box office: 028 9097 1097 www.queensfilmtheatre.com
STRAND ARTS CENTRE THE BLACK BOX Cathedral Quarter. 18-22 Hill Street. Belfast BT1 2LA TEL: 028 9024 4400 www.blackboxbelfast.com
MOVIEHOUSE- DUBLIN ROAD 14 Dublin Road. Belfast BT2 7HN Box office: 0333 001 5151 Manager’s Office: 028 9075 3300 www.moviehouse.co.uk
AMERICAN BAR 65-65A Dock Street. Belfast BT15 3AF TEL: 028 9074 3964 HOURS: Mon-Thurs: 12PM-12AM Fri-Sat: 12PM-1AM Sun: Closed www.americanbar.com
152-154 Holywood Road. Belfast BT4 1NY Box office: 028 9065 5830 www.strandsartscentre.com
WATERFRONT HALL 2 Lanyon Place. Belfast BT1 3WH Box office: 028 9033 4455 www.waterfront.co.uk
SONIC ARTS RESEARCH LAB Cloreen Park Belfast.
BFF BOX OFFICE STAFF Kevin Conaghan, Lucie Rae Cullinane, Andrew Henry, Pamela Jackman, Andrea Kerns, Lynsey King, Louise Parker, Lauren McCune, Laura Murray, Anne Quinn, Kathy Young, BFF19 VOLUNTEERS Francesca Baker, Charlotte Clarke, Anna Clavé, Beth Dillon, Christopher Donnelly, Nicole Duddy, Jonathan Dugan, Edel Egan , John Gorley, Sanjay Ghosh, James Hall, Dessie Havlin, Aisling Kerr, Amie Martin, Chloe McAdam, Jamie McBrien, Conor Murray, Gavin O’Connor Clarke, Owen Young.
All our venues have disabled accesS, But if you have any special requirements you would like to discuss, just give us a call on 028 9032 5913 8
CONTENTS PAGE 10
OPENING/CLOSING PREMIERES
PAGE 12
AAMIR KHAN
PAGE 16
NEW CINEMA
PAGE 34
ALTERED STATES
PAGE 46
TALKING FILM
PAGE 56
SPECIAL EVENTS
PAGE 66
TV EYE
PAGE 72
TWISTED CORNEA
PAGE 80 REWIND PAGE 86
NI INDEPENDENTS
PAGE 92
SHORT FILM COMPETITION
PAGE 101
AT A GLANCE GUIDE
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Opening Night Gala
DIRECTOR: MARK COUSINS 2015, 84 MINS.
A Bump Along the Way MOVIE HOUSE, DUBLIN RD. .THURSDAY 11H APRIL. 7.00PM. £7.50
Written by Tess McGowan, directed by Shelly Love and produced by Louise Gallagher, the film centres around the awkward relationship between immature mum Pamela and disapproving daughter, Allegra. Starring Bronagh Gallagher as the lead, alongside Lola Petticrew, the two central performances are powerful and heartfelt. When Pamela becomes pregnant following a drunken one-night stand, the relationship between mother and daughter is put to the test. Equal parts funny and poignant, this film’s strength lies in the universality of it’s story- which is beautifully told and shot. With a wonderful supporting cast including Mary Moulds, Dan Gordon, Andrew Doherty, Gerard Jordan, Paddy C. Courtney, Dylan Reid and Zara Devlin. Developed through Northern Ireland Screen’s New Talent Focus scheme with Lottery funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
DIRECTOR: SHELLEY LOVE, 90 MINUTES, 2019. NORTHERN IRELAND. BFF REC 12ARCERLAND.
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Closing Night Gala
DIRECTOR: MARK COUSINS 2015, 84 MINS.
BEATS MOVIE HOUSE, DUBLIN RD. .SATURDAY 20TH APRIL. 7.00PM. £7.50
A universal story of friendship, rebellion and the irresistible power of gathered youth. Set to a soundtrack as eclectic and electrifying as the rave scene it gave birth to, Beats is a story for our time. 1994, a small town in central Scotland. Best mates Johnno and Spanner, despite being total opposites, have a deep bond. Now on the cusp of adulthood, life is destined to take them in different directions – Johnno’s family are moving him to a new town and a better life, leaving Spanner behind to face a precarious future. But this summer is going to be different for them, and for the country. The explosion of the free party scene and the largest countercultural youth movement in recent history is happening across the UK. Filmed in black and white, Beats finds real poignancy in the bond between these two innocents as they enter a wonderland of rebellion and romance. A heady solidarity is forged in the sweaty bodies, casual encounters and carefree exuberance of youth gathered in the pursuit of a good time. While director Brian Welsh’s earlier work, particularly In Our Name, had a kinship with the empathetic naturalism of Ken Loach, the crackling anarchy and wryly observed youth culture of Beats, which was executive produced by Steven Soderbergh, feels closer in tone to the work of Shane Meadows. SCREEN DAILY
In association with AVA Festival
DIRECTOR: BRIAN WELSH, 102 MINUTES, 2018. SCOTLAND. CERT 18.
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Aamir Khan
DIRECTOR: MARK COUSINS 2015, 84 MINS.
Belfast Film Festival is delighted to welcome Aamir Khan, award-winning director, critically acclaimed actor and producer, for his first ever visit to Ireland to attend the festival. Aamir Khan’s prolific career covers over thirty years in film and his popularity reaches across India, China and the West. “Many of us fell in love with film because of big-hearted movies like ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and Tom Hanks’ ‘Big’. That’s the sort of film that Aamir Khan makes. His epic entertainments have the spirit of Frank Capra movies; he draws on the best of Hindi film. He uses his stardom as boldly as Jane Fonda. We are honoured that he will come to the Belfast Film Festival. If you haven’t seen Aamir Khan’s films, treat yourself!” Mark Cousins, Chair of Belfast Film Festival. During the festival Aamir Khan will take part in a public conversation and we will screen a selection of his films.
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AAMIR KHAN IN CONVERSATION THE WATERFRONT HALL . TUESDAY 16TH APRIL. 7.45PM. £12.00
Aamir Khan will take part in a public conversation at the Waterfront Hall, Belfast. With each of his successive films, Khan has attracted legions of additional fans and simultaneously shattered previous box office records. His pictures are not just commercially popular, they’re also critically successful. His 2016 biopic ‘Dangal’ showing as part of the festival, is the highest grossing film, in Indian cinema, of all time. From playing a wrestler (Dangal) to a farmer (Lagaan), to a man faced with the horrors of partition (Earth), Aamir Khan is nothing if not versatile, he brings an authenticity to the screen which has made him one of the leading actors of his generation. The evening will be hosted by Nasreen Munni Kabir, author of 17 books on Hindi cinema, Nasreen has made over 80 TV programmes on Indian film for C4 and continues to curate Channel 4’s annual Indian film season.
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3 IDIOTS
Dhobi Ghat
MOVIE HOUSE.FRIDAY 12TH APRIL. 6.00PM. £6.50/£4
MOVIE HOUSE . SATURDAY 13TH APRIL. 6.00PM. £6.50/£4
Two friends embark on a quest for a lost buddy. On this journey, they encounter a long forgotten bet, a wedding they must crash, and a funeral that goes ridiculously out of control. 3 Idiots charts the japes and scrapes of three students at India’s top engineering university. Along the way, this coming-of-age comedy addresses ‘ragging’ (initiation rituals), the intense pressure to excel in education, student suicide and the tension between the ambitions of students and their parents. 3 Idiots was a huge hit and confirmed Aamir Khan as the master of balancing good old-fashioned family entertainment with meaningful messages. Aamir Khan is stupendous as the rule-breaker Rancho. But the rest of the cast doesn’t remain in the shadows.… The Times of India
DIRECTOR: RAJKUMAR HIRANI. YEAR: 2009. RUNTIME: 172 MINUTES. CERT 12AR
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In this intimate drama, circumstances draw together four people from different castes-which would normally preclude them from forming friendships. Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries) is the story of four people from very different backgrounds, whose worlds intersect and leave them forever altered. As they find themselves drawn into compelling relationships, the city finds its way into the crevices of their lives, separating them even as it brings them closer... Fragments of their experience- seen through a naïve video diary, black and white photographic images and painting- form a portrait of Mumbai and its people, bound together as they journey through longing, loneliness, loss and love. The Film is directed by Kiran Rao, Aamir Khan’s wife.
This is still a love story, both for the city of Mumbai and for the kind of love that is as unaccounted for as it is freely given. Georgia Straight
DIRECTED BY: KIRAN RAO. 2011. RUNTIME: 102 MINUTES. CERT 12AR
Dangal
Taare Zameen Par
MOVIE HOUSE . SUNDAY 14TH APRIL. 6.00PM. £6.50/£4
MOVIE HOUSE .MONDAY 15TH APRIL. 6.00PM. £6.50/£4
Dangal (‘Wrestling’) revolves around the extraordinary life of Mahavir Singh, an ex-wrestler who is forced to give up his dreams of winning gold for India in international wrestling due to lack of financial support. He resolves to train his future son to one day represent India in his passion sport. But destiny had other plans. Over two decades, Mahavir’s faith in his dream dwindles as he is blessed with four children, all girls. But when his eldest daughter Geeta, aged 14 and his second daughter Babita, aged 12, bash up a group of boys from the neighborhood during an eve-teasing incident, Mahavir realizes his girls have the same talent he was born with. With hope restored, Mahavir relentlessly pursues his goal of transforming his daughters into world-class wrestlers. Forcing them to train with the village boys, Mahavir inspires them to fight to win despite the odds and to go for gold, no matter what.
DIRECTOR: NITESH TIWARI 2016. INDIA.169MINS. CERT PG.R
Ishaan, a student who has dyslexia, cannot seem to get anything right at his boarding school. Soon, a new unconventional art teacher, Ram Shankar Nikumbh (Aamir Khan), helps him discover his hidden potential. In an adult world where colours, fish and dogs are nowhere near as important as homework, top marks and neatness - Ishaan fights to understand and be appreciated. Constantly embroiled in mischief, his stern father and doting mother despair at his inability to match up to his swotty brother. Facing expulsion, Ishaan is shifted to a boarding school in an attempt to instill some discipline in him. But it is here that his vivid imagination is recognised by art teacher Ram Shankar Nikumbh, who sets about helping Ishaan discover himself. On the whole, Taare Zameen Par touches your heart and moves you deeply with its sterling performances. An inspirational story that is as emotive as it is entertaining. BBC.COM
DIRECTED BY: AAMIR KHAN 2007. 165MINS. CERT PG.R.
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new cinema Our choice of the best international cinema
Please Note: Not all of the new cinema screenings in our programme have been certified by the BBFC as yet. Therefore Belfast Film Festival have suggested a provisional cert based on content.
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SOMETIMES ALWAYS NEVER QUEENS FILM THEATRE. sunday 14th APRIL. 6.00PM. £6.50/£4
Bill Nighy, Sam Riley and Alice Lowe star in this stylish and heartfelt comedy-drama about a Scrabble-obsessed tailor searching for a lost son. Sharp of suit and vocabulary, Bill Nighy is winningly deadpan as Scrabble-obsessed Merseyside tailor Alan, whose eldest son Michael stormed out of the house after a particularly heated round of the popular board game, never to return. Years later, Alan and his other son Peter (a sensitive turn by Sam Riley) continue the search while trying to repair their own strained relationship. Working from a typically witty and astute script by veteran screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce (24 Hour Party People), director Carl Hunter deploys a vivid visual style and striking production design to capture the shifting moods of a family who know plenty of words but struggle to communicate. A triple score-worthy supporting cast includes Alice Lowe, Jenny Agutter and Tim McInnerny. Finally, a story about the beautiful game that isn’t boring or dependent on stereotypical ideas of its players. Yes, I’m talking about Scrabble. Carl Hunter’s delightful film is witty and moving, with a superb Bill Nighy as a quietly heartbroken father. Cineuropa This film is a distinct, articulate pleasure. Peter Bradshaw Guardian
DIRECTOR: CARL HUNTER. RUNTIME: 91 MINUTES, 2018. COUNTRY: UK. CERT 15.
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HEAVY TRIP
Madeline's Madeline
QUEENS FILM THEATRE.wednesday 17TH APRIL.6.30PM. £6.50/£4
QUEENS FILM THEATRE.thursday 18TH APRIL.7.30PM. £6.50/£4
Turo is stuck in a small Finnish village where the best thing in his life is being the lead vocalist for the amateur metal band Impaled Rektum. The only problem? He and his bandmates have practiced for 12 years without playing a single gig. The guys get a surprise visitor from Norway, the promoter for a huge heavy metal music festival and decide it’s now or never. They steal a van, a corpse, and even a new drummer in order to make their dreams a reality. A cult hit waiting in the wings. Come for the brutal music, stay for the charming DIY optimism. RogerEbert.com
Josephine Decker crafts a challenging but juicy debut role for astonishing newcomer Helena Howard. Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theatre troupe. When the workshop’s ambitious director (Molly Parker) pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother (Miranda July) into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. As Madeline takes her tentative first steps into the adult world, Decker’s incessantly inquisitive, intensely subjective style of filmmaking captures both the dizzying joy and abject terror of adolescence.
Heavy Trip does succeed in creating perhaps the most charming ensemble of morbid dorks since ‘What We Do In The Shadows’. Katie Rife.AV Club
Helena Howard gives one of the most electrifying debut performances to hit the screen in decades. Cinema Axis
DIRECTORS JUKKA VIDGREN, AND JUUSO LAATIO WILL TAKE PART IN A Q&A FOLLOWING THE FILM.
One of the best films of the year, if also one of the hardest to initially get your head around. Boston Globe
DIRECTED BY: JUKKA VIDGREN, JUUSO LAATIO RUNTIME: 91 MINUTES. FINLAND . 2018. CERT 18.
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DIRECTOR: JOSEPHINE DECKER 93 MINS ,2018. USA. CERT 15.
THE ANGEL
BIRDS OF PASSAGE
QUEENS FILM THEATRE.sunday 14TH APRIL.8.00PM. £6.50/£4
QUEENS FILM THEATRE.saturday 13TH APRIL.9.00PM. £6.50/£4
A stylish portrayal of shallow serial killer, based on a real-life, baby-faced murderer in 1970s Argentina. Carlitos is a beautiful 17-year-old whose youthful appearance masks a criminal mastermind. When he starts at a new school, Carlitos meets his match in Ramon, a handsome rebel who shares his unlawful interests. As the pair embark on a breathless journey of theft and murder, the press dub Carlitos ‘The Angel of Death’, transforming him into a media sensation. Bristling with vibrant energy this eccentric crime caper is a veritable feast for the senses, betraying a disturbing reality beneath the seductive punch of its immediate stylistic pleasures. The film doesn’t judge the crimes of its baby-faced anithero - instead it’s a subversively funny, cool take on the crime movie. Original Title: El Ángel. Ortega has a real eye for flashy, chaotic set pieces and a real ear for excellent Latin rock needle drops on the film’s killer Scorsese-inspired soundtrack. Entertainment Weekly
DIRECTED BY: LUIS ORTEGA . ARGENTINA. 126MINS. CERT 18.
The filmmaking team behind the sublime Embrace of the Serpent addresses the origins of the Colombian drug trade. The result is a gangster epic evoking the genre’s history and conventions, yet it is still thoroughly original and utterly beguiling. When an indigenous Wayuu family starts selling marijuana to young Americans in the 1970s, they are set on a positively Shakespearean path involving greed, passion, honour, conflicting loyalties and brutal violence. With smart cineaste nods to Ford and Scorsese, Birds of Passage establishes Guerra and Gallego’s position as increasingly significant voices in world cinema. Original Title: Pájaros de verano. Outstanding.... “Birds of Passage” is closer in tone to “Narcos” than any telenovela.... Gallego and Guerra keep the story consistently absorbing as the action plays out and the bodies pile up. Salon.com The impact of modern vice upon the Wayuu is a captivating tale never told before, and the final few minutes are brutal in the best possible way. Globe and Mail A beautifully crafted, slow-burn crime saga steeped in native traditions. Hollywood Reporter
DIRECTOR: CIRO GUERRA, CRISTINA GALLEGO. COLOMBIA. YEAR: 2018.DURATION: 125 MINUTES. CERT 18.
