DECEMBER 7TH - 9TH
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VANCITY THEATRE
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VANCOUVER IRISH FILM FESTIVAL
INDUSTRY MESSAGES OUR SPONSORS FESTIVAL SCHEDULE HOW TO VIRFF GALA MOVIE NIGHT
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FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY A DATE FOR MAD MARY GOOD VIBRATIONS A MOTHER BRINGS HER SON TO BE SHOT MAZE OLDER THAN IRELAND WAR OF THE BUTTONS POC NA NGAEL / PUCK OF THE IRISH AN COSC
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FESTIVAL DIRECTOR: Áine Coady GRAPHIC DESIGN: Bernard Sloan Design WEBSITE: Amy Dennehy COPY EDITOR: Padraic Coffey Irish Film Institute International Coordinator : Eleanor Melinn
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ÁINE COADY Warmest céad míle fáilte to everyone attending our first VIRFF. It is with great pride and excitement that I am presenting the programme for our inaugural festival here in Vancouver. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors, advertisers, friends, supporters, and everyone in the Irish community in Vancouver, without whom we would not be here. A huge thank you to the Irish filmmakers for sharing their stories with us and the audiences for attending our screenings. Go raibh míle maith agaibh, Áine Coady, Festival Director
Volunteers - Áine Geoghegan; Pádraic Coffey; Heather Maguire; Laura Brunnock; Bernard Sloan; Cathal Dunphy; Áine Coady; Susan O’Brien; Karen Downey; Amy Dennehy
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VANCOUVER IRISH FILM FESTIVAL
CONSULATE GENERAL On behalf of all at the new Consulate General of Ireland office in Vancouver I would like to express our best wishes for the Inaugural Vancouver Irish Film Festival . This year has seen not only the opening of the Irish Consulate General Office in Canada Place but also the launch of the new Vancouver Chapter of the Ireland-Canada Chamber of Commerce. In addition, and very importantly, earlier this year we launched a new $150,000 film Co-Development agreement between Creative BC and Screen Ireland which will lead up to four Ireland-Canada film or TV projects being awarded funding by the end of this year. Canada and Ireland have common values and cultural links grown through our very strong historical ties. However, in changing and uncertain times our mutual love and enthusiasm for film can remind us of who we are, where we have come from, what we have in common and above all encourage us to work more closely together in all aspects of life. It is in this context that one of the first modest grants made by the new Consulate General of Ireland office was made in support of the first Inaugural Vancouver Irish Film Festival weekend. No film festival can be launched, however, without a great deal of work, sponsorship and public support. So I would like to thank Ă ine Coady, and all the team at the Vancouver Irish Film Festival, and to wish you every success. May it be the first of many great Irish film festivals in years to come. Beir bua agus beannacht, Frank Flood, Consul General of Ireland, Vancouver
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Ireland has long been the country of Céad Míle Fáilte, a hundred thousand welcomes, and no country has been as welcoming to the Irish as Canada. It is absolutely wonderful that Vancouver, Canada’s most beautiful and culturally vibrant city, now has a festival to celebrate the best of Irish film. The combination of Irish and Canadian talent has been fruitful in recent years, with Room, Brooklyn, Maudie and The Breadwinner winning numerous accolades. Our coproduction treaty is a source of great strength and of great pride. This outstanding inaugural programme is a testament to both the hard work and dedication of the VIRFF team and to the sublime artistry of Irish filmmakers both at home and abroad. Seven thousand kilometres may separate us, but we are one in spirit when we sit down in a darkened room for the communal experience that is cinema. Film has the power to bring us beyond ourselves and experience feelings, ideas, and moments that can change us. It’s also a fantastic way to spend a couple of hours out of the rain! We wish the entire VIRFF team the very best of luck and we hope that audiences find a welcome escape in an Irish film. Ádh Mór Oraibh! Niall Murphy, Editor of Scannain SCANNAIN 6
VANCOUVER IRISH FILM FESTIVAL
Screen Ireland is proud to support the 2018 Vancouver Irish Film Festival, which provides a salient platform for Irish creative filmmaking talent to tell their stories to Canadian audiences. We are delighted to see such a wide range of emerging and established Irish voices in this year’s programme, spanning engaging documentaries, beautiful comingof-age tales, and box-office success stories. Screen Ireland would like to take this opportunity to wish all the team at the Vancouver Irish Film Festival the very best of luck for this year’s edition of the festival. James Hickey, Chief Executive Officer Fís Éireann / Screen Ireland
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SPONSORS
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VANCOUVER IRISH FILM FESTIVAL
A sharp and nimble creative studio partnering with organizations and businesses to create impact and meaningful connections.
