Made in My Town – Made in Belfast season at QFT
Date Posted: January 27, 2016
Queen’s Film Theatre is celebrating Belfast as a city of film makers during its Made In My Town – Made in Belfast season of film and rarely seen digital archive footage.
Supported by Film Hub NI as part of BFI Film Audience Network, the season is part of the BFI Britain on Film project which preserves and promotes access to key film and television archives. The Made in Belfast season will run from Friday 29th January – Saturday 6th February and will encompass a diverse range of Belfast film favourites, from independent film makers to guerrilla style film making, demonstrating Belfast’s unique film personality.
Britain on Film is the result of the BFI National Archive and the UK’s national and regional film archives and rights holders joining forces to bring these films together with a major programme of curation and digitisation that started in 2012 and continues until the end of 2017.Everyone in the UK can search BFI Player for their personal histories, watch newly digitised films on DVDs and enjoy special Britain on Film screenings and events across the UK .http://player.bfi.org.uk/britain-on-film
A selection of Northern Ireland Screen funded short films and archive footage from its Digital Film Archive will also be shown, as well as a much anticipated preview of The Truth Commissioner.
Susan Picken – Head of Queen’s Film Theatre said: “The Made in Belfast season will give film lovers a chance to revisit film favourites on the big screen; celebrate the rich heritage of Belfast’s cinematic history and recognise Belfast’s burgeoning production industry. We are delighted to be showcasing an amazing selection of films and digital archive footage from the past as well as previewing recent significant productions.”
The season opens in the most fitting of ways, with a screening of the 2013 film – Made in Belfast, starring Ciaran McMenamin and directed by Belfast based writer/actor/ director, Paul Kennedy. The film offers a wry, observant take of forgiveness and redemption with a distinctive Belfast flavour, as McMenamin’s character returns home to Belfast after an eight year self-imposed exile.
Another season gem includes the 1946 film noir cult classic Odd Man Out, directed by Carol Reed, starring James Mason. Shot in monochrome, mostly at night in an atmospheric Belfast, it contains many familiar locations, from the Albert Clock to the re-recreated Crown Bar interior. This will be shown along-side a recent local short film starring many of Belfast’s leading actors, The Death of A Projectionist.
QFT will also host a special preview of The Truth Commissioner – a new political thriller, followed by a Q & A with the film’s director, Declan Recks which should make for lively discussion.
Other highlights include one of the first films in Belfast’s recent cinematic history to capture international film critics’ attention – Mickybo & Me (2004) directed by Terry Loane. This funny and poignant depiction of childhood friendship against the odds, set in 1970s Belfast, charmed audiences world-wide. This feature will be accompanied by the BAFTA award winning short film, in a similar thematic vein – Boogaloo and Graham. It also features two young boys in 1970s Belfast – discovering the facts of life with the help of their pet chickens and was directed by one of Northern Ireland’s most exciting new directorial talents, Michael Lennox.
A Made in Belfast season would not be complete without the inclusion of what many view as a cult classic in the making, Good Vibrations, directed by Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn. It stars Richard Dormer as the anarchic music manager Terri Hooley who discovers The Undertones and together, they bring us one of the best punk songs of the era, Teenage Kicks. Good Vibrations will be shown alongside an extract from newly restored version of John T Davis’ masterful documentary, Shellshock Rock, about the music and mayhem of the 1970s punk scene in Belfast.
To find out more about Queen’s Film Theatre’s Made in My Town – Made in Belfast season of film, archive and Q & As please visit www.queensfilmtheatre.com
Britain on Film is a project from the BFI National Archive and the UK’s Regional and National Film Archives.