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THE THIRD WIFE
AN ELEPHANT SITTING STILL
QUEENS FILM THEATRE.TUESDAY 16TH APRIL. 4.00PM. £6.50/£4
QUEENS FILM THEATRE. wednesday 17TH APRIL. 2.00PM. £6.50/£4
A 14-year-old girl struggles with family politics, her own agency, and the prospect of motherhood after she becomes the third wife of a wealthy landowner, in 19th century rural Vietnam.
The first and last film from the late Chinese director and author Hu Bo has a desolate beauty.
Her new home seems idyllic, but trouble is quietly brewing: she witnesses a forbidden tryst that will spark a chain reaction of misfortunes - and stir in May urges that until now had been dormant. Her accelerated journey from childhood to motherhood will prompt her to question the supposed natural order of things. And even though May initially looks to be a lucky beneficiary of her patriarchal culture, time will prove that forces such as romantic love, sexual taboo, and female independence will find their expression in even the most repressive of circumstances. Gently dipping us into the long ago and far away past, Ash Mayfair’s directorial debut brings an intimate immediacy to the re-creation of rural Vietnam in the late 19th century. VARIETY
In the northern Chinese city of Manzhouli, they say there is an elephant that simply sits and ignores the world. Manzhouli becomes an obsession for the protagonists of this film, a longed-for escape from the world in which they find themselves. In virtuoso visual compositions, the film tells the story of one single suspenseful day from dawn to dusk, when the train to Manzhouli is set to depart.
An Elephant Sitting Still is a masterpiece and a new benchmark for 21st century Chinese cinema. Backseat Mafia An uncompromising masterpiece. One of the films of the year. Little White Lies
The almost entirely female cast is captivating throughout. SCREEN DIRECTOR: ASH MAYFAIR 96 MINS 2018 VIETNAM (18) . CERT 18.
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DIRECTED BY: HU BO. RUNTIME: 230 MINUTES. CHINA. 2018. CERT 15.
WOMAN AT WAR QUEENS FILM THEATRE.TUESDAY 16TH APRIL. 6.30PM. £6.50/£4 AND monday15th april.4pm. £6.50/£4
The Cannes award-winning follow-up to Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson’s wildly popular festival hit ‘Of Horses and Men’ tells a funny and warm-hearted musical tale of a woman on a personal environmental crusade. Halla lives in the beautiful Icelandic Highlands. The warm-hearted choir leader also leads a secret life as a passionate hardcore environmental activist. Armed with her bow and arrow, deftly wielded, Halla sabotages the industry that she feels threatens her beloved landscape. As she embarks on her boldest sabotage plan yet, the stakes are raised when she finds out that she is on the verge of realising a long-cherished dream to adopt a child. Erlingsson takes a wildly daring approach, bringing musical, comedic and social justice elements together in a visually lush film. It is sure to be one the year’s most memorable. Offbeat, poignant and visually exquisite. Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter This is delightful, mature and hugely enjoyable filmmaking – a call to arms that delivers laughs hand-in-hand with an urgent political and human message. Sarah Lutton
DIR BENEDIKT ERLINGSSON ICELAND-FRANCE. 2018. 101 MINS. CERT 15.
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i do not care if we go down in history as barbarians QUEENS FILM THEATRE.wednesday 17TH APRIL.9.10PM. £6.50/£4
Tragic history repeats itself as farce in this darkly comic, politically timely meta-drama from Romanian director Radu Jude. Radu Jude’s resonant feature chronicles a young theatre director’s efforts to stage an accurate re-enactment of the Odessa Massacre - in which Romanian soldiers slaughtered tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews despite the municipal government’s attempts to censor her. Jude’s film is a colourful, engaging, and deeply humorous work that comes alive with an adroit ensemble cast. A deeply resonant film, “I Do Not Care…” is a timely unmasking of the (intentional) amnesia that echoes today’s parochial political populism and reminds us of the old adage that forgotten history is bound to be repeated. A provocative, sarcastic, and momentous act of interrogation between the past and the present that escalates to an impasse, with the hands of each locked around the neck of the other. VARIETY
DIRECTOR: RADU JUDE . 140 MINS, 2018 ROMANIA. CERT 15.
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FUGUE QUEENS FILM THEATRE. sunday 14TH APRIL.5.30PM. £6.50/£4
Alicja suffers from dissociative fugue, a condition that has made her forget her identity. After suffering an episode, she disappears. Two years later, she returns to her former family to assume against her will, her role as wife, mother and daughter. Her family claims her after seeing her on a TV show about missing persons. Alicja learns that her real name is Kinga, and that she has a husband and a five-yearold son. Initially, she wants to abandon her new/old family as soon as possible, but she gradually becomes intrigued by the life she left behind and sticks around to discover it. Like The Lure, Fugue is brilliant. Smoczynska...gives us complicated female characters who smirk, f*ck, and f*ck sh*t up. RIOT MATERIAL A poised, consistently intriguing combination of suspense with a timely consideration of a woman’s journey towards self realisation. SCREEN INTERNATIONAL This screening is supported by 17th KINOTEKA Polish Film Festival www.kinoteka.org.uk DIRECTOR: AGNIESZKA SMOCZYNSKA 102 MINS. 2018. POLAND.. TRIPLE F -RATING. CERT 15.
POND LIFE
SUNSET
QUEENS FILM THEATRE.monday 15TH APRIL.9.30PM. £6.50/£4
QUEENS FILM THEATRE. thursday 18TH APRIL.9.15PM. £6.50/£4
Pond Life is a perfectly formed coming of age tale set in a quiet mining village outside Doncaster in the mid 90’s with breakout performances from a talented cast of young actors. First time director Bill Buckhurst imbues his tale with considerable warmth and charm. A group of young friends and neighbours come together for a fishing expedition after rumours spread of a giant carp in the area. In a world of broken families, cassette tapes and rumbling political fever, these friends, each with their own struggles to bear, share a moment of harmony.
DIRECTED BY BILL BUCKHURST UK 2018. 85MINS. CERT 12A.
Son of Saul director László Nemes deftly conjures the death throes of the Austro-Hungarian empire in an atmospheric mystery drama. It is 1913, nearing the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and on the eve of the First World War. Írisz Leiter (a haunting Juli Jakab) is a hat maker who returns to Budapest years after being fostered under mysterious circumstances. Her parents had been respected milliners, owners of a shop bearing their name and who served both the wealthy and aristocracy. A whispered secret about why they’re no longer there casts a sinister pall over the shop. As the plot becomes less linear, the film’s dark beauty intensifies. Mátyás Erdély’s photography seems to contain distilled essence of European arthouse cinema, while an increasingly disquieting and anxious score suggests a darkness of the soul. Favouring poetry over the literal, Nemes gives us a fugue-like meditation on the end of an empire; the brilliantly wilful Írisz our witness to the flickering innocence of a Europe about to be plunged into hell.
DIRECTOR: LÁSZLÓ NEMES HUNGARY, FRANCE 2018. CERT 15.
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KEEP AN EYE OUT
IN FABRIC
movie house, dublin rd. Thursday 11TH APRIL. .7.00PM. £6.50/£4
QUEENS FILM THEATRE.TUESDAY 16TH APRIL. 9.00PM. £6.50/£4
Louis just found the corpse of a man in front of his apartment building. Taken in for custody by Captain Buron, he finds himself on the wrong end of a strange interrogation. DJ-turned-director Quentin Dupieux has crafted a handful of dark comedies - Steak, Rubber, Wrong, Wrong Cops and Reality that are equal parts Michel Gondry, Tex Avery and the Coen brothers, with banal storylines that suddenly take strange, surrealistic and violent turns into the unknown. His latest work continues in that vein, set almost entirely in a police precinct that exists in some kind of late 70’s time warp. Keep An Eye Out is a hilarious interrogation of life, in all its mundanity, as a stage for the shlumpily surreal. Eye for Film aN absurd and often surreal comedy with some clever ideas tucked away inside. Birth.Movies.Death. Many absurd delights, running the gamut from wordplay to slapstick and back again, all performed with an air of dedicated lunacy. Crooked Marquee DIRECTOR: QUENTIN DUPIEUX, FRANCE. 73 MINUTES, 2018. CERT 18..
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The Duke of Burgundy writerdirector Peter Strickland returns with a methodical, malevolent piece of cinematic couture. The director of Berberian Sound Studio and The Duke of Burgundy, returns with a haunting ghost story set against the backdrop of a busy winter sales period in a department store. Obliquely split between two distinct tales in a dreamy divide reminiscent of David Lynch’s Lost Highway, Strickland’s film is populated with an idiosyncratic array of indelible characters and imagery. From a lonely divorcee to the wife of a washing machine repairman with a thousand-yard stare, dissatisfied souls float through a mesmerizing miasma of surreal sights and sounds, sporadically punctuated with bursts of disorienting collage-montage evoking the experimental works of Arthur Lipsett. ‘A sensuous, surreal and hysterical tour de force... Never has a garment of clothing invoked such terror and fascination, from the explicit erotic power of its crimson red, to the way that it eerily hangs in space, like a ghostly voyeur.’ CineVue
DIRECTOR:PETER STRICKLAND. DURATION, 118 MINUTES, YEAR: 2018. COUNTRY: UK. CERT 18.
BROTHER'S NEST
CHAINED FOR LIFE
QUEENS FILM THEATRE.thursday 18TH APRIL.9.30PM. £6.50/£4
QUEENS FILM THEATRE. monday 15TH APRIL.7.30PM. £6.50/£4
On a cold morning in the middle of Victoria, Australia, two brothers arrive at the family home intent on murdering their stepfather Roger. Terry and Jeff’s motive is simple - killing their stepdad will render their dying Mother’s plan to change her will in his favor redundant. A staged “suicide” has been meticulously planned but there is one thing the boys didn’t take into account spending the entire day together. Old grudges, different worldviews and a general troubled history will pit these two brothers against each other. ‘Brothers’ Nest’ is a tragic comedy about family, loyalty and murder -because after all “blood is thicker than water”. Seething with grit, dark humour and a brotherhood that’s twisted in a dark love ... visceral and stunning, one of the early gems of 2018 SpoilerFreeMovieSleuth.com “ A Coen Brothers comedy ... becomes a Hitchcockian thriller .. Brothers’ Nest will make you laugh, then hold tight to the armrest of your seat, then ultimately cry” - Flickering Myth
DIRECTED BY: CLAYTON JACOBSON 102 MINUTES, 2018. AUSTRALIA. . CERT 18.
An actress struggles to connect with her disfigured co-star on the set of a European auteur’s debut. Through pitch-black satire, Chained for Life examines the treatment of disability on screen and on set. Mabel (Jess Weixler, Teeth) and Rosenthal (Adam Pearson, Under the Skin) are both hired for their looks. They meet on the set of a horror movie in this surreal examination of how those with physical differences are portrayed on film. Director Aaron Schimberg (who has undergone dozens of reconstructive surgeries throughout his life to address a bilateral cleft palate) has crafted a wholly original, marvelously layered and deeply touching examination of how we define and idolize beauty, and use art as a proxy for our feelings about physical differences. Is this a black comedy? A romance? Political commentary? Psychological thriller? A rumination about life on a film set? Perhaps it’s all of these. Shadows on the Wall The finest, funniest, and most cryptically thoughtful film on the subject (of ableism) that I’ve seen in this or any year. Big Easy Magazine DIRECTOR: AARON SCHIMBERG. USA .91 MINUTES. CERT 15.
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LORO QUEENS FILM THEATRE.Thursday 11TH APRIL. 2.30PM. £6.50/£4
Seduction, glamour, corruption, drugs and raucous poolside parties: the life and times of scandal-plagued Silvio Berlusconi has long demanded a screen depiction, and who else to deliver it than Paolo Sorrentino, the Academy Award-winning director of The Great Beauty and The Young Pope. This dazzling, topical and no-holds-barred look at life in Italy under the glistening eye of modern Europe’s most infamous politician. Sorrentino gradually unpeels the complex personality and motivations of the billionaire former Prime Minister - played with unmistakable panache by Toni Servillo - during a tumultuous period in his career, as his marriage to second wife Veronica Lario fractures; all the while skilfully threading together stories of a wide variety of characters from multiple levels of society and their attempts to either ingratiate or distance themselves from him... Boldly and controversially speculating on what may or may not have taken place behind closed doors, Loro (which translates as ‘Them’) offers a timely commentary on the excesses and follies of the power-hungry. A richly inventive, ferocious feast of satire and vulgarity. HOLLYWOOD REPORTER A colourful and compelling account of the fall of a contemporary Roman Empire. DAILY TELEGRAPH.AU DIRECTED BY: PAOLO SORRENTINO YEAR 2019. COUNTRY: ITALY. DURATION: 150 MINUTES. CERT 18.
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Mother's Instinct
FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY
QUEENS FILM THEATRE. friday 12TH APRIL. 7.00PM. £6.50/£4
QUEENS FILM THEATRE. monday 15TH APRIL. 6.45PM. £6.50/£4
The spirit of Alfred Hitchcock hovers over this lusciously designed psychological thriller set in 1960s Brussels. Two neighboring suburban housewives are best friends - until a tragic accident breaks the harmony between their clans, and paranoia and distrust take hold. Alice and Céline share a special bond. Each living on one side of a stately suburban semi-detached home, their two families almost live like one. But when tragedy strikes, relationships are tested and a crippling sense of paranoia sets in. Placed in a Mad Men-like 1960s milieu, with exquisite production design and a luscious, ultra-saturated colour palette. These perfect housewives serve each other passive aggression like petits fours and protestations of affection like they’re macarons iced with arsenic. VARIETY
Carmel Winters’ second feature revolves around a young Irish woman and aspiring boxer and her father, who has just been released from prison in 1960s Ireland. A gifted fighter, Frances idolises Muhammad Ali and deliberately starts fires in haystacks just so that she can punch them out again. But according to the traditions of her traveller community, at fifteen she is ready to be married, handing over control of her life and finances to a man who “will give you a few bob if you behave.” With its crowdpleasing combination of girl power and heart-swelling Irish traditional songs (the film shares producers with the similarly music-powered Once and Sing Street), this is a picture with considerable potential for word-of-mouth, break out success. A fabulous, organic mix of traditional Irish song, boxing and female emancipation CINEUROPA
DIRECTOR: OLIVIER MASSET-DEPASSE 97 MINUTES, 2018. BELGUIM/FRANCE.. CERT 15.
DIRECTOR: CARMEL WINTERS 101MINS. 2018. IRELAND. CERT 12A.
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SUPPORT THE GIRLS
Papi Chulo
QUEENS FILM THEATRE. wednesday 17TH APRIL. 9.00PM. £6.50/£4
QUEENS FILM THEATRE. sunday 14TH APRIL. 1.00PM.£6.50/£4
A big-hearted comedy with a day in the life look at Double Whammies – a Hooters-style bar and its tight-knit, all-female staff. Lisa Conroy (Regina Hall) is the last person you’d expect to find in a highway-side “sports bar with curves,” but as general manager at Double Whammies, she’s come to love the place and its customers. An incurable den mother, she nurtures and protects her girls fiercely - but her optimism is battered from every direction. Double Whammies is a perfect venue through which to reveal the modern workplace: ruthless corporate exploitation, defiant workers’ solidarity, and messy gender and racial politics. But that’s never at the expense of insightful, even-handed characterisation and believably funny, touching situations. It’s a celebration of sisterhood...This movie is so understated that this theme sneaks up on you in ways that are quietly powerful Christy Lemire. What the Flick?! This chicken-wing emporium becomes a handy metaphor for women making their way through the patriarchy in writer-director Andrew Bujalski’s observant and trenchantly funny new film. THE WRAP
DIRECTED BY: ANDREW BUJALSKI 90 MINUTES. USA. 2018.E CERT 15.AND.
