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Volume 6, Issue 5
The Molly Maguires
Starring Sean Connery
Director: Martin Ritt
This film is a drama of Irish immigrants and coal miners in 1876 Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. The Mollie Maguires were Irish miners who used violence against mine owners and officials. The Pinkerton Detective Agency hired James McParland to infiltrate the Mollies, resulting in the arrest of 20 leaders, who were tried, convicted, and executed. McParland's testimony painted the Irish as evil terrorists and the Pinkertons as enforcers of law and order. J. Walter Coleman's 1936 book The Molly Maguire Riots gave a more balanced picture of the events involving the Molly Maguires.
Martin Ritt's film is based on Coleman and the 1964 book by Arthur Lewis, and is sympathetic to the Mollies. It was filmed in the late spring and early summer of 1968 at the only functioning 19th century anthracite coal mine remaining in America (until 1971), the Council Ridge Colliery at Eckley, Pennsylvania. Ritt was a victim of the Hollywood Blacklist. His 1979 film Norma Rae was based on the real-life story of textile union activist Crystal Lee Sutton in her fight against the J.P. Stevens Co. in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina.
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Volume 6, Issue 4
49th Cork Film Festival: 10th - 17th October, 2004
www.corkfilmfestival.org
Established in 1956, Cork Film Festival is one of Ireland's premier cultural events. A celebration of the art film in the format of feature films, documentaries, animation, short films, experimental and student work. The festival supports the artistic approach and the entries are cover wide and varied subjects, most eclectic. An additional objective of the festival is to explore the potential of audio-visual technologies and to reflect on the artistic and social implications of these developments. Most film viewings will be held at the Cork Opera House with a 1,000 capacity seating.
Inside I'm Dancing
Directed by Damien O'Donnell (East is East).
It is a heart-warming, and at times romantic and funny, tale of two young men overcoming the odds. Michael and Rory meet in a residential home for the disabled and they form a strong friendship which enables them both to achieve things they never thought possible. Their struggle for independent living is wonderfully portrayed by O'Donnell and it breaks new ground in Irish cinema. This uplifting film is guaranteed to make audiences both laugh and cry. This film won the prestigious Audience Award at the Edinburgh Film Festival The Cork screening will be an Irish premiere.
Mystics
Mystics closes the festival on 19 October. This film is written by Wesley Burrows and directed by David Blair. It stars a who's who of Irish talent. Two venerable stars of state and screen, Milo O'Shea and David Kelly, play amiable shysters running a lucrative psychic consultancy, pretending to communicate with the dead.
Song for a raggy boy
Directed by Aisling Walsh
It is based on a true story by Cork writer Patrick Galvin and actor Aidan Quinn. The film has already recieved very favorable reviews from critics at the Sundance and Toronto festivals and the Cork screening will be an Irish premiere. Song for a Raggy Boy tells the powerful story of one man's courage to stand up and fight the tough fascist regime in a boys' reformatory school. In 1939, William Franklin (Quinn) returns from the bullet riddled streets of Madrid during the Spanish Civil War to the confining walls of a Catholic reformatory school.
Vol 6, Issue 3
On the Waterfront,
Directed by Elia Kazan, 1954
Winner of 8 Academy awards including Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando) and Best Supporting Actor (Eva Marie Saint)
The death of Hollywood legend Marlon Brando should send scholars of the Irish ascent and assimilation back to review the lessons of his best work, On The Waterfront.
This 1954 film is what Martin Scorcese was trying to do with his Gangs of New York saga of the beginning of Irish political and criminal power in Gotham. Had Scorcese studied director Elia Kazan’s masterwork, he would have made a different and better film than the one that only lacked musical numbers to put it in a league with Les Miserables.
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Volume 6 , Issue 1
FILM
The March issue has traditionally been reserved for the Boston Irish Film Festival and since last year, they have moved their festival to October which gives us opportunity to acknowledge to other film festivals that take place on both sides of the continent.
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Film Fleadh 2004
The Film Fleadh Foundation (FFF), a nonprofit 501c(3) organization, has produced the International Irish Film Fleadh (IIFF) film festival now in its fifth year of operation, and just this year has expanded its program year around to include Irish music...
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Intermission
Director - John Crowley
Starring Shirley Henderson, Kelly Macdonald, Colm Meaney, Cillian Murphy and Colin Farrell
Intermission is an urban love story about people adrift and their convoluted journeys in the search for some kind of love. When the desperately insecure and emotionally inarticulate John breaks up with Deirdre to 'give her a little test' his plan backfires leaving her broken-hearted and him alone and miserable.
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Seattles' Irish Reels Film Festival
The goal of the festivals is to introduce Seattle audiences to more typical stories that reflect the uniqueness of Irish life in all its eccentricities through independently produced films that have yet to receive international distribution.
The aim of Irish Reels is to showcase films a modern Ireland - an Ireland struggling to adapt to new challenges while remaining firmly rooted in its history. They support filmmakers that stay true to their art and culture. For a full listing of films, see www.irishreels.org.
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Dust Devils
Director: Dearbhla Glynn
Once a year in late August, 25,000 people gather in the Nevada desert to experience the wildness that is the Burning Man festival. This documentary is a spectacular journey into the life and meaning of the world's most unique community arts festival, seen through the eyes of its American and Irish participants.
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Living the Revolution
Director: Adrian McCarthy
Filmed during the build-up to the general election in May 2002, this documentary spends intimate time with Martin Ferris and Gerry Adams, two leading members of one of the most controversial political parties in the western world, Sinn Fein.
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The Ghost of Roger Casement
Director: Alan Gilsenan
Roger Casement served the British Government, was knighted, turned Irish rebel and was executed within the space of just ten years. His life was destroyed by a set of homosexually explicit diaries used by the British Government to hang him for treason. The Black Diaries have become the focus of one of the great forgery debates of the 20th century.
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Hornpipe Magazine
Irish Dance, Music, Film, and Culture
Guaranteed to make you more Irish!
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