February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Offering an exhaustive schedule of movies and music, the festival kicks off on Wednesday, March 2, with the film program, which concludes on Saturday evening, March 5. The music portion of the festival runs from Thursday, March 10, through Saturday, March 10. In all, the Craic festival will offer independent movies and unsigned artists alongside feature films and established performers.
Organizers use everything from the Internet to international film and music festivals to see who and what is making a buzz.
“There is no one definitive way,” said Orla Clancy, who works for Craic. “We just put our ears to the ground.”
Event founder Terrence Mulligan mines movies for the Craic at the annual Galway Film Fleadh, looking for what will win over American audiences.
The centerpiece of this year’s Craic Film Fleadh is the New York premiere of “The Boys from County Clare,” which will get the red-carpet treatment at Manhattan’s Loews 34 theatre. The fanfare could be due to that fact that one of the film’s stars, Andrea Corr, is scheduled to attend the screening.
Corr, while no stranger to acting, takes a star turn in the film that follows two rival brothers leading their respective bands in an All-Ireland ceili competition.
The Craic Music Series looks to create some buzz for up-and-coming bands that push the envelope of what is considered the “typical” Irish sound. Mulligan opened the festival to musical acts a year ago with the intention of broadening the appeal and, he said, to “fill the void that exists for the need to have Irish cultural exposure throughout the year.”
The Dublin six-piece band Mainline are poised to win Ireland’s Meteor Award for Best New Act this week and will play at Craic venue Crash Mansion as part of a “rock night,” one of the theme nights. The group toured extensively without a record deal, yet has steadily gathered buzz since their 2001 inception.
Films
Opening the festival will be director John Irvin’s “The Boys of County Clare,” which stars Corr and Irish actor Colm Meaney. Sibling rivalry is alive and well for the All-Ireland Traditional Music Competition when brothers Jimmy and John Joe enter their respective bands in what becomes more of a competition between the brothers than the bands. As the two delve into lies, deceit, and general foul play in order to win, the musicians are stuck in the middle.
As John Joe and his band prepare to defend their title with their traditional reels, Irishman Jimmy (Meaney) tries to get his Liverpool-based band away from their jazz roots and more toward the judge’s preferred Celtic strains.
Originally screened at the Toronto Film Festival, “The Boys of County Clare” may prove a wise choice for opening night.
When the rest of the Film Fleadh heads to its home base at the New York University’s Cantor Film Center, director Vinny Cunningham is set to air his feature-length award-winning documentary “Battle of the Bogside.” A look into the events of 1969, the powerful documentary recreates this influential event in the history of the Northern Ireland conflict when nationalists and loyalists met in the area of Derry that will forever be linked with the clash.
Cunningham explores the reasons behind the clash and the effect on decades of violence that have followed.
The Film Fleadh takes another historical turn with “Omagh,” a documentary-style film that will close the festival on March 5. Originally made for television, Pete Travis’s controversial examination looks into the 1998 bomb that killed 29 innocent people, and the events are retold thorough the story of Michael and Patsy Gallagher, who lost their 21-year-old son, Aiden, in the attack.
Other films to be screened at the Film Fleadh include Robert Quinn’s “Dead Bodies,” and New Yorker Ram Jodha’s film “America Faces,” which is about two families, one Irish-American and one Indian-American, before and after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. As in past years, live action and animated “shorts” will precede all of the films.
Music
When the Craic Music Series was introduced at last year’s festival to broaden the appeal of Irish arts and culture, organizers hoped to take advantage of all the new music they came across while looking for films to screen.
With its success, Mulligan has organized the series into theme nights, diversifying the acts so that there should be something for everyone.
“It’s a good overview of the Irish music scene,” Clancy said.
Kicking off with a rock night on Thursday, March 10, the evening will feature the Velvet Underground-esqe Mainline as well as actress-turned-singer Bronagh Gallagher.
Better known for her acting career, Gallagher is looking to change the tide with a debut album that Clancy called “excellent.”
After landing parts in movies such as “Pulp Fiction” and “The Commitments,” Gallagher has found her inner singer-songwriter, and the Derry native dabbled with country and blues on her debut, “Precious Soul.”
Also appearing Thursday night is Brendan O’Shea. Though he’s Kerry-born, O’Shea is about as New York as they come, boasting an international flavor from traveling around the world, opening for well-known musicians such as the Cowboy Junkies and Ireland’s own Mark Geary.
For Friday night’s theme, it seemed a natural progression: like peanut butter and jelly, Irish-America and punk just seem to go together.
Thanks to old standbys like Boston’s Dropkick Murphys, fast-paced rowdy songs have been a hit with Irish-American audiences for years. The Craic’s punk night looks to give some up and coming bands their due, such as New Jersey’s The Skells and the Scottish rockers Raar.
Also appearing that evening will be speed-pop ing