Alfred Hitchcock - the Irish Angle
30 years after his death, Hitchcock remains both a popular icon and a focus for advanced film theory: he is perhaps the nearest we have to a universal representative of the medium. This session will explore the ways in which he absorbed and blended influences from a variety of different cultures, media and national cinemas - most famously German expressionism, Soviet montage and American narrative structure, but also from elsewhere, not least his native England. And what about Ireland?
Charles Barr is current Visiting Professor at UCD. His books include ENGLISH HITCHCOCK (1999) and a study of VERTIGO.
David Keating: 2.30 Thursday 21st January, Main Room Huston School.
David Keating will present a sneak preview of new Irish horror movie: THE WAKE WOOD.
Christian O'Reilly: 2.30 Thursday 28th January, Main Room Huston School.
Writer Christian O'Reilly will talk about his film, radio and theatrical work and screen INSIDE I'M DANCING (Directed by Damien O'Donnell). When young anarchistic Rory moves into his room in the Carrigmore Residential Home for the Disabled, his effect on the home is immediate. Most telling is his friendship with Michael, a young man with cerebral palsy and nearly unintelligible speech. Somehow, Rory understands Michael, and encourages him to experience life outside the confines of home.
Des O'Rawe : 2.30 Thursday 4th February, Main Room Huston School.
Des O'Rawe will discuss 14TH DECEMBER 1980, the day millions of people around the world responded to Yoko Ono's request for ten minutes of silence to remember John Lennon who hade just been assassinated. The largest group-over 225,000-converged on New York's Central Park, close to the scene of the shooting.
Dr Sarah Edge and Dr Cahal McLaughlin: 2.30 Thursday 11th February, Main Room Huston School.
Dr Sarah Edge and Dr Cahal McLaughlin, University of Ulster: Post Ceasefire Representation
Since the ceasefires of 1994 and 1997 in the north of Ireland, the peace process has haltingly, but progressively, taken root. The media has played no small part in describing and prescribing the narrative of this journey out of violence. Two perspectives on this process will be offered in this presentation. Sarah Edge will address the representation of gender in securing the peace process from a post-feminist perspective. Cahal McLaughlin will showcase the work of the Prisons Memory Archive (www.prisonsmemoryarchive.com) and its participatory methodology.
Michael Fortune: 2.30 Thursday 18th February, Main Room Huston School.
Michael Fortune will talk about his art and filmmaking practice in the community. He does not script or storyboard, instead he generates material out of the relationships and experiences he develops with the people and circumstances he encounters. In much of his video work the camera remains static, where editing is only ever employed out of necessity rather than luxury.
Although referring to the form of the documentary, all evidence of the documenter or narrator is removed. The intimate nature of the relationships with the people and circumstances he encounters, and the subsequent reflective treatment of the material at hand is a key feature of his work. He recently produced a new publication which has been commissioned by Galway City Council under their Per Cent for Art Programme. (Further information on www.michaelfortune.ie)
Brian Winston: 2.30 Thursday 25th February, Main Room Huston School.
"I knew well it was bullshit": Flaherty Reconsidered.
Leading writer on documentary Brian Winston talks about Robert Joseph Flaherty: the ‘father' of the documentary. A hero in his life-time, then slowly after his death a flawed figure -- an undisciplined, racist fabricator of inauthentic films.
Brian Winston will discuss his research on Flaherty, conducted in the course of writing the script A BOATLOAD OF WILD IRISHMEN for filmmaker MacDara ó Curraidh?n). He argues that the undercutting of Flaherty's reputation has gone too far and, while much criticism is still valid, the man's major contribution to the art of the cinema must not be forgotten. Brian Winston will illustrate his position with extracts from A BOATLOAD OF WILD IRISHMEN, a documentary in progress.