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John Butler’s (Handsome Devil) latest comedy/drama sees the filmmaker return to the themes of empathy and unlikely friendship. In this case, the bond forms between a well-heeled, gay presenter and an older, straight, labourer from Mexico. Set in modern-day Los Angeles, it tells of a down-onhis-luck weatherman who is shaken by the end of a relationship. He has an on-air meltdown, prompting concerned bosses to persuade him to take some time out. To fill his days, he employs a Latino migrant worker to paint his home but also to keep him company. Despite their cultural, age and language differences, they connect in this affecting culture-clash comedy. Butler’s intimate, moving and thoughtful film looks at all the big stuff through the little prism of their growing connection - friendship, class, ethnicity and economic migration. a touching, humane story of grief, friendship, loss and kindness across language and cultural barriers. DOG AND WOLF
DIRECTED BY JOHN BUTLER. IRELAND. 98MINS 2018. CERT 12A.
EIGHTH GRADE movie house, dublin rd. wednesday 17TH APRIL. 7.00PM. £6.50/£4
Thirteen-year-old Kayla endures the tidal wave of contemporary suburban adolescence as she makes her way through the last week of middle school - the end of her thus far disastrous eighth grade year - before she begins high school. Eighth-grader Kayla always has her phone in hand, hoping to find connections online that might make up for those she’s unable to forge in everyday life. In the final week of a thus far disastrous school year, Kayla struggles to bridge the gap between how she perceives herself and who she believes she should be. Writer-director, Bostonnative comedian Bo Burnham, making his feature film debut, delivers a keenly observed and achingly funny portrait of the insecurities and absurdities of being 13-year-old girl. It’s rare to see a movie about middle school years that looks and sounds as right as Eighth Grade, a modest charmer... Burnham avoids most of the Mean Girlsstyle tropes in favor of a more gently humorous and nuanced approach. REEL VIEWS Eighth Grade is an incredibly effective, brilliantly empathetic, uncompromisingly honest and downright scary coming-of-age film that is a fantastic showcase for the untapped cinematic talents of writer/director Bo Burnham and actress Elsie Fisher. The AU Review
DIRECTED BY BO BURNHAM 2018, USA, 93 MINUTES, CERT 12A.
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ANOTHER DAY OF LIFE QUEENS FILM THEATRE. friday 12TH APRIL. 7.30PM. £6.50/£4
Based on the book written by legendary Polish war correspondent Ryszard Kapuściński. Another Day Of Life tells the story of a journalist, left to himself to write a feature story on the civil war in Angola on the advent of its regaining independence in 1975. Kapuściński was an idealist, a friend to lost causes and revolutions. Although he had been to many front lines before, Angola was to change him forever. He was to get closer to the realities of war; he was to discover that journalistic reporting was far too limiting for him; he could dispatch his reports to the editor’s office by telex, yet his enormous imagination and internal voice are ill-fitted to this message-limiting machine. Kapuściński experienced a dangerous journey into the heart of darkness which changed him forever. He left for Angola as a reporter to come back as a writer. A punchy, spectacular hagiographic hybrid. THR (An)… exhilarating rereading of the eponymous book by Ryszard Kapuscinski CINEEUROPA
DIRECTORS: RAÚL DE LA FUENTE, DAMIAN NENOW DURATION: 85 MINUTES YEAR: 2018. COUNTRY: SPAIN. CERT 12A.
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This screening is supported by 17th KINOTEKA Polish Film Festival www.kinoteka.org.uk KINOTEKA Polish Film Festival is the annual celebration of Polish cinema in the UK organised by Polish Cultural Institute in London
DARK LIES THE ISLAND
THUNDER ROAD
QUEENS FILM THEATRE.Thursday 18TH APRIL.6.30PM. £6.50/£4
QUEENS FILM THEATRE. MONDAY 15TH APRIL.9.00PM. £6.50/£4
If you’re going get involved with men in a small Irish town, they might as well be the Mannions and Sara is involved up to her neck. This is Ballykissangel on Crystal Meth. Written by Irish author Kevin Barry and based around characters he created for his own short story collection, Ian Fitzgibbon’s pitch-black comedy centres on a small Irish town over a week-long period. The Mannions are a feuding family in the town of Dromord who are all set at each other. Sara is married to Daddy Mannion but holding a candle for her first love, his son Doggy. When she also gets involved with his brother, trouble looms. An impressive Irish cast including Peter Coonan, Charlie Murphy, Pat Shortt and Moe Dunford flesh out this unique, dark comedy which offers on-the-nose observations about Irish life. a brilliantly bizarre…. and utterly unique 90 minutes. HEADSTUFF.ORG
DIRECTOR IAN FITZGIBBON WILL TAKE PART IN A Q&A FOLLOWING THE FILM.
DIRECTOR: IAN FITZGIBBON, 87 MINUTES, YEAR: 2019 COUNTRY: IRELAND.. CERT 15.
A young police officer’s escalating struggles reach a breaking point in this grim yet awkwardly endearing character study. Officer Jim Arnaud’s eulogy at his mother’s funeral does not go as planned. Struggling to stay focused as his emotions take over, the tongue-tied 30-something launches into a free-wheeling diatribe of confessional digressions, not helped by the fact that he cannot seem to get his mother’s favourite Bruce Springsteen song to play on his daughter’s pink stereo. Writer, director and star Jim Cummings gives a jaw-dropping, tour-de-force performance as police officer Jim Arnaud. With the funny and ferociously entertaining Thunder Road, Cummings has adapted his 2016 short film into one of the year’s best American independent features. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at the SXSW film festival, this is a deliriously dark and authentic look at how humans ‘process’ grief - each in their own unique way.
DIRECTOR: JIM CUMMINGS, COUNTRY: USA. YEAR 2018. DURATION: 91MINS. CERT 15.
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MARIA BY CALLAS
WORLDS OF URSULA LE GUIN
QUEENS FILM THEATRE. sunday 14TH APRIL. 3.15PM. £6.50/£4
QUEENS FILM THEATRE. tuesday 16TH APRIL. 7.30PM. £6.50/£4
The first film to tell the life story of the legendary Greek/American opera singer completely in her own words. Told through performances, TV interviews, home movies, family photographs, private letters and unpublished memoirs - nearly all of which have never been shown to the public - the film reveals the essence of an extraordinary woman who rose from humble beginnings in New York City to become a glamorous international superstar and one of the greatest opera artists of all time.
What emerges is a portrait of a woman of extraordinary natural gifts and work ethic, who was pressured to become a superstar by her mother and then her husband, instead of a conventional homemaker and mother. WASHINGTON POST The dive into Callas’ life offstage and an intimate look at the complexity of her desires creates a portrait of the opera diva that is just as mesmerizing as her wide-ranging voice. JOSH TERRY
DIRECTOR: TOM VOLF 95M 2017 USA PGND. CERT 12A.
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A feature documentary exploring the remarkable life and legacy of the late feminist author best known for groundbreaking science fiction and fantasy works. Produced with Le Guin’s participation over the course of a decade, viewers will join the writer on an intimate journey of self-discovery as she comes into her own as a major feminist author, opening new doors for the imagination and inspiring generations of women and other marginalized writers along the way. The film features stunning animation and reflections by literary luminaries including Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, David Mitchell, Michael Chabon, and more. What distinguishes the film is the way it explores Le Guin’s ideas, and the way she used science-fiction as a vehicle to explore human existence, politics, gender equality, the search for a perfect society and the price of happiness. SCREEN INTERNATIONAL
DIRECTOR: ARWEN CURRY. 65 MINUTES. 2018, CANADA. CERT 12A.
GLORIA BELL ASH IS THE PURIST WHITE QUEENS FILM THEATRE.friday 12TH APRIL.9.00PM. £6.50/£4
Sebastián Lelio (A Fantastic Woman) directs Julianne Moore in this remake of his 2013 film about a free-spirited, middle-aged divorcee hoping to find love on the dance floor. Gloria is a divorcée who spends her days at a straightlaced office job and her nights on the dance floor, joyfully letting loose at clubs around Los Angeles. After meeting Arnold (John Turturro) on a night out, she finds herself thrust into an unexpected new romance, filled with both the joys of budding love and the complications of dating, identity and family. Gloria Bell pairs perhaps the best portrayer of troubled or lost women with a director who has built a career building stories around them, and the result is a film that comfortably banishes any fears of some neutered US remake. Guardian It’s a remarkably enjoyable movie, downright cathartic in its presentation of a three-dimensional character. RogerEbert.com The glorious Julianne Moore is the best reason to see this American adaptation of Sebastián Lelio’s Chilean film. NOW Toronto
DIRECTOR: SEBASTIÁN LELIO. 2019 .102 MINUTES. CERT:!8
QUEENS FILM THEATRE. monday 15TH APRIL. 1.30PM. £6.50/£4
Heartbreak and resilience fuel this quietly epic saga, in which one woman’s fortitude and knack for crime carry her through a rapidly changing China. A tragicomedy initially set in the jianghu-criminal underworld-setting, Ash is Purest White is less a gangster movie than a melodrama. With a three-part structure, it begins by following the quick-witted Qiao (Tao Zhao) and her mobster boyfriend Bin (Fan Liao) as they stake out their turf against rivals and upstarts in 2001 postindustrial Datong before expanding out into an epic narrative of how abstract forces shape individual lives, and continues Jia Zhangke’s body of work as a record of 21st-century China and its warpspeed transformations. One of Sight & Sound’s best films of 2018. one of the year’s greatest treasures, one of its most mature, complex characters, and certainly one of Zhangke’s best. Film School Rejects
DIRECTOR: ZHANGKE JIA 2019 .141 MINUTESCERT 15.
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Altered States
34
SATAN'S SLAVES
THE DEAD CENTER
beanbag cinema .TUESDAY 16TH APRIL.9.00PM. £6.50/£4
movie house, dublin rd. Thursday 18TH APRIL. .7.00PM. £6.50/£4
After dying from a strange illness that she suffered from for 3 years, a mother returns home to pick up her children. Having broken all box-office records upon release, Joko Anwar’s Satan’s Slaves is a monster hit of Indonesian cinema. A loving remake of the 1980s classic Pengabdi Setan, Anwar takes great pleasure in recreating the era of the original film. Pitting a secular family against the supernatural, this is a hauntedhouse picture that evolves into a rollercoaster ride influenced as much by Indonesian folklore as it is by classics of the genre, all the while recalling the charm of a bygone era in ways reminiscent of The Conjuring and The House of the Devil. All bets are off here: it is Anwar’s mission to create scenes that are as horrifying as they are gripping and that will top anything you see this year, all horror cinema combined! “A QUIET PLACE and HEREDITARY have already been dubbed 2018’s scariest films to beat, but you can add SATAN’S SLAVES to that list now – the most horrifying film of 2018 you haven’t heard of yet... Immersive past-bedtime nightmare fuel” Matt Donato, SLASHFILM
DIRECTOR: JOKO ANWAR. SOUTH KOREA, INDONESIA. 2018.107 MINS. CERT 18.
When a mysterious “John Doe” wakes up in a morgue and wanders into a psychiatric ward, a devoted doctor and curious medical examiner must slowly uncover dark and sinister secrets about the man that reveal a more horrifying truth than they could have ever imagined. The Dead Center takes on complex ideas about life, death and immortality, infusing them with a slick and unsettling injection of classic hospital paranoia. Bolstered by a riveting performance from Shane Carruth (Director of Primer and Upstream Color), The Dead Center is a much-needed reminder that the most frightening moments can come from the most human of places. You may come out of The Dead Center rooting for a sequel. I’m just rooting for whatever Senese’s next movie is, even if it keeps me awake at night. Nerdist
DIRECTOR: BILLY SENESE, 93 MINUTES, 2018 USA. CERT 18.
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SHADOW QUEENS FILM THEATRE. TUESDAY 16TH APRIL. 1.00pm and 8.30PM. £6.50/£4.
Blood spills on an immaculate shadowy landscape in this visually stunning martial arts thriller from Chinese master Zhang Yimou. The director’s reimagining of the classic Three Kingdoms – Jingzhou epic, this action-drama tells the story of a powerful king and his people who have been displaced from their homeland and long to win it back. The king is wild and ambitious, but his motives and methods are mysterious. His great general is a visionary who desires nothing more than to win the ultimate battle, but needs to lay his plans in secret. For his latest Wuxia spectacular, Zhang Yimou collaborates with House of Flying Daggers cinematographer Zhao Xiaoding to create a mind-blowing visual design that revolutionises the colour palette, using water, calligraphy and constant reference to the yin yang symbol. Court intrigue, assassinations and shady motivations abound, and audiences can expect jaw-dropping combat. Kate Taylor Shadow is a sumptuous sensory feast filled with spectacle, surprise, and madness. FILM THREAT
DIRECTOR:DIR ZHANG YIMOU. CHINA.2018.116MIN. CERT 18.
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WEREWOLF movie house, dublin rd.. monday 15TH APRIL.7.00PM. £6.50/4
LONG DAY'S JOURNEY into night movie house, dublin rd.. thursday 18TH APRIL. 9.00PM. £6.50/£4
A motley gang of Polish children fight for survival against man and beast in Adrian Panek’s allegorical World War II thriller.
The dream-like, 3D noir from Chinese director Bi Gan follows a solitary man as he attempts to track down a past lover.
Evil stalks the forests of central Europe in Polish writerdirector Adrian Panek’s Werewolf, a thematically rich combination of coming-of-age drama, wartime thriller and horror movie. Headed by an ensemble cast of mostly nonprofessional child actors, Panek’s second feature centres on a group of former concentration camp inmates thrown together in occupied Poland in the chaotic final weeks of World War II, with the Nazi regime in collapse as Russian forces push westward. Original Title: Wilkolak
Bi Gan’s ambitious and frequently astonishing film firmly establishes him as one of today’s most exciting and adventurous filmmakers. As its English title suggests, this ravishing and rapturous fever dream of a film leads the viewer on a nocturnal, labyrinthine voyage, one that both reveals and conceals a world of passion and intrigue. Director Bi cites a bevy of influences: the novels of Roberto Bolaño and the film recalls the landmark cinema of Wong Kar-wai, David Lynch, and Andrei Tarkovsky. With talismanic cues and motifs of uncanny doubling, the film is bisected, with its first half recast through a vertiginous, trance-inducing, hour-long single take in 3D. A hushed, hypnotic study of hazy memory, lost time, and one of the most exquisite and beguiling films of the year.
Werewolf is a beautiful look at what people can do under the most gruesome of circumstances, BIRTHMOVIESDEATH.COM This screening is supported by 17th KINOTEKA Polish Film Festival www.kinoteka.org.uk KINOTEKA Polish Film Festival is the annual celebration of Polish cinema in the UK organised by Polish Cultural Institute in London
DIRECTOR: ADRIAN PANEK. POLAND. 2018. 88 MINUTES. CERT 15.
DIRECTOR: GAN BI, CHINA/ FRANCE , 140 MINUTES. 2018. CERT 15.