weareloki.com
212 - 309 W. Cordova St. Vancouver
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SCHEDULE
SCHEDULE
16:00 War of The Buttons 16:00 17:00
Page 27
Opening Reception 17:30 18:00
Live Music
19:00 Float Like A Butterfly 18:45 20:00
Older Than Ireland 18:00
Puck of The Irish & An Cosc 18:00
Page 26
Page 28
Live Music 19:00 - 20:00 Paul Caldwell
Page 14
A Date For Mad Mary 20:00 21:00
22:00
A Mother Brings Her Son to Be Shot 19:20 Page 21
Page 18
Good Vibrations 21:00
Maze 21:00
Page 20
Page 22
Donnellan’s After Party
23:00
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Donnellan’s After Party
VANCOUVER IRISH FILM FESTIVAL
Donnellan’s After Party
HOW TO
WHAT YOU’RE GOINGTO NEED.
WHERE YOUNEED TOGO.
THINGS YOUNEED TOKNOW.
TICKETS:
VENUE:
SHOWTIME:
Book your tickets online at virff.org and viff.org
Vancity Theatre 1181 Seymour St. Vancouver, BC V6B 3M7
Arrive at the venue with your tickets ready. Should you have any questions at the venue, ask one of our friendly volunteers wearing a black VIRFF t-shirt.
Box Office Helpline: 604.683.3456
AFTER PARTY: GALA REGULAR 3-MOVIES
$20 $13 $30
(EXCLUDES GALA)
Donnellan’s Irish Pub is a short walk from Vancity Theatre.
SPECIAL MATINEE PRICING WAR OF THE BUTTONS YOUTH TIX (W.O.B.)
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VANCOUVER IRISH FILM FESTIVAL
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FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY CARMEL WINTERS
Drama, 2018
Winner of the prestigious Discovery Prize awarded by the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) at the Toronto International Film Festival, Float Like a Butterfly is the story of Frances Joyce (Hazel Doupe), a teenage Irish traveller who, after the untimely death of her mother, wishes to pursue a career as a boxer, just like her idol, Muhammad Ali. However, Frances faces obstacles in the form of her father, Michael (Dara Devaney), a recently-released ex-convict, who disapproves of her newfound athletic ambitions. Set in the 1960s, Float Like a Butterfly not only deals with discrimination against the Irish traveller community in Ireland, as seen in the heavy-handed actions of a local police sergeant (Aidan O’Hare) during the tragic opening scene; it also deals with the way in which women and girls are often held back by the well-intentioned but stifling views of male authority figures. Michael wants his daughter to marry young and seek a husband who “will give you a few bob if you behave.” This isn’t just to preserve the traditional domestic roles of women in the traveller community, but for Frances to avoid the fate of her mother.
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VANCOUVER IRISH FILM FESTIVAL
Vancity Theatre FRI 7TH DEC, 18:45 Float Like a Butterfly is the second feature from director Carmel Hazel Doupe, Dara Devaney, Winters, whose previous film, Snap, had a chronologyJohnny Collins shuffling time-line that was compared to the work of Canadian director Atom Egoyan. Winters has spoken of wanting to bring “intelligence, joy, love, play, consolation, understanding, 101mins humour, insight, and company” to audiences, something which this film achieves in spades. Prior to becoming a filmmaker, Winters was the acclaimed writer of plays such as Witness and ‘B is for Baby’, the latter of which scooped the Irish Times Award for Best New Play. Float Like a Butterfly was also produced by Martina Niland, whose credits include the smash-hit musical drama Once, and the 2016 crowd-pleaser Sing Street.
