Saturday, September 26th Short doc program: 1:00pm THE BOYS OF ST. COLUMB’S (doc, 54 min) This documentary tells the story of some of Ireland’s most famous sons, including Seamus Heaney, Seamus Deane, Phil Coulter, Bishop Edward Daly, Paul Brady, James Sharkey, Eamonn McCann and John Hume who were The Boys of Saint Columb’s.The film sets out to explore the importance of free education to a new generation of oppressed Northern Irish Catholics. How this school managed to be one of the only schools in the world with two past pupils gaining Nobel prizes. This education opened the tidal flood gates to a growing expectancy from the Northern Irish poor. This cinematic intriguing film deals with the importance of these opened gates and how young men like Hume, Heaney and Deane swam along with and at times against the tide yet changed Ireland for the better.The film follows the men through poetry, literature, theatre, and music to stimulate an audience to consider the power and importance of education. Q & A to follow. Director: Tom Collins (Kings) RAISE THE LAST GLASS (short doc, 11min) In January 2009, Waterford Crystal went bankrupt. The company’s main factory, in Waterford, Ireland, was closed, and 480 people were fired. Many of them had worked there for more than forty years. But the Waterford workers refused to give up their jobs without a fight. They staged a sit-in that lasted for almost two months, demanding that they get their jobs back or, at the very least, that some manufacturing of this iconic brand remain in Ireland. Focal Point’s RAISE THE LAST GLASS follows two Waterford workers as they fight to save both their jobs and a bit of Irish heritage. Director: Lucy Kennedy & Lauren Kesner Producer: Lucy Kennedy Co-Producer/Editor: Lauren Kesner for Wide Angle/Focal Point: Executive Producer: Tom Casciato Senior Producer: Nina Chaudry Senior Multimedia Producer: Lauren Feeney Multimedia Producers: Renee Feltz, Aaron Ernst GUESTS OF ANOTHER NATION (short doc, 28 min) Shot in London in Dec 1987, it captures the alienation of young Irish emigrants and profiles them as something more complex than diaspora statistics. The idea was to locate them as a discreet ethnic minority among London’s many others. In years characterised by “no future”, this 1980s wave appeared to follow in the footsteps of the generation that left in the 1950s. But was this new exodus different? A labourer, a nurse, a businessman, the priest who ran the Irish Centre in Camden, musician Cathal Coughlan and others are interviewed. With no notion of the boom to come, what emerges is a melancholic picture of a distinct Irish grouping condemned to London’s existential limbo. Written, directed and produced by John Fleming and Mark Stewart. From the Mouths of Aliens, by John FLeming -- Irish Times, Sunday, Aug 16, 2009 Q & A to follow!

2009 festival sep 23rd - 27th

Opening night film to launch 2009 festival

Hollywood Reporter By Doris Toumarkine