Underground Cinema will transform Dun Laoghaire into an international hub for independent film from the 12th to 15th of Sept.
The festival will open with Michael O’Flaherty’s ‘Dark by Noon’ - the thriller following a widower with a photographic memory as he attempts to save his daughter and his city after travelling to the future and witnessing a nuclear explosion.
The closing night will feature a screening of Colin Downey’s ‘The Shadows’, a film based on George MacDonald’s fairy tale about a nine-year-old boy who finds the key to a magical world in the bottom of his grandmother’s dresser.
Festival director David Byrne commented, ‘In most of the films that we have at the moment, there’s a reflection of what is out there in the public. There’s a lot of dark films in and have been for the past couple of years. I suppose since the recession hit, we’ve been seeing darker films and darker tales.’
Now in its fourth year, the festival kicks off with the theme of Music and Sound in the Movies - an emphasis on the importance of high quality audio in independent film.
‘Over the past four years, we’ve seen about 800 short films and features. About a quarter of them had issues with sound, so we felt it was important to highlight sound in independent film,’ said David.
In keeping with this year’s theme, Underground Cinema is bringing live music as entertainment for the festival as well as a source of collaboration between filmmakers and musicians.
‘33% is films, 33% is the networking and the other 33% is entertainment. People like to see films, they like to network and they love the entertainment,’ said David.
‘We get a lot of requests from filmmakers asking if we know a good musician who can work on the score of a movie for them. We’re trying to introduce some of these musicians to these filmmakers and get them to network.’
David discussed how many of the filmmakers return each year with even higher quality work.
‘I’ve been watching some of the filmmakers over the years and tracking their progress. I can see some of these guys getting better and better, more experienced. So the standard of work is high this year.’
With final plans for this year reaching completion, David already began discussions with the Dun Laoghaire City Council and the Business Association this week regarding next year’s festival.
‘Next year’s will be a multi-cultural film festival, so we will be inviting filmmakers from all over the world to come to Dun Laoghaire to show us their work, to entertain us and we will look after them.’
For ticket information and this year’s lineup, click here.
