The and closes on Sunday, July 12th, offers what is shaping up to be the event's most attractive and wide-ranging programme to date. Once again, the fleadh has succeeded in acquiring an impressive selection of new Irish cinema - most of the films are European or world premieres - along with a strong international line-up. Donal McCann will be present for a tribute programme, as will the award-winning Brazilian film-maker, Walter Salles, and many of the movies will be represented in Galway by their directors or leading actors. And the programme will include a selection of documentaries and short films, and a number of seminars and workshops. The venues, once again, will be the Town Hall Theatre and the Omniplex cinema.
Opening film:
This year's fleadh kicks off with the world premiere of Titanic Town, which is set in Belfast in 1972 and features Julie Walters as a housewife who initiates a peace movement. Ciaran Hinds co-stars and the director is Roger Michell, who made Persuasion and is at present shooting The Notting Hill Film in London with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant.
Closing film:
Bringing down the curtain on the fleadh will be the European premiere of This Is My Father. Paul Quinn, who wrote and directed the film, will be in Galway for the screening, along with his brothers, Aidan, who stars in the film, and Declan, its cinematographer, and their sister, Marian, who has a featured role in it. This family affair deals with an American high-school teacher (played by James Caan) who is drawn to Ireland to uncover his father's identity.
Much of the film is formed in flashbacks to 1930s Ireland, where a young couple tries to maintain a love affair in the face of strong opposition from society and local clergy. The film also features John Cusack, Colm Meaney, Stephen Rea, Jacob Tierney, Gina Moxley and newcomer Moya Farrelly.
Tribute programme:
Five films will be screened to celebrate Donal McCann's acting achievements in cinema - John Huston's The Dead, Thaddeus O'Sullivan's December Bride, Bob Quinn's The Bishop's Story, Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty, and Eugene Brady's thriller The Nephew, which co-stars Pierce Brosnan and goes on Irish cinema release next month. McCann will be in Galway to take part in a public interview conducted by Gerry Stembridge in the Town Hall Theatre at 4.30 p.m. on July 12th.
The Brazilian film-maker Walter Salles, meanwhile, will travel to Galway with his latest film, Central Station, which won the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin Film Festival in February, along with his earlier feature, Terra Estrangia, and a number of his documentaries. He will give a masterclass in film-directing to emerging young irish film-makers on the afternoon of July 11th.
New Irish cinema:
The fleadh will screen three features completed during the exciting recent upsurge in film production in Northern Ireland. In addition to Titanic Town, there will be the world premiere of Colm Villa's Sunset Heights, set in a future Derry where law and order is maintained by rival, uniformed punishment-squads, with Toby Stephens as a young man who has managed to remain uninvolved - until his son is murdered during a wave of child killings in the city.
The third Northern Ireland film will be Henry Herbert's Crossmaheart, which was shown at the Dublin festival in March under the title, Cycle Of Violence. Based on a novel by Colin Bateman, this sharp, black comedy features Gerald Rooney as a journalist sent from his Belfast base to a small, sectarian town where he tries to uncover the fate of his predecessor.
Two further world premieres at the fleadh will be Paul Tickell's drama of young people and horses in contemporary Dublin, Hooligans, written by James Mathers, designed by Tom Conroy, and featuring Darren Healey, Jeff O'Toole and Viviana Verveen; and a special children's screening of Galway-based director Brian Kelly's first feature, A Very Unlucky Leprechaun, produced by Roger Corman's Concorde Anois studio in Connemara.
New Irish-related films:
Two New York-based Irish directors will travel to Galway with their films. Terry George, who made his debut with Some Mother's Son, will introduce his Vietnam war drama, A Bright Shining Lie, based on Neil Sheehan's book and starring Bill Paxton, Amy Madigan, Vivian Wu and Eric Bogosian. And Dubliner Jimmy Smallhorne will be present for the European premiere of his raw and controversial picture of Irish emigrants in New York which won the cinematography prize for the aforementioned Declan Quinn at Sundance this year.
New international features will include Ted Demme's drama, Monument Avenue, which is set in the Irish-American community in Boston and features Denis Leary with Irish actors Colm Meaney and Jason Barry; Jez Butterworth's film of his play, set in London's gangland in 1958 and featuring Irish actor Aidan Gillen with Ian Hart, Ewan Bremner and Harold Pinter; and from Austria, Kurt Palm's screen adaptation of Flann O'Brien's At-Swim-TwoBirds.
International features:
Peter Mullen, who was voted best actor at Cannes last month, will be in Galway for the screening of Orphans, which marks his directing debut, while Israeli film-maker Yossi Sommer will attend with his award-winning Dybuk Of The Holy Apple Field.
Austrian director Michael Haneke will be there to discuss his controversial meditation on screen violence in the provocative Funny Games, and the US director Adam Bernstein will be there with his drama, Six Days To Sunday, featuring Norman Reedus, Deborah Harry and Isacc Hayes.
The international programme also promises Mathieu Kassovitz's Assassins (France), Jafar Panahi's The Mirror (Iran), Janos Szasz's Witman Boys (Hungary), Naomi Kawese's (Japan); Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's Devil's Island (Iceland), and four films from Russia - Pavel Chukhrai's The Thief, Alexei Balabanov's Of Freaks And Men, and two directed by Aleksander Sokurov - Mother And Son Whispering Pages.
Documentaries:
Pulled from the Sundance festival in January, Nick Broomfield's Kurt And Courtney, dealing with Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, is confirmed to screen in the programme of international documentaries at Galway. It is one of a number of music-related documentaries showing, along with Zakir And His Friends, which profiles percussionist Zakir Hussain; Modulations, a whirlwind tour of the top DJs on the techno scene; and Lou Reed - Rock'n'Roll Heart.
Michael Moore, who made Roger & Me, will be present for the screening of his latest film, The Big One. The programme also promises The Brandon Teema Story, exploring a shocking triple homicide in a small Nebraska town on New Year's Eve, 1993; The Voice Of Bergman, an extensive interview with the great Ingmar Bergman; and John Huston - War Stories.
Irish documentaries in Galway will include Liam McGrath's Francis Barrett - Southpaw, about the young Galway boxer; Fergus Tighe's Three Brothers, about Aidan, Declan and Paul Quinn; and Paddy O'Connor's The Gamble, in which a man and a woman attempt to train a champion greyhound.
Special events:
The annual Fleadh Fair runs for three days, giving Irish film-makers an opportunity to meet major figures in international production and distribution. Marketing will be the theme of the fleadh film school, and the fleadh debate will deal with the role of the film critic. There will be discussions on television broadcasters; financing for the audio-visual sector into the next millennium; financing the creative European documentary; and a consultative forum on Arts Council film policy.
Advance booking for the Galway Film Fleadh is now open at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway. Tel: 091-569777
