Already set to receive a boost to Limerick’s local creative arts as Ireland’s City of Culture for 2014, the city is starting early with the establishment of an event honouring one of the city’s most revered artists.
The inaugural Richard Harris Film Festival will begin this Friday, December 6th in Limerick City. Due to span the weekend of December 6th, 7th and 8th, the festival will honour the life and career of the internationally acclaimed Limerick actor Richard Harris.
Operating primarily out of the former Belltable Arts Centre at 69 O’ Connell Street, the Richard Harris Film Festival will feature screenings of Irish features both old and new, a showcase on Limerick’s short film scene as well as various memorabilia from the life and works of ‘Dickie’ himself, as he is affectionately remembered by those who knew him.
The festival opens at 7pm December 6th with a screening of Lance Daly’s latest feature ‘Life’s A Breeze’, starring Pat Shortt (‘Garage’), Kelly Thornton (‘Love/Hate’) and Fionnula Flanagan (‘Waking Ned’).
Further screenings include a showing of ‘Mister John’, starring Aidan Gillen (‘Game of Thrones’), and the Evanna Lynch-starring ‘G.B.F.’, which screened to much acclaim at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The inaugural festival will also feature a screening of ‘This Sporting Life’, for which Harris garnered an Academy Award nomination and the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1963. Set to attend the event are various industry luminaries and local names, including Harris’s own sons Damian, Jamie and Jared.
Speaking about the festival, creative director Eleanor McSherry acknowledged that while the festival is certainly emphasising quality over quantity at this year’s event, she hopes to see the local respect so widely held for Mr. Harris and Limerick’s own film culture contribute to establishing a firm foundation for growth going into the future. ‘This year’s festival may be small, but it is just a taster of the potential for the future!’
For more information on the inaugural Richard Harris Film Festival, visit richardharrisfilmfestival.com
