Irish Reels 2002, the Fifth Annual Irish Film and Video Festival presented by 911 Media Arts Center, plays in Seattle from March 6 – 9, 2002. The festival is a forum for features, documentaries, and shorts produced by independent Irish filmmakers. This year's line-up will again include films and videos on the cutting edge of independent cinema, with 42 new titles over 4 days.
Opening the festival with 2 Oscar-Nominated animated short films, Give Up Yer Auld Sins and Fifty Percent Grey. Both of these short films will play at the Harvard Exit Theater, in advance of the main feature film on opening night, How Harry Became a Tree, directed by Goran Paskaljevik, starring Colm Meaney and Cillian Murphy.
Featured Highlights from Irish Reels 2002
- The festival will open at the Harvard Exit Theatre on Wednesday March 6th at 7pm with both Oscar-nominated animated shorts and feature presentation of How Harry Became a Tree. A dessert reception to follow the presentations.
- The program moves to 911 Media Arts Center on Thursday March 7th, where the festival focus shifts to a number of insightful documentaries on Irish artists (painter Ramie Leahy and the 1980’s rockband, The Undertones) plus a selection of short films.
- The Seattle Art Museum is the next point of entry on Friday March 8th . The feature presentation that evening is for fans of the Absurdist brilliance of Samuel Beckett. We are delighted to present Beckett on Film: Films of the Absurd?, a series of films that include recent productions and works from years past, moderated by UW Professor of English Herbert Blau, author of Sails of the Herring Fleet: Essays on Beckett. This event is being co-presented by the Walter Simpson Chapin Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington.
- On Saturday March 9th, again at the Seattle Art Museum, the program will be split between the main Auditorium and the Lecture Hall throughout the day. In addition to a rich selection of insightful documentaries on Irish luminaries like Brian Friel and Sean O’Riarda, there is a bounty of English and Irish-language short films, including an impressive array of cleverly animated productions. The afternoon feature presentation will be the comical farce RAT, directed by Steve Barron and starring Pete Postlethwaite.
- A special presentation on the current influx of immigration to Ireland will take place in the main auditorium at 6.00pm. Turning the Tide: The New Wave of Immigrants to Ireland will explore the reality of asylum-seekers via the documentary, No Man’s Land coupled with a strong film called Zulu 9, which dramatizes all-too real events. A panel discussion will follow.
The closing night feature presentation will be On The Edge, starring Cillian Murphy and Stephen Rea. This is preceded by an Irish-language film (with sub-titles) Caca Milis, starring Brendan Gleason.
The complete program listing is available at http://www.irishreels.org/
