IFI Blog

Throughout our 20 years in Temple Bar the IFI has reached out to the wider artistic community, not just to filmmakers, forging links within theatre, dance and visual arts, and providing a location for cross disciplinary discussion. From our first artist commission Rachel Joynt’s film reel sculpture ‘Shutter’ in 1993, the IFI has served as both a subject and a facilitator of art; Colin Crotty, Sarah Pierce and Laurence Kavanagh are among the artists who have channelled our activities and collections into varied and thought-provoking art works over the years, giving us their own unique interpretations of different facets of the Irish Film Institute.

To bring this artistic engagement full circle and to celebrate our 20 years as a vital part of Dublin’s cultural landscape, we commissioned work by two local artists, Colm Mac Athlaoich and Killian Dunne from the Black Church Studio in Temple Bar. We asked them to give us their creative response to the IFI’s last 2 decades of activity and gave them unlimited access to the collections of the IFI Irish Film Archive; the result was a series of perceptive, witty and beautifully executed illustrations that are now on permanent display in the IFI Café Bar.

Kasandra O’Connell

Head of the IFI Irish Film Archive

Killian Dunne, Visual Artist from the Black Church Studio, describes his inspiration behind the commissioned work:

Silent Film

For this poster I drew on imagery from The O'Kalem Collection which is stored in the IFI archive. The Silent film medium has a comical clichéd identity regarding stripped back plots: Guy wants the girl, has to fight the rival/bully and overcome oppression/adversary. The poster had to reflect these themes and had to be kept visually simple.

IFI Family Festival

For this poster I felt it was important that the kids were in charge and that they were being creative with film and storytelling. Making their own costumes and props reminiscent of Be Kind Rewind. Initially the idea was going to be kids playing Batman characters but King Kong and Godzilla offered a lot more fun and action.

IFI Stranger Than Fiction

The IFI Stranger than Fiction Documentary Festival covers a very broad range of documentaries so I knew I should draw from the festivals title rather than the endless documentary subject matter. At first I thought about the many bizarre origins of every day social, religious and political practices but things got cliché or visually over complex. In the end I went for a film crew made up of some of my favourite fiction characters filming a documentary about the real world. Big foot, an alien and a retro robot are interviewing me outside the IFI.

Horrorthon

This poster always had to be approached from an abstract/outside the box angle or out and out comical. At first I went abstract experimenting with IFI archive stills not related to horror, The Children of Lir which I found very scary as a child as well as old photographs of Semeno "Kamo" Ter-Petrossian, an early psychotic college of Stalin. Eventually the comical element of the Horrorthon got the better of me and I started to draw various posters of the Hammer horror monsters hanging around the IFI misbehaving or behaving a little too well like in the final poster.

Illustrations, commissioned by the IFI as part of IFI20: Celebrating 20 Years in Temple Bar, are on permanent display in the IFI Café Bar.

I can still remember the excitement and expectations amongst my friends and I. Being 20 years old in the early 1990s was rather a good thing to be, especially if you were a fan of cinema. The dreaded "18 certificate" no longer mattered to you - you could go and see what you wanted! I eventually managed to get to the IFI on the day after its official opening that September and got my membership card. The card over the years had varied in colour - green, red, blue and now a very grown-up and sophisticated black!

It became the meeting place, particularly on the Thursday before Easter, for reasons which have been lost in the mists of time. We'd park up in the restaurant, order chips and drinks for everyone and discuss life and what film we'd just seen. To this day, the little blue neon circle outside is a welcome sight on a winter night in Temple Bar. There was even a time, when things were getting pretty unbearable in one job I was in, that the restaurant was my place of refuge each lunchtime for two months. And, silly as it sounds, I still get a thrill walking down the glass floor corridor into the heart of the building.

Having the IFI in Dublin brought Europe and then the world to my eyes and broadened my horizons. The first film I saw was Without You I'm Nothing, a film of Sandra Bernhardt's one woman show of the same name. I can barely remember it now but my abiding recollection is of Sylvester's "You make me feel mighty real" being used in one scene and no-one seemed to mind that I sang along with it. I would have loved to have got up out of my seat and had a dance around. I saw the best of American 90s indie films like Slacker and Dazed and Confused, sexy Spanish films like Jamón Jamón and The Fencing Master (best watched eating a little tub of Haagen Daz ice cream), amazing German films like Head On and even some downright weird films like Man Bites Dog and Benny's Video.

I even got to see classics that I never thought I'd see on the big screen like Dr. Strangelove, The Third Man and Night of the Hunter and a real bit of history with Metropolis, but the one that sticks with me the most is 32 Short Films about Glenn Gould. Such an amazing beautiful film. Even though I have it on video, I'd love to see it on the big screen again.

I've not been to the cinema in a while. My life situation has changed and it just hasn't been possible, but I hope that will change soon. And, maybe, I will finally get to dance around in that cinema.

Colette Carroll

Friday December 10^th 1993 – excitement was running high in the offices of the Irish Film Institute on the eve of the re-premiere of the War of Independence drama Irish Destiny.

The adventure had begun years earlier when, prompted by the discovery of two enormous, original posters for Irish Destiny under the lino of a house in Ringsend, we began a search for the film of which little had been heard, since its release in 1926. A print was eventually found and restored in the Library of Congress in Washington. A score was commissioned from Micheál Ó Súilleabháin who composed a score. The only job left was to turn the NCH into a cinema for the night.

Micheál Ó Súilleabháin

A 35mm mobile projector and a big giant screen were en route from London. Too heavy to fly, we had booked a man and his 2 tonnes of equipment on the B+I car ferry. We awaited their arrival.

Hours passed and word filtered through that the man and his truck were stuck – on the boat in the middle of the Irish Sea. It wasn’t actually a national emergency, so a call to David Andrew’s people in the Department of Defence asking for a loan of their rescue helicopter, was fruitless.

