THE DOCUMENTARY ROOM
THE DOCUMENTARY ROOM is the only cinema night in Ireland dedicated to documentary and non-fiction films!
Programmed and presented by Jenny Keogh (Stand Out Films).
It’s a cinema night once a month from Autumn to Spring, on Tuesdays in The Back Room at The Circular, Rialto.
Screening feature-length documentary and non-fiction films about the Arts, music and culture.
Jenny gives an introduction about each film and it’s director, with a chance for the audience to chat about the film afterwards.
Coke Lane Pizza and drinks available.
TUES 27TH FEB 2024
6.30PM (1hr 4 mins)/ €10 / * Get Tickets *
In collaboration with DIFF 2024
DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - DOCUMENTARY SHORTS PROGRAM
The Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp
Year: 2023
Director: Dennis Harvey
Runtime: 20m
Country: Sweden
Midnight Rising
Year: 2023
Director: Aileen Ye
Runtime: 8m
Country: United Kingdom
Down the Market
Year: 2023
Director: Dave Tynan
Runtime: 20m
Country: Ireland
NIDO
Year: 2023
Director: José Miguel Jiménez
Runtime: 16:00
Country: Ireland
Tues 05 December 2023
8pm/ €9.00 /* Get Tickets *
NOTHING COMPARES
Following the career of singer Sinéad O'Connor through her rise to fame and how her iconoclastic personality led to her exile from the pop mainstream.
I'm delighted to be showing this incredible docummentary directed by Kathryn Ferguson and edited by Mick Mahon. It will be a fitting tribute to Sinéad's life in the week of her birthday. Let's come together and honour her unforgettable contribution to the world, while raising funds for JIGSAW - a mental helath service for young people - please read instructions below xx
This is a free event, however I am raising funds for JIGSAW (a mental health service for young people), so please donate whatever you can afford to secure your ticket(s).
Maximum 2 tickets per booking.
Due to the small size of the venue, tickets are very limited, so if you cannot attend please let me know a few days in advance, so that I can notify people on the waiting list. Thank You!
Please register for your tickets here on Eventbrite, then use the idonate link below to make a donation - making sure your name matches that of your Eventbrite booking. Thank You
https://www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/JIGSAWNothingCompares
Tues 14 NOVEMBER 2023
8pm/ €9.00 /* Get Tickets *
MEET ME IN THE BATHROOM
MEET ME IN THE BATHROOM is an immersive journey through the New York music scene of the early 2000s, featuring never-before-seen footage of artists like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Strokes, Interpol and LCD Soundsystem. Set against the backdrop of 9/11, the film tells the story of how a new generation kick started a musical rebirth for New York City that reverberated around the world. Inspired by the book by Lizzy Goodman.
Directed by : Will Lovelace, Dylan Southern Duration : 105 minutes USA
Every film screening at The Documentary Room is preceded with a short introduction by Jenny about the director and some background information about how and why the film was made.
The bar is open in the adjoining room where you can treat yourself to drinks during the screening and pizza is available from Coke Lane Pizza.
Tues 24 OCTOBER 2023
8pm/ €9.00 /* Get Tickets *
SUBJECT
SUBJECT explores the life-altering experience of sharing one’s life on screen through key participants of acclaimed documentaries The Staircase, Hoop Dreams, The Wolfpack, Capturing the Friedmans, and The Square. These erstwhile documentary “stars” reveal the highs and lows of their experiences as well as the everyday realities of having their lives put under a microscope. Also featuring commentary from such influential names in the doc world as Kirsten Johnson, Sam Pollard, Thom Powers and Sonya Childress, the film unpacks vital issues around the ethics and responsibility inherent in documentary filmmaking. As tens of millions of people consume documentaries in an unprecedented "golden era," Subject urges audiences to consider the often profound impact on their participants.
Directed by :Camilla Hall, Jennifer Tiexiera Duration : 96 minutes USA
Every film screening at The Documentary Room is preceded with a short introduction by Jenny about the director and some background information about how and why the film was made.
The bar is open in the adjoining room where you can treat yourself to drinks during the screening and pizza is available from Coke Lane Pizza.
*PAST SCREENINGS*
Tues 28 MARCH 2023
8pm/ €8.50 /* Get Tickets *
ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED
This Oscar-nominated documentary about the life and work of artist / activist Nan Goldin.
Since the 1970s, Goldin has been an acclaimed photographer of New York’s LGBT and new-wave communities. Following her own battles with addiction, she has devoted recent decades to activism - in particular efforts to address America’s opioid crisis.
The film follows her years-long efforts to hold the Sackler family - owners of OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma - to account. Director Laura Poitras (who previously made the Oscar-winning Citizenfour) documents how Goldin and her fellow activists took their fight to the prestigious museums & galleries that accepted many millions of dollars in donations from the Sacklers.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is a vital piece of documentary filmmaking: a portrait of an extraordinary artist and an urgent rallying cry for justice.
