NEW FEATURES Saturday, July 8 6PM | MFC 1 Friday, July 14 9PM | MFC 1
Eastern U.S. Premiere
NORTH CIRCULAR Ireland 2022 - DCP - 85 minutes, in Gaelic with English subtitles and in English Director, Screenplay: Luke McManus Producers: Elaine Gallagher, Luke McManus Performers: Gemma Dunleavy, Johnny Flynn, Ian Lynch, Eoghan O’Ceannabhain, Lisa O’Neill, Séan Ó Túama Print Courtesy: Lightdox
A real discovery, shot in beautiful black and white, North Circular is a documentary musical journey that travels the length of Dublin’s North Circular Road, exploring the history, music, and streetscapes of a street that links some of the country’s most beloved and infamous places. Told in 4:3 Academy ratio, the “old style” of pre-‘50s movies, the film evokes and draws on the history of the city and of Ireland itself, from colonialism to mental health, to the struggle for women’s liberation, while also engaging with urgent issues of today, including the battle to save the legendary Cobblestone Pub, center of Dublin’s recent folk revival, from destruction at the hands of cynical property developers. But this is, above all, a musical tour, including fabulous performances from artists local to the North Circular, including John Francis Flynn, Séan Ó Túama, Eoghan O’Ceannabháin, Ian Lynch, and Gemma Dunleavy. If you don’t know them now, you’ll want to after you see and hear North Circular. —KE
Shown With
PLACE AND TIME: THE NORTH SHORE
USA 2023 - DCP - 10 minutes Directors, Print Courtesy: John Meader, Shawn Burke The title says much. The images and sound say the rest. Ace MIFF photographer John Meader and equally exemplary sound recordist Shawn Burke combine forces on a moment in space and time on the north shore of Massachusetts. The idea of adding audio to stills is a way to add depth and time to the viewing of still imagery. By focusing on a specific area—as they did in last year’s MIFF selection, Place And Time: Portland, Maine—they give the viewer a thoughtful way to see and hear the coast without the sense of action expected in video or film footage. We see and hear anew. —KE Sponsored by Donald Cragen
Sunday, July 9 6PM | MFC 1 Monday, July 10 3:20PM | MFC 3
Maine Premiere
PASSAGES France 2023 - DCP - 91 minutes, in English and in French with English subtitles Director: Ira Sachs Screenplay: Ira Sachs, Mauicio Zacharias Producers: Saïd Ben Saïd, Michel Merkt Cast: Franz Rogowski, Ben Wishaw, Adèle Exarchopoulos Print Courtesy: MUBI
In a pre-release review from its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, critic Alissa Wilkinson (Vox) went to the heart of the many complicated contradictions at work in Ira Sachs’ Passages: “It’s an extremely European film from the American director Ira Sachs, full of homages to classics of European cinema, and a portrait of a rascal and the helplessness of the human heart.” The “rascal” here is Tomas (Franz Rugowski, A Hidden Life), a magnetic if narcissistic charmer, married to the steady, far less flashy Martin (Ben Whishaw, The Personal History of David Copperfield) whose many virtues are not enough to keep Tomas from sleeping with Agathe (Adele Exarchopoulis, Blue is the Warmest Color), a schoolteacher he meets at a party. Yes, it’s a triangle of emotion, eroticism, and extremes, and Sachs (Love Is Strange) never shies from the sparks in this powerful drama. —KE
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Maine International Film Festival 2023 MIFF.ORG