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RELAXER
LUZ
beanbag cinema. wednesday 17TH APRIL.9.00PM. £5/£4
MOVIE HOUSE, DUBLIN RD. THURSDAY 11TH APRIL.9.00PM. £6.50/£4
Y2K is approaching fast, but Abbie can’t get off the couch until he beats an unbeatable level on Pac-Man. It’s the year 1999 and Abbie is going nowhere with his life. He has a fondness for doing crazy endurance challenges, but an inability to finish them. This is a source of great frustration for his brother Cam, until he challenges his brother to the ultimate challenge – beat the high score on Pac-Man by playing the perfect game and completing the fabled level 256. The rules of the challenge are simple - Abbie must complete the game in one sitting and is not allowed to leave his sofa spot for any reason. Abbie accepts, but soon finds himself in a desperate bid for survival. Will he even last long enough to reach the Holy level? With Relaxer shifting from comedic survival story to absurdist horror in its third act, it’s at this point in the story where Potrykus has sold his film to the audience. Relaxer prevails as an unbearable survival story. The Playlist
Luz, a young cabdriver, drags herself into the brightly lit entrance of a rundown police station. A demonic entity follows her, determined to finally be close to the woman it loves in this audacious, psychotropic horror film shot on 16mm. In Luz, the school of William Friedkin and William Peter Blatty merges with South American culture and esotericism to create a one-of-a-kind film where the scenic setting of Fassbinders’ cinema meets the unconscious and the madness of Andrzej Zulawski. A hypnotic trip and a radical sensory experience that acts on the spectator’s synapses thanks to a sound design and a soundtrack that are best enjoyed at top volume. An experimental shocker with an irresistible retro vibe, Tilman Singer’s first feature fluidly assembles elements of influence from the horror and arthouse cinema of the 1970s – think Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Andrej Zulawski and Lucio Fulci – in one compact whole. However shot on 16mm Scope, with impeccable visuals worthy of the aforementioned classics, HIGH ON FILMS
A borderline masterpiece of “what the fuck” insanity, films that are simultaneously this absurd and this watchable are a feat. The Film Stage DIRECTOR: JOEL POTRYKUS, USA. 91 MINUTES.A CERT 18. ND.
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DIRECTOR: TILMAN SINGER. 70 MINS . GERMANY. 2018 . CERT 18.
BED SITTING ROOM
2019: Fall OF NEW YORK
beanbag cinema. monday 15TH APRIL.7.00PM. £5/3
beanbag cinema. saturday 20TH APRIL. 8.00PM. £5/3
The spectre of atomic warfare raises its head once again in this bizarre 1969 black comedy, directed by Richard Lester and hatched from the mind of twisted British comic Spike Milligan. Richard Lester’s greatest professional setback, The Bed Sitting Room now stands as perhaps his most audacious experiment. Adapted from a play by Spike Milligan and John Antrobus, imagining a dystopian England three years after nuclear war, Lester’s film situates absurd Monty Python–esque sketches amid a desolate landscape of ruins and ash. Featuring some of Britain’s top comics, including Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, and Milligan himself, the film’s surreal humor did not connect with audiences in its day, but offers a vision of social collapse so acrid that the laughs catch in your throat. Made in 1969, but could this have been the first post-Brexit film? This example of post-apocalyptic absurdism sits midway between The Goons and Threads. Ian Berriman
DIRECTOR: RICHARD LESTER YEAR: 1969. UK. 90 MINUTES. CERT PG.
It’s 2019 and the world has been reduced to a wasteland populated by mutants. A mercenary is dispatched to the ruins of New York to try and save the last fertile woman on earth. A thoroughly engaging post-apocalyptic delight. One of many thousands of Italian Road Warrior/ Escape From New York rip-offs, After the Fall stands out by being not only hellishly entertaining, but for featuring a character named “Big Ape.” The “Pan American Confederacy” is hot to breed up a new batch of citizens. Black-clad “Eurac” soldiers on horseback battle survivors in an attempt to round up subjects for experimentation. Fast-paced, bloody, and lovably weird, Martino’s film is a great time from start to finish. You know you’re in for something special when Sopkiw is introduced in a futuristic auto demolition derby in the desert with the winner annointed by a chattering cyborg clown with a big glowing eyeball on its head who presents him with a deep-voiced sex worker named Flower because, well, why not? MONDO DIGITAL
DIRECTOR: SERGIO MARTINO ITALY, 1983, 96 MINUTES. CERT 18.
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DEADTECTIVES
MEGA TIME SQUAD
movie house, dublin rd.. monday 15TH APRIL. 9.00PM. £6.50/£4
movie house, dublin rd.. wednesday 17TH APRIL. 7.00PM. £6.50/£4
DeadTectives is described as an irreverent, laugh-out-loud blend of Ghostbusters, Shaun of the Dead and Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners.
A low-level criminal steals an ancient Chinese time-travel device, but he may not survive the demonic consequences of tampering with time. A wildly entertaining time travel/sci-fi comedy out of New Zealand.
DeadTectives follows a team of hapless paranormal investigators on a reality TV series who go on a quest to Mexico’s most haunted house in the pursuit of better ratings. However, when the true dark secrets of the mansion begin to reveal themselves, the hapless presenters quickly discover that this house is no hoax. With zero ghost-hunting skills (or really any other applicable skills) the team has to figure out how to bust the ghosts and escape the house with their lives. In spirit and tone, Deadtectives could almost be called Beetlejuice-y at times, and of course that’s not a title that should be summoned lightly. But much like Tim Burton’s arguably best film, Deadtectives offers a groovy, free-wheeling energy that dips back and forth between scary and funny with shocking ease. Watch just about any other horror comedy out there and ask yourself how easy that is to accomplish. BLOODY DISGUSTING
Cheerfully vulgar, laugh-out-loud funny and showcasing brilliant visual effects, this parochial Kiwi sci-fi comedy mixes Time Crimes with Multiplicity to engagingly explore the generic lexicon of the ace time travel thriller and timeless human themes of greed, courage and responsibility. Chill-out for epic laughs and side-splitting suspense.
An entertaining romp that poses the question of what would happen if an utterly inept criminal gained the ability to time travel. Film Pulse The script is foul-mouthed and very funny, revelling in its distinctly Kiwi rhythm and dialogue. There’s a dry wit to the gags, frequently bordering on absurdism. New Zealand Herald
altered states
DIRECTOR: TONY WEST. DURATION: 92 MINUTES, YEAR: 2018. COUNTRY: USA.CERT 18.
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DIRECTOR: TIM VAN DAMMEN. NEW ZEALAND 2018. 81 MINS. CERT 18.
NOVEMBER movie house, dublin rd.. wednesday 17TH APRIL. 9.00PM. £6.50/£4
A gorgeously shot, deeply strange, hugely atmospheric blackand-white trip though a tale of magic and malice in folkloric rural Estonia. In this tale of love and survival in 19th century Estonia, peasant girl Liina longs for village boy Hans, but Hans is inexplicably infatuated by the visiting German baroness who possesses all that he longs for. For Liina, winning Hans’ requited love proves incredibly complicated in this dark, harsh landscape where spirits, werewolves, plagues, and the devil himself converge, where thievery is rampant, and where souls are highly regarded, but come quite cheap. With alluring black and white cinematography, Rainer Sarnet vividly captures these motley lives as they toil to exist, but asks if that existence is worth anything if it lacks a soul? This midnight-movie classic in the making uses ancient Estonian folk tales to create something shockingly unexpected. Both gravely serious and demonically funny, it’s meant to knock audiences off balance. Mission accomplished. Rolling Stone November never stops being a visual trip. RogerEbert.com A fairy tale, a cautionary tale, a magical dreamland, a dark comedy, a feverish yet cold nightmare. ScreenAnarchy
DIRECTED BY:RAINER SARNET ESTONIA .2018. 115 MINUTES. CERT 18.
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FANTASY OF THE DEER WARRIOR
TUMBBAD
beanbag cinema. saturday 20TH APRIL.1.00PM. £3
QUEENS FILM THEATRE. wednesday 17TH APRIL. 7.00PM. £6.50/£4
Grown men and women in adorable animal costumes enact an epic drama of love, death, and vengeance in this Taiwanese film. The animals of the forest live together in harmony. But one day, their arboreal paradise is threatened when a pack of wolves sets upon the lambs. Birdy is sent to alert Sika Deer. However, Sika Deer is in the middle of a fight with Elk over the affections of Miss Deer. By the time he turns up, it is too late. Meanwhile, the devious Foxy is jealous of demure and pure Miss Deer, and tries to trick her by telling her that Sika Deer has died. When she is exiled as a punishment, Foxy conspires with the wolves. Will the forest community be able to unite and fend off a new attack? The Fantasy of Deer Warrior – ostensibly a Taiwanese children’s film from 1961 but clearly more suited to the sensibilities of the midnight cult movie crowd – is one of those you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it cinema experiences. Like Obayashi Nobuhiko’s House (1977), Deer Warrior takes its absurd premise and runs so far and so sincerely with it that discussions of camp and kitsch seem woefully inadequate to describe what’s happening onscreen. Films like these transcend such labels. Deer Warrior exists in its own weird universe, on its own weird terms. DIRECTOR: ZHANG YING TAIWAN, 1961. 87 MINUTES. CERT 15.AND.
A greedy boy seeks out hidden riches in the dungeon beneath an ancestral house guarded by a terrifying deity.
A truly scary horror film is a rare treat in South Asian cinema, but director Rahi Anil Barve delivers one, in some style, with this mythical cautionary tale. Vinayak is the conniving illegitimate son of a local landlord, living in the decrepit, ancient village of Tumbbad. Obsessed with unearthing a fabled ancestral treasure, he suspects that the secret lies with his great grandmother, a cursed witch who has been trapped for centuries in a purgatory between life and death. Tricking her, he discovers the secret that will lead him to the riches, but also a voracious, otherworldly force. What begins as a cunning plan to steal a small fortune quickly spirals into a reckless obsession that finds Vinayak facing up to an unexpected and hair-raising reckoning. Atmospheric, heavy on mythology and scary as hell. HOLLYWOOD REPORTER DIRECTOR: RAHI ANIL BARVE, ADESH PRASAD INDIA.2018 .109MIN.
www.mollysyard.co.uk for details Molly’s Yard is part of the HIlden Brewing Co. 43
65 Dock Street Belfast. BT151LF. 028 9064 3974 www.americanbarbelfast.com 44
TOUCH BASE BY
MORETTI
MORETTI - ITALIAN FOR WHAT MATTERS 45
TALKING FILM
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ROBERT CARLYLE in conversation Belfast Film Festival is delighted to welcome one of the UK’s most talented actors to take part in a discussion on his life and work with Brian Henry Martin and receive our BFI award for outstanding contribution to cinema. Robert Carlyle is a BAFTA winning, Emmy nominated actor from Scotland. Born in 1961 he left school at 16 without qualifications working as a painter and decorator during the day and continuing his education at night. He became involved in drama after reading The Crucible and went on to attend and graduate from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He has an impressive body of work already behind him, starring in The Full Monty, Summer, Trainspotting, Human Trafficking, as a Bond villain in The World Is Not Enough and Angela’s Ashes to name a few. He’s been more recently seen on TV in Once Upon A Time and in the 2018 BBC adaptation of War Of The Worlds. Known in the industry for being an extremely committed actor- often going the extra mile to portray his characters with authenticity – altering his appearance considerably or undertaking special training for a role, we are delighted to have the opportunity to interview him about his life and work. Personally chosen by Robert Carlyle to screen at Belfast Film Festival is one of his best, and under appreciated films; ‘Summer’ See Page 82. 7.00PM. FRIDAY 12TH APRIL. MOVIE HOUSE. TICKETS £7.50 47
LENNY ABRAHAMSON IN CONVERSATION Lenny Abrahamson is an award-winning Irish screenwriter and director. Lenny’s backstory is worthy of a character in a Raymond Chandler novel- He had an MA in Theoretical Physics, an almost PHD in Philosophy from Stanford as well as a burgeoning career in Advertising all before he took up independent filmmaking. His first film, Adam & Paul (co-written with Mark O Halloran), garnered him the first of three IFTA’s for Best Director. He followed with Garage, a RTE mini series and in 2014, Frank – starring Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson and Maggie Gyllenhaal. With his next film Room, based on the bestselling novel, he was nominated for a Best Director Oscar. In the works is an adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People for the BBC and The Grand Escape – a WWI story about daredevil pilots. Join Hugh Oldling Smee as he chats to Lenny about his inspirations, and his life in film and the all important question - why he’d choose to fight one hundred duck-size horses instead of one horse-sized duck.
7PM. SATURDAY 13TH APRIL. QFT. TICKETS £7.50
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RANDOM ACTS:
THE LAST FAMILY
Friday 19th April at the Mac, BelfasT.
QUEENS FILM THEATRE. saturday 13TH APRIL.4.00PM. £6.50/£4
Catherine Bray is the commissioner for Channel 4’s Random Acts arts strand, and an independent producer, working with Charlie Lyne on documentary features Beyond Clueless (Netflix) and Fear Itself in addition to shorts including Fish Story (Sundance, Guardian Docs). She has written and broadcasted for Sight & Sound and BBC.
Selected and introduced by Lenny Abrahamson. Exceptional camerawork and an unerring eye for period detail are boldly on display in this disturbing biopic of one of Poland’s best known artists.
SESSION ONE: New or starting out in film? These sessions are suitable for students or those at the beginning of their journey as filmmakers. You can talk to us about your ideas more generally, but this is not a specific pitching surgery.
Beksiński is a family man who wants only the best for his loving wife Zofia and neurotic son Tomasz. The concerned parents must be on constant watch to prevent their son from hurting himself. But Beksiński never believed that family life would always be sunshine and rainbows. As he tapes everything with his beloved camcorder, the 28-year Beksiński saga unfolds through paintings, near-death experiences, dance music trends and funerals. Based on the bizarre true story of the cult Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński.
SESSION TWO: Are you a filmmaker who would you like to pitch your film to Random Acts? Ideas will be pre-screened for suitability. You should have made at least one short film previously - this is not a firsttime filmmaker’s strand. Duration: 3-4 minutes / Budget: £4k or less Delivery: by late July 2019. Random Acts brief is available here: www.channel4.com/commissioning/4producers/arts/ random-acts-brief Please send your initial ideas to Christine Morrow at Northern Ireland Screen by 10th April: christine@northernirelandscreen.co.uk
Jan P Matuszynski recreates the real-life story of a fractious family living on a bleak Warsaw housing estate with incisive aplomb
DIRECTED BY JAN P. MATUSZYNSKI. 121MINS. 2016. POLAND. CERT 18.
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THE SOCIAL MODEL
ATYPICAL SHORTS
the black box. saturday 20TH APRIL. 7.00PM. £6/3
THE BLACK BOX SATURDAY 13TH APRIL. 12pM. £3.
A shorts programme of films which focus on the lives of disabled people from around the world.
A documentary looking at how disabled people are portrayed as victims, villains or martyrs and how able-bodied filmmakers and actors have exploited negative depictions of disability to win awards and gain stardom. The film examines the story of 104 Films who are working with disabled filmmakers to fight back against outdated and outmoded depictions of disability. Established in 2004 with the aim of creating a tectonic shift in the representation of disabled people both in front of and behind the camera. 104 films co-produce critically acclaimed award winning films such as the BAFTA nominated Notes on Blindness, the multi award winning Special People, the searing documentary Unrest which was shortlisted for the 2018 Best Documentary Oscar. JUSTIN EDGAR WILL TAKE PART IN A POST SCREENING DISCUSSION FOLLOWING THE FILM. Edgar runs 104 Films, a company established in 2004 which provides training and opportunities for disabled people in the film industry.
DIRECTOR: 104 FILMS. 2019.
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With a spotlight on activism, protest, and the fight for human rights, this programme also includes glimpses of the everyday, shining a light on the joy found in moments of movement and togetherness. The screenings will be followed by a panel discussion on disability rights in Northern Ireland and abroad.
As Others See Us… University of Atypical and Northern Ireland Screen are partnering with Belfast Film Festival to present footage from the Northern Ireland Digital Film Archive of stories about disabled and D/deaf people, filmed in the 1960s-2000s. We are missing the self-told stories by artists, activists, independent filmmakers and home movies. Visit us in the Atypical Gallery or get in touch to help change what is in the archive, how these stories about D/deaf and disabled people are told and who they are told by. University of Atypical is a disabled-led arts charity, with a visual art gallery on Royal Avenue, which takes an empowerment based approach towards supporting disabled and D/deaf people’s involvement in the arts.
Wednesday 17th & Thursday 18th April 2019 Location: University of Atypical, 109-113 Royal Ave, Belfast, BT1 1FF Time: Open 9.30am-5:30pm. Exhibition/Special Event
CHASING GRACE PROJECT
DEAD GOOD
the black box .TUESDAY 16TH APRIL. 7.00PM. £5.
