Kathryn Bolkovac, the woman whose true life experience working as a United Nations police officer in post-war Bosnia inspired the Hollywood feature film ‘The Whistleblower’ staring Rachel Weisz (The Mummy, The Fountain), is to make a special appearance at the screening of the film at this years 56th Corona Cork Film Festival.
The festival runs from the Sunday 6th to Sunday 13th of November and will screen over 300 films. Opening the festival is the Drake Doremus directed film ‘Like Crazy’, a romantic drama, which won the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Local production will also be a major focus at the festival with the recent launch of the Cork Screen Commission aimed at attracting film production to the city. Two films which were made in Cork will be getting their world premiere at the event. Patrick O’Shea’s ‘Tree Keeper’, a thriller about a reclusive man desperate to protect his hundred acre woodland inheritance and Conor Stanley’s ‘Steamin’ and Dreamin 2’ which sees the return of Grandmaster Cash to the big screen on his quest to find fortune and fame in London. Also screening is Gerard Hurley’s ‘The Pier’ which was filmed in Ballydehob.
Documentaries included in the programme include ‘Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey’, a remarkable portrait of Bernadette Devlin McAliskey. ‘Holly Rollers’, a true story of card counting Christians who try and take casinos for millions; ‘Give Up Tomorrow’ a riveting exposé of a world of corruption and injustice in contemporary Philippines and ‘The Kingdom of Survival’ which uses investigative journalism to trace possible links between spirituality, art, radical politics and fringe philosophy will also be screened.
Screenings will be taking place around the city and in the newly renovated Triskel Christchurch and there will be a number of music performances combining moving image and sound, including performances from the Cork VJ collective. The festival will close with a screening of ‘Toomelah’ directed by Ivan Sen which is set entirely in the remote indigenous community of Toomelah, located on the New South Wales/Queensland border
For more information about the festival and it’s events visit corkfilmfest.org