Saturday dawned with the truck still on board. There was no option but to call Westair Private Jets from whom we hired a helicopter to fly over and winch the bloody truck off the boat. And then a pit-stop at an RAF Airbase in Valley in Wales where the irony of the RAF facilitating the screening of a republican drama was not lost on us. In Dublin a high-speed dash from the airport through the city with Garda out-riders and a super-quick set up with mere moments to spare before the rehearsal-free curtain up. Proinnsías Ó Duinn’s baton was raised; the projector whirred to life; the title sequence unspooled; and the opening notes of Micheál’s score filled the hall. But then - the baton dropped. The music stopped. Proinnsías walkie-talkied “Stop the film ! – There is an Overture to be played!”. Much laughter from the audience – with, according to the Evening Press, “President Robinson, a patron of the IFI, particularly amused”.

A frantic rewinding of the 35mm reels. Baton up. Overture played. And then Irish Destiny burst forth in all its splendour. And all were thrilled– from President to pauper. And IFI staff collapsed with relief and thought, never again.

Sunniva O'Flynn

IFI Curator

As part of the 2012 Culture Night and IFI20: Celebrating 20 Years in Temple Bar, we present a special 20th-anniversary screening of Far and Away on Friday, October 21st (20.00). Tickets are FREE and available only in person in Meeting House Square on the night of the screening.

I've been sitting in the IFI for a long time. I was there when it opened in Temple Bar, sitting at screenings, festivals, and conferences as a student; sitting and looking up at stellar faces in the worlds of film and film education from Dennis Hopper to Frederic Jameson; sitting in the bar, even when there was dancing there, talking with my classmates after sitting upstairs in what is now Cinema 3, where we took some of our MA classes as part of a partnership with UCD. Then I spent a lot of time sitting in the archive and the library while I conducted my PhD research. I sat leafing through old magazines and the miscellaneous paper records charting the scattered history of Irish documentary film. I sat reading rare books on Irish film, and less rare magazines that I couldn't afford to buy. I sat at a Steenbeck in the bowels of the building, with Liam and Sunniva looking over my shoulder while I made handwritten notes on films sometimes no one else had seen. I sat in the viewing room too, heaps of Beta and VHS tapes coming in waves from the collection, together with support and advice, hints and directions that helped to shape my onward journey as a student. Somewhere along the way I started standing up.

Dr. Harvey O'Brien & IFI Director Ross Keane (Photo by Alina Radko)

I found myself standing in front of the crowds as well as sitting among them, saying things about my research, talking about movies in general, giving classes in the meeting room on documentary, animation, film noir... anything, really; speaking to kids on the education programme about the joys of writing film reviews, fronting the Keeping it Real conference with Ruth Barton, both of us wearing long leather jackets at the opening panel. It wasn't planned, I swear.

Then I was standing at my book launches, making speeches about the slow disappearance of good will in academia while thanking those at the IFI that had shown more than a little of it during the years I was sitting in that library and that archive.

IFI Irish Film Archive

Eventually, it was a no-brainer that I would try to repay a little of what I felt I owed the IFI by serving on the Board. When I put my name forward my undergraduate mentor and teacher Stephanie McBride, then about to retire from active duty herself, greeted the news by saying to me "I hear you're standing."

I'm still to be found sitting though. I'm sitting on the Board now, having stood for it after all, and I sit on the sub-committee on education and archive. I'm also frequently found there during the Summer semester, when my students have a saying "If it's Thursday, it must be Harvey", and you'll find me conducting a series of research consultations a couple of feet from where I did it all myself.

To me the IFI has always been a place for learning, sitting or standing, and it's great to be part of it during the 20th celebrations. It's been quite a journey. I may need to lie down.

Harvey O’Brien

Film Studies Lecturer at University College Dublin and author of The Real Ireland: The Evolution of Ireland in Documentary Film and co-editor of Keeping it Real: Irish Film and Television

It was a busy Wednesday early evening in July 2008, and the IFI cafe was hopping, and we both found ourselves awkwardly sharing a table beside the stairs. Not much was said until Joan asked me to hold her seat while she went out to get her cinema ticket and have a cigarette, at which point I asked if I could join her. The café was full by this point and we both realized that in order to have our table reserved we needed to order some food first. We both ordered falafels, an easy decision for both of us, and off we went to the open area, bonded by the delight at this achievement as the place was humming, and keeping a seat seemed impossible.

By closing time we'd sampled the falafels, and moved to one of the tables outside for a pint. We had abandoned any ideas of seeing a film, and realized there were so many parallels and things we had in common. For us, all roads led to the IFI, and we both wanted to meet up again. It was two weeks later that we eventually got to see a film together. It was a French film but neither of us can remember the name! For the last few years we have made a point of having some food in the IFI Café Bar and going to look at a film on our anniversary. We got married last year and this year we skipped the film again and brought our six month old son with us instead! Happy days.

Tim and Joan

Special guest bloggers share their memories and thoughts about the IFI over past 20 years - please check out our blog page, Facebook and Twitter for regular updates.

The IFI is very grateful to them for their recollections.

I started working at the IFI Café Bar shortly after it opened. After a little while I left but was asked to come back in shortly afterwards as Manager and I’ve been here ever since. When I started the place was struggling to get established so we had to concentrate on getting people through the door. We made some changes to the décor to make it a little warmer and more welcoming and concentrated on getting the food up to scratch. We also did a lot of late night trade with performance nights, jazz bands, all sorts of nights as there weren’t the same number of clubs and pubs all around us as there are now. The 1994 World Cup in USA didn’t do us any harm either – we got the matches up on big screens and we were suddenly packed with Jackie’s Army.

Of course back then the IFI Café Bar was a much smaller affair with only about 10 staff on our books, now we have nearly 40, which shows how much our trade has expanded. We’ve been a successful because we’ve always tried to be a welcoming oasis of calm in the middle of Temple Bar whether or not you’re seeing a film. And we didn’t lose the run of ourselves either- even during the Celtic Tiger years when some people had money to burn we focused on providing a really good value option in the City Centre with main courses priced around €10 in today’s terms - so there’s a huge amount of loyalty to the place.

