This selection of documentaries, chosen to complement the IFI Documentary Festival taking place in our Eustace Street home from 25-29 September, is a wide-ranging collection of Irish and international films broaching subjects of art, music, cinema, rap, political activism, and how we relate to the world around us.
Included is Oscar-winner Steve McQueen’s mesmerising and monumental Occupied City, and Kaouther Ben Hania’s Oscar-nominated Four Daughters. Wilding examines the growing popularity and impact of the rewilding movement, while GAZA: A Story Of Love And War is a poignant exploration of ongoing issues.
On the lighter side, cinephiles will find much to savour in Kino Volta, which explores James Joyce’s role in Ireland’s first cinema, while Scala!!! or, The Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World’s Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-up Generation of Weirdos and Misfits celebrates the legendary London venue. Followers of Kneecap will enjoy Ó Bhéal, an exploration of Irish hip-hop and electronic music, and those artists whose work is inspired by our language and traditions. Music fans can also enjoy Ryuichi Sakamoto - Opus and Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg, as well as the competitiveness of Chinese piano students desperate to enter musical conservatories (Piano Dreams).
Irish documentary is further represented by Leo Regan’s portrait of his friend Lanre Fehintola in My Friend Lanre and Margo Harkin’s sensitive discussion of mother-and-child homes in Stolen, while IFI@Home also gives online viewers the chance to see one of our theatrical hits of the year, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, and share in the experience of the IFI Documentary Festival with Declan Clarke’s How I Became A Communist.
For full details on all films, please see below.