QUEENS FILM THEATRE. saturday 20TH APRIL.3.00PM. £6/3
The Chasing Grace Project (CGP) is a documentary series about women in tech. While most data tell us there’s no progress, the women who work in tech every day know different. Change is incremental but it is happening, in the individual stories of women who have started companies, nonprofit organizations and women-in-tech groups. The emergence of women in tech groups inside and outside of companies demonstrate that this movement is gaining momentum. This film explores the phenomenon of community for women in technology, the value they place on it and whether or not it’s making a difference in progress.
An intimate portrait of those dealing with their dead, supported during the ritual of care after death by a team of women who are ‘giving death back to the people’. Several people have died during the making of this documentary. In Brighton a small group of women have been changing the way people look after their dead. Supporting them during the ritual of care after death, and empowering them to create personal ceremonies reflecting the life that the deceased lived. This relatively unknown work is part of an emerging movement that is changing the way death is approached in contemporary Britain.
a panel discussion after the SCREeNING ORGANISED BY Women Who Code BELFASt.
“This is an unbelievably timely and important film. It is beautifully crafted, so comforting as well as moving and gives the wisdom forth so simply and compellingly. Everyone should see this.”
Women Who Code was launched in 2013 when local leaders, including Sheree Atcheson and Annette Mc Cullough stepped up to architect the community. Women Who Code leaders have been recognized as industry leaders, and continue to pave the way to a more diverse and inclusive workplace experience for everyone.
Dame Emma Thompson
DIRECTOR: JENNIFER CLOER USA. 2018. F - RATING. CERT 18.
THERE WILL BE A PANEL DISCUSSION FOLLOWING THE FILM INCLUDING REHANA ROSE, THE DIRECTOR OF THE FILm.
DIRECTOR: REHANA ROSE. UK, 2018 . 78 MINS. F - RATING. CERT 12A.
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Yours in Sisterhood
OF LOVE AND LAW
beanbag cinema. sunday 14TH APRIL. 4.00PM. £5.
the black box. wednesday 17TH APRIL.7.00PM. £4.
A performative, participatory documentary inspired by the breadth and complexity of letters that were sent in the 1970s to the editor of Ms. America’s first mainstream feminist magazine.
Film Hub NI in partnership with The Black Box, are proud to present a special screening of Of Love and Law as part of an NI-wide tour.
The film documents hundreds of strangers from around the U.S. who were invited to read aloud and respond to these letters written by women, men and children from diverse backgrounds. Collectively, the letters feel like an encyclopedia of both the 70s and the women’s movement- an almost literal invocation of the second-wave feminist slogan “the personal is political.” The intimate, provocative, and sometimes heartbreaking conversations that emerge from these performances invite viewers to think about the past, present, and future of feminism.
Fumi and Kazu are life partners, both professionally and privately: they run the first and only law firm in Japan set up by an openly gay couple. The lawyers know all too well the realities of being a minority in a conformist society, where the collective unity is absolute and often maintained at the expense of individual rights and freedom. The film will be followed by a panel discussion hosted by Hugh Odling-Smee with John O’Doherty from the Rainbow Project and Jason Brooks, the film’s Cinematographer.
reminds us that stories are a key step towards women’s liberation. With a film like this one out there to inspire our own feminist actions at a time like today—hope remains. Agnes Films “Formally inventive and deeply moving. This dialogue of generations is genuinely thrilling, particularly in an age where nuance is seemingly of a bygone era. A near masterpiece, this film. DIRECTOR: IRENE LUSZTIG YEAR: 2018, RUNTIME: 101 MINUTES. CERT 12A.
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DIRECTOR: HIKARU TODA. .JAPAN-UK-FRANCE. 2017. 94 MINS. CERT 18.
I AM EVIDENCE QUEENS FILM THEATRE. friday 12TH APRIL. 3.00PM. £6/3
I Am Evidence is a disturbing and powerful documentary an investigation into the way sexual assault cases are handled by police departments across the United States. “All I can tell you is what I remember.” These first spoken words immediately set the tone and gravity of this investigation into historic police mismanagement of sexual assault cases throughout the United States. With the national number of victims each year averaging out to be roughly 1 every 98 seconds, this is, has been, and continues to become a severe criminal and cultural crisis. I Am Evidence is an earnest call for justice that puts faces to the figures, making the compelling case that a system built to serve and protect should be better than the criminal it condemns. I Am Evidence gives these women’s stories a platform and this problem a voice. In the face of such a huge oversight of justice, that feels revolutionary. “I Am Evidence” is a searing, lucid film that never shies from tough details, especially when survivors share their attacks in a powerful bearing of witness. Los Angeles Times a chilling document that demands audiences take up the call and make the world better UNDER THE RADAR
THERE WILL BE A PANEL DISCUSSION FOLLOWING THE FILM ChAIRED BY SUSAN MCKAY AND FEATURING Clare Bailey.
DIRECTOR: GEETA GANDBHIR AND TRISH ADLESIC. 89 MINUTES, 2017. USA. CERT 15.
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CINEPUNKED: ART VS PORN
Rem Koolhaas
CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE. 7.30pm. Sunday 28 April . £8 admission.
THE STRAND ARTS CENTRE. SATURDAY 20TH APRIL. 4.00PM. £6/3
As long as humanity has existed it has created sexual imagery. But where does the line sit between art and pornography? What impact does the increasing democratisation in film making have on pornographic image making and its consumption? What impact does #MeToo have on production and censorship?
A documentary about legendary architect and master provocateur Rem Koolhaas. Presented with Royal Society of Ulster Architects.
CinePunked presents an interactive panel discussion with Robert JE Simpson, Dr Rachael Kelly and Belfast Feminist Network’s Liz Nelson, that seeks to explore these questions and more.
Over four decades, architect and master provocateur Rem Koolhaas has shaken up the field of architecture, and redefined the role of the architect in the world. Filmmaker Tomas Koolhaas spent 3 years following his father around the globe, playing witness to Rem’s extraordinary creativity, as well as exploring his works through the eyes of those who actually inhabit them. This documentary is a rare and unique insight into the mind of a genius.
Audience participation welcome. Please note, event contains adult themes and content, strictly over 18s only.
THERE WILL BE A PANEL DISCUSSION FOLLOWING THE FILM OrGANISED IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ULSTER ARCHITECTS.
DIRECTOR: THOMAS KOOLHAUS. USA, 2018 . 75 MINS. CERT 12A.
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Dublin Road
Cityside
Glengormley
Coleraine
Maghera
Whatever kind of film you love, we’re your home for great new releases, live event cinema, classic films and great offers.
For listings & bookings visit
Call 0333 001 5151
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SPECIAL EVENTS
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STRICTLY BALLROOM AT THE TITANIC HOTEL BALLROOM Join us for this unique event at the Titanic Hotel Drawing Office Ballroom, a screening of Baz Luhrmann’s classic and with a dance demonstration. This wildly off-beat comedy is about a male dancer who refuses to follow the accepted rules of ballroom dancing and creates his own style of choreography, which infuriates the ballroom dancing establishment. Before he’s scheduled to compete in the Pan-Pacific ballroom championships, he’s forced to take up a new partner, a beginner who initially seems without promise. With his help, she turns into an assured and wonderful dancer. Baz Luhrmann’s visual style may be too bright, gaudy and exaggerated for some tastes, yet he treats his characters with compassion, this is what makes Strictly Ballroom such an engaging comedy. A crowd-pleaster That took the inTernational festival circuit by storm and put Aussie filmmaker Luhrmann on the map as a talent to watch. EmanuelLevy.Com
FRIDAY 19TH APRIL. DOORS 8.30PM. EVENT STARTS AT 9PM. TICKETS £9. 57
EMPIRE RECORDS
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN ONSCREEN
the strand arts centre. saturday 13TH APRIL. 8.30PM. £6.00 (Record Fair begins at 18:00)
the black box.thursday 11TH APRIL. 7.30PM. £6.50
Damn the man! Save the Empire! To celebrate Record Store Day BanterFlix are putting on a 35mm screening of Empire Records at the Strand Arts Centre, on Saturday 13 April.
Our tribute to the work of one of America’s greatest musicians. Featuring footage of Bruce from his early days to the present, with concert performances, music videos, interviews and more, as part of this celebration.
A funky little record shop provides the setting for this youthful comedy that centres on the workers there as they try to help poor Joe, the manager who really wants to buy the place to recoup his losses. Despite starring the likes of Anthony LaPaglia, Robin Tunney, Renée Zellweger and Liv Tyler the film wasn’t a huge hit on its initial release, but over the years the film has earned cult status and gained considerable praise for its fantastic soundtrack. Prior to the screening at 8:30pm, The Strand will also host a record fair onsite from 6pm. So come on down, grab some goodies, then watch the movie.
Born on September 23, 1949, in the town of Long Branch, New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen, also known as “The Boss,” played the bar circuit while assembling his famous E Street Band. His breakout record “Born to Run” united arena rock with human-size tales of working-class America. With dozens of awards under his belt, including 20 Grammys, and selling more than 65 million albums in the U.S. alone, Springsteen is one of the bestselling and popular artists of all-time.
altered states
DIRECTOR: ALLEN MOYLE 90 MINUTES, USA. 1995.. CERT 12
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DIRECTOR: VARIOUS, 90 MINUTES, CERT 18.
POP UP PUPPET CINEMA THE BLACK BOX. SATURDAY 13TH APRIL. 7.30PM. £7
The best way to describe Pop-up Puppet Cinema is ‘Punch and Judy collide with Hollywood’. PPC condense classic films into live puppet shows, mocking the originals with plenty of warmth and admiration. They will be performing ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘Jaws’, this is one not to be missed! Expect puppets to take on Spielberg’s classic vision of a seaside town terrorised, a heroic salty seadog, an outof-his-depth policeman and a giant mechanical supersized shark. All together now: “We’re gonna need a bigger boat!” For Part Two Pop-up Puppet Cinema return with Doc, Marty and a time travelling Delorean! Please note there is a 25 min interval between shows. Each show lasts 30 mins approx. Only over 18s.
“Crowd pleasing, slick, and above all extremely funny” – Starburst Film Festival “Truly original and utterly hilarious!” – RAD screenings
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GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS : LIVE READ the black box. saturday 20TH APRIL. 3.00PM. £6.50
Glengarry Glen Ross is, at its core, a character study about a group of men whose time has passed. For BFF19, we’re putting their words in new mouths. This all-female Live Read version, produced by Accidental Theatre & directed by Emily DeDakis, will shed a provocative light on David Mamet’s best-loved work. Glengarry Glen Ross - a high-pressure duel between cutthroat New York City real estate salesmen – is heralded as one of the top, tightest scripts of all time. Mamet (the self-styled Free Capitalist of drama) is known for controversial views on and off the page. (His new West End play Bitter Wheat dives into the #MeToo conversation – with a hero styled on Harvey Weinstein. “Ugh,” writes The Guardian’s Lyn Gardner). But with an all-female version hitting Broadway this summer, and half a trillion pounds worth of Castlebrooke Investments sloshing around our city, when better than now and where better than Belfast to bring this film to life? Right in the heart of “Tribeca”, see a local cast (kept secret till the day) take on Mamet’s gem. Genius or heinous? Either way, you have our permission to lose your cool: This $#!+ is live. #GlengarryLive #SaveCQ LIVE READ was created by Jason Reitman (director of Thank You for Smoking and Juno) to show audiences how actors create characters, and to show off high-quality scripts. Only over 15’s. 60
CINEMA SPORTS
BFF QUIZ
saturday 20TH APRIL.12PM.
the black box. sunday 14TH APRIL.7.00PM. £3
Ever wanted to make a short film but never had the time? For one day ONLY, we will give you the time! No Censor, No boundaries, Pure gonzo filmmaking. Special prizes for special categories. Cinema-Sports-Screening is a bring-your-own venue, strictly over 18’s. Cinemasports is a race of creativity. Teams have 10 hours to make a short film that have ingredients released on the morning of the competition. Screening is on the 11th hour. Kick-off is at 10am on Saturday 20th April in Lawrence Street Workshops, Belfast. Teams will plan, write, cast, shoot and edit their movies between 10am and 8pm that day. Completed four-minute movies are delivered back to the Workshops before the 8pm deadline to be screened at 9pm. Prizes will be awarded. Kickoff time: 10am: Deadline: 8pm: Screening: 9pm at the Workshops. To sign up as an individual or a team email: mcnultymichael@outlook.com £3 donation tax per person or £10 per team (4 people).
Solo, Odd Couple, Three Amigos, Four Weddings, Johnny 5, Big Hero 6, Magnificent 7, Hateful 8, Plan 9, 10 Things I Hate About You Jean-Claude Van Damme, Batman, First Man, A Simple Plan, Jackie Chan, Streep, The Deep, The Big Sleep, Happy Feet, 42nd Street French Connection, English Patient, Italian Job, Married to the Mob Bad Boys, Goodfellas, Mean Girls, Widows, O Brother, Ryan’s Daughter, Mommy Dearest, In The Name Of The Father Giant shark, Jurassic Park, Lost Ark, Near Dark A Taste of Honey, The Colour of Money, The Sheltering Sky, Withnail and I Do The Right Thing, The Right Stuff, Edgar Wright, In The Heat of The Night The Red Shoes, The Green Mile, Black Panther, Yellow Submarine That all make (sixth) sense, huh? Then come join quizmasters Killer Joe Lindsay and Ronan ‘The Barbarian’ O’Donnell for the BFF Film Quiz 2019 Teams no larger than 6, prizes for team name, finishing last and obviously first... 61
THE MATRIX AT SONIC ARTS RESEARCH LAB wednesday 17TH APRIL. 7.30PM. £8/6
Your chance to experience The Matrix at the Sonic Arts Research Lab ( a venue some consider ‘cinema for the ear’) in a full dolby Atmos mix. 20 years old this year, the Wachowskis’ sci-fi spectacle is every bit as impressive now as it was then. Perhaps more so, thanks to Warner’s incredible 4K Ultra HD edition featuring an all-new and glorious Dolby Atmos soundtrack. This Atmos track kicks everything up to 11. Dialogue is crystal clear, bass is incredibly deep and tight when called for, and bullet time takes on added dimension with the new height channels in the mix. And just try not to grin as empty shell casings rain down from above as Neo empties his mini-gun at the Agents guarding Morpheus. The ensuing helicopter flight, ending with Trinity practically crashing through the screen into your listening space is pure sonic bliss. SARC is home to the world famous Sonic Laboratory. The Sonic Lab is a specialist acoustic space designed to provide a unique and exciting listening experience, in fact, the auditory equivalent of an IMAX cinema. Forty-eight loudspeakers, strategically located, will project and move sounds throughout the space, including underneath the audience. No other auditorium for sonic art performance and experimentation currently exists with this revolutionary feature. DIRS: THE WACHOWSKI BROTHERS/ LILLY WACHOWSKI AND LANA WACHOWSKI, 1999. 136 MINS. CERT 15.
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FILM DEVOUR SECRET OF SANTA VITTORIA the black box. monday 15TH APRIL. 7.00PM. £5
Film Devour Short Film Festival provides a platform for local filmmakers, writers and actors to screen their films, network and coordinate ideas. Catering to all kinds of filmmakers and genres, Film Devour screens everything from first time shorts, experimental, documentary as well as more established short films with a budget. Audience choice And Directors Choice awards announced on the night. The ethos is to showcase everything to everyone. “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.”– Alfred Hitchcock filmdevour.co.uk
QUEENS FILM THEATRE. saturday 20tH APRIL.3.00PM. £6.50/4
Join us for this special wine and film event. In Santa Vittoria, an Italian town renowned for its vineyards, the residents discover that the occupying Nazi troops plan to take all their wine for themselves. 50th Anniverary screening. Town drunk Bombolini (Anthony Quinn) is elected the mayor of Santa Vittoria as a patsy for when the Nazis eventually arrive. Fearing the loss of their valuable wine cache, the town bands together to hide it in a cave. When the Nazis finally make their appearance, headed up by Captain von Prum (Hardy Kruger), it becomes a battle of wills between the officer and Bombolini as to where the wine is hidden. A SELECTION OF FINE ITALIAN WINES WILL BE AVAILABLE BEFORE AND DURING THE SCREENING.