IFI Open Day BBQ

I love to travel myself, I get over to France a couple of times a year and that’s where I get my love of food and wine from; I’ve been wine tasting all over the world. Temple Bar is now an international destination and it is great to see people coming from all over so I try to match the same hospitality I see when I go away here at the IFI.

Bert Donlon

IFI Café Bar Manager

Follow IFI Café Bar on Facebook or have a look at our New Lunch & Evening Menus.

When I became Director of the IFI in 2008 I moved from being a regular visitor to its then two cinemas, to being involved in all of the IFI’s extensive activities – the cinemas, IFI Education, IFI Irish Film Archive, IFI National and IFI International. One of the great pleasures of my time as Director was discovering and working with the Archive – one of Ireland’s richest and most important cultural resources. Comprising over 27,000 rolls of film, the IFI Irish Film Archive tells Ireland’s social, cultural and political histories through a diverse and fascinating collection of feature films, newsreels, documentaries, home movies, travelogues and advertisements. Fragments of film that may not resonate for their filmic qualities present visceral and vivid portraits of Irish life, often revealing hidden truths and forgotten details and presenting a complex and often unexpected representation of Irish culture.

The full potential of this material to tell Ireland’s story to audiences nationally and internationally became fully evident to me in 2011 when the IFI had the opportunity to contribute to Culture Ireland’s year long programme of Irish arts in the US – Imagine Ireland. Throughout the year the IFI brought films from the Archive to the Lincoln Centre and MOMA in New York and the National Gallery in Washington. Highlights included a standing ovation for TheSeasonsat the Lincoln Centre – a beautiful silent film made by a doctor in 1930’s Mayo, presented in New York with a specially commissioned traditional music score; two extraordinary screenings of Hungerand In the Name of the Father at MOMA each followed by irreverent and searingly honest discussions between Gabriel Byrne, Enda Walsh and Jim Sheridan (which to the confusion of the New York audience included Jim Sheridan’s impressions of the Queen and Enda Kenny); and a rapturous reception to Guests of the Nation, a 1930’s Irish silent film restored by the IFI and presented with a new commissioned score by Niall Byrne at a gala screening to an audience of over 800 New Yorkers in the beautiful Alice Tully Hall.

Guests of The Nation Gala Reception

This last event will always sum up for me my overriding memory of working at the IFI – working with the incredible staff and Board, whose commitment and enthusiasm drives the IFI forward and makes great things happen. Presenting a gala screening of an unknown Irish film with in one of New York’s most prestigious venues; co-ordinating the RTE Concert Orchestra to travel over to perform the score with only one-day’s rehearsal in New York was a daunting task which certainly had its challenging moments! It’s success was entirely the result of the energy, stamina and good humour of my colleagues who came to New York with me – Ross Keane, Kaz O’Connell, Sunniva O’Flynn, and Eve-Anne Cullinan Chair of the IFI Board – and the great back-up provided by all of those that worked on the project back at base. It was a privilege to be part of the IFI for a couple of years and I know that with that team behind it the IFI can only go from strength to strength. Roll on the next 20 years!

Sarah Glennie

Director of Irish Museum of Modern Art

Former IFI Director (2008 - 2012)

On the occasion of the 20^th anniversary, I have been asked to post a few comments about my experience as a film-viewer and customer at the IFI.

To start at the beginning, my almost life-long enthusiasm for the art of film was kindled by a viewing of Sergei Eisenstein’s The Battleship Potemkin in Roscommon – one channel TV land, the late 1960s. Arriving in Dublin in 1973, I made valiant efforts to view as many films as possible. Good work over the years was achieved by various people in many film societies, to mention three venues of note: Earlsfort Terrace, John Player Theatre SCR and The Academy Pearse Street. Praise should also be bestowed on the establishment of The Dublin Film Festival in 1985, remembering the late Michael Dwyer. It was the establishment of the Irish Film Centre in 1992 that was the most significant event in my film viewing life.

Since then, I would have attended an average of 150 films per year. Given my regular attendance, the Eustace Street venue has become a ‘home from home’. The now monthly programme is eagerly anticipated , as I plan my month’s leisure activities to fit in with the priority viewing time to be spent at the IFI.

The relationship with the Box Office staff has been a heart-warming experience, dealing with people who are pleasant and agreeable. On this occasion I should remember all the past staff that were very helpful to me over the years: Veronica, Ben, John, Matt, Mark, Aisling, Paul, Stewart, Mathieu, Eadáoin, Rita, Hanne, Sammy, Antonella, Paola, and Colin. I should also include the current staff lead by Liam, Darragh, the two Sarahs, Shadaan, Ronan, Greg, Megan, Anthony and Katie – thanks again all.

To isolate some highlights over the period may be somewhat unfair but these birthdays generally give way to reverie.

First: three films I never expected to see on the Big Screen: Sego Parajanov’s Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors; Ariane Mnouchkine’s Moliére; and Ritwik Ghatak’s The Cloud-Capped Star.

Second: three seasons which were brilliant: Jean Renoir, Ingmar Bergman and Howard Hawks.

Third: three silent films that gave me a new appreciation of the pioneers: Victor Sjostrom’s The Outlaw and His Wife; Walter Ruttmann’s Berlin Symphony of a Great City, and Vsevolod Pudovkin’s Mother.

Fourth: a great weekend ‘follow-up’ that was Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Berlin Alexanderplatz (931 minutes);

Fifth: a documentary that springs to mind Nicolas Philibert’s Etre et avoir;

Sixth: a Q&A with Harold Pinter;

Finally: three highlights from 2012 that keep me attending the screenings: the Carl Theodor Dreyer season, Béla Tarr’s The Turin Horse and Jean Vigo’s L’Atlante.

Carl T. Dreyer

Remembering all who make it possible for us to enjoy the films, a special mention goes to the programme directors, especially Pete, and not forgetting the projectionists.

Also calling to mind the old bookshop and the great work done by Mary and Dylan in particular – so many books, so little time.