Filmed in Cork, Float Like a Butterfly captures an Ireland of the past, seen through the prism of Ireland today. In an ever-changing society, which grows more progressive with every passing year, stories like this are a reminder of how intolerance of any kind is an affront, and how women and girls must be free to follow their dreams without being boxed in. Described by The Globe and Mail as “The Fighter meets Angela’s Ashes,” Float Like a Butterfly is a must-see.
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VANCOUVER IRISH FILM FESTIVAL
Located in PORT MOODY & Kitsilano Contact Bronรกgh Rogan & Emma Cronin RCKellsIrishDance@gmail.com For more information visit www.RCKellsIrishDance.com
Proud to be associated with the Vancouver Irish Film Festival
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A DATE FOR MAD MARY DARREN THORNTON
COMEDY/DRAMA/ROMANCE, 2016
One of the most acclaimed Irish films of recent years, A Date for Mad Mary is the story of Mary McArdle, a young woman who, released from prison after a six-month stint for assault, must find a plus-one for the wedding of a once-close friend, Charlene. It is this quest that drives the film, throwing up curve-balls which both Mary and the audience are forced to confront. The debut feature film from director Darren Thornton, who had previously worked on the hit RTÉ series Love is the Drug, A Date for Mad Mary has its roots on the stage, but transcends them, also. Based on the play 10 Dates with Mad Mary by Yasmine Akram, the film offers insights into the way in which women compete with one another in often destructive fashion. Though given the role of maid-of-honour at Charlene’s wedding, Mary is nonetheless looked down upon by mutual friends of the bride-to-be. Bridesmaid Leona scoffs at the notion that Mary would even find a date for the wedding, to which Mary replies, “I think I can get a fella quicker than you.” There are also barbed comments about Leona’s weight, in typically-colourful Irish vernacular, and other zingers (“A sniper wouldn’t take you out!”).
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VANCOUVER IRISH FILM FESTIVAL
Vancity Theatre
SAT 8TH DEC, 20:00 Seána Kerslake, Carolyn Bracken, Denise McCormack
More than that, A Date for Mad Mary is representative of the speed at which Ireland is changing. Despite having been in jail for a relatively short period, Mary cannot get over the fact that Charlene is more content preparing for a life of domestic 132mins normality than hitting the town. These are the kind of questions which anyone trapped in a state of arrested development must face. Rather than offer a pat explanation for Mary’s behaviour, the film hints at more than simply a volatile disposition, when she meets Jess, a videographer. As Mary, rising star Séana Kerslake gives a stand-out central performance, around which the whole film is based. Kerslake has made a name for herself as one of the brightest Irish acting talents in living memory. She appeared in Yorgos Lanthimos’s ultra-black comedy The Lobster, and the RTÉ series Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope, which itself was partly-filmed in Vancouver. Playwright Yasmine Akram is responsible for the play which director Darren Thornton and his brother Colin adapted. She is a well-known actress and comedian in her own right, who starred in Series 3 of the BBC crime series Sherlock.
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GOOD VIBRATIONS LISA BARROS D’SA, GLENN LEYBURN
BIOGRAPHY/MUSIC/DRAMA, 2012
Vancity Theatre Set in Belfast at the height of the Troubles, Good Vibrations – as its title might suggest – is an upbeat bio-pic of Terri Hooley, founder of the eponymous record store and label that signed bands such as The Undertones, known for their immortal punk hit Teenage Kicks. Played by Richard Dormer, Hooley is a 103mins force of nature, determined that his hometown be known for more than just bombs and bullets. “When it comes to punk, New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason”, he declares at one point. FRI 7TH DEC, 21:00 Jodie Whittaker, Liam Cunningham, David Wilmot
Good Vibrations eschews clichés which many Troubles-set films have been known to fall into. Yes, violence creeps into the story, but more than anything else, the film captures the exuberance and joy of music, be it on a vinyl record, or at a live gig. Fans of the era will delight in the appearances from the likes of John Peel (Kieron Forsyth), the BBC disc-jockey who famously played Teenage Kicks twice back-to-back the first time it was heard on the airwaves. If for nothing else, Good Vibrations is worth seeing for Jodie Whittaker’s excellent performance as Hooley’s wife Ruth, years before the actress stepped into the Tardis for the role of Doctor Who. 20
VANCOUVER IRISH FILM FESTIVAL
A MOTHER BRINGS HER SON TO BE SHOT SINÉAD O’SHEA
