First Annual Celtic Film Fest Presented in Edmonton
EDMONTON - The Celtic Cultural Association of Alberta presented Edmonton's first Celtic Film Festival from March 5-7 at the Metro Cinema to kick off Edmonton's St. Patrick's week activities.
Three films were presented during the festival including Boxed a powerfully gripping drama inspired by yet another controversy swirling around the Catholic Church. According to published reports, the IRA, when preparing to execute an informer, calls on certain priests who are willing to secretly provide last rites. Directed by Marion Comer, Boxed is the fictional story of what happens when they get the wrong priest.
The second film was Photos to Send directed by Dierdre Lynch. In 1954, celebrated photographer Dorothea Lange traveled to rural Ireland on an assignment for Life Magazine. The photos she took there captured a way of life fast vanishing and a people hardened, but not broken, by terrible poverty and gruelling labour.
Almost 50 years later, filmmaker Dierdre Lynch returned to Lange’s subjects and found that the world in Lange’s photographs had indeed changed, but that the people, more fragile now and weathered by age, still maintained their vitality and spirit.
The last presentation was Brown Bag Films by Dublin’s Academy Award-nominated animation and post production studio. An overview of Brown Bag’s strongest work included all eight of the Give Up Yer Aul Sins shorts, a making-of documentary, and a selection of their commercial and TV output (including The Last Elk, Barstool, and Taxi).
For more information about the Celtic Cultural Association and its upcoming activities, call Lynda Bradshaw, Communications Director at (780) 458-6806, e-mail: celticalberta@fastmail.fm, or visit: members.shaw.ca/celticalberta.
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