It’s been a great twenty years – here’s to the next twenty!

Séamus Farrell

The IFI’s home in Temple Bar is all about the people who come here to engage with our extensive programme, so when we started to plan our anniversary celebrations, we very quickly decided that we wanted the focus to be on our audiences. We wanted to celebrate the experiences that our audiences have had here over the last 20 years by reliving some of the big moments whilst also looking to the future.

For those who have strong memories of films that they’ll always associate with the IFI, we presented a season of 20 Landmark Films which featured big IFI titles including Natural Born Killers, Vertigo (on 70mm) and Mulholland Dr. Our Open Weekend threw our doors open for two days of free screenings and events for old and new audiences. We had queues from 7am which stretched up Eustace Street and down as far as the Olympia Theatre on Dame Street! We had a 1992 Day, a series of blogs throughout the month written by guest contributors, a pub quiz, DJs, a pop-up museum, tours of the IFI Irish Film Archive, Irish shorts from every year of the last 20, afternoon talks, discussions, archive and family screenings, and the unveiling of newly commissioned pieces of artworks. To close the proceedings, we were delighted to screen the European premiere of What Richard Did, the latest film by leading Irish director, Lenny Abrahamson.

IFI Open Weekend 2012

As we come to the end of a fantastic month, I think we managed to achieve what we set out to do. We greeted new audiences and welcomed back many faces who hadn’t been for some time alongside our faithful regulars. There was an amazing energy in the building throughout the month as audiences really engaged with all of the celebratory events and it generated a sense of enthusiasm for what the IFI has achieved over the last 20 years and excitement about what lies in store for its next chapter.

Paul Lynch, Sinéad Cusack and Jeremy Irons - Waterland

There are so many people to thank for the blood, sweat and tears that have been put into the IFI, both over the last 20 years and indeed back to our origins in 1943. There have been successive dedicated Boards, Councils, Directors and staff who have all helped shape our story and, as we look back, each and every person involved should take a bow as I think we have achieved the original vision of becoming a thriving, accessible, relevant and vital institution which now has a central role to play in Ireland’s cultural landscape.

The Archive’s Oscar and Emmy statuettes on a permanent display

So as we close the page on the chapter of the last 20 years, we now look forward to an exciting new phase in the organisation’s story. The IFI is at an exciting point; as we look to the future, we are about to announce the findings of a major IFI Education research report, Film Focus, which could help to define the role of film in the curriculum and shape media literacy strategy. Next year we will open a brand new second home for the IFI Irish Film Archive with additional vaults at NUI Maynooth so we have the capacity to continue to ensure the preservation of Ireland’s moving image heritage. And we have exciting exhibition programmes, both in Ireland and abroad (with a focus on celebrating the EU Presidency with Irish film programmes across Europe in the first six months of 2013) which we hope will continue to engage and enthral a variety of audiences.

Here’s to the next 20 years!

Ross Keane

Director

After a busy September celebrating the IFI’s 20th anniversary of its home in Temple Bar, we wanted the first month of the next 20 years to demonstrate the breadth of our programming and to start the way we mean to go on.

Lenny Abrahamson

To coincide with the release of What Richard Did (October 5th), we are delighted to present a focus on Lenny Abrahamson’s work, including a rare opportunity to see his 2007 RTÉ television series, Prosperity. Lenny will participate in a free public interview about his work with Tony Tracy from NUI Galway on October 6th. We will also be presenting a season of African cinema, which has been curated by the filmmaker and critic Mark Cousins. Taking West Africa as a focus, the season will challenge commonly-held perceptions of African cinema, and features films from the ‘60s to today.

Stories From Africa: Heremakono

In the build-up to the IFI French Film Festival which returns this November (14th – 25th), we are presenting a selection of films from one of France’s most prestigious independent production and distribution companies, Les Films du Losange. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, we have a programme of the company’s films in the weeks leading up to the Festival, both in October and November, which commences with work from Marguerite Duras and Jacques Rivette.

Les Films Du Losange: Céline et Julie Vont En Bateau

IFI Horrorthon raises it blood-thirsty head once again for our annual celebration of all things gory with a selection of new releases and classics from the vaults. The Festival will welcome its very first ‘scream queen’, Danielle Harris, and we’re delighted to be presenting Irish director Ciaran Foy’s award-winning feature Citadel which was a big hit in Toronto. Check out the separate flyer and ww.ifi.ie/horrorthon for full programme details.

IFI Horrorthon: Dracula: Prince of Darkness

October sees the release of many of the big films from Cannes 2012. Killing Them Softly starring Brad Pitt continues until October 11th, while Leos Carax’s indescribable Holy Motors runs until October 18th.

Walter Salles’ hotly-anticipated adaptation of Kerouac’s classic On the Road opens on October 12th after receiving a terrific response at Cannes.

Leos Carax's Holy Motors

There are other great new releases lined up too. The Audience Award winner at the IFI Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Film Festival in August, 5 Broken Cameras, opens on October 19th and is a powerful film about one father’s determination to capture footage of growing unrest in his Palestinian village. And if you recently enjoyed the stunning Samsara, you’ll now get a chance to see Ron Fricke’s equally impressive offering from two decades earlier with the re-release of Baraka, with the 18.30 screenings on October 20th & 21st on 70mm!

Baraka

Finally, our Monthly Must-See from the IFI Irish Film Archive is one of the first cinema verité films, Chronique d’un été. Sarah Pierce was commissioned by the IFI to undertake a research project in the Archive of which this film formed a central part, and which resulted in an exhibition at NCAD throughout this month. She will introduce this screening on Wednesday, October 10th.

Ross Keane

IFI Director

For more information on October screenings, visit our website or download our monthly IFI Brochure.

It is with great sadness that we learnt of the unexpected death of Robert Monks on last Thursday morning.