REVIEWS:
“A towering and devastating work of shocking intelligence and still greater emotional power.” - Indiewire
“A portrait of the artist, through her images and her words, and an intimate look at grassroots political action.” - The Hollywood Reporter
TUES 14 MARCH 2023
7.30pm/ €8.50 /* Get Tickets *
The Peculiar Sensation of Being Pat Ingoldsby
Dir: Seamus Murphy Ireland 2022 96 mins Cert: 15A
Seamus Murphy’s film examines Irish writer Pat Ingoldsby’s unique world. Ingoldsby’s poems and candid anecdotes bear witness to a visceral relationship with his beloved Dublin, fellow Dubliners and anything that catches his interest. Personal challenges, a sensitive humanity and a lifetime as a maverick have taught him to harness reality and reach well beyond it to avenge the banal with absurd magic. It heals him as it does us.
IN COLLABORATION WITH DIFF
We’re delighted to be partnering with the Dublin International Film Festival this year to host a fringe event to screen a premier of this brilliant documentary. Hosted by Jenny Keogh. Tickets are limited and available via the DIFF website below. The screening will be followed by a pre-recorded Q& A with director Nancy Buirski. How exciting!
THURS 02 MARCH 2023
7.30pm/ €10.00 /* Get Tickets *
DESPERATE SOULS, DARK CITY AND THE LEGEND OF THE MIDNIGHT COWBOY
Director : NANCY BUIRSKI : USA 2022 | English | 101 min
This is not a documentary about the making of Midnight Cowboy. It is about a humane and groundbreaking masterpiece and the flawed but gifted people who made it. It is about a troubled era of cultural ferment, social and political change, about broken dreams and strivers, then and now. It is about an era that made a movie and a movie that made an era.
A half century after its release, Midnight Cowboy remains one of the most original and groundbreaking movies of the modern era. With beguiling performances from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman as two loners who join forces out of desperation, black list survivor Waldo Salt's brilliant screenplay, and John Schlesinger's fearless direction, the 1969 film became the only X-rated film to ever win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Its vivid and compassionate depiction of a more realistic, unsanitized New York City and its inhabitants paved the way for a generation’s worth of gritty movies with complex characters and adult themes. It’s about New York City in a troubled time of cultural ferment; and the era that made a movie and the movie that made an era.
Featuring extensive archival material and compelling new interviews, director Nancy Buirski illuminates how one film captured the essence of a time and a place, reflecting a rapidly changing society with striking clarity.
*JAN/ FEB 2023 LISTINGS*
TUES 17 JAN 2023
8.30pm/ €8.50 /* Get Tickets *
DARK HORSE ON THE WIND
Director :DIRECTOR: MYLES O’REILLY : 109 mins, Ireland, 2022, Digital
A look back at the life and songs of the traditional ballad singer and songwriter Liam Weldon (1933 – 1995).
A great admirer of Traveller music and a strong advocate for aural tradition, Weldon was notoriously wary of self-promotion, and left behind little in the way of recordings. But his legacy is more alive than ever today and flourishes in a new generation of folk singers.
With newly discovered archive footage, stories from family and friends, and powerful performances of his work by Damien Dempsey, Radie Peat (Lankum), Lisa O’Neill and Daoirí Farrell, the film reveals much about the musician and about the family man, who gave so generously to the community in Ballyfermot where he lived.
Myles O’Reilly, prolific director of music films and himself a composer, celebrates the personal, public and political aspects of Liam Weldon, in this lively and insightful investigation.
After fifty years in the business, David Raven still performs as Maisie Trollette, making him Britain’s oldest drag performer. David will soon celebrate his 85th and plans for a special birthday performance are under way. But as his birthday grows nearer, his anxieties grow, and professional rivalries flare up. David must contend with the unique challenges that old age brings. He has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but ever the professional, Maisie plans to give the performance of a lifetime as she looks back on a half century of entertaining. Featuring classics such as ‘Lady is a Tramp’, and ‘If I Never Sing another Song’, Maisie was awarded Best Documentary at the 2021 Virgin Media Dublin Film Festival by the Dublin Film Critics’ Circle.
TUES 31 JAN 2023
8.30pm/ €8.50 /* Get Tickets *
MAISIE
Director :LEE COOPER : 78 mins, UK, 2021
After fifty years in the business, David Raven still performs as Maisie Trollette, making him Britain’s oldest drag performer. David will soon celebrate his 85th and plans for a special birthday performance are under way. But as his birthday grows nearer, his anxieties grow, and professional rivalries flare up. David must contend with the unique challenges that old age brings. He has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but ever the professional, Maisie plans to give the performance of a lifetime as she looks back on a half century of entertaining. Featuring classics such as ‘Lady is a Tramp’, and ‘If I Never Sing another Song’, Maisie was awarded Best Documentary at the 2021 Virgin Media Dublin Film Festival by the Dublin Film Critics’ Circle.