DIRECTOR: STANLEY KRAMER ,139 MINUTES, 1969. ITALY. CERT 15.
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BELFAST FILM FESTIVAL VIRTUAL REALITY STUDIO
Horse Money During the 2019 Belfast Film Festival we will feature virtual reality (VR), showing extraordinary works over six days; works that demonstrate the current capability of immersive technology in the hands of pioneering designers, both locally and internationally. How do you experience VR at Belfast Film Festival? Simply make a booking online for a 1 hour session where you can select the content you want to see. Some of the titles listed here are available but you can also select from a range of other films on the day of your booking. Vist the Barracks theatre space which we have converted into a VR studio with comfortable seating to experience the films. Booking is a ÂŁ5 per session. Donation covers cost of technician and venue. 64
CROW Starring John Legend, Oprah Winfrey, Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians), Tye Sheridan (Ready Player One), Diego Luna (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), In this animated movie, Crow is the most admired animal in the forest with his magnificent colors and beautiful voice. But when the very first winter arrives, can Crow make the personal sacrifices needed to save his friends? Official selection of Cannes Le MarchĂŠ du Film and Venice International Film Festival.
THE DINNER PARTY At a dinner party in 1961, Betty and Barney Hill reveal the true story behind their baffling claims of a UFO abduction. When the Hills were not able to remember and reconcile the details of the inexplicable event, they sought hypnosis. At a dinner party they played their recorded hypnosis to their friends, revealing radically different accounts of the abduction.
QUEENS FILM THEATRE . saturday 18TH april. 6.30PM . £6
THE SPACEWALKER
ANOTE’S ARK
Strap into a rocket ship and blast off into space in this groundbreaking recreation of the 1965 Voskhod-2 rocket launch.
The film whisks viewers to the remote Island nation of Kiribati, which is located in the central Pacific Ocean and has a population of just over 110,000 native people called the Gilbertese. The island is gorgeous, with white sand beaches, thatched huts and pristine waters. It is also in immediate danger of being swallowed by the sea due to a swiftly rising ocean.
THE CARETAKER At a creepy hotel on a cold winter night, a couple stops to rest. But something is amiss. Warning: Mature audiences only. Contains graphic imagery and language.
SEND ME HOME This 13-minute immersive documentary explores the psyche, and post-prison life of Rickey Jackson, who was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1975 and served 39 years in prison until the Ohio Innocence Project helped exonerate him in 2014.
ZERO DAYS Based on the Oscar short-listed Participant Media documentary Zero Days, Scatter’s award-winning, immersive documentary Zero Days VR visualizes the story of Stuxnet in a new way: placing you inside the invisible world of computer viruses, experiencing the high stakes of cyber warfare at a human scale. Zero Days VR explores the next chapter of modern warfare through the true story of Stuxnet: the first cyber weapon in the world known to cause real-world physical damage.
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TV EYE
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THE OLD CROWD
SCHALCKEN THE PAINTER
beanbag cinema .TUESDAY 16TH APRIL.7.00PM. £5
beanbag cinema .saturday 20TH APRIL. 3.30PM. £5
Alan Bennett’s The Old Crowd was savaged upon its broadcast, its outwardly simplistic plot and offbeat humour alienating the critics. However, these surface qualities were underpinned by a darkly satirical core. Director Lindsay Anderson dismissed the criticism as a knee-jerk response to the drama’s politicallycharged themes. Throughout the drama, the dinner party guests who make up the ‘old crowd’ (a term interchangeable with ‘bourgeois’ or ‘middle class’) discuss a world outside beset by riots, rampant crime and disease, leading to a collapse of public services. This bleak portrait would resonate for viewers enduring the ongoing ‘winter of discontent’ that prefigured the demise of the Callaghan government. For Bennett, the election of Margaret Thatcher some three months later would only intensify his gloom, while similar themes of social collapse would dominate Anderson’s challenging feature film, Britannia Hospital (1982). DIRECTOR: LINDSAY ANDERSON. LWT FOR ITV. 1979, 61 MINS. CERT: 12
A classic from the golden age of television ghost stories, Schalcken the Painter recreates the sights, sounds and sexual mores of 17th century Holland for a spine-tingling tale of a painter haunted by a spectre. Leslie Megahey’s film is a celebration of the art of the Dutch Golden Age and a condemnation of the era’s bourgeois materialism and dehumanisation of women as chattels for trade. It’s also one of the eeriest ghost stories ever filmed. Megahey adapted the film, a visual tour de force, from Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1839 Strange Event in the Life of Schalcken the Painter. An exquisitely shot, atmospheric horror film which explores the uneasy, dark relationship between art, commerce and erotic desire. The superb cast includes Jeremy Clyde, Maurice Denman and Cheryl Kennedy.
DIRECTOR: LESLIE MEGAHEY, 70 MINUTES, 1979. UK. CERT: 15.
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Tossed Salad & Scrambled Eggs An evening to celebrate the genius of this much loved TV show. The hosts Dan Leith and Stephen Beggs will take you through the evening with a collection of clips, screenings of classic episodes and more. Thanks to sharp writing and a pitch-perfect ensemble cast, Frasier became one of the smartest and funniest television shows of the 1990s. Following the 1993 demise of Cheers, Diane’s fussy psychiatrist boyfriend, Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer), seemed an unlikely candidate for a spin-off series, yet the show earned smash ratings and dozens of Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actor (Grammer) in the very first season. In an inspired bit of casting, Grammer was matched with David Hyde Pierce as his brother and fellow psychiatrist Niles, and the rest of the players included his radio-program manager, Roz (Peri Gilpin), his father, Marty (John Mahoney), his father’s physical therapist, Daphne (Jane Leeves), and the dog Eddie (Moose).
THE BLACK BOX .friday 19TH APRIL. 8.00PM. £7.50. OVER 18s. 68
DOSTOEVSKY'S TRAVELS
ONE DAY PINA ASKED
beanbag cinema sunday 14TH APRIL. 2.00PM. £5
beanbag cinema .wednesday 17TH APRIL.7.00PM. £5
Dmitri Dostoevsky, the great-grandson of Fyodor Dostoevsky, follows in his ancestor’s footsteps. Dmitri hopes his efforts will help him realise his dream of owning a Mercedes. When Pawel Pawlikowski (Ida, Cold War) learned that Dostoevsky’s only descendant, Dimitri, was still alive he found him and, after agreeing to pay him a £1000, began filming. Dostoevsky’s Travels reflects one of the pivotal moments in modern history: the fall of the Berlin Wall. The film ruminates on the collapse of the Soviet Union and Russia’s transition to capitalism: Dimitri’s yearning for material goods symbolises Russia’s desire for contact with the West and all it can offer. Dimitri is asked to give a series of lectures about his great grandfather. He knows little about his illustrious ancestor, he feels burdened by his relative’s status. The film blends real events with fictional elements; perhaps, we wonder, the whole film is a trick, and Dimitri nothing more than a conman.
DIRECTOR: PAWEL PAWLIKOWSKI. 52 MINUTES,1991. UK. CERT: 12A.
Filmmaker Chantal Akerman documents choreographer Pina Bausch and her dance company for five weeks while they are on tour. An encounter between two of the most remarkable women artists of the 20th century, Chantal Akerman’s look at the work of choreographer Pina Bausch and her Wuppertal, Germany-based dance company. “This film is more than a documentary on Pina Bausch,” a narrator announces at the outset, “it is a journey through her world, through her unwavering quest for love.” Akerman takes us inside their process. She interviews members of the company, whom Bausch chose not only for their talents, but for certain intangible personal qualities as well. The dancers describe the development of various dances, and the way that Bausch calls upon them to supply autobiographical details around which the performances were frequently built. “Akerman’s film is a work of modestly daring wonder, of exploration and inspiration. With her audacious compositions, decisive cuts, and tightropetremulous sense of time-and her stark simplicity-it shares, in a way that Wenders’s film doesn’t, the immediate exhilaration of the moment of creation. Akerman’s film is of a piece with Bausch’s dances. The New Yorker DIRECTOR:: CHANTAL AKERMAN FRANCE, 57 MINUTES, 1983. CERT: 12A.
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THE SHIVERING TRUTH beanbag cinema .sunday 14TH APRIL.7.00PM. £5
The Shivering Truth is a miniature propulsive omnibus clusterbomb of painfully riotous daymares all dripping with the orange goo of dream logic. A series of loosely linked emotional parables about stories within tales that crawled out of the deepest caverns of your unconscious mind and became lovingly animated in breath slapping stop motion, in other words, it is the truth. The Shivering Truth plays like The Twilight Zone crossed with American Horror Story dosed with a bit of The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horrors and then run though a high-speed blender. Multiple stories crowd each episode, melding together in some freaky stream-of-consciousness narrative. Almost everything in Vernon Chatman’s shuddering body-horror of work - from MTV2’s cult classic Wonder Showzen, to Adult Swim’s Xavier: Renegade Angel, to the backwoods soap-opera horror of The Heart, She Holler -has carried the half-logical madness of a really great nightmare.
120MINS. ADULT SWIM. 2018. CERT 18.
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THE PLUMBER
UP AND DOWN
beanbag cinema .thursday 11TH APRIL. 9.00PM. £5
beanbag cinema . thursday 18TH APRIL .7.00PM. £5
Like some distant relative of The Cable Guy, The Plumber is part Pinteresque bathroom sink drama and part Ozploitation home invasion. Telling the story of apparently routine maintenance gone awry. Made on a budget of $150,000 for Australia’s Channel 9 in 1979, The Plumber is one of Peter Weir’s lesser seen films, but no less an example of the intrigue, mystery and dread that characterised his legendary other great films in the 70s and 80s; Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Cars That Ate Paris, The Last Wave, The Mosquito Coast. An academic couple’s life in their tower block apartment is interrupted as a workman they didn’t call starts trying to fix issues they didn’t know they had. Themes of power, class, education and toxic masculinity bubble to the surface until the pipes are the least of their problems. Expect waterworks.
DIRECTOR: PETER WEIR, 76 MINUTES, 1979. AUSTRALIA. CERT 18.
Up and Down is set around Col du Parpaillon, an intricate and challenging mountain pass in the southern French Alps, where a bicycle rally is held annually. We learn early on that this year the rally isn’t organized properly: the old-timers moan about the lack of refreshments along the path, and become even more incensed when smoke-emitting cars whizz by. The film unfolds via a series of small vignettes involving amateur riders who get mired in all sorts of predicaments. Moullet’s camerawork and editing often help accentuate the humor in the visual and physical gags without making it obvious. Once referred to as “undoubtedly the only heir to both Buñuel and Tati,” Luc Moullet remains little-known not only in France but also elsewhere. Reportedly inspired by Dadaist playwright Alfred Jarry’s The Passion Considered as an Uphill Bicycle Race, Up and Down (Parpaillon) offers a cunning, lowkey take on the French love for bicycling. DIRECTOR:LUC MOULLET 84MINS. 1993. COUNTRY: FRANCE. CERT 12A.
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TWISTED CORNEA
our choice of documentary film including the Maysles’ Brothers competition 72
THE GREAT SATAN
THE WOLF HOUSE
beanbag cinema . thursday 18TH APRIL. 9.00PM. £5
beanbag cinema .friday 12TH APRIL.6. 30PM. £5
The Great Satan remixes and regurgitates clips from over 2,000 satanic panic, religious, and gradeD-horror movies into a 75-minute psychedelic comedy. I want you to know something, Satan is a total loser, and he knows it.” So begins the newest masterpiece stitched together by the found-footage freaks at Everything Is Terrible!. The Great Satan is an extraordinary narrative about the deceptive power of Lucifer and how the evil he wields manifests itself in everything from porn to drugs to Gene Simmons. It all boils down to this: Never have sex or party - or think about having sex or partying - unless sanctioned by God. As you take your blood oath, your journey will brim with evangelical ducks, goopy ghouls, and sad white men who believe that Dungeons & Dragons summon actual horned demons. Be warned... If you really want to see your mind, you’ve got to be ready to rip your skull open.
DIRECTOR: EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE 70MINS. USA. 2018.
Fairy tales, folklore and remarkable animation combine in this fantastical Chilean tale Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña draw upon their own folklore and fairy tales to craft this visually stunning stop-motion animated film out of paint, paper, tape and furniture. Maria takes refuge in the Wolf House after she has escaped from the colony. The wolf is a former SS Officer, who has moved to Chile, a notorious paedophile and a zealous torturer working for Pinochet and the head of the Colony. As if in a dream the house reacts to Maria’s feelings and transforms her stay into a nightmarish experience. Original Title: “La Casa Lobo”. Sometimes reminiscent of an ‘Eraserhead’-style Lynchian nightmare turned into sculpture, paintings and stop-motion, beasts become human, a body forms out of a head like something out of science fiction, and inside every constrained girl is an eager bird desperate to fly free. Cinéfiloz The deeply uncanny pic makes for an unsettling viewing experience, a creative tour de force whose endlessly fascinating visuals are deliberately seductive and repellent in equal measure. Hollywood Reporter
DIRECTORS: CRISTÓBAL LEÓN, JOAQUIN COCIÑA 75MINS. 2018. COUNTRY: CHILE .CERT 18..
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Cecelia Condit FILMS
Kathryn Elkin FILMS
beanbag cinema .thursday 11TH APRIL.6. 30PM. £5
beanbag cinema .saturday 13TH APRIL.7.00PM. £5
Fusing humor and horror, the whimsical and the macabre, Cecelia Condit tells stories that uncover dark fantasies of the subconscious beneath the surreal suburban landscape of Middle America.
Elkin’s performance and video works concern role-playing and improvising, alongside experiments with the outtake and clowning on set. She has an ongoing interest in shared cultural memory (as produced by popular music, television and cinema) and the melding of this information to biographical memory.
Condit’s elliptical narratives, which have been termed “feminist fairy tales,” put a subversive spin on the traditional mythologies of female representation and the psychologies of sexuality and violence. In her most recent operatic narratives, Condit restages the domestic melodrama to confront the family, aging, and loss. Her film Possibly In Michigan is an operatic fairytale about cannibalism in Middle America. A masked man stalks a woman through a shopping mall. In the end, their roles are reversed when the heroine deposits a mysterious bag at the curb. Like Condit’s other video narratives, Possibly In Michigan shows bizarre events disrupting mundane lives. Combining the commonplace with the macabre, humour with the absurd, she constructs a world of divided reality.
Kathryn Elkin films include documentary interviews, proto pop videos and talk shows reworked into new and less stable forms to find out what constitutes the ‘televisual’. Kathryn Elkin (born in Belfast, 1983) is a graduate of Glasgow School of Art (2005) and Goldsmiths College (2012) and former LUX Associate Artist (2013).
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DIRECTOR: CECELIA CONDIT 80 MINUTES ,VARIOUS. CERT 18. ND.
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DIRECTOR: KATHRYN ELKIN. CERT 15.
BILL MORRISON FIlMS sonic arts research lab . saturday 20TH APRIL. .7. 30PM. ÂŁ6.50
Three new short films from the great Bill Morrison (Dawson City, Decasia) at the Sonic Arts Research Lab. Unchanging Sea, (2018, 30 min) Inspired by the discovery of a decaying print of DW Griffith’s The Unchanging Sea (1910) in the nitrate vaults of the Library of Congress. Taking this ancient title as its point of departure, a new narrative was re-assembled from a variety of similarly ancient films about going off to, and returning from, the Sea. The Letter, (2018, 13 min) Using the discarded, deteriorating remnants from seven silent film titles, filmmaker Bill Morrison braids a story of intertwining love triangles that pivots between the accounts of two women. Electricity, (2018, 30 min) Morrison used material from the Electricity Council archive at the Museum of Science and Industry to create a visual journey that explores the production and distribution of electricity and its profound impact on our daily lives. With an original score created by his frequent collaborator, the guitarist and composer Bill Frisell.