Bob Monks, Willard Van Dyke and Walter Cronkite filming Ireland the Tear and the Smile in 1960

Bob began his film career as a technician with the National Film Institute in the late 40s. His principal job was as a travelling projectionist showing 16mm films from the educational film library in schools and halls around the country but also as a cameraman on the films the Institute was producing at the time – films about inaugurations and religious ceremonies and the annual GAA finals. After a period of training in the UK in the 1950s he worked as a highly-regarded freelance cameraman on a wide variety of feature films, television series and commercials – such as Ireland the Tear and the Smile(1961) for US television, The One Nighters (1963) which he also edited, and The Prisoner (1967) the UK TV series with Patrick MacGoohan that achieved cult status. He was rewarded for his excellence with a Gold Camera Award at the 1975 US Television Commercials Festival and was a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.

He was perhaps best known for his stunning cinematography on the award-winning films of Louis Marcus – films such as Fleá Ceoil, Pobal and two Academy Award-nominated short films, Páistí ag Obair and Conquest of Light. Louis has said “He is a most accomplished and versatile cameraman from whom I have learned an enormous amount”.

It is Bob filming 1957 GAA Football Finals for National Film Institute

In more recent years Bob re-engaged with the IFI through his work with Peter Canning to create the invaluable television history of Irish film production Memories in Focus (1996). Bob had a uniquely textured sense of the history of Irish film – drawn from meticulous research with the Liam O’Leary collection in the National Library and elsewhere but also based on his personal experience as a busy practitioner in the industry over many years. He was always magnanimous with his knowledge and had incredible powers of recall. Any casual question to Bob would result in an immensely detailed and authoritative answer often with brilliant gossipy asides about who lived next door to whom or what actress was the sister-in-law of what film distributor – the kind of detail that had you reaching for your notepad to jot it all down. His expertise on the visits of the first Lumiere cameramen to Ireland and on the early cinema exploits of James Joyce was particularly fascinating and lead to a series of memorable film presentations.

On his retirement as a cameraman he was funded by a group of state cultural bodies to research and compile Cinema Ireland, a CD-Rom database of Irish films and filmmakers 1896-1986, published by the National Library of Ireland. He then continued in the NLI his extensive research into the origins and early decades of Irish Filmmaking.

Bob has been a loyal and engaged IFI Council Member for many years. He has been as generous with his films which he entrusted to us for preservation as he has been with his knowledge which he shared in many long and illuminating conversations. He’ll be sadly missed.

Our condolences to Bob’s wife Ina and family.

Sunniva O'Flynn

IFI Curator

I remember the first time I came across the work of John Moriarty. I was sitting alongside Peadar Ó’Riada (the film’s composer) in his home studio in Cúil Aodha, his father Seán looking on from a prominent poster image on the wall above us. Parallel to Peadar’s central role as composer and musician is his role as a form of community chieftan – steeped in the sean-nós world of the gael – and he has become a marked guiding presence and influence in my creative life over the past few years. I was on one of my frequent visits home from New York, it was well past midnight and Peadar and I were having one of our heated ‘discussions’. In order to seal the ‘discussion’ in his favour, Peadar played me an excerpt from one of John Moriarty’s talks. It was a talk that John gave upon one of his visits to neighbouring Baile Mhúirne that explored Irish mythology and its relevance to how we live now. I listened amazed to this sonorous, almost shamanic Kerry accent and for the first time in my life I heard so much of the essence of the world’s wisdom and spiritual traditions (that had interested me personally for the last 20 years in my travels around the world) essentialised within the context of Irish myth and culture.

That was in 2008 and parallel to my visits to Cúil Aodha I would be visiting Julius Ziz (my co-director) and his family who live in the heart centre of the magical limestone landscape of the Burren. Close friends of mine from New York, Julius (a renowned Lithuanian filmmaker) managed the legendary Anthology Film Archives in Manhattan while I ran the Ocularis Screening Series in Brooklyn and, given both of our long associations with experimental film in New York, it was inevitable that any collaboration we would undertake together would be influenced stylistically by experimental film.

My visits to Julius and his family were filled with many conversations about local Irish folklore and it’s almost palpable presence embodied in the surrounding myth-laden landscapes of the Burren. This inevitably fed into our idea of collaborating on a project that would somehow draw upon Irish myth, and once we encountered the work of John Moriarty it was only a matter of time before those conversations would evolve into the film that became Dreamtime, Revisited.

In his obituary The Guardian would write that John Moriarty was “widely regarded as having one of the finest minds of his generation” and that “many consider John as a major writer, comparable to Yeats, Joyce and Beckett.”

It shocked and saddened both Julius and me that John’s work is not more widely known, even at home here in Ireland. I think it may be a matter of years, if not decades, before the significance of John’s unique contribution will come to be fully recognized and appreciated and hopefully our film will serve in some way to further that process.

There is a quote from John’s book Dreamtime that, ever since I’ve come across it, influences so much of my own work in one way or another. And given the current crisis of identify we face as a nation it seems like an invitation too welcoming to refuse: "Isn't it time, after centuries of uncharted exile, we ourselves came home. Isn't it time . . . we came home to Dreamtime Ireland."

Dónal Ó Céilleachair

Film Director

Dreamtime, Revisitedopens from October 12th to 18th, exclusively at the IFI.

There will be a post-screening Q&A with co-directors Dónal Ó Céilleachair and Julius Ziz after the 18.20pm screening on Friday Oct 12.

I often wanted to write about Tiernan but never found the right way to talk about the vast activity of his life. So this is really a fragmented, impressionistic piece in response to Sunniva’s request and not really a definitive thing.

These first memories are closely bound up with the group of film makers whose vision created the space for all that would follow.

Tiernan MacBride

I am at the Cork Film Festival in 1981. Joe Comerford’s Traveler is the opening film. Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s documentary on Jack B. Yeats is also being screened. At the Q&A, a large man is asking searching questions about the making of my film Maeve. Talking in public was difficult for me and I was nervous at being challenged.

Next day, the film makers meet to demand the setting up of an Irish Film Board. Passionate arguments are heard from an inner room where Tiernan and Lelia retire to draft a letter with the precise wording that everyone could agree on. An intensity that is so alive and focused compared to film makers discussions in London and New York.

Two years earlier, when I began talking about making Maeve, someone said “Oh you should see Thaddeus’s film.” I tracked it down to the MoMa library and was watching it on an old 4 plate steenbeck when the researcher came in and said, ”You know, we have these other Irish films you might be interested in.“

So that’s how I got to see On a Paving Stone Mounted, Poitin and Down the Corner. I know there’s an entire constellation of causes and conditions around how new voices of world cinema emerge, but there’s still something magical about how this energy arises at different times and in different countries. On that day in that little editing room in New York, I had a real sense of this momentum gathering in Ireland.

And in the years that followed I saw how Tiernan’s phenomenal energy was fused with every aspect of that momentum.

Tiernan and crew on a set of Christmas Morning

He chaired the Association of Independent Film Makers, who lobbied for years for the setting up of the Board and who had developed the vision for a sustainable Irish cinema. He chaired the boards of the Irish Film Theatre (in Earlsfort Terrace) and the Dublin Film Festival and was on the Board of the Cork Festival. A union activist, he chaired the film section of ITGWU for a time. And he was a crucial force in the IFI from its early days through its big transition to becoming the IFC in Eustace Street.

Most importantly Tiernan was a member of the Irish Film Board from 1982 to 1987 which was when Charles Haughey abruptly closed it down. During his time on the Board, Tiernan was an unswerving advocate for the rights of directors and the development of low budget film making.

He helped set up Film Base, loaned equipment, attended meetings, led workshops where he imparted skills and even supported films financially when they looked on the brink of not happening. He felt that a healthy film culture could not be built on the work of a few directors and fought long and hard for the establishment of an inclusive infrastructure focused on access and training.

Unusually perhaps for the film world, Tiernan operated from a position of wanting to make situations work better for everyone. His instincts were always to help. In my own case, alas, I sometimes perceived this as being interfering.

When I got involved with The Parade of Innocence (a huge collaboration between artists and political activists in support for the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six which would take place through in Dublin on December 9th 1989), Tiernan kept asking how the huge rig carrying Thom McGinty would actually work as it was dragged through Dublin. Annoyed, I kept backing him off. Everyone I knew was frantically working flat out organizing the event, raising funds, making costumes and props, rehearsing in the Meeting House and at the Point Depot. I kept insisting that all would be fine and that there was no time for runthroughs.

IFI Library named in honour of Tiernan MacBride

But of course he was right, because when he finally pressurized us into gathering at the City Centre at 6am on a freezing dark December morning, the all important rig barely made it as far as the street before the wheels buckled. Disaster. But then the rig was repaired everything worked brilliantly on December 9th.

When Tiernan died, Film Ireland published a compilation of memories from friends and colleagues. I remember laughing when I read Gina Moxley’s piece about Tiernan being a very patient man, because that’s not generally how people saw him.

Gina was totally right, though. Yes, he was certainly uncompromising and wrathful at times in support of what he believed in, but Tiernan was profoundly patient with the things that really mattered. He understood the long haul necessary in order to bring the dream of a Irish cinema to fruition.

Maybe this was the result of growing up in such an intensely political family. Tiernan believed deeply in the democratic process. I have seen him outvoted on a particular issue and then be able to put personal feelings aside in order to represent the prevailing view, which is something I couldn’t do.

All this activity went on alongside a film making life. As well as being a well known commercials director, Tiernan loved the films of Costa Gavras and Francesco Rosi and wanted to make big political films. In 1978, his short film “Christmas Morning” was selected for competition at Cannes, but I think after that he was plunged into the urgency of Irish film politics and so he moved away from the idea of being a director to devote himself to being a supporter of other film makers. He was a positive force in Irish life and a crucial voice in the creation of Irish cinema.

Pat Murphy

Director and Filmmaker

Find out more on IFI Tiernan MacBride Library on our website.

Don Duncan, Co-Director of Worlds Alike: Irish Film Week in Beirut talks about running the first ever festival of Irish film in Lebanon and its local impact. This festival was set up with the support of IFI International and Culture Ireland. For more about IFI International's activities and programmes for cultural exhibitors around the world, see www.ifi.ie/international

“I’m so sorry this happened to you,” said one spectator as she emerged from the screening of Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey, a documentary by Lelia Doolan, when it was screened as part of the Irish Film Festival in Beirut in March 2012.

The goal of the festival was to show Irish films that would resonate with a Lebanese audience. To this end, the themes of national identity, foreign interference, conflict and post-conflict resolution that permeated the programme of nine feature films and 12 shorts from Ireland. (See the trailer.)

This was the first ever festival of Irish film in Lebanon. The place Ireland holds in the Lebanese public imagination, as well as the concrete links between the countries (Irish U.N. peacekeepers have been posted in Lebanon for decades), came through in the audience figures and general buzz that generated around the event.

With funding from Culture Ireland and fantastic administrative support from the IFI, we managed to bring over actor Stephen Rea (who spoke to the audience after the screening of The Butcher Boy) and director Lelia Doolan, who fielded a lengthy and enthusiastic Q&A discussion after her film was shown.

People were struck by the similarities between the countries' recent histories and were inspired by the grass roots activism that was apparent in both films about the Northern Irish civil rights movement as well as a more modern popular struggle in Ireland – that of the people of Rossport, Co. Mayo against the business interests of Shell oil, as depicted in Risteard O'Domhnaill’s film The Pipe.

Don Duncan, Co-Director

The project was organised by Irish journalist Don Duncan with the Lebanese civic society NGO Nahwa al-Muwataniyya(NAAM) and in conjunction with the Metropolis art house cinema in Beirut. It was the first in an annual series of festivals run by NAAM that seek to showcase the films of countries that share common political, social and cultural characteristics with Lebanon.

November focuses on all things French as we celebrate the 13th IFI French Film Festival. In October we started the build-up to the Festival with a celebration of one of France’s most prestigious independent production and distribution companies, Les Films du Losange. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, this programme continues into November with Éric Rohmer’s classic Tales of the Four Seasons. Rohmer wanted the stories of the four films in the series “to focus on attractive, intelligent, self-absorbed if not entirely aware young women” and this is a rare chance to get to see all four films, spread over nine days. This ‘Le Losange’ focus will be completed during the Festival with screenings of Nicolas Philibert’s Louvre City, Michael Haneke’s (whose new film Love opens the Festival) Hidden starring Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil, and the first feature from Barbet Schroeder, More.

There are fantastic films and guests on offer in this year’s IFI French Film Festival. We are thrilled to welcome Juliette Binoche whose latest film, Another Woman’s Life, is a comedy-drama by actress and novelist, Sylvie Testud.

Juliette Binoche in Another Woman's Life

We are also delighted that Béatrice Dalle, star of Betty Blue, will attend the aforementioned film that shot her to fame as well as her latest offering, Bye Bye Blondie. We’re pleased to welcome directors Héléna Klotz (with her feature Atomic Age) and Benoit Jacquot (with his story of the final days in the life of Marie Antoinette in Farewell, MyQueen), alongside actors Reda Kateb (starring in Catherine Corsini’s ThreeWorlds) and Alice de Lencquesaing (featuring in the Festival’s Closing Film, Ina Rush). With 34 screenings taking place during the Festival, we couldn’t fit them all into our regular monthly programme, so be sure to pick up a separate copy of the French programme (download in PDF) or check out www.ifi.ie/FrenchFest.

Kinopolis 2012: Wojciech Smarzowski's The Dark House

November also sees the return of Kinopolis, the 7th Polish Film Festival, with highlights including a focus on ‘the dark side of the Polish soul’, as represented by the work of director Wojciech Smarzowski whose latest award-winning film, Rose opens the Festival. We’ll also look at the latest from Poland’s continually impressive animation industry with a programme of short films and will welcome guests Marian Dziędziel, Arkadiusz Jakubik and Wojciech Pszoniak.

Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master

October sees the release of many great titles. Jacques Audiard’s follow-up to A Prophet, Rust and Bone, is a particular take on a modern love story starring Marion Cotillard; Paul Thomas Anderson’s eagerly anticipated The Master opens on the 16th alongside the equally awaited Palme d’Or winning Love by Michael Haneke; while Mads Mikkelsen puts in a stunning performance in Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt which was a big hit at Cannes and won him the Best Actor prize.

Laurence of Arabia (restored and re-released from November 23rd)

There are also many IFI Classics on offer with the 50th anniversary new digital print of Lawrence of Arabia and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (in its extended U.S. cut!) making a return to the big screen.

Ross Keane

Director

Visit www.ifi.ie for more information on our November screenings or follow us on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates!

Pat Collins, director of Silence, now available to buy on DVD in the IFI Film Shop, explains the story behind the documentary which follows sound recordist Eoghan Mac Giolla Bhríde on a psycho-geographical journey taken from Berlin to his native Donegal:

I was always fascinated by the people who went around in the 1930s and 1940s – people like Seamus Ennis and Seán Ó hEochaidh – who travelled from house to house and collected stories and songs and folklore. It’s a romantic notion, I suppose. I wanted to make a film about someone travelling around the country meeting people, but I wanted it to be set in a contemporary context, so it evolved from being a folklore collector to being a sound recordist.

Though our character Eoghan is trying to get away from man-made noise and away from people, he always seems to meet someone; so he’s still hearing stories. The people that Eoghan meets as he travels through Ireland are mostly real characters playing themselves. People we had read about, or people we had met previously, or people we had heard about.

Eoghan meets a human geographer, a farmer, a barman, a museum owner, a fisherman, a writer. It’s one of the great things about making documentaries – the houses you get invited into, the people you meet out and about in odd places. These encounters give the film a documentary sensibility.

In many ways Silence is about transience… that we need to pay attention because things are going to pass. Even some of the birdsong, the corncrakes and the curlew reflect that. We wanted to film in genuinely remote areas in keeping with the locations where Eoghan would be recording – in locations that were genuinely free from man-made sound; and this meant we had to get away from roads. The Irish landscape is incredibly varied. There is no end to it.

Pat Collins

Director

Silence is available to buy on DVD at the IFI Film Shop now (€14.99). It can also be bought online (please note there will be an additional p&p charge).

Watch the trailer:

From a full retrospective of films of Alfred Hitchcock, to a host of Irish and international features and the unmissable Christmas classics - that's December at the IFI!

Starting this month, and running well into 2013, the IFI is delighted to present a full retrospective of the 52 surviving films of Alfred Hitchcock. This is a truly unique opportunity for our audiences to immerse themselves in the films of this giant of cinema. This is the largest season the IFI has ever undertaken and will run until March 2013, presenting the films thematically instead of chronologically. So whether you’re seeing some of them for the first time or rediscovering a classic you never thought you’d see on the big screen again, this is a season for true cineastes.

The Genius of Hitchcock: Part One from Dec 9th

As we get ready to say goodbye to 2012, we have great films to help the year go out with a bang! Some big titles from November continue into December with Amour, The Master and The Hunt all still on offer. The IFI’s commitment to Irish film continues with two features: Ian Fitzgibbon’s Death of a Superhero and Kirsten Sheridan’s Dollhouse. Both films demonstrate some stunning performances from young actors.

Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Donald in Death of a Superhero

There are fantastic classics on offer this month including re-releases of Lawrence of Arabia (celebrating its 50th anniversary), Babette’s Feast, and the Bette Davis and Joan Crawford masterpiece What Ever happened to Baby Jane?

IFI Classic Lawrence of Arabia

We have great films lined up for Christmas too. Frank Capra’s unforgettable It’s a Wonderful Life is back on the big screen for the festive season, while the IFI Family screening for this month, WhenSanta Fell to Earth, is packed full of Christmas cheer. If you’re feeling ‘anti-Christmas’, be sure to have some fun with Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santaand Bill Murray in Scrooged.

