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Cinema Guild catalogue offers Irish screen gems

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

By Michael Gray

Irish film fans who live out of range of the recent Film Fleadh on 8th Street or the upcoming mini-festival at Ocularis can still get their fill of quality movies from the new Cinema Guild catalogue of Irish film. All films are available on VHS videocassette, and the lineup includes gems from the recent past that are rarely screened in this country. Highlights include Paul Quinn’s beautiful and moving "This Is My Father," made in collaboration with his brothers Declan, behind the camera, and Aidan Quinn in the lead role.

Aidan plays a lovestruck farm laborer in prewar Ireland who romances above his station and brings the wrath of the community upon himself when his teenage girlfriend becomes pregnant.

Teen pregnancy is the theme once more in Margo Harkin’s remarkable 1989 drama "Hush-A-Bye Baby," shot against the backdrop of Ireland’s abortion referendum, on location in Derry’s Creggan and Bogside housing estates, with a cast of local actors. The film stars Emer McCourt, and a very young Sinead O’Connor plays a supporting role as a naive Derry schoolgirl.

The Famine, the Troubles and the twin cultural pursuits of Irish music and dance continue to fascinate Irish filmmakers, and feature prominently in the Cinema Guild collection. "Famine Ship," made by David Shaw-Smith, veteran director of the "Hands" series of documentaries about Irish crafts, charts the progress of a bronze Famine memorial for Croagh Patrick, County Mayo, designed by sculptor John Behan.

"When Ireland Starved; 1845-1850," visits the locations worst affected by the Famine and recreates through archival material and firsthand accounts the calamitous circumstances that reduced Ireland’s population from eight million to little more than half that number in the mid-19th Century. "Under The Hawthorn Tree" has received the seal of approval of the Department of Education in Ireland and is included in the secondary school history curriculum. The film dramatizes the plight of three young children, forced by hunger to leave their village in the west of Ireland and set off across the country on foot to seek shelter with a household of aunts they’ve only heard about and never met. This compelling drama is all the more remarkable for having been produced in Ireland by a crew of schoolchildren, teenagers and younger, under the guidance of the Young Irish Filmmakers Studio in Kilkenny.

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The difficult issue of the Troubles comes into focus in Marcia Rock’s "Sons of Derry," a documentary about former UDA advisor Glen Barr, and Paddy Doherty, former spokesman for the Derry Defense Association, as they try to overcome the hostilities that divide their communities. "Daughters of the Troubles," from the same director, pursues a similar format: juxtaposing the lives of two working-class women raised on either side of the Belfast’s sectarian divide.

Moving this side of the Atlantic, Rock documents "McSorley’s New York," tracing the history of the legendary East 7th Street watering hole from its opening in 1854 to the present day, and tackles anti-Irish hostility in "No Irish Need Apply." A factual account of immigrant life in 19th Century New York, this film vividly outlines the difficulties experienced by 19th Century Irish newcomers around the time of the U.S. Civil War Draft riots.

Further exploring the Irish experience stateside, Patrick Mullins’s "From Shore To Shore: Irish Traditional Music in New York City" uses impressive archive footage of early 20th Century New York to bring to life the rich history of Irish music in the United States. On the dance floor, Tim Loane rolls back the rug with "Dance Lexie Dance," a charming short about a young Protestant girl in Northern Ireland who gets caught up in the excitement of "Riverdance." She decides that she wants to take lessons in jigs and reels, causing a cultural dilemma for her recently widowed father. The film caught the attention of the Academy on its release two years ago, and was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Live-Action Short category.

Finally, a seminal Irish comedy is available on video. Damian O’Donnell’s "35-A-Side," winner of multiple awards at film festivals around the globe since its debut in 1996, presents in embryo the talent that blossomed so impressively in Britain last year with "East Is East." O’Donnell’s flair for slapstick is very much in evidence in this early short about a bullied youngster whose mother sorts out his tormentors, and marked him down as a young filmmaker to watch in the future.

All of the above and many more besides can be purchased from the Cinema Guild, at 130 Madison Ave. in New York City, or by calling toll-free (800) 723 5522. Check the website for more details, at www.cinemaguild.com.

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