TUES 14 FEB 2023
8.30pm/ €8.50 /* Get Tickets *
MARIANNE AND LEONARD : Words of Love
DIRECTOR: NICK BROOMFIELD : 98 mins, USA, 2018
Leonard Cohen met Marianne Ihlen, his Norwegian muse, on the Greek Island of Hydra in 1960. They fell in love and their complex relationship endured in its various forms up to their deaths in 2016 which were separated by just three months. Cohen was still a poet at the time, having not yet made the transition to recording his writings as songs, and the bohemian lifestyle shared by the artistic community on Hydra was the perfect environment for his work to flourish.
Featuring wonderful archival footage, the film follows their relationship from its beginnings on the island, an innocent time of ‘free love’ and open marriage, to its collapse under the weight of Leonard’s growing celebrity status.
Because the director Nick Broomfield was a long-time friend of Marianne, his heart is invested, which gives the film a welcome intimacy and warmth.
*PAST SCREENINGS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2022 LISTINGS*
TUES 11 OCT 2023
8.30pm/ €8.50 /* Get Tickets *
POLY STYRENE : I AM CLICHÈ
Director : Dir. Celeste Bell, Paul Sng (1h 29m UK)
Poly Styrene was the first woman of colour in the UK to front a successful rock band. She introduced the world to a new sound of rebellion, using her unconventional voice to sing about identity, consumerism, postmodernism, and everything she saw unfolding in late 1970s Britain, with a rare prescience. As the frontwoman of X-Ray Spex, the Anglo-Somali punk musician was also a key inspiration for the riot grrrl and Afropunk movements.
But the late punk maverick didn't just leave behind an immense cultural footprint. She was survived by a daughter, Celeste Bell, who became the unwitting guardian of her mother's legacy and her mother's demons. Misogyny, racism, and mental illness plagued Poly's life, while their lasting trauma scarred Celeste's childhood and the pair's relationship.
Featuring unseen archive material and rare diary entries narrated by Oscar-nominee Ruth Negga, this documentary follows Celeste as she examines her mother's unopened artistic archive and traverses three continents to better understand Poly the icon and Poly the mother.
At the British Independent Film Awards 2021, the film won the award for Best Documentary and the Raindance Discovery Award.
The film was the winner of the Documentary Award at the 2021 Whistler Film Festival.
TUES 08 Nov 2022
8.30pm/ €8.50 /* Get Tickets *
BREAKING OUT
Director : Dir. Michael McCormack (1hr 27mins Ireland)
This intimate journey into the heart and soul of the late Fergus O’Farrell was filmed over ten years by director Michael McCormack.
Fergus O'Farrell was the charismatic voice of Interference, one of the most compelling and influential bands to emerge from the Irish music scene in the 1990’s. He was best known for his timeless song “GOLD” which featured in the soundtrack to ONCE, the Oscar winning film and multi-Tony-award-winning musical.
Despite being diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at a young age, through it all, Fergus had to keep singing. His unique talent and love for life inspired a generation of songwriters. Oscar-winner Glen Hansard was one of those songwriters and never forgot that voice, and in one of the many incredible moments in Breaking Out, he performs the ultimate duet as Fergus' greatest gift was failing.
Winner of the George Morrison Feature Documentary award and Best Irish Documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh, BREAKING OUT has been hailed by Screen Daily as “deeply affecting” and “a privilege to watch”.
Winner of the 2021 George Morrison Feature Documentary IFTA and Best Irish Documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh 2019.
TUES 22 NOV 2022
8.30pm/ €8.50 /* Get Tickets *
you don’t nomi
Director : Dir. Jeffrey McHale (USA 1hr 24mins)
When it was released in 1995, Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls was reviled. The first NC-17 release to receive a wide theatrical release, the public and critics of the era—with a loud, clear, collective voice—rejected the film. It was nominated for a record 13 Razzie Awards, and won a then-record seven. Roger Ebert, in one of the more generous reviews the film received, summed his opinion up by noting that, “the film is not, in short, quite unredeemably bad.”
But Showgirls’ reputation has been resuscitated in the intervening 24 years, and conceding one’s admiration for Nomi Malone’s sordid tale is no longer the admission of questionable taste it once signified. You Don’t Nomi brilliantly draws on archival footage of Showgirls’ production, revealing interviews with the major players, and surprisingly thoughtful conversations with the cinephiles who are leading the charge in the film’s redemptive journey from a notorious flop to cult classic. Is it a masterpiece? Or is it a piece of shit? Jeffery McHale’s addictive documentary argues for a third designation: the masterpiece of shit.
TUES 06 DEC 2022
8.30pm/ €8.50 /* Get Tickets *
BEYOND THE VISIBLE : HILMA AF KLINT
Director : Dir. Halina Dyrschka (1hr 23mins)
The first film made about the life and work of visionary abstract painter Hilma Af Klint. A must for anyone who cares about modern art.
Hilma af Klint (1862–1944) was an abstract artist before the term existed: a visionary, trailblazing artist inspired by spiritualism, modern science and the riches of the natural world. As early as 1906, she was radically experimenting with abstract imagery, several years before Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian, who are still regarded as the forerunners of 20th-century abstract art. Largely forgotten after her death, her sidelining from patriarchal art historical discourse has been the subject of much recent debate. With her radiant and transcendent body of work - featuring over 1,200 paintings and 26,000 notebooks - remaining hidden away for decades, a long-overdue rediscovery has come in recent years, with her stunning, large-scale works the subject of blockbuster exhibitions including a record-breaking retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2018-2019 and acclaimed exhibitions at the Serpentine Gallery (2016) and Camden Arts Centre (2006) in the UK.
A radical pioneer of an art that abandoned the depiction of visible reality, the artist opened doors to new horizons at the beginning of the twentieth century, even stipulating that her own work should not be shown for 20 years following her death, convinced the world was not yet ready to understand her art. Dissatisfied with af Klint’s absence from the art historical canon, Dyrschka’s film reveals the importance of the artist’s legacy, demanding a reevaluation of Modernism’s evolution and calling into question the broader conveniences of art history, how it is documented and for who’s benefit.
PAST SCREENINGS APRIL/MAY 2022
TUES 12 APRIL 2022
8.30pm/ €8 /* Get Tickets *
PHOTO CITY
Director : John Murphy and Traolach O’Murcha (Ireland, 2017 : 117 mins)
Home to the Kodak company for over 125 years, Rochester, New York is a city uniquely defined by photography. 'Photo City' focuses on the lives of the city's photographic and creative community as they struggle to maintain a link to their analogue past and to forge an identity in this new digital age. Featuring an eclectic cast of characters, from the former factory floor workers to the father of digital photography, this is a film about how a city is shaped by its people. Their personal and professional struggles give us a glimpse of what it means to be a creative today and how in a company town weighed down by its own history, some moments never fade. Rochester, NY is a city defined by photography. Once dominated by Kodak, the film factory, the city now faces a new digital future. Photo City presents a portrait of photography itself as told through the lens of the citizens of a place defined by the art form. The film explores how the various strands of the city interact with photography, how its past informs its present, and how the resilience of its citizens suggests a possible future.
MON 25 MAY 2022
8.30pm/ €8 /* Get Tickets *
GRACE JONES : BLOODLIGHT AND BAMI
Director : Sophie Fiennes (Ireland,UK 2017 : 115 mins)
Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami takes the viewer on an intimate and electrifying journey that moves between four cinematic layers – performance, family, artist and traveller – to explore the fascinating world of this pop cultural phenomenon. Here we see her behind the mask as a daughter, mother, sister and grandmother, alongside taking to the stage for a specially commissioned performance, with legendary hits including Pull Up to the Bumper and Slave to the Rhythm showcased in full in the Olympia Theatre, Dublin. Larger than life, bordering on cartoon, wild, scary and androgynous – Grace Jones plays all these parts.
TUES 10 MAY 2022
8.30pm/ €8 /* Get Tickets *
THE LOST LEONARDO
Director : Andreas Koefoed (Denmark,France 2021 : 96 mins)
The mystery surrounding the Salvator Mundi, the first painting by Leonardo da Vinci to be discovered for more than a century, which has now seemingly gone missing.
The Lost Leonardo is the inside story behind the Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting ever sold at $450 million. From the moment the painting is bought for $1175 at a shady New Or- leans auction house, and the restorer discovers masterful Renaissance brushstrokes under the heavy varnish of its cheap restoration, the Salvator Mundi’s fate is determined by an insatiable quest for fame, money and power. As its price soars, so do the questions about its authenticity: is this painting really by Leonardo da Vinci?
Unravelling the hidden agendas of the richest men and the most powerful art institutions in the world, The Lost Leonardo reveals how vested interests in the Salvator Mundi are of such tremendous power that truth becomes secondary.
TUES 24 MAY 2022
8.30pm/ €8 /* Get Tickets *
FRIDA VIVA LA VIDA
Director : Giovanni Troilo (Italy 2019 : 98 mins)
Frida Kahlo, the artist who more than any other was able to build an autobiography through pictures, could tell her story with such intensity: physical pain, her miscarriages, the tragedy of love and betrayal, and her political commitment. After her death, Frida became a pop icon who could draw hundreds of thousands of visitors to exhibitions dedicated to her, as well as inspire books, comics, songs, films and even fashion shows. But who was Frida in real life? And how much energy and vitality are released from her paintings even when they portray pain and suffering? Frida. Viva La Vida, the documentary-film directed by Giovanni Troilo, produced by Ballandi Arts and Nexo Digital, presents the six chapters of a journey in search of Frida, into the heart of Mexico, amid cactuses, monkeys, deer and parrots, alternating exclusive interviews, with period documents, evocative reconstructions and works by Kahlo herself, including the most famous self-portraits (from the one with Diego Rivera in 1931 to The Two Fridas in 1939, from The Broken Column of 1944 to The Wounded Deer of 1946).
PAST SCREENINGS FEB/MARCH 2022
TUES 15 FEB 2022
8.00pm/ €8 / * Get Tickets *
THE SPARKS BROTHERS
Director : Edgar Wright UK (135 mins)
THE SPARKS BROTHERS feature documentary, chronicles the decades-long career and influence of the enigmatic rock pop duo Sparks. How can one rock band be successful, underrated, hugely influential, and criminally overlooked all at the same time? Edgar Wright's debut documentary THE SPARKS BROTHERS, which features commentary from celebrity fans Flea, Beck, Jack Antonoff, Jason Schwartzman, Neil Gaiman, and more, takes audiences on a musical odyssey through five weird and wonderful decades with brothers/bandmates Ron and Russell Mael celebrating the inspiring legacy of Sparks: your favorite band's favorite band.A true love story between two brothers - the perfect Valentines watch!
Growing up in the '60s, Los Angeles brothers Ron and Russell got by on a heavy diet of popcorn matinees and pop music until the spotlight of school talent shows illuminated their way on a musical journey as Sparks and spawned 25 studio albums. Edgar Wright's vision brings 50 years of invention to life, through animations and interviews, digging deeply into the band's rich, career-spanning archival.
Still going strong, Sparks released their new album 'A Steady Drip Drip Drip' in 2020 and have a world tour kicking off 7th Feb 2022!
"Less a documentary than an intensive course of art-pop hypnotherapy: even those who enter the cinema knowing next to nothing about the pair will leave feeling like lifelong enthusiasts". Telegraph
"Seemingly too bonkers to be actually true, and that's what I loved about it". Mark Kemode
TUES 01 MARCH 2022
8.30pm/ €8 / * Get Tickets *
PEGGY GUGGENHEIM : ART ADDICT
Director : Lisa Immordino Vreeland (USA 96mins)
PEGGY GUGGENHEIM : ART ADDICT is a feature documentary about the life of art icon Peggy Guggenheim, based on her sole authorized biography. Peggy was an heiress to the Guggenheim family who would become a central figure in the modern art movement. As she moved through the cultural upheaval of the 20th century, she collected not only art, but artists. Her colorful personal history included trysts, affairs and marriages with such figures as Samuel Beckett, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock, Marcel Duchamp as well as countless others. While fighting through personal tragedy, she maintained her vision to build one of the most important collections of modern art, which is today enshrined in her famous Venetian palazzo. The film is a compendium of the greatest 20th century art mixed with the wild and iconoclastic life of one of the most powerful women in the history of the art world. A colorful character who was not only ahead of her time but helped to define it.
"A must-see doc for any art lover" - FILM JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL.
Lisa Immordino Vreeland followed up her acclaimed debut Diana Vreeland: The Eye has to Travel with Peggy Guggenhein : Art Addict and has gone on to make documentaries about other powerful, exciting creators including Cecil Beaton, Truman Capote, and Tennessee Williams.
TUES 15 MARCH 2022
8.00pm/ €8 / * Get Tickets *
CROCK OF GOLD - a few rounds with shane macgowan
Director : Julien Temple (UK,Ireland 124 mins)
CROCK OF GOLD - A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan deep dives into the life of the tortured Irish vocalist, best known as the lead singer and songwriter of the Pogues, who famously combined traditional Irish music with the visceral energy of punk rock. Featuring unseen archival footage from the band and MacGowan's family, as well as animation from legendary illustrator Ralph Steadman, Julien Temple's rollicking love letter spotlights the iconic frontman up to his 60th birthday celebration, where singers, movie stars and rock 'n' roll outlaws gather to celebrate the man and his legacy. Julian Temple’s portrait of the Pogues singer is a rambling, messy, wild, sad and inspirational documentary — in other words, a fine tribute to its subject.
A special Paddy’s week screening, this feature documentary is a celebration of the man who wrote some of the best selling patriotic songs.
Directed by Julien Andrew Temple - an English film, documentary and music video director. He began his career with short films featuring the Sex Pistols, and has continued with various off-beat projects, including The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, Absolute Beginners and a documentary film about Glastonbury.
TUES 29 MARCH 2022
8.30pm/ €8 /* Get Tickets *
HEART OF A DOG
Director : Laurie Anderson (France,USA : 75 mins)
HEART OF A DOG is a triumph and not simply in its love and candor, but in its calming ease that gently reminds viewers: no matter what, everything will be OK. Multimedia artist Laurie Anderson reflects on life & her relationship with her beloved dog Lolabelle, in this beautiful experimental film.
Laurie Anderson’s refractive musing on matters of life and death in Heart of a Dog revisits the Tibetan Book of the Dead via her relationship with her beloved dog Lolabelle and the lost mother whom she worries she did not love. Animation and Super 8 footage lend personal texture to the documentary’s dreamy, healing fragments, with Anderson’s soothing narration providing poetic perspective on childhood trauma, the nature of storytelling, the transience of life and the release of love.
Like much of Anderson's work, Heart of a Dog takes the form of casually constructed, almost meandering reminiscences, while at the same time never losing its tightly structured focus and drive. Beautiful stream of dream like film making brings forward a fascinating look at one woman's life and remembers the dog who was at her side. The poetry in the movie is beautiful and absurd as ever and the images are stunning. You get really drawn into the story. Like her mother said in her last words; "Take care of the animals". Laurie did take care of her animal.
*PAST SCREENINGS : NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021*
TUES 09 November 2021
8.30pm/ €7 /* Get Tickets *
sisters with transistors
(2020, 84 mins)
SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS is the untold story of electronic music’s female pioneers, remarkable composers who embraced machines and their liberating technologies to utterly transform how we produce and listen to music today.
The remarkable world of electronic music has been constantly evolving since its inception in the early 20th century. From the unlimited possibilities of digital synthesisers, to the recent analog recording revival; from the impossibly perfect pitch of Auto-Tune, to the democratisation of music-making for a generation of ‘bedroom’ producers - each of these extraordinary developments is directly connected to the work and artistry of the women featured in “Sisters with Transistors.” Clara Rockmore, Daphne Oram, Bebe Barron, Delia Derbyshire, Maryanne Amacher, Pauline Oliveros, Wendy Carlos, Eliane Radigue, Suzanne Ciani, and Laurie Spiegel are among the greatest pioneers of modern sound and we continue to feel their influence yet most people have never heard of them.
As Laurie Spiegel explains: “We women were especially drawn to electronic music when the possibility of a woman composing was in itself controversial. Electronics let us make music that could be heard by others without having to be taken seriously by the male dominated Establishment.”
With Laurie Anderson as our narrator, we’ll embark on a fascinating journey through the evolution of electronic music. We’ll learn how new devices opened music to the entire field of sound, how electronic music not only changed the modes of production but in its wide-ranging effects also transformed the very terms of musical thought.
With the wider social, political and cultural context of the 20th century as our backdrop, this all archival documentary reveals a unique emancipation struggle, restoring the central role of women in the history of music.
LISA ROVNER is an artist and filmmaker based in London. All of her creative projects, ranging from short films, music videos, adverts and art exhibitions are strung together by a fascination with archives and sound and her underlying aspiration to transform politics and philosophy into cinematographic spectacle. Rovner has collaborated with some of the most internationally respected artists and brands including Pierre Huyghe, Liam Gillick, Sebastien Tellier, Maison Martin Margiela and Acne. Her films have been presented internationally in art venues and theaters. Currently, she is in development on an episodic comedy about the art world and on a television series about revolutionary architecture. SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS is her first feature documentary.
TUES 23 November 2021
8.30pm/ €8 /* Get Tickets * COMPLEMENTARY pint of Guinness or glass of House Wine included!
CITIZEN LANE
(2018, 82 mins)
CITIZEN LANE is an innovative mix of documentary and drama that delivers a vivid and compelling portrait of Hugh Lane, one of the most fascinating and yet enigmatic figures in modern Irish history. A man of multiple contradictions, by turns infuriatingly frugal or extraordinarily generous, a professed nationalist and a knight of the realm; a monumental snob and a fearless campaigner for access to the arts.
Elegantly charting Lane’s obsession in making his collection of impressionist painting accessible to every class of society, the film expertly locates Lane’s dream of a National Gallery open to all, within the political and social dilemmas of the time. Chronicling Lane’s tribulations and achievements before his untimely death in 1915 aboard the Lusitania, and the legacy he left behind for Dublin and Irish people, Citizen Lane is an intriguing watch.. A must-see for those with even a passing interest in the arts in Ireland.
Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s multifaceted portrait of the art collector boasts a standout performance from Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as the contrarian philanthropist. Cleverly scripted by Mark O’Halloran, Lane combines careful reconstructions with insightful observations from contributors Roy Foster, Paul Rouse and Morna O’Neill.
CAST: Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Michael Gambon, Gemma-Leah Devereux, Derbhle Crotty
THADDEUS O’SULLIVAN is an Irish director, cinematographer, and screenwriter. The trajectory of Thaddeus O'Sullivan's career mirrors that of film production in Ireland more generally - from experimental and avant-garde beginnings in the 1970s to more mainstream commercial cinema and television from the 1990s onwards. O'Sullivan played a key role in the early development of Irish cinema and, with fellow independent film-makers Bob Quinn, Pat Murphy, Joe Comerford and Cathal Black, was an early lobbyist on behalf of an indigenous Irish cinema.
TUES 07 December 2021
8.30pm/ €8 /* Get Tickets * COMPLEMENTARY pint of Guinness or glass of House Wine included!
new york our time
(2021, 79 mins)
NEW YORK OUR TIME : When Irish film artist Vivienne Dick arrived in New York’s run-down Lower East Side in the late 70s, she was deeply inspired by the vibrant community of avant-garde musicians, makers, and artists who lived there. Returning to the city in 2019, she reconnects with old haunts and friends.
Combining her own Super 8 footage of the Lower East Side from the 70s with present-day sequences of hanging out with the likes of photographer Nan Goldin, performer Lydia Lunch, post-punk feminists Bush Tetras, Dick creates a thoughtful meditation on the passing of time. Contrasting the concerns of living in New York with that of the rundown bankrupt City of the ’70s, Dick emphasises the binding importance of friendship, community, and memory.
Beautifully filmed by renowned cinematographer Declan Quinn, and edited by Connie Farrell, the film is an ethnographic look from the inside at a particular community and period in the history of a great city, and a meditation on the passing of time.
VIVIENNE DICK was born in Donegal, Ireland. She makes multilayered work with an interest in gender politics, music, and philosophy. Her early films are associated with the No Wave music and film movement of late seventies New York and include films such as She Had Her Gun All Ready, Guerilleres Talks and Liberty’s Booty. Initially shown at live music venues, her work was later was screened at many independent US cinemas, and at museums such as MoMA, Walker Arts Centre and the Whitney Biennale.
TUES 21 December 2021 *****CANCELLED*****
8.00pm/ €8 / * Get Tickets * COMPLEMENTARY pint of Guinness or glass of House Wine included!
CROCK OF GOLD - a few rounds with shane mcgowan
(2020, 124 mins)
CROCK OF GOLD - A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan deep dives into the life of the tortured Irish vocalist, best known as the lead singer and songwriter of the Pogues, who famously combined traditional Irish music with the visceral energy of punk rock. Featuring unseen archival footage from the band and MacGowan's family, as well as animation from legendary illustrator Ralph Steadman, Julien Temple's rollicking love letter spotlights the iconic frontman up to his 60th birthday celebration, where singers, movie stars and rock 'n' roll outlaws gather to celebrate the man and his legacy. Julian Temple’s portrait of the Pogues singer is a rambling, messy, wild, sad and inspirational documentary — in other words, a fine tribute to its subject.
A special Xmas screening and a celebration of the man who wrote one of the most famous songs of the festive season....Fairytale of New York!
Directed by Julien Andrew Temple - an English film, documentary and music video director. He began his career with short films featuring the Sex Pistols, and has continued with various off-beat projects, including The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, Absolute Beginners and a documentary film about Glastonbury.
*PAST SCREENINGS SEP/OCT 2021*
TUES 26th October 2021
8pm/ €7 / Get Tickets
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT
(1999, 85 mins)
Three film students vanish after travelling into a Maryland forest to film a documentary on the local Blair Witch.
Found video footage tells the tale of three film students (Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, Michael C. Williams) who've travelled to a small town to collect documentary footage about the Blair Witch, a legendary local murderer. Over the course of several days, the students interview townspeople and gather clues to support the tale's veracity. But the project takes a frightening turn when the students lose their way in the woods and begin hearing horrific noises.
This film was made in 1999 and only this year , 22 years on, topped the list of SCARIEST MOVIE according to a new study by Movie Web. The Blair Witch Project revolutionized horror in 1999, setting a new standard for horror movies, and notably doing while spilling very little blood. It is still one of the most successful independent films of all time.
A documentary within a documentary and the perfect film to scare the living daylights out of yourself amongst friends...and kick off your Halloween week!
Due to it being a special Halloween event and new seating plans, we are taking bookings in pods of 2 to 6 people, so make sure to book with a friend, to hide behind if needs be!! :-)
(Vacc Cert required, for everyone’s safety. Thank You)
TUES 7th SEPTEMBER 2021
(8.30PM / €7 / Get Tickets)
PJ HARVEY – A DOG CALLED MONEY
(2019, 90 mins Dir: Seamus Murphy)
Award-winning Irish photographer Seamus Murphy has made a film that investigates the creative process behind his project with PJ Harvey. While tracing the sources of songs and detailing the journey of their birth, he brings to life the people and places at their very heart. As imaginative as the creative process it documents, A DOG CALLED MONEY is a uniquely intimate journey through the inspiration, writing and recording of a PJ Harvey record.
Writer and musician Harvey and photographer Seamus Murphy, hatched a collaboration. Seeking first-hand experience of the countries she wanted to write about, Harvey accompanied Murphy on some of his worldwide reporting trips, joining him in Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Washington DC. Harvey collected words, Murphy collected images.
Back home, the words become poems, songs, then an album, which is recorded in an unprecedented art experiment in Somerset House, London. In a specially constructed room behind one-way glass, the public - all cameras surrendered - are invited to watch the 5-week process as a live sound-sculpture. Murphy exclusively documents the experiment with the same forensic vision and private access as their travels.
PJ Harvey fans and film lovers alike will be captivated by this thought-provoking documentary—both an intimate journey into the creative process and a kaleidoscopic travelogue in zones of war and social unrest. Dreamlike and elliptical, this is a stunning portrait of an enigmatic musical icon.
Seamus Murphy is an Irish photographer and filmmaker who has won seven World Press Photo awards for his work in Afghanistan, Gaza, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Peru and Ireland. His work from Afghanistan is in the collections of The Getty Museum, Los Angeles and Imperial War Museum, London. He is the author of four books of photography. As a director and cinematographer he has made films for The New Yorker and Channel 4 (UK).
TUES 21st SEPTEMBER 2021
(8.30PM / €7 / Get Tickets)
SHOW ME THE PICTURE - THE STORY OF JIM MARSHALL
(2020, 92 mins Dir: Alfred George Bailey)
An outsider with attitude, Show Me The Picture: The Story of Jim Marshall chronicles the infamous photographer’s life behind and outside the camera. Born in Illinois, Chicago, a child of immigrants and a life battling inner demons, Jim fought his way to become one of the most trusted mavericks behind a lens throughout 60’s history. A passion for music led him to capture some of the most iconic figures in music history. To name a few, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Janis Joplin to the infamous image of Jimi Hendrix burning his guitar.
It was his abrasive but honest approach to his subjects combined with incredible skill to build trust that expanded his portfolio beyond celebrities, documenting history across the ages.
“When I'm photographing people, I don't like to give any direction. There are no hair people fussing around, no make-up artists. I'm like a reporter, only with a camera; I react to my subject in their environment, and if it's going well, I get so immersed in it that I become one with the camera”.
This multi-award-winning feature film is directed by Alfred George Bailey who is also a former professional musician (jazz drummer) aswell as a photographer specialising in reportage, music, portraiture, dance and street photography.
Alfred George Bailey Is a London based film director who started his creative journey as a photographer specialising in reportage, music, portraiture, dance and street photography Alfred is also a former professional musician (jazz drummer). He has worked with musicians for over 25 years and Gregory Porter: Don't Forget Your Music was his debut feature film as director and cinematographer. His multi-award-winning second feature film Show Me The Picture: The Story of Jim Marshall about the life & times of the infamous music photographer who captured some of the most iconic musicians across many genres and pivotal moments in social history.
TUES 5th OCTOBER 2021
(8.30PM / €7 / Get Tickets)
BEST BEFORE DEATH
(2020 : 89 mins Dir: Paul Duane)
In 1992, Bill Drummond ceased activities as part of the enormously successful pop group The KLF. Since 2014 he's been on a World Tour, travelling the world with his show - The 25 Paintings - visiting a different city each year. In December 2016 he based himself in Kolkata, while in the Spring of 2018 he was in Lexington, North Carolina. He's not rich and he's deliberately designed his actions so they can't be monetized. He's mostly been ignored by the art world. So what is he doing it all for? Irish Director, Paul Duane shadowed Bill Drummond for three years before starting this film in order to achieve some level of understanding about what he's at.
In each place he carries out his regular work, setting up a shoeshine stand in the street, building a bed in order to give it away, walk across the longest bridge he can find at dawn banging his parade drum, start knitting circles with whoever wants to join him, baking cakes and offering them to people whose houses sit on a circle he's drawn on a map of the city.
Best Before Death is named after Drummond's belief that the World Tour, scheduled to end when he's 73, is a race against his own mortality. It's a film about life, death, art, money, music and cake. And some knitting.
Paul Duane is an Irish writer, producer and director. He has been working in film and television for more than 20 years.He has also made several short films including LSD 73!, based on an original script by the Irish novelist Patrick McCabe. The Irish production company Screenworks was established by Paul Duane and Rob Cawley in 2008. Their first feature documentary Barbaric Genius, on the life of the London-Irish author John Healy premiered in February 2011. He is also known for other feature documentaries: While You Live, Shine (2018), Very Extremely Dangerous (2012) as well as for co-creating well-known TV series such as The Secret Diary of a Call Girl and the drama series Amber.
TUES 19th OCTOBER 2021
(8.30PM / €7 / Get Tickets)
HENRY GLASSIE – FIELD WORK
(2019 : 105 mins Dir: Pat Collins)
Irish Director Pat Collins’ most recent film Henry Glassie: Field Work, is a magisterial portrait of the renowned American folklorist and ethnologist Henry Glassie, now in his seventies. Henry Glassie is one of the most celebrated folklorists across the world. He has spent the last 50 years making in-depth studies of communities and their art. Glassie’s subject is folklore but his abiding love for the people who create it resonates throughout the film. “I don’t study people. I stand with people and I study the things they create.”
Early in the Troubles, Henry Glassie came into a community of active story tellers in County Fermanagh. There he discovered a world about to be lost. Over the course of ten years’ research, he recorded the life and art, the folklore, history and common work but particularly the stories of that tiny community.
This film is an intricate exposition of Glassie’s life’s work and a vehicle for Collin’s trademark perspicacity and keen eye for the smallest details which yield deep significance. The rituals and rhythms of working artists across Brazil, Turkey, North Carolina and Ireland are recorded in languorously paced sequences which mirror the real time process of the crafting of the work.
Pat Collins is an award winning Irish director. He could be described as a cinematic landscape artist of sorts, possessing a deft ability to capture texture, mood, and emotion, along with the confidence to let his films (and their subjects) truly breathe. With a long and distinguished body of work, he has made over 30 films since 1999. Work include the feature film Songs of Granite (2017),a portrait of Joe Heaney. Other portrait films include; A Private World (2004) portrait of John McGovern; What We Leave in Our Wake (2009); Tim Robinson: Connemara (2011); Silence (2012); Living in a Coded Land (2014). He was also co-director odf the three-part series 1916, which broadcast on RTE, BBC and PBS America.