Fifth Annual San Francisco Irish Film Festival Wednesday, March 5 6:30pm Opening night reception co-hosted by the Consulate General of Ireland Venue: Pork Store Cafe, 3122 16th St (opposite Roxie Cinema) 8:00pm Ding Dong Denny O'Reilly's History of Ireland (Short) Feature - Garage From the acclaimed director, Lenny Abrahamson, and writer Mark O'Halloran ('Adam and Paul'), Garage is an austerely funny elegy to a small-town misfit, starring Irish comedian and actor, Pat Shortt. Thursday, March 6 7:00pm Irish TV Night Prosperity - Part of a drama series from the makers of the award-winning 'Adam and Paul'. Written by Mark O'Halloran and directed by Lenny Abrahamson, Prosperity, follows the lives of four people living on the fringes of the Celtic Tiger. A Bloody Canvas - Three unrelated events; a civil war, a black heavyweight champion without a challenger and a journeyman Irish fighter down on his luck, conspire to produce the most bizarre world championship fight in boxing history, on St Patrick's Day, 1923 in Dublin. 9:00pm - Feature Film - Speed Dating Speed Dating is the story of James Van Der Bexton as he approaches his 30th birthday. After the breakup of the relationship with the love of his life two years previously, he has taken up speed dating without much success. Despondent, he turns his attention towards a mysterious young woman who frequents his local pub. In trying to discover more about this woman, he plays at being a private detective with disasterous results. Friday, March 7 7:00pm Magners 'n' Shorts - A collection of short films and free Magners Irish Cider Nuts - Irvine Welsh's film is a dark comedy. Underneath the obvious comic elements there are bigger issues at play. Notably, the much-overlooked men's health issue of testicular cancer and the closet racism among the professional Irish middle-class. This short is novelist and screenwriter (Trainspotting), Irvine Welsh's, directorial debut. The film was produced by Emer Martin and Niall McKay. 9:00pm Feature Film - Kings Award-winning Irish language film starring Colm Meaney. In the mid-70s, a group of young men left the west of Ireland bound for London, filled with ambition for a better life in a place where they could be kings. Kings tells the story of their reunion, thirty years later, following the death of their youngest friend, Jackie. Saturday, March 8 3:00pm - Irish Documentary Program Bloody Sunday : A Derry Diary - Filmmaker, Margo Harkin, follows the families of the Bloody Sunday victims in their search for the truth at the Tribunal of Inquiry held in Derry and London over a 6 year period. The Hunger Strike - Filmmaker, Margo Harkin, revisits the story of Bobby Sands and the nine others who died in the hunger strikes of 1981 in Northern Ireland. 7:00pm Feature Documentary - Learning Gravity (AKA The Undertaking) Presented by Cathal Black (Director) and Thomas Lynch An elegant, elegiac film about Thomas Lynch, whose family-run funeral parlour business provided Oscar-winning writer, Alan Ball, with the key to writing the hit HBO series, 'Six Feet Under'. Three generations of Lynchs work in the chain of Michigan funeral homes set up by Thomas Lynch's father. The film weaves together Lynch's life in the US and in Ireland in this feature length artistic narrative documentary. 9:00pm Feature Film - Korea Presented by Cathal Black (Director) Based on a story by John McGahern, Korea is a powerful portrayal of the relationship betwen father and son, John and Eamon Doyle. Set in rural Ireland during the 1950s, a period of mass emigration and social change. Young Irish emigrants, arriving in America, are enlisted and sent to fight in the Korean war. Starring Donal Donnelly and Andrew Scott. More information and tickets available at www.sfirishfilm.com |
