Jan 24th

THE MAGDALENE SISTERS (119m)
with wine reception to follow. Cost: $5

Awards:
***WINNER BEST FILM: The Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival,2002

***WINNER DISCOVERY AWARD, Toronto Film Festival Critic's Award, 2002

Guest Speaker: John Griffin, Movie Critic,
The Montreal Gazette

Written/Directed by: Peter Mullan
Cast: Geraldine McEwan, Anne Marie Duff, Julie Austin, Ashley Conroy, Leanne Henderson.

The 1960's may be viewed as a time of unprecedented female liberation, but in Ireland's now infamous Magdalene laundries nothing could be further from the truth. Young girls were sent there by families or orphanages to atone for thier 'sins', by working, unpaid and often abused, in the harsh conditions of the laundries.

The Magdalene Sisters follows the fortunes of four of these women as they find themselves in an almost medieval nightmare.

Shane MacGowan

Guest Speaker: Brendan Kelly,
The Montreal Gazette

This unflinching, music-driven documentary provides the first real insight into the background and career of this legendary Irish artist who, as lead singer and songwriter for the Pogues, became a worldwide punk icon. If I Should Fall From Grace is a portrait of one of the most outrageous figures in the music world today.

For more info click here!

"...Kyle and Freddie are childhood friends. They have grown up together in Belfast fighting for the cause they both believe in: the UDA. However, the political leadership of the UDA have now banned paramilitary activity, which may jeopardise their place in the peace process...."

"As The Beast Sleeps is an effective and timely drama, packed with powerful performances. Gary Mitchell depicts a working class Protestant community on the edge, fraught with dogma, machismo and uncertainty"
- Michael Hayden, London Film Festival

"The highlight (of the Belfast Film Festival) is As The Beast Sleeps.. providing an invaluable snapshot of a culture that is a far more vibrant than the cartoon version of unionism routinely seen in Irish films."
- Sunday Times Culture magazine

It's 1924 and the Boundary Commission from Britain and Ireland is deciding on the new boundary line between Norhtern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

After months of haggling over every inch of territory, the commissioners are forced to finish the job by hand, after a bicycle accident destroys the surveyor's equipment.
With all the participants holding the pencil and much pushing and shoving, the border finds it's way down the middle of Puckoon, dividing houses from outhouses, man from wife, pub chairs from bar, church from cemetery. Our hero, Dan Madigan, wakes up from his indolence to find the beer cheaper on the wrong side of the pub, and a border patrol demanding passports Puckoon will never be the same again...... Something has to be done.........

Thursday 8:30PM: Lecture by special guest Rod Stoneman, Chief Executive, Irish Film Board with film clips.

Friday 7PM: SONG FOR A RAGGY BOY - Dir: Aisling Walsh - Canadian Premiere

Starring: Aidan Quinn, Iain Glenn, Marc Warren, Dudley Sutton, Alan Devlin

'In this film based on a true story, Aidan Quinn plays William Franklin, a new teacher at St. Jude's, a tough Irish Reformatory School for boys. It's 1939, and Franklin's teaching methods are vastly different from those of the abusive staff of Catholic Brothers. The students respond to Franklin's style and his passion for poetry and begin to blossom. But on Christmas Day, two students are severely beaten, which leads to a confrontation between William and a fellow teacher, Brother John (Iain Glenn).'

Saturday 3PM: IF I COULD READ THE SKY - Dir: Nichola Bruce 1999, UK/Ireland, 86 mins

With: Brendan Coyle, Dermot Healey, Dermot Healy, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Roy Larkin, Stephen Rea

Summary: An elderly Irish immigrant living in Britain pieces together his past as he lies dying in his London bedsit.

Saturday 7PM: DISCO PIGS - Kirsten Sheridan, Ireland, 2001, 94 min.

'Filmed over seven weeks in Dublin and Cork, Ireland during Spring 2000, DISCO PIGS is a twisted rites of passage story starring ELAINE CASSIDY (Atom Egoyan’s Felicia’s Journey) and CILLIAN MURPHY (On The Edge, The Trench). '

'Funny, sexual and violent, DISCO PIGS is written by acclaimed Irish playwright ENDA WALSH and marks the feature film debut of director 24-year old KIRSTEN SHERIDAN, whose short films Patterns and The Case of Majella McGinty have
earned her over 20 prestigious awards at festivals across the world. In addition, she received the Film Institute of Ireland/Guinness Outstanding Young Irish Talent Award in 1998.'

See Disco Pigs description and trailer at the IFI Film Directory.

Irish character-actor Milo O'Shea was on stage from the age of 10, at which time he became a protégé of Sir John Gielgud.

At 19, O'Shea joined Dublin's Abbey Players, where he remained for well over two decades.

He made his Broadway debut in 1968's Staircase, and later starred as the gladhanding priest in the original stage production of Bill C. Davis' Mass Appeal (a role played in the 1984 movie version by Jack Lemmon).

In films from 1951, O'Shea was cast as Leopold Bloom in Ulysses (1967), Mister Zero in The Adding Machine (1969), Durand-Durand in Barbarella (1968), and scene-stealing Judge Hoyle in The Verdict (1981). His TV roles include Dr. Stanislaus Lotaki on the pioneering miniseries QB VII (1973) and eccentric cartoonist Abner Bevis in the short-lived superhero satire Once a Hero (1987).

Though only in his seventh decade, Milo O'Shea seems to have been around forever, eliciting gasps of "Hooray! He's still working!" from delighted fans whenever O'Shea pops up on such 1990s TV series as Frasier.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide