This series of new and recent cinema from Ireland is presented in association with the Irish Government's Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Institute of Celtic Studies, Oakland, Calif., with special thanks to Padraigin McGillicuddy. The program was compiled by Kevin Rockett, Ