The eighth annual Galway Film Fleadh was a roaring success.
With Ireland in the grip of film-making fever, and the notion of a thriving indigenous Irish film industry transformed from distant goal to distinct possibility, it’s natural that the three major international film festivals in Dublin, Cork and Galway should reflect the recent boom. There’s a good deal of friendly rivalry between the big three, but the Galway Film, Fleadh, while the youngest festival with the least funding, is fast becoming the most popular event on the Irish film calendar.
The Film Fleadh has its own particular magic. Through a combination of adventurous programming, a strong commitment to Irish work, whether highly-anticipated new feature or Irish-language no-budget short, the Fleadh has become a big draw to filmmakers and fans alike. But the crucial extra ingredient seems to be the inimitably laid-back, informal social dimension of the festival, which in the eight years since the Fleadh’s inception, has brought people from all strata of the industry together in a way that is becoming increasingly rare in a business as market driven as cinema has become. Independent producers, distributors and sales agents from Los Angeles or Manhattan do deals in Galway with director and producers from Ireland and Europe, and are astonished to find themselves chewing the fat over a few pints of Guinness with someone they “know” from the industry in the talking to. never actually got around to talking to. Galway’s like that, and the Fleadh wisely capitalized on the informality, setting up a Film Shop – now called the Fleadh Fair, which organizes meetings for interested parties, be they actor, writer, director or producer, with the heavyweights of the industry, who came initially out of curiosity and came back for the talent.
This year, the Fleadh was a truly Irish event, with six Irish features premiered; incontrovertible evidence of a burgeoning new Irish film industry. Since the reestablishment of the Irish Film Board three years ago, and the introduction of tax incentives to encourage international filmmakers to choose Ireland for production or co-production, 20 films have been made in Ireland, of which six were Irish films by firsttime directors. Every night, for the six night of the Fleadh, a new Irish feature was screened. All were received warmly, some ecstatically.
Opening the proceedings was The Last of the High Kings, David Keating’s adaptation of Ferdia MacAnna’s hilarious first novel. The film features cameo performances from Gabriel Byrne and Stephen Rea, and Byrne also collaborated on the script. The film, thought uneven, has some wonderful scenes, and had enough laughs to please the crowd.
Friday morning brought unexpected crowds to the 10 a.m. showcase of new work for Teilifis na Gaeilge, the new Irish language television station which goes on air this autumn. This sneak preview of new drama, a music series presented by Donal Lunny, and a documentary comprising interview and archive on Ireland’s neutrality during World War II, bodes well for the new station. The Fleadh then hosted a lunch for Women in Film and Television, a new organization committed to encouraging and assisting women in the industry through training incentives, networking opportunities and production funding. This led conveniently into The Fleadh Debate, which this year was titled “The Director’s Chair – A Female vision.” Chaired by Claire Duignan, who heads The Independent Production Unit at RTE, the panel and audience debated the role of the female gaze in film-making today.
The strong panel of women directors present included Geraldine Creed, whose debut feature The Sun, the Moon and the Stars was one of the hits of the Fleadh; Antonia Bird, British director of the controversial film Priest, who recently made a film in Hollywood with an all start cast; and Ibolya Fekete, a Hungarian director whose film, Bolshe Vita, a drama which started life as a documentary, is set in Budapest during those heady times after the Berlin Wall came down, and before Mafia style gangs took advantage of the chaos. It was a perfect example of what a film festival should be doing – finding those special works and bringing them to a wider audience.
Two new features written by Irish writers, directed by British directors, and shot in Ireland with a mainly Irish cast were The Disappearance of Finbar, directed by Englishwoman Sue Clayton, a realist story, Irish style; and Trojan Eddie, screen-writing debut of award-winning Wexford playwright Billy Roche, which was directed by Glaswegian Gillies McKinnon, and starred Richard Harris as a lovelorn King of the Travellers. The film also featured Stephen Rea’s finest performance since The Crying Game.
With serious business getting under way at the Fleadh’s new social HQ, The Rowing Club, it was interesting to see how Fleadh veterans were adapting to what amounted to a complete change in personnel, venue, and social milieu. All told, the Eighth Galway Film, Fleadh was looking very good under the auspices of its new director, Antony Sellers who, with Julia Roddy as manager, took over the reins from one of the leading figures in Ireland’s film renaissance, former independent producer and current Chairperson of Bord Scannan na hEireann (The Irish Film Board), Lelia Doolan.
With The Sun, the Moon and the Stars, there was a genuine feeling of breakthrough. A first feature, a woman director, and a story which didn’t rely on high drama for effect, this low-key charmer about a woman, her children, and the choices she can and does make, was original without being pushy, featured an international cast which included veteran American actress Angie Dickinson, and marks Geraldine Creed as an Irish director to watch. The audience loved it. But this island had stiff competition from across the border, and two of the favorite films of this year’s Fleadh were by young directors from Northern Ireland. Sean Hinds’ 40-minute chiller Boys and Men, about a crazed young man exacting revenge for being bullied at school, confirms Hinds as a director of considerable flair, while The Eliminator, 21-year-old Enda Hughes’ low-budget fantasy spoof movie stole the show, with making a witty roller-coaster of a film. And all for $12,000!
Suddenly it was the last night. There had been documentaries, shorts, animation, and features. Comedies, romances and thrillers. The pints sipped while languishing by the Corrib. The seminars, the hugely successful comedy masterclass. The director’s masterclass by Terry George. Michael D.Higgins, Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, who has almost godlike status among film-makers – had made his speeches. But there was still a hum in the air, as everywhere people bought, begged or scavenged for tickets for the main event. The closing film. Produced and co-scripted by Jim Sheridan, and directed and coscripted by Terry George, the eagerly awaited Irish premiere of Some Mother’s Son, set during the Hunger Strikes in Long Kesh in 1981, is every bit as good as expected, and as the audience rose to its feet for a spontaneous standing ovation, it seemed appropriate that this emotional event tool place at the Galway Film Fleadh. They’ve set themselves a high standard.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the September/October 1996 issue of Irish America. ⬥
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