Docs Ireland

Thursday 20th June

The Year That Rocked Irish Dancing | TV Doc Series Case Study

12:00 to 13:00 | £3 | UM Lecture Theatre

An observational character-driven documentary set in the competitive world of Irish dancing, the BBC Northern Ireland doc-series The Year That Rocked Irish Dancing unexpectedly found itself embroiled in legal complexities when a scandal broke within the community it was documenting.

This case study will look at how filmmaker Gillian Callan, an alumnus of the IGNITE-Docs programme, dealt with the unforeseen developments affecting the project and how it evolved and adapted to the external forces influencing it, all while maintaining its duty of care to young contributors.

I See a Darkness

14:00-16:30 | £9.50 (£4.50 concessions) | UM Lecture Theatre

KEY - Schlieren Experiment 1 - Fergus Daly

DIR. KATHERINE WAUGH & FERGUS DALY | 134 MINS | 2023

I See a Darkness is a film essay probing the complex historical relationship between photography, cinema and science. Shot in Paris, Death Valley, MIT and the Nevada nuclear test site, the film explores how new technologies of vision were from the outset, aggressively instrumentalised by the military-industrial complex for its own ends.

The film pivots around three iconic figures whose lives and work intersected in compelling ways: Irish-born chrono-photographer Lucien Bull, Harold E. Edgerton (MIT Professor and Atomic test photographer), and oceanographer and conservationist Jacques Cousteau. The directors will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.

Friday 21st June

The Magic Fiddle

12:00-13:30 | £9.50 (£4.50 concessions) | UM Lecture Theatre

DIR. DAVID HAMMOND | 80 MINS | 1991

A mystical look at the fiddle in all of its beautiful simplicity, featuring virtuoso fiddle-work throughout. It explores its influence on different cultures around the world, and the histories of the people who play it.

Special thanks to Neil Martin.

Ransom 79

14:00-16:00 | £9.50 (£4.50 concessions) | UM Lecture Theatre

DIR. COLM QUINN | 86 MINS | 2024

In October 2022, Charlie Bird, a legendary Irish journalist, was met with a devastating diagnosis: he was suffering from the early stages of Motor Neuron Disease (MND), a brutal degenerative condition that would severely curtail his life expectancy.

Touching and thrilling in equal measure, Bird shows a remarkable driving force for his work as he is witness to his own degeneration.

Saturday 22nd June

Thomas Moore: Bard na Héireann

11:30-13:00 | £9.50 (£4.50 concessions) | UM Lecture Theatre

DIR. MAL MARKEN | IRELAND | 90 MINS

Radical, rogue, shapeshifter - Thomas Moore’s life remains a mystery some 250 years on. A writer, poet and lyricist best known for his Irish Melodies collection; his multi-faceted life was much more than the sum of these melodies. This is the story of the many lives of Thomas Moore, the Bard of Ireland.

Super 8 Stories X 20

12:15-15:20 | £9.50 (£4.50 concessions) | UM Lecture Theatre

Long before the modern practice of colouring black and white film, Super 8 Stories brought the past to life using only original colour film to give a vibrant new slant on how Northern Irish people worked and played in decades normally seen through monochrome.

For its twentieth anniversary, director Brian Henry Martin and archivist Evan Marshall have picked a selection of the very best stories from the series and will be sharing the secrets of how this landmark programme was made, while also detailing its enduring legacy.

Supported by Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive.

Northern Ireland Now: Contemporary Collecting

15:45-16:45 | £9.50 (£4.50 concessions) | UM Lecture Theatre

Northern Ireland Now is a contemporary collecting project, engaging 12 diverse community groups across Northern Ireland in collaboratively contributing video materials from the past 5 years to form a new collection on the Digital Film Archive. Working with women’s groups, migrant groups, ethnic minority groups, LGBT+ groups, neurodivergent as well as deaf and disabled groups and those that include working-class young men, this community archive project aims to create a more accurate visual portrait of what Northern Ireland looks like now.

Project produced by Elspeth Vischer and facilitated by Lisa Duggan and Brónagh McAtasney for Northern Ireland Screen.

Sunday 23rd June

Idir dhá bhaile - ó Chív go Corcaigh

11:15-12:00 | £9.50 (£4.50 concessions) | UM Lecture Theatre

DIR. SINÉAD INGOLDSBY | IRELAND/UKRAINE | 50 MINS

Idir dhá bhaile “Between Two Homes” explores the challenges faced by one family of Ukrainian refugees as they try to rebuild their lives in Ireland. The film recalls their emotional journey from Kyiv to Cork and delves into the uncertainty faced by refugees while war ravages their home country.

For Nadia, a fluent Irish speaker, the decision to settle in Ireland made sense; but it has not been without consequence. The family have suffered unimaginable loss at the hands of war and now find themselves torn between two countries.

The Taste of Mango

13:00-14:30 | £9.50 (£4.50 concessions) | UM Lecture Theatre

The Taste of Mango, Chloe Abrahams’ debut feature, is an enveloping, hypnotic, urgently personal meditation on family, memory, identity, violence, and love. At its centre are three extraordinary women: the director’s mother, Rozana; her grandmother, Jean; and the director herself. Their stories, by turns difficult and jubilant, testify to inheritance's entangled and ever-changing nature and how we both hurt and protect the ones we love.

“A bright seam of joy runs through Chloe Abrahams’s engrossing first feature” Sight & Sound

This event is presented in collaboration with Reclaim The Frame.

Remembering Gene Wilder

15:00-16:30 | £5 (£4 concessions) | UM Belfast Room

DIR. RON FRANK | USA | 90 MINS | 2023

The UK Premiere of this loving tribute to Gene Wilder which celebrates his life and legacy as a comic genius, features interviews from those who knew him best.

From his first collaboration with Mel Brooks in The Producers, to his enigmatic title role in the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, to his inspired on-screen partnership with Richard Pryor in movies like Silver Streak, the film tracks his rise to stardom from humble beginnings. It paints the portrait of a sensitive man who took being funny seriously. The film also chronicles Wilder’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as his efforts to raise cancer awareness after the death of his wife Gilda Radner.