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Terror NulliuS : SODA JERK queens film theatre. friday 12TH APRIL. 9.30PM. £5
Equal parts political satire, eco-horror and road movie, a weird, dazzling, kinetic, dizzyingly ambitious, sensationally mishmashed beast of an Australian film, one part revisionist documentary, and one part LSD-infused compilation video. TERROR NULLIUS is a political revenge fable which offers an un-writing of Australian national mythology. This experimental sample-based film works entirely within and against the official archive of Austrialian classic cinema to achieve a queering and othering. TERROR NULLIUS is a world in which minorities and animals conspire, and not-so-nice white guys finish last. Where idyllic beaches host race-riots, governments poll loverights, and the perils of hypermasculinity are overshadowed only by the enduring horror of Australia’s colonising myth of terra nullius. Formed in Sydney in 2002, Soda_Jerk is a two-person art collective who work at the intersection of documentary and speculative fiction. TERROR NULLIUS is hilariously insightful, politically valuable, culturally brutal and is more hyper-Aussie than Paul Hogan riding a crocodile in a river of VB. Sophia Watson, Filmink
DIRECTED BY : SODA JERK. 54 MINS.. CERT 18. ND.
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DAS presents a mystery screening
Necropolis STRAND ARTS CENTRE . SUNDAY 14TH APRIL..6.15PM. £5
HAVELOCK HOUSE .Thursday 11th April. 3pm. £5.
Digital Arts Studios is turning 16 this year, yet rather impressively since 2003 we have supported over 170 artists-inresidence, from as far afield as South Korea, Hawaii and even Bangor. So this year to celebrate our mid-teens we’ve decided to mix it up a little for the 2019 Belfast Film Festival. In collaboration with the wonderful Flax Art Studios, DAS presents a mystery screening of works from a very select few of the aforementioned residents. And to cap it all, this enigmatic screening takes place in one of the old TV studios in Havelock House, the new home of Flax Art Studios.
Necropolis is a film essay about the death of the city, shot entirely in cemeteries, graveyards and burial grounds in Belfast, Berlin and London. The accompanying voiceover narrates a story about attitudes to death and the dead over many centuries. Throughout the film, the cemetery is a parallel to the city, with its own architecture and spatial plan, and its own social divisions. Through this concentration on the city of the dead, the film asks simple questions: after decades of dispossession and privatisation, what is the future of our city, the city of the living? Where, and how, will we live? Actors: Abigail McGibbon and Tony Flynn Music: Liv Ulfsdóttir.
DIRECTOR DANIEL JEWESBURY WILL TAKE PART IN A Q & A WITH LEONTIA FLYNN AFTER THE SCREENING.
DIRECTORS: VARIOUS.
DIRECTOR: DANIEL JEWESBURY. 40MINS. 2019. CERT 12A.
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ANIMAL KINGDOM QUEENS FILM THEATRE.SUNDAY 14TH APRIL. 3.00PM. £6.50/£4
In Animal Kingdom a ritual carves a dimension that melds character, object, landscape and the very tactile makeup of the film itself into one mutating, symphonic mass of spell casting, storytelling, living and dying. An explosive account of cinema as witchcraft Animal Kingdom depicts a man’s voyage into the deep recesses of the very film that projects him, affecting its construction, progression and physical stability. While stranded in a large forest where day and night interchange at any moment, he discovers two natives who have begun their transformation into animals. ‘A genre defying exploration of the cinematic apparatus... heralding a new direction in Irish cinema.” - Sunniva O’Flynn (Head of Irish Film Programming, IFI Irish Film Institute). “Animal Kingdom is a spiritual odyssey, an oneiric vision that has a strongly cathartic effect... [it] appeals to the extra-sensorial profundities of the collective unconscious, in which the traditional descriptive narration has no reason to exist” - Letizia Hushi (La Scimmia Pensa). DIRECTOR: DEAN KAVANAGH. 2018. 121MINUTES. IRELAND. CERT 15.. ND.
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festival
3 1 M AY— 1 J U N E 2 0 1 9 — B E L FA S T
Avalon Emerson Ben Sims Ben UFO The Black Madonna Blawan Daniel Avery Honey Dijon Horse Meat Disco
Len Faki Mall Grab Motor City Drum Ensemble Palms Trax Randomer Rebekah Special Request
Brame + Hamo Call Super Courtesy Cromby DJ Boring Eclair Fifi HAAi Hammer Holly Lester JASSS Krystal Klear LNS
Myler Nez Or:la Sally C Saoirse Skatebard Swoose The Drifter Timmy Stewart + JMX Twitch Willow
Acid Flex / Bekuz X Influx / Blark / Brién / Cait / Carlton Doom / Crock / Daire / Dallas / DART / EVE / High Hoops / Inside Moves / Jika Jika / Kessler / LOR / Marion Hawkes / Mark Blair / Misfit / Mount Palomar (Live) / Noah / Pear / R.Kitt (Live) / Raw Silk / Venus Dupree
AVAFESTIVAL.COM
the filmmakers ball As part of our 19th Film Festival QFT and BFF would like to invite all film makers and participants to the Filmmakers Ball.
This is a party for all the filmmakers, actors and talent taking part in the festival. Shorts, Docs, Features, NI independent filmmakers are invited to come, meet up, talk shop and have a dance. At the Ball we will announce the winner of the short film competition which takes place earlier in the day.
8pm. Saturday 14thApril. Doors open at 8pm til Late. 79
REWIND 80
CROUCHING TIGER SPRING IN A SMALL TOWN HIDDEN DRAGON QUEENS FILM THEATRE.Thursday 18TH APRIL. 2.00PM. £6/3 SONIC ARTS RESEARCH LAB .Thursday 18th April. 7.30pm. £7.
A special Dolby Atmos presentation of this classic at the Sonic Arts Research Lab. A legendary warrior’s stolen magic sword becomes the centrepiece of epic, intertwining love stories, set against the breathtaking landscapes of ancient China. Two master warriors are faced with their greatest challenge when the treasured Green Destiny sword is stolen. A young aristocrat prepares for an arranged marriage, but soon reveals her superior fighting talents and her deeply romantic past. As each warrior battles for justice, they come face to face with their worst enemy - and the inescapable, enduring power of love. Ang Lee’s gorgeous film has also been upgraded to a Dolby Atmos soundtrack, presumably taken from the same new remaster of the camera negatives. On the whole, the original sound design ascends to the object-based format with great results, offering many improvements.
DIRECTOR: ANG LEE.2000 120 MINUTES. CHINA. CERT 12.
Regarded as the finest work from the first great era of Chinese filmmaking, Fei Mu’s quiet, piercingly poignant study of adulterous desire and guiltridden despair – now restored – is a remarkable rediscovery. After eight years of marriage to Liyan -once rich but now a shadow of his former self following a long, ruinous war - Yuwen does little except deliver his daily medication. A surprise visit from Liyan’s friend Zhang re-energises the household, but also stirs up dangerously suppressed longings and resentments. Director Feu Mu’s deft use of locations, dissolves and camera movements makes for a fraught, febrile mood of hesitant passion, entrapment and ennui. Cinematically and psychologically sophisticated, Spring in a Small Town has been restored by the China Film Archive.
DIRECTOR: FEI MU CHINA. 1948. 93 MINS. CERT U.
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GARAGE
SUMMER
BEANBAG CINEMA. FRIDAY 12TH APRIL.8.30PM. £5.
QUEENS FILM THEATRE. saturday 13TH APRIL. 7.15PM. £6/3
To mark Lenny Abrahamson’s visit to Belfast Film Festival we screen one of his earlier films.
Personally chosen by Robert Carlyle to screen at Belfast Film Festival as one of his best, and under-apprechiated films. Robert Carlyle’s central turn is poignant and poweful in this tale of loyalty, loss and the destructive effects of social exclusion.
Lenny Abrahamson and Mark O’Halloran, the team behind the award-winning 2004 comedy drama Adam and Paul, reunite for this riff on Irish stereotypes concerning a dim-witted gas-station attendant named Josie (Pat Shortt) whose search for love and acceptance comes only a close second to his quest to find the optimum place to display his motor oil. In his own way Josie has found happiness in his quiet, rural existence, yet a growing hunger for intimacy will soon change his lonely life in ways he could never have imagined. Garage is superbly paced and controlled, and Abrahamson creates something visually stunning with landscapes that, like the English fenland, are beautiful yet daunting. As I say, I wondered if there might not have been other fates he could have dreamt up for Josie: but this is a gem of a film nonetheless, and Shortt’s performance is outstanding. THE GUARDIAN
Two vibrant boys who unwittingly set down an intensely destructive path Shaun and Daz are two friends who rely on each other for everything, but Shaun was bound to lose from the very beginning. Upon being labeled the village bully, Shaun falls into a hopeless cycle of self-destruction that threatens to consume not only himself, but his first love Katy and best friend as well. Twelve years later, as Daz faces death, Shaun becomes determined to reclaim his life by confronting his past. Carlyle’s central turn is one of the year’s most poignant and tear-jerking acting displays, Sky Cinema Sharply written with an award-winning performance from Robert Carlyle, this is an engaging drama that packs a powerful emotional punch. ViewLondon
DIRECTOR:LENNY ABRAHAMSON, 85 MINUTES, 2007 IRELAND. CERT 15.LAND.
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DIRECTOR: KENNETH GLENAAN 95 MINUTES, 2008. UK. CERT 15.
FIGHT CLUB
OFFICE SPACE
THE STRAND ARTS CENTRE .Tuesday 16th April. 8.15pm. £7.
THE STRAND ARTS CENTRE .Friday 19th April 8.15pm. £7
The first rule of fight club is… you don’t talk about fight club. BBC’s Ralph McLean will introduce this David Fincher classic in its 20th year. “God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy sh*t we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.”
Work sucks! Do you have a bad case of the Mondays? Do you know what “PC load letter” means? Do you like listening to Michael Bolton? Would you like to hand in your TPS reports? Would you like to wear more than 15 pieces of flair? The Sick Sense will be on hand before the screening of Office Space to help you with all of these issues! So, ummm, we’re gonna need you to go ahead and come in then... Office Space is a comedy from Mike Judge about three company workers who hate their soul-killing jobs and decide to rebel against their greedy boss. So quit work early, drown your sorrows, and bring your long-suffering work mates for a welldeserved and much-needed team bonding night out. The Sick Sense are four guys who could make a psychiatrist very, very rich. They come hard and fast with their brand of unique and sometimes (all the time) sick sketch humour. over 18’s only BYO
Presented by:
Presented by: DIRECTOR: DAVID FINCHER , 150 MINUTES,1999. USA. CERT 18..
DIRECTOR: MIKE JUDGE , 90 MINUTES, USA. CERT 18.
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JOHNNY GUITAR
BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID
MOVIE HOuSE DUBLIN RD. SATURDAY 20TH APRIL.1.00PM. £6/3. OVER 65’s ADM FREE.
MOVIE HOuSE DUBLIN RD. THURSDAY 18TH APRIL. 1.00PM. £6/3. OVER 65’s ADM FREE.
“How many men have you forgotten?” “As many women as you remember.” In a dusty Arizona town, Joan Crawford’s pantswearing, gun-toting saloon owner (“Down there I sell whiskey and cards. All you can buy up these stairs is a bullet in the head. Now which do you want?”) stands to rake in the dough when the railroad comes through. But when the stage is robbed and a rancher murdered, the townspeople ready a noose for her more-than-friend The Dancin’ Kid, with insanely jealous cattle baroness, Mercedes McCambridge hellbent on having Crawford join him. Enter Joan’s old flame Sterling Hayden, as the eponymous Johnny, who, despite preferring guitar-play over gun-play – and up against bad guys like Ernest Borgnine and Ward Bond – does what a man’s gotta do. Convulsive and passionate, filled with bold, stylistic strokes!” Martin Scorsese “WEIRD, HYSTERICAL, AND QUITE UNLIKE ANYTHING ELSE IN THE HISTORY OF THE COWBOY FILM!” Geoff Andrew, Time Out (London)
With its iconic pairing of Paul Newman and Robert Redford, jaunty screenplay and Burt Bacharach score, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has gone down as among the defining moments in late 60’s American cinema. Opening with a silent “movie” of Butch Cassidy’s Hole in the Wall Gang, George Roy Hill’s comically elegiac Western chronicles the mostly true tale of the outlaws’ last months. Witty pals Butch and Sundance join the Gang in successfully robbing yet another train with their trademark non-lethal style. After the pair rests at the home of Sundance’s schoolmarm girlfriend, Etta (Katharine Ross), the Gang robs the same train, but this time, the railroad boss has hired the best trackers in the business to foil the crime. Their luck running out, Butch and Sundance are soon holed up in a barn surrounded by scores of Bolivian soldiers who are waiting for the pair to make one last run for it.
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“Dream-like, magical, delirious… the Beauty and the Beast of the Western” François Truffaut DIRECTED BY: NICHOLAS RAY MINUTES, 1954. USA.R CERT PG.LAND.
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DIRECTOR: GEORGE ROY HILL 113 MINUTES, 1969. USA . CERT PG.
GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES
PILLOW TALK
MOVIE HOuSE DUBLIN RD. MONDAY 15TH APRIL. 1.00PM. £6/3. OVER 65’s ADM FREE.
MOVIE HOuSE DUBLIN RD. FRIDAY 19TH APRIL. 1.00PM. £6/3. OVER 65’s ADM FREE.
Two Showgirls travel to Paris, pursued by a private detective hired by the suspicious father of one of the Showgirls fiancé, as well as a rich, enamored old man and many other doting admirers. Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell make a fantastic double act in Howard Hawks’s sparkling 1953 comedy. Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe) is a beautiful showgirl engaged to be married to the wealthy Gus Esmond, much to the disapproval of his rich father, Esmond Sr., who thinks that Lorelei is just after his money. When Lorelei goes on a cruise accompanied only by her best friend, Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell), Esmond Sr. hires Ernie Malone (Elliott Reid), a private detective, to follow her and report any questionable behavior that would disqualify her from the marriage.
70th Anniversary screening of this Doris Day classic. When telephone lines are crossed, complete strangers meet and fall in love. Split screen sequences and songs spice up this light romantic comedy starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson. When Jan Morrow, an uptight interior decorator, is forced to share a party line with carefree playboy Brad Allen, there’s no connection between them. But when the two accidentally meet, the smitten Brad pretends to be a wealthy Texan, wooing Jan with seductive late-night calls. Their phone line is sizzling until Jan discovers her caller’s true identity and calls his bluff. The first and the best of the three romantic comedies Doris Day made with Rock Hudson at Universal offers a good case of deconstructing the stars’ respective screen images. Emanuel Levy
DIRECTOR:HOWARD HAWKS 91MINUTES, 1953. USA. CERT:U.
DIRECTOR: MICHAEL GORDON, , 1959. USA.98 MINS. CERT: PG.
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N.i. independent A programme which presents a series of locally made feature and medium length films. Most of these projects were produced on microbudgets and developed by their makers with their own money and in their own time.
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FORGIVE ME NOT
GRAPEVINES
MOVIE HOUSE, DUBLIN Rd. SATURDAY 13th April. 1pm. £3.
MOVIE HOUSE, DUBLIN Rd. SATURDAY 13th April. 2pm. £3.
Martin, a former paramilitary involved in the abduction and murder of ‘The Disappeared’, visits the senile wife of one of his victims everyday in search of atonement.
Featuring a cast including; Nigel O’Neill (Bad Day for the Cut), Stella McCusker (Five Minutes of Heaven, Normal People). Cathy Brennan-Bradley (The Butchering, Mrs Williams). Lalor Roddy (The Devil’s Doorway, Kissing Candice, Michael Inside).
