The 6th edition of the festival was a huge success. The team couldn’t be happier. Thank you all for your support and encouragement. It was great to see such passionate discourse and engagement with both the films and the filmmakers, over the weekend.
Food and Drink: Mescan Beer for sponsoring the opening night launch and to Beth Moran, Bernard McCabe, Macalla Farm and The Community Polytunnel for food donated at events and the filmmakers brunch. Special Thanks to Jenny Doran who spent her Saturday preparing all the food for the delicious filmmaker’s brunch on Sunday which everybody thoroughly enjoyed.
Big Thanks to all the musicians and artists that made the Saturday night sessions so special. For transporting us from Joe Heaney’s haunting Sean nós on the big screen to live Sean nós, fiddle, guitars and mandolin at the spontaneous session.
Finally, Thanks to the Filmmakers, the Festival Team, Sailors Bar Bard Room, and to all who have helped in any way and that includes you the Audiences.
Like our Facebook page for news and trailers between now and next festival!
If you want to find out more about our little get together please check out the clip below from festival 2014. We have some great ideas for year 6, YES year 6 in 2018, and we hope you can join us for another special weekend on Clare Island!
Celebrate Irish Film and our Island with us from 31st August to 2nd September 2018
We are delighted to share some our fabulous programme for this year’s event with you! The full programme will be available in our PROGRAMME tab above.
Thank you to all who submitted work and sorry we can’t fit you all in! The high quality of the work this year has made the selection process truly difficult. We are small and beautiful like your shorts and we look forward to celebrating with you all on the island.
This year as well as great films we have a host of great people joining us to share with you, the audience, the motivations and methods behind the films you will see. We will run a series of relaxed Q&A’s over the weekend , live music on Saturday night and a filmmakers brunch on Sunday…….
IRISH FEATURE DOCUMENTARIES
Song of Granite by Pat Collins
Screening Saturday Evening
SONG OF GRANITE is a critically acclaimed, lyrical and unconventional account of the
SONG OF GRANITE is a critically acclaimed, lyrical and unconventional account of the life of the complex and enigmatic Joe Heaney, one of the greats of traditional sean-nós singing. Shaped by the myths, fables and songs of his upbringing in the west of Ireland in the early 1900s, this film charts Heaney’s emergence as a gifted artist and how his career success came at a personal cost as he journeyed from rural Connemara, through to Glasgow and eventually on to New York City. Song of Granite is a distinct portrait of Heaney’s life and a universal exploration of the power of the human voice, directed by Pat Collins.
The Silver Branch by Katrina Costello
In this bittersweet evocation of the end of an era, an Irish farmer/poet,
deeply entwined with ancestral traditions and the natural world, must stand
up for all that is sacred to him when the government threatens his way of
life.
It resonates with its audience on a deeper level: It is a story of life,
love, family, grief, of commitment and of the struggles of modern day life.
It invites the viewer to follow in mindful meditation and to take a journey
into the self, leading us to a deep connection with the Earth and our
Ancestral wild spirit.
