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The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2012
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Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival has become Ireland’s premiere film event, bringing the best of world cinema to the capital over ten days and nights in February. This year’s festival takes place at locations across the city from February 16th to 26th, with an extensive programme of more than 140 new Irish and international films, workshops, masterclasses and special events.
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The 2012 festival is a showcase for new Irish film, with screenings of Ivan Kavanagh’s reworked black and white thriller Tin Can Man, Rodrigo Garcia’s Irish co-production Albert Nobbs starring Glenn Close and Silence, an intriguing collaboration between director Pat Collins and writer Eoghan Mac Giolla Bridhe which tells the story of an exiled Irishman commissioned to record utter silence in the most remote parts of the country. Kirsten Sheridan will showcase her new feature film Dollhouse at a midnight screening, with the film telling the story of a night in the life of a gang of reckless teenagers who wreak havoc when they invade a suburban mansion.
With a nod towards our rich cinema heritage, the festival will screen Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s lively drama Stella Days, in which Martin Sheen plays a rural priest attempting to open a cinema in a small town in order to raise funds for the church and bring culture to the people of the town. The Irish feature film programme concludes with a gala premiere of Ian Fitzgibbon’s innovative adaptation of Anthony MacCarten’s novel Death of a Superhero, with Thomas Brodie-Sangster playing a terminally ill, comics-obsessed teenager who meets the love of his life, just as it might be about to end.
New Irish documentaries feature strongly in this year’s programme, with a slew of vibrant and exciting new non-fiction films playing throughout the festival. Co-produced by the Irish Film Board, Safinez Bousbia’s heart-warming musical documentary El Gusto reunites a group of Muslim and Jewish musicians in Algeria after decades. Oonagh Kearney’s Wonder House also plays on memories of the past; inviting a group of scientists to talk about the childhood experiences that sparked their imaginations. Desmond Bell’s historical documentary The Enigma of Frank Ryan reaches even further into the past, to tell the story of the Limerick-born soldier who joined the International Brigade against fascism but died in mysterious circumstances in war-time Dresden. There are premieres also for JJ Rolfe’s Hill Street, which traces the history of the Irish skateboarding scene from its beginnings in the early 1980s, and Peter Bach’s Flanagan’s Wake, a personal tribute to the late sculptor Barry Flanagan.
Irish actors in international cinema are also well represented at the festival, with Stephen Rea, Padraic Delaney and Dominique McElligot starring opposite Sam Shepard in Mateo Gil’s revisionist western Blackthorn. Other international premieres and galas at the festival include special guest Al Pacino’s genre-bending mix of drama, theatre and documentary Wilde Salome, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Cannes-winning Once Upon A Time In Anatolia, Werner Herzog’s death-row documentary Into The Abyss and the Duplass Brothers’ modern comedy of manners Jeff Who Lives At Home.
Of course, Dublin isn’t the only European city celebrating film in February. The Berlin Film Festival is already underway in the chilly German capital, where Kirsten Sheridan will have the world premiere of Dollhouse in the coming days, while James Marsh’s IRA drama Shadow Dancer will have its European premiere following a rave reception at the recent Sundance film festival in Utah. Irish co-produced documentaries Anton Corbijn Inside Out, about the celebrated photographer and director of Control, and The Reluctant Revolutionary will also premiere as part of the Berlinale Special and Panorama sections, respectively.
For more information on the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, visit the festival website.