DIRECTOR: CONAN MCIVOR. 24 MINS. 2018. CERT:15
After a bar fight with a local drunk, a young man becomes talk of the town. The once simple story of self defence changes with every retelling and soon becomes a tale of mindless violence and malice. In this town, retribution is swift and punishment is chosen by a few but it doesn’t always fit the crime.
DIRECTOR: CHRIS MULLEN. 35MINS. 2019. CERT:15
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PICTURES & MUSIC
DIVE
MOVIE HOUSE. DUBLIN RD. saturday 13TH APRIL. 3.00PM. £3
MOVIE HOUSE, DUBLIN Rd. SATURDAY 13th April. 4pm. £4.
Four friends deal with the various trials and tribulations of a flawed film, five years in post-production.
Tara, a teenage Irish swimmer with dreams of going to the Olympics, is forced to make a life-changing decision when she discovers she’s pregnant.
Inspired by movies like Sideways and Wonder Boys the film follows struggling writer, director and actor, Colm, who has just screened his highly flawed film, Rich Coast, for the fourth time. While better than the previous attempts, it is still not quite there. He is convinced there is a great film in there somewhere. In an effort to move on from the project, his friends, who also worked on the film, are trying to convince him to let it go.
When she crosses paths with James - a down and out mechanic with secrets of his own - they develop an unlikely bond with implications that neither of them could have anticipated. Set in modern-day Ireland on the brink of its recent landmark referendum, Dive presents an unflinching but balanced look at one of the most fiercely debated issues in public discourse today.
As the story progresses, Colm is faced with the choice; ignoring the naysayers and commiting once again to his idea or accepting the flaws and moving on.
altered states
DIRECTOR: COLM S. HERRON. 40 MINUTES, CERT:15
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DIRECTOR: . DANIEL F HOLMES. IRELAND. 85MINS. CERT:15
THE SALVATION DOOR
the KIOSK
MOVIE HOUSE, DUBLIN Rd. SUNDAY 14th April. 1pm. £3.
MOVIE HOUSE, DUBLIN Rd. SATURDAY 13th April. 6pm. £4.
A seventy year old man, a British Indian lives in plight after being abandoned by his family, except for his married daughter Udita, who nurtures him. When his present state of living changes, he decides to go to ‘The Salvation Door’ in India. The film follows the twists and turns of his journey and numerous choices he must make, will he be able to pick his “Last drop of his life”?
A look through the eyes of a Barista serving coffee from a little Coffee Kiosk in the centre of Belfast. This is a Belfast story served up via interviews on a daily basis with the local pensioners, Office Workers, Historians, Poets, some of Belfast’s homeless, and a charismatic Parisian who feels Belfast is his new home, and in light of Brexit, is in two minds to return home to Paris. Director Biography - Neal Hughes Over the Past six years Neal has worked on and off in film production whilst training to become a Music Therapist. Neal has mainly worked as an onset Artist or in Props. This is Neal’s debut as a Director. The Kiosk was mostly shot by Neal with help of his colleague Gavin McCauley who assisted in shooting time lapses and was a consultant on editing. The film was shot over two summers and is a unique view of street life from a little kiosk in which Neal worked as a Barista.
DIRECTOR: SRIKANT GANAPATI 21 MINUTES, 2019. CERT:PG
DIRECTOR: NEAL HUGHES, 35 MINUTES, 2019. CERT:12A.
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BATHROOM
BELFAST CALIBRE NO. 9
MOVIE HOUSE. DUBLIN RD. sUNDAY 14TH APRIL. 2.00PM. £3
beanbag cinema. saturday 13TH APRIL. 12.00PM. £3
Bathroom is a feature length dystopian sci-fi, lo-fi circus comedy movie. All shot in a real bathroom in East Belfast.
After a human trafficking deal goes wrong, small time criminal Leo finds himself on the run from two rival gangs, after he is accused of being behind it.
Ronald and Regina are the only surviving circus artists in the aftermath of the Situation. They live in a bathroom for their own protection. Director Statement Myself and Angelique Ross spent just under a week confined in our bathroom. While isolated and uncontactable in the Bathroom we researched and developed work on the theme ‘circus in confident’. This is where Bathroom the movie was born. Ken Fanning is a circus legend, fringe hero, and maverick film maker. He holds a criminal record in Ireland, Germany and Iceland. He is also a successful Dad.
Director Statement Belfast Calibre 9 was by far my most challenging project yet. Wanting to push low-budget filmmaking to the limit, I wanted to bring a crime thriller set in Belfast to the screen. I used the Italian crime films of the 1970s known as Poliziotteschi films as an aesthetic influence. Other influences have included films and TV shows such as The Sopranos, The Godfather and Drive. In the beginning I set out to make a stone-cold neo-noir film exploring themes corruption, deception and violence set in a bleak environment. This vision changed by the end of the film becoming a pulpy, gritty and extravagant crime story with an almost trashy aesthetic.
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DIRECTOR: KEN FANNING. 2019. CERT:12A. ND.
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DIRECTOR: THOMAS POLLOCK 24MINS. 2019. CERT:18.
BORN TO DIE
MY SON AND I
beanbag cinema. saturday 13TH APRIL. 1.00PM. ÂŁ3
beanbag cinema. saturday 13TH APRIL. 2.00PM. ÂŁ3
In the not too distant future, The Bournemount corporation, a technologically formidable corporation, creates a powerful but unreliable experiment. And so, they decide to destroy it. However, assistant scientist, Colin Kampf, believes that this is wrong and steals it. Bournemount notices and sends everyone out after him to retrieve what is rightfully theirs.
DIRECTOR: THOMAS MCQUILLAN 25 MINS. CERT:12A.
Paul and Matthew Owens, a father and son who are forced to endure the cruel aspect of homelessness. A year of living on the streets Paul is forced to break the silence between his sister and himself when Matthew falls ill, only for Paul to be held accountable for allowing his son to suffer by his side for his own mistakes.
DIRECTOR: KEVIN JOHN MC CORRY 37MINS. CERT:12A.
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SHORT FILM COMPETITION
Supported By Queens Film Theatre
Showcasing both first-time and established short filmmakers from all parts of Ireland, our short film programme this year is heaving with talent. We have selected the very best of new productions for our competition. If you’re looking for a miscarriage of justice, a heroic Indian shopkeeper, turnip-loving zombies, a sprinkling of magic mushrooms or just having your tealeaves read, we’re sure you’ll find much to delight you amongst this year’s films. NOTE: The films in this programme are not certified and have been given a recommended age guidance. If you are under 18 or are booking for someone under 18 you MUST contact us on 028 9032 5913 in advance to discuss.
SHORTS COMPETITION JUDGES
Sarah Edge is a Professor of Photography and Cultural Studies at Ulster University, where she lecturers in feminist film theory and production and the history, theory and practice of photography.
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Hugh Odling-Smee Project Manager for Film Hub NI, he has over 20 years’ experience working in Belfast’s arts and heritage sectors for organisations as diverse as the Linen Hall Library, Kabosh Theatre Company and Belfast Festival at Queen’s.
Cian Smyth has 20 years’ experience working in the arts and film sectors through which he has worked with NI Screen, the UK Film Council, ACNI. He was a Producer at Hull UK City of Culture 2017, an Artistic Advisor to 1418Now and Chairperson of Outburst Arts.
Chris Martin produced independent drama Peacefire before launching his Belfastbased production outfit Indie Movie Company in 2009. Since then, he has produced Good Vibrations, A City Dreaming and I Am Belfast.
Niamh McKeown a writer/ director. Her graduate film Good Girls screened at a variety of festivals and went on to win the shorts competition at the Belfast Film Festival. She completed the Scottish Shorts development programme with SFTN for her project ‘Hen House’.
SHORTS COMPETITION PROGRAMME 1
SATURDAY 13TH APRIL . 10AM-11.40AM QFT . £6.50
STIGMA A string of confessions unveil a tale of religious guilt, sin and redemption in this short experimental drama set against the dramatic and rugged Northern Irish coastline.
EARLY DAYS Kate knows she’s lucky to have become a mother, and her instincts toward her baby are fiercely protective, post-natal trauma and hallucinations make the world increasingly hard to bear. Can anything pull her back to reality - before it’s too late?”
Duration 10mins Director: Helen Warner
ÁINE’S PLACE A contemporary Northern Irish psychological thriller in which a young English woman’s remote retreat becomes a rural nightmare, due to a duplicitous air b’n’b host. Duration: 14mins. Director: Georgia Sawyer
LAND OF WINTER A lost young man staggers through Dublin’s cold streets desperately trying to find somewhere still serving on a dark winter’s night on the brink of snowfall. Inspired by the work of James Joyce. Duration 14mins Director: Tommy Creagh
HINDSIGHT Tony, a convict and drug addict, desperate for a new relationship with his daughter and former partner, must overcome his past temptations and prove that he’s finally changed his ways.
Duration 12mins Director: Nessa Wrafter
FINDING SHAKESPEARE Miss Hayes is determined that Maeve and her class understand William Shakespeare, his life and times. Unbeknownst to her, Miss Hayes has a surprising ally and one which is only visible to Maeve. Puck, from Shakespeare’ A Midsummer Nights Dream takes it upon himself to show Maeve that the even famed bard himself drew inspiration from the lives and histories around him. Duration 17mins.
Director: Margaret McGoldrick
HOLD THE LINE Em works in a call centre. She faces a day that’s more difficult than the usual ‘customer care queries’ and is on the brink. That’s until: she picks up the phone to Patsy. Duration 12mins
Directors: Karen Killeen & Laura O’ Shea
Duration 11mins
Director: Oisin-Tomas O Raghallaigh 93
SHORTS COMPETITION PROGRAMME 2 SATURDAY 13TH APRIL. 12pm to 1.30pm. QFT . £6.50 HER VERY OWN
TROUBLES
On this day, Maeve has set an unbreakable mental deadline. As she is pushed and pulled by life, she struggles to make an existential determination. She struggles to see where she fits, all the while trying to protect her son from the uncaring world she exists in.
A troubled traditional Irish musician reenters the fold after a long absence. An emotionally stunted friend wants to offer an apology. When words fail them both, music is all they have to bring them together.
Duration: 14mins. Director: Dominic Curran
I AM NOT A MONSTER Ambrose Mordrake, born with a violent, mind controlling deformed growth on the back of his head, unexpectedly returns home for his brother’s engagement dinner. Ambrose attempts to insert himself back into the family life, who keep him at an arm’s distance. In order to fit in with his family’s image, Ambrose must battle his inner and outer demons. Duration 17mins. Director: Grace Quilligan
THE OWL A man arrives uninvited to his best friend’s birthday party, where he discovers why his friends have abandoned him. Duration: 13mins. Director: Neil Winterlich
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Duration: 11mins.
Director: Jonathan Harden
JUGGLE Rory, a narcissistic entrepreneur wakes up in a woman’s house after an alcoholic blackout. He is left with a dilemma after she later contacts him, heavily pregnant. Duration:11mns. Director: Seamus Duffy
WHAT BETTY SEES Belfast 1979, three sisters reluctantly agree to have their tealeaves read by their ill-fated aunt Betty. But the cups uncover more than they could have imagined, revealing trauma, dark futures, family secrets and unbelievable news. A true story of hopes and fears. Duration: 10mins Director: Colleen Forward
THE MAN WHO SHOT THE KET A surreal film noir following Stevie the smick as he investigates the disappearance of his ketamine. Duration:14mins. Director: Rian Lennon.
SHORTS COMPETITION PROGRAMME 3 SATURDAY 13TH APRIL. 2.30pm-3.55pm. QFT . £6.50 A FILM ABOUT SANDHOPPERS A modern love story masquerading as nature documentary. Duration: 1min. Director: Nicholas Keogh
ONE NEW FRIEND Two lonely young people find a life changing new relationship online Duration : 15mins. Director: Aidan Largey
VEGETABLE After god knows how long, a desperate trio of undead are left with no choice but to chomp on some vegetables to survive. Our main zombie, Turnip, eats a...turnip. It changes him. He regains almost a kind of sentience again. Almost. Duration: 12mins. Director: Mícheál Fleming
BURNT ORANGES A disturbed man recalls the events leading to his imprisonment. Duration:1:30mins. Director: Patrick Bokin
EL HOR Through the interspecies gaze we observe one of the most ancient and highly honoured dog breeds, the Saluki. Guiding us in love, preparing us in death and transforming us in life. Duration: 13mins. Director: Dianne Lucille Campbell
NO PLACE Angela and her two young kids have been evicted from their home. Angela struggles to maintain a sense of normality as an increasingly desperate situation unfolds. Duration: 7mins. Director: Laura Kavanagh
FIFTEEN Based on the letters he wrote to his family, Fifteen tells the true story of Paul Hill, a member of the Guildford Four, imprisoned for fifteen years for a crime he didn’t commit. 2019 is the 30th anniversary of the release of the Guildford Four. Duration:15mins. Director: Sébastien Blanc
FIRST DISCO It’s 1983, Culture Club are no. 1, everyone’s glued to Knight Rider, and Kelly Harrison is not only experiencing her first crush, she’s going to her first disco. However with the help of her best friend, Kelly realises what’s really important in her life. Duration: 18mins. Director: Helen O’Reilly
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SHORTS COMPETITION PROGRAMME 4 SATURDAY 13TH APRIL .4.15PM TO 5.40PM. QFT . £6 UNDER GROWTH When Hayley visits her dad for the first time since her mum dumped him, he’s too hungup and hungover to join in her games and she gets into a dangerous adventure of her own making. Duration::11mins. Director: Evin O’Neill
SPOOK Jess is tripping on magic mushrooms when Alan tells her he’s from another galaxy but afterwards she can’t shake her suspicion that he was telling the truth and sets out to prove it, while trying to keep a grip on her sanity. Duration: 14mins
Director: Evin O’Neill, Dara O’Neill
VIOLET Burdened by overbearing and conservative parents, Belfast teenager Violet struggles to come to terms with being gay and Christian. Duration: 11mins
Director: Madeline Graham, Christopher Whiteside
MR. SPICE A short drama centred around an unassuming Indian grocer who, after encountering an injured man on the run, must make a very important decision. Duration 11mins. Director: David Moody 96
THE FAMILY WAY A family is thrown into turmoil when a positive pregnancy test is found in the bathroom drawer. Mother and daughter Julia and Ruth get their pregnancy tests mixed up when they both hide them in the bathroom. They set out to discreetly buy pregnancy tests in their small Irish suburban town, but are thwarted at every turn, bumping into people they know. Word spreads and friends and neighbors turn up at their home to find out the ‘news’ from distressed dad Robert. Duration: 18mins. Director: Nuno Bernardo
THE INVENTION In 1960s Belfast, a young boy comes of age while devising a plan to steal cigarettes. Inspired by a true story, The Invention takes place in Belfast during the summer of 1968. We follow the exploits of Frankie, a mischievous and resourceful young boy who’s more than happy to spend his summer listening to his record player or playing with his friends. Duration: 19mins. Director: Leo McGuigan
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Experience the Artistry of the World of Westeros OFFICIAL EXHIBITION OF THE HIT HBO SERIES
11 APRIL – 1 SEPTEMBER 2019, TEC BELFAST
BOOK NOW
GAMEOFTHRONESEXHIBITION.CO.UK 100
©2018 Home Box Office, Inc. All Rights Reserved. HBO and related trademarks are the property of Home Box Office, Inc.
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THURSDAY APRIL 18TH BUTCH CASSIDY & SUNDANCE SPRING IN A SMALL TOWN DARK LIES THE ISLAND THE DEAD CENTER UP & DOWN MADELINE’S MADELINE CROUCHING TIGER… FRAZIER THE GREAT SATAN LONG DAYS JOURNEY SUNSET BROTHER’S NEST
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SATURDAY APRIL 20TH CINEMA SPORTS JOHNNY GUITAR FANTASY OF DEER WARRIOR LIVE READ DEAD GOOD SECRET OF SAN. VITT SCHALCKEN THE PAINTER REM KOOLHAAS THE SOCIAL MODEL BEATS BILL MORRISON 2019: FALL OF NY
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