Festival director Maurice Galway delighted with feedback from guests and festival goers, as the second Dingle Film Festival closes.
Garrett Brown's lecture was a true marvel with the most exciting insights into the use of the Steadicam in motion picture today being illustrated by its inventor and master. Garrett not only illustrated on screen some of the greatest uses of the moving camera, but also some of the worst uses. The best of movies were used including 'Carlito's Way', Marathon Man', 'Rocky', 'The Shining' and 'Eyes Wide Shut'. A scene from 'Frankenstein' was used at one point to illustrate how not to use the steadicam.
Advertisements were also projected to illustrate the use of the Sky Cam and Garrett shot some footage with the audience using his 'Merlin' which gave a very real insight into how revolutionary this equipment is. Over 60 people participated in the workshop, surrounding Garrett at the end of his talk. He spoke with everyone and was very generous with his time. 'Thinking Back with pleasure on our sojourn with you in Dingle'.
The Gregory Peck Award For excellence in the Art of Film was presented to Gabriel Byrne by Kevin Moriarty following a screening of 'A Conversation with Gregory Peck' to a completely sold out theatre on Friday night. Gabriel Byrne told the audience in the Phoenix Cinema that it was 'an honour to be mentioned in the same breath as Gregory Peck'. Producer Cecilia Peck, and its two time oscar winning Director Barbara Kopple, introduced 'A Conversation...' at the beginning of the evening. Gregory Peck's wife Veronique also attended the festival.
The weather played a perfect role, clearing at night to allow for energetic banter outside local pubs and wet by day increasing the festival's box office. Ned Dowd's film 'State of Grace' drew a large crowd; Philip King's interview with Anthony Wall could have continued all day with Dylan fans hanging on every word and Sé Merry Doyle's interview with Barbara Kopple was most insightful with one of the world's leading documentary makers. The Festival appeared in 54 news items both nationally and internationally and on many .com sites including Variety and HBO. Interviews took place on Tubridy, Lyric FM, Spin SW, IFTN, RTE.ie and Radio Kerry.
The Festival closed with a screening of 'To Kill A Mockingbird', another sold out event and the film was introduced by both Cecilia and Anthony Peck.
Maurice Galway, CEO, said he could not have been happier with the Festival; all guests and festivals goers were very enthusiastic with the festival and already plans are underway for the 3rd edition which he promises will not disappoint.
