This year Galway celebrates it's fifteenth Fleadh. The festival will be held from July 8 - 13, with new Irish cinema, an Eamon De Buitlear retrospective and more.
Bringing the best in new World cinema to Galway is what the Film Fleadh is
all about, and thanks to a recent surge of filmmaking in this country we are
delighted to be able to bring you a host of new Irish features - Shimmy
Marcus will premiere his debut feature Headrush as will Karl Golden with his
first feature The Honeymooners. Sean Walsh will be bringing his film
bl,.om, which is based on Joyce's Ulysses and we will also host the Irish
premiere of John Deerys exploration of AIDS within the priesthood in
Conspiracy of Silence. This year the Fleadh will host a special tribute to
the renowned filmmaker Eamon de Buitlear, who has been making beautifully
crafted documentaries on Irish life for many years and Galway audiences will
get an opportunity to see Liz Gill's acclaimed debut feature Goldfish
Memory.
After an extended fallow period, German cinema is experiencing something of
a regeneration and this year the Fleadh will focus on films from this
country. One of the most successful German films of the year has been
Wolfgang Becker's Goodbye Lenin, which will receive its Irish premiere at
the Fleadh. Having for many years encouraged German / Irish co-production,
we will see the fruits of this labour with the Galway premiere of Eoin
Moore's Pigs Will Fly, shot in Germany with an Irish Director at the helm.
The 'Grand Dame' of European cinema, Agnieszka Holland, will be a special
guest of the Fleadh and is the focus of the Directors Masterclass. A
selection of her work will be screened throughout the festival, including
Oliver, Oliver, Washington Square, Europa, Europa and her most recent work
Julie Walking Home.
A second regional focus at this year's Fleadh will be the cinema of South
Korea. While perhaps not very familiar to Irish audiences, South Korean has
maintained a strong presence on the stage of world cinema and the Fleadh
will be screening as the centrepiece of this focus the critically acclaimed
Oasis by Lee Chong Dong who has recently been appointed the Minister for
Arts & Culture in South Korea. Also screening will be the highly regarded
Chihwaseon (Drunk on Women & Poetry) by the master of Korean cinema Im
Kwon-Taek., and the Fleadh is delighted to be welcoming Son Il Gon to the
Fleadh with his film Flower Island.
As in previous years, the Fleadh will be screening a variety of films from
around the globe and will be hosting a special preview screening of the
highly anticipated Veronica Guerin biopic from Joel Schumacher starring Cate
Blanchett. Following on from his hugely successful debut at the Fleadh in
2001 with 101 Reykjavik, Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormakur will premiere
his second feature at this year's festival entitled The Sea. Another Fleadh
veteran, Josef Fares, who brought Jalla Jalla to the Fleadh two years ago,
returns with his hilarious second feature Kops.
New to Fleadh audiences will be Polish filmmaker Piotr Trzaskalski's
impressive first feature Edi, as will Vladiimir Michhalek¹s Autumn Spring
from the Czech Republic. The Fleadh is also delighted to host the first
theatrical release from a new distribution company, Tribal Films, headed by
Galway-man Will Silke - this will be the Irish premiere of Hungarian
director Gyory Palfi's debut feature, Hukkle.
Continuing a long tradition of screening the best in new documentaries, the
Fleadh has the pleasure of hosting the first theatrical screening of Angus
McQueen's The Last Peasants at this year's festival. This impressive
documentary shows the effects of emigration on rural life in Romania to
devastating effect.
Galway company Abu Media will have a screening of their documentary on
recent events in Iraq The Human Shield, and war and its devastating effects
are also the subject of The Friendship Village, a film about the
extraordinary work of a Vietnam veteran who established a residence for
Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange. The Fleadh are also delighted to screen
the premiere of Pat Collins' and Fergus Daly's beautifully crafted
documentary on Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami entitled Kiarostami The
Art of Living. Fleadh regulars will remember that Kiarostami was the
subject of a special tribute at the Fleadh two years ago.
Further information and regular updates will be available on IFTN and on the
Fleadh's website at www.galwayfilmfleadh.com
