FILM Island film festival focus beyond Clew Bay coastline

Island film festival focus beyond Clew Bay coastline


Áine Ryan

‘THE Green Road to the Lighthouse’, a short film about islander and retired lighthouse-keeper, Jackie O’Grady, will be premiered at the second annual Clare Island Film Festival. The festival, which will be held on the island over the weekend of October 3 to 5, will also present a series of short films as well as a feature length film essay,‘Living in a Coded Land’ at, the upcoming Westport Arts Festival.
The success of last’s year’s inaugural festival, which featured the work of renowned filmmaker, Bob Quinn, who has had a long association with Clare Island, has helped to confirm the festival’s future.
An association with the Festival of Island Film on Ile de Groix (FIFIG) also led to the organisers presenting four hours of contemporary Irish film at their festival on the Breton island, off France, during August.
The chairperson of the Clare Island Film Festival committee, Cora Keating, said: “It was fantastic to have Bob Quinn, such a fiercely independent filmmaker, as our special guest last year. Several of his feature films were shown including ‘Poitín’, ‘Budawanny’ and ‘Vox Humana’, while his son, Robert Quinn’s documentary, ‘Cinegael Paradiso’, was also screened.
 “This year we are not focusing on any one filmmaker but are working on developing the short-film focus. We will screen two feature films and one French feature documentary over the course of the festival but the remainder will be a feast of easily digestible shorts,” she continued.
This year, once again, filmmaker and Artistic Director of FIFIG, Sylvain Marmugi will run an extended workshop for the Clare Island primary school children and will present their work on the final day of the festival.
Clare Island Film Festival is run by a group of volunteers, some of whom are studying film at third-level colleges. Submissions to the festival were free and open to all filmmakers.
Clare Island Film Festival is ‘firmly rooted in the community’ but hopes to develop parameters way beyond its Clew Bay coastline.

For more information on the Clare Island film festival, visit www.clareislandfilmfestival.com.