It's a Wonderful Life

If you’re stuck for Christmas gift ideas then look no further than the IFI Film Shop. With presents ranging from books to DVDs to stocking fillers, our specialist store can provide you with the perfect gift for this holiday season. If you are shopping for the person who has everything, our new IFI Gift Cards are the perfect solution, or if you’re looking for a gift that lasts all year, then look no further than IFIMembership which offers a host of great benefits.

GAA Gold 2 DVD Box Set

And finally I’d like to thank all of our patrons for their support throughout 2012 and we look forward to seeing you again in 2013. Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and happy new year.

Ross Keane

Director

On the occasion of the launch of Film Focus: New Directions in Film and Media Literacy for Young People, IFI Education's two-year action research project, Ciarán Benson writes about film education as one of the core activities of the IFI over its last 20 years.

In addition to its recently commemorated 20th birthday, the IFI also has a 30th anniversary looming in 2013. The IFI was officially incorporated as the Irish Film Institute in 1983. The years leading up to that have their own little history, one reflective of the changes at work in Irish society from the 1970s. The Arts Council, under the leadership of Colm O’Briain, was a particularly energetic and exciting body at that time. It was a time when older categories of ‘fine’ art were being jostled by newer ones seeking recognition. Film was one of these upstarts. It was also a time when those seeking societal change were strongly committed to the idea that profound change could be instigated by energetic and thoughtful transformations of the education system.

During 1978 I worked on a project for the Arts Council to reposition the arts in Irish education. The young David Collins (Now Managing Director & Producer of Samson Films), then Literature and Film Officer with the Council, and I taught a course in film ‘theory’ (having taught ourselves in the preceding weeks!) at an annual meeting of the Irish Film Society in the La Touche Hotel in Greystones in the summer of 1978.Following this, it was Davy’s idea that we should seek to become board members of the then National Film Institute at 65 Harcourt Street and use it as a vehicle to advance film and film education. Founded by Archbishop McQuaid in 1943, and incorporated in 1945 with a view to keeping a close eye on the moral dimensions of film and to promote its educational and training potential it had, I think it is fair to say, largely run out of steam by the late 1970s. But it owned its building and the board controlled that ownership. In a word, it had potential.

IFI Family Film Festival 2011

Following our – uncontested – election to the board in late 1978 (or early 1979?), Davy and I set about co-opting new members and re-imagining the Institute. We quickly co-opted Kevin Rockett (now Professor in Film Studies, TCD), Donal Fitzsimons (currently in the School of Education, UCD) was already there. Liam O’Dwyer (now CEO of the Irish Youth Foundation), Luke Gibbons (currently Professor of Irish Literary and Cultural Studies, NUIM), Niamh O’Sullivan (later Professor of Visual Culture, NCAD), and a young encyclopaedist of film from Tralee, the late Michael Dwyer (distinguished Irish Times film critic), amongst others, joined us in the years following.

We were all in our twenties/early thirties, lovers of film, and optimistic about the ways in which Irish society might be changed for the better. With a shoestring budget we appointed a director (Malachy O’Higgins) who was quickly succeeded by a second Director David Kavanagh who remained until the IFC/IFI was firmly established in Eustace Street. A particularly important appointment was our first education officer Martin McLoone (currently Professor and Director of The Centre for Media Research, University of Ulster) in January 1980.

It is fair to say that two very different tendencies met on that NFI board representing very different views of Ireland, yet my memories are that the tone of our board meetings was affable and often amusing. From the outset we committed ourselves to advancing film education and, with Martin McLoone on board, we immediately instituted summer courses of the La Touche kind.

In July 1980 the first Summer School was held at Clongowes Wood College. It was themed Film Studies: The Irish Context and had over 90 students. The following year’s theme, also at Clongowes, was Film Noir. Evening courses for teachers and the general public began early on, and soon publications began to appear like Television and Irish Society (edited by Martin McLoone and John MacMahon, based on the papers from the 1984 Summer School) and Every Picture Tells a Story: Introduction to Visual Literacy (1985). The first Television Summer School, in cooperation with RTE, was held in the ‘green room’ at RTE in July 1983.

I was Chairman from 1982 to 1984. By 1982 the board was committed to changing from the National to the Irish Film Institute. I remember the meeting at which all emblems of the NFI’s denominational history were removed and the course of the future IFI was clearly charted. It was never easy since money was always short and the times were tough. We received comradely encouragement from the British Film Institute and from the BBC’s educational services.

In 1983 the IFI took over the running of the IFT (The Irish Film Theatre, formerly The International, on Earlsfort Terrace) and changed it from a rep cinema to a 'first run' art cinema. Despite some notable box-office successes (Heat and Dust, for example) it was not a great success. What it did, however, was to confirm that the IFI needed its own screens and by late 1985 The Quakers Meeting House on Eustace Street was identified as being a potentially ideal new home.

Eventually, under subsequent boards chaired by Kevin Rockett, and with farseeing support from The Arts Council, the move to Eustace Street became possible. Proceeds of the sale of 65 Harcourt Street were, like a dowry, instrumental in attracting the funds for the IFC.

In these differently challenging times, little histories like this should remind us that we never know how far the ripples of enthusiasm can reach.

Ciarán Benson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology, UCD

IFI20 Artists’ Commission

The IFI is just half my age

A Night To Remember – a most stressful time at the IFI

Sitting and standing at the IFI

IFI20: Falling in love ... at the IFI

IFI20: Dancing, eating and drinking at the IFI Café Bar

IFI20: We’ll take Manhattan

IFI20: Remembering the IFI

IFI20: A Celebration of Audiences

October at the IFI

Passing of Robert Monks

Coming Home to Dreamtime Ireland

Remembering Tiernan

Irish Film Week in Beirut, Lebanon: Notes from its Co-Director

November at the IFI

Article 9

December at the IFI

Recollections from 1978 to 1984

The season of giving…

Christmas Shopping ideas from the IFI Film Shop