DOCUMENTARY, 2017
Vancity Theatre
SUN 9TH DEC, 19:20 Majella O’Donnell, Philly O’Donnell
84mins
Filmed over five years, Sinéad O’Shea’s documentary takes a look at a community that is often ignored whenever the subject of peace in Northern Ireland is broached. As the film states, the Good Friday Agreement – an international treaty signed by both the British and Irish governments in 1998 – ended decades-long conflict by catering to different groups; not just the major unionist and nationalist political parties, but
paramilitary organisations. However, in the Creggan housing estate in Derry, normal rules do not apply when it comes to law and order. The police are not called upon to dispense justice when tackling local crime - that task falls to so-called ‘dissident republicans’ who reject the 1998 agreement, despite its mandate from 71% of voters. Operating under the name of the IRA – or ‘the RA’ in the vernacular of those in Creggan – these groups routinely deliver ‘knee-cappings’; gun-shots to the leg, permanently injuring targets. Executive produced by Joshua Oppenheimer – whose stunning film The Act of Killing took a look at the legacy of genocide in Indonesia – A Mother Brings Her Son to Be Shot may not make for cheerful viewing, but it is an important social document, not least at a time of political uncertainty brought on by the UK’s exit from the European Union. WWW.VIRFF.ORG
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MAZE STEPHEN BURKE
Adventure/Crime/Drama, 2017
Northern Ireland, 1983. In what is considered one of the highest security prisons in all of Europe, 38 inmates, all members of the IRA, hijack a food truck and smash their way to freedom. It was the largest break-out in British or Irish history, and a pivotal event of the era known as ‘the Troubles’, depicted in Stephen Burke’s film, Maze. The ‘Maze’ of the title is Her Majesty’s Prison Maze, known to Irish republican prisoners as Long Kesh, where Bobby Sands died two years prior to the events of the film. Sands was an IRA member who was elected a Member of Parliament for Fermanagh and South Tyrone with over 50% of the vote, while serving 14 years for firearm possession. He died after 66 days on hunger strike, demanding better conditions for Irish republican prisoners. The shadow of Sands and the nine other hunger strikers who died in the early 1980s looms large in Maze. Indeed, one of the first voices heard in the film is that of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who declared, while Sands and others struggled for political status, that “there is no such thing as political murder, political bombing or political violence.” In Burke’s film, we meet inmate Larry Marley (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor), who, despite the nature of his imprisonment, develops a close relationship with officer Gordon Close (Barry Ward), for which he is accused by his fellow IRA men of “betraying the hunger strikers!”
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VANCOUVER IRISH FILM FESTIVAL
Vancity Theatre
SUN 9TH DEC, 21:00 Grim though its premise might be, Maze is as much an actionTom Vaughan-Lawlor, Barry adventure film as it is a political thriller. Donald Clarke of The Ward, Martin McCann Irish Times favourably compared it to Steve McQueen classic The Great Escape, saying it was “more like that film than we had any right to expect.” While shown from the perspective of 92mins an IRA prisoner, Maze is less partisan than some other films depicting the Troubles in Northern Ireland have been. We see a botched assassination attempt on Gordon outside the prison, which results in his wife and children fleeing to England for safety.
The cast of Maze is filled with Irish acting stalwarts. Tom Vaughan-Lawlor is perhaps best known to viewers in Ireland as Nidge in the hit television series Love/Hate. He also starred as super-villain Ebony Maw in the 2018 blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War. Barry Ward has been acting since the age of 13, in the Roddy Doyle-scripted Family. More recently, he appeared in Ken Loach’s Jimmy’s Hall, and Netflix series The End of the F***ing World. Other actors include Eileen Walsh (The Magdalene Sisters) as Marley’s long-suffering wife, and Martin McCann (television’s The Pacific) as Oscar, the IRA Officer commanding the Maze Prison.
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OLDER THAN IRELAND ALEX FEGAN
DOCUMENTARY, 2015
Vancity Theatre
SAT 8TH DEC, 18:00 Winnifred Anderson, Bridget Aspell, Dolly Atley
81mins
Older Than Ireland is not only a charming look at the lives of over two dozen Irish centenarians, but a film from which much great insight can be gleaned. Filmed in an unobtrusive style, it is a paean to the world-renowned ‘gift of the gab’, the simple act of storytelling, for which the Irish are known.
