The Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Film Festival and Market runs from 30 Sept - 3 Oct in the IFI, with highlights including Vinny Cunningham's 'Battle of the Bogside'.
Who would have thought a year ago, the most talked about film of 2004 would be a relatively low-budget documentary? Outside of Michael Moore’s mainstream success it has been an extremely rich year for political documentaries. We have four of the best for the 2004 Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Festival and Market. Don’t miss the satirical attack on American corporate culture, The Corporation (complete with Michael Moore sound-bites); Jehane Noujaim’s courageous The Control Room, which focuses on the Arab media outlet, Al Jezeera; the Israeli film Checkpoint which records the daily exits and entries of the West Bank population; and Vinny Cunningham’s Battle of the Bogside, which takes us on an insiders tour of Derry in August 1969.
In all, the IFI will screen 24 Irish premieres, 10 new Irish documentaries counting among them, including The Land of Sex and Sinners, An tOileán sa Bhaile, The Trials of Lattlay Fottfoy, The Snip, Sean – Under a Coloured Cap, and Fáilte Mr. President.
The sports documentary is back on the big screen with our Opening Night documentary film, Stacy Peralta’s semi-serious insider’s look at the subversive birth of surf culture and the mythology and lure of the ‘big wave’; Riding Giants. The chess movie Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine documents Garry Kasparov, arguably the greatest chess player the ancient game has seen, defeated by IBM’s computer, Deep Blue.
Academy Award® winner Maryann DeLeo will visit the IFI to discuss the screening of her short documentary Chernobyl Heart.
Alongside the new documentary on the groundbreaking punk band The Ramones; End of The Century; it seemed appropriate to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense – arguably the best concert movie ever made.
Finally, again this year a programme of short Irish documentaries will compete in the STF Short Documentary Competition. Now in its third year, the STF Market continues to develop the relationship between Irish productions and international broadcasters and runs throughout the festival.
For further information on the IFI, see: www.irishfilm.ie
