The best of Irish Cinema is coming to Aotearoa via Irish Film Fest NZ on Nov 15th-18th! With this new film festival we will be bringing the highlights of recent Irish cinema for Irish and Kiwis to enjoy. The film festival will run as part of NZ Irish Fest and will screen 6 features. Films will show at: Academy – Auckland, Bridgeway – Auckland, Monterey – Howick, Rialto – Tauranga, Monterey – Upper Hutt, Light House Petone, Light House Cuba, Academy Gold – Christchurch. Timetables here.
Making the Grade invites us into the world of the piano lesson. Every year teachers and students throughout Ireland prepare for graded musical exams. These exams can be pleasing for some but daunting for others. Each student has their own particular goal but reaching Grade Eight is considered a pinnacle. This endearing and uplifting documentary explores the bond between piano teachers and their pupils as they struggle through these grades. This is a story of the transformative power of music and the pride and happiness it provides both the students and teachers. It may inspire us all to keep making the grade.
The film played the 2017 Audi Dublin International Film Festival under its original title The Piano Lesson, and had its North American premiere at SXSW earlier this year.
Making the Grade is directed by Ken Wardrop who will travel to NZ for Q&A sessions after the NZ premiere screenings in Auckland – 15th Nov, Wellington – 16th Nov and Christchurch – 17th Nov.
Set in Ireland during the Great Famine, the drama follows an Irish Ranger who has been fighting for the British Army abroad, as he abandons his post to reunite with his family. Despite experiencing the horrors of war, he is shocked by the famine’s destruction of his homeland and the brutalization of his people and his family.
With much of the dialogue is in Irish, the action packed revenge western has grossed over $2,000,000 NZD at the Irish box office and stars Hugo Weaving, Jim Broadbent, and Barry Keoghan.
“Older Than Ireland” is a landmark documentary that tells the story of a hundred years of a life as seen through the eyes of thirty Irish men and women aged 100 or over. Often funny and at times poignant, the film explores each centenarian’s journey, from their birth at the dawn of Irish independence to their life as a centenarian in modern day Ireland.
From the oldest Irish person ever on record, 113-year-old Kathleen Snavely to Ireland’s oldest man, 108-year-old Luke Dolan we meet a colourful cast of characters, from all walks of life, from the four corners of Ireland. These centenarians are our living history and these are their extraordinary stories.
Seven elderly monks in a small Cistercian monastery in Ireland strive to keep their spiritual life and fragile community going. With shaky voices – but deeply committed – they gather in church seven times a day to pray.
With moving honesty and humour, the monks share significant experiences and often surprising insights into their life journeys. An attempt to capture the heart of a unique place before it vanishes, and to portray the yearning of the human spirit for the infinite in the transience of a finite world.
On the 16th of December 2016 a group of housing activists and trade unionists commandeered Apollo House, an empty Nama-controlled office block on Dublin’s Poolbeg Street and opened a shelter for homeless people. Joined by well-known public figures, including film director Jim Sheridan and musicians Glen Hansard and Hozier, and frustrated by government inaction towards the growing homelessness problem they set about raising awareness of this crisis.
Director Zahara Moufid’s documentary is a faithful account of events and an honest record of the motivations, beliefs and doubts of the activists and artists who became involved in making such a powerful statement at Apollo House, and a timely reminder that the homelessness crisis has yet to be resolved.
Lost & Found is a film with seven interconnecting stories set in and around the lost & found office of an Irish train station. All segments are inspired by true stories, and have characters that come in and out of each other’s lives.
Daniel tries desperately to hold on to his newly acquired job in the lost & found office. Eddie begs in the train station; every day he has a different story. Gabriel plans to surprise his girlfriend by proposing. A grandmother asks her grandson to retrieve a bracelet that she buried as a child in the garden of her childhood home in Poland. Moya visits a funeral home and signs the book of condolences not realising the consequences. Paudge, a cranky pub owner, keeps redecorating his bar, but no matter how many grand openings he has, the locals stay away. Sile has set a date for her wedding – not having a groom won’t stop her!