As the title suggests, most of its participants were born prior to Irish independence, making them older than the state of Ireland itself. There is Bessie Nolan, from Drimnagh, Dublin, who, aged five, witnessed the 1916 Easter Rising. We also hear from Jack Powell, of Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, shaken by the brutality of the revolutionary period in Irish history, noting that “we did things to each other during the civil war which... well, I won’t say they were any worse than what the Black and Tans did, but they were certainly no better.” Given the number of Irish-born residents of Canada, it is of no surprise that North America was the most popular destination for Irish emigrants, at least until the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Kathleen Snavely, the oldest living Irish person at the time the film was made, is interviewed from her home in Syracuse, New York. Her soft mid-Atlantic brogue is a reminder of all those people born in Ireland who made their homes in other countries. 26
VANCOUVER IRISH FILM FESTIVAL
WAR OF THE BUTTONS JOHN ROBERTS
ADVENTURE/DRAMA/FAMILY, 1994
Vancity Theatre
SAT 8TH DEC, 16:00 Gregg Fitzgerald, Gerard Kearney, Darragh Naughton
94mins
This classic Irish children’s film, adapted from the French novel La Guerre des boutons, shifts the rural Gallic setting of the original text to Co. Cork, Ireland, where the workingclass boys of Ballydowse battle the middle-class boys of Carrickdowse. Shirt-buttons of each respective gang are kept as trophies whenever there is a victory.
Directed by John Roberts, the film reunited producer David Putman and writer Colin Welland, who worked together on the Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire. It features performances from Liam Cunningham (known to many international viewers as Ser Davos in Game of Thrones), Colm Meaney, and Pat Laffan. It is narrated by Marie, a local Bally girl recalling the summer in which the events of the film take place. The young cast also includes many non-professional actors, whose naturalism was praised by critics like Barbara Schulgasser of the San Francisco Examiner upon the film’s release. It is no surprise that War of the Buttons has become a staple of high school curricula when teaching about conflict, class and democracy. However, that should not detract from the film as a nostalgic, purely entertaining experience all on its own. WWW.VIRFF.ORG
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POC NA NGAEL / PUCK OF THE IRISH ÉAMONN Ó CUALÁIN
DOCUMENTARY, 2017 Irish With English Subtitles
Vancity Theatre
SUN 9TH DEC, 18:00 Éamonn Ó Cualáin
50mins
2018 was an extraordinary year for Irish hockey, with the Women’s Hockey Team narrowly losing to the Netherlands in the World Cup final. With players from all over the island, North and South, the team did Ireland proud, returning home to Dublin, where Minister Shane Ross, announced that their success meant a further €1,500,000 be invested into sport.
It is in that spirit that Éamonn Ó Cualáin’s documentary Puck of the Irish was made. It features retired Clare sportsman Ger Loughnane, who led his county to two All-Ireland victories in hurling as manager of the team. The ancient Irish sport of hurling shares much with Canada’s national past-time – hockey – and it is those similarities which the film examines. Loughnane travels to Windsor, Nova Scotia, tracking the links between the two sports, and how Irish immigrants to Canada were able to transcend their poverty through athleticism, particularly in hockey, which, as Loughnane notes, needs “passion, skill and stick work.” Filmed in Irish Gaelic, Puck of the Irish includes Brendan Shanahan, president of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the son of Irish immigrants, who muses on the connection between hurling and hockey. 28
VANCOUVER IRISH FILM FESTIVAL
AN COSC / THE BAN VINCENT GALLAGHER
DRAMA / SHORT, 2009
Irish With English Subtitles
Vancity Theatre
Based on true events, An Cosc explores the bizarre and humorous story of two childhood friends from opposite sides of town who share a voracious passion for hurling and mutual raillery. When local pride and sporting politics interfere, it sparks a bitter fall-out that divides a community,
SUN 9TH DEC, 18:00 Diarmaid Murtagh, Cillian O’Sullivan, Eamonn Hunt SHOWN WITH PUCK OF THE IRISH
and has unforeseen consequences for the first President of 12mins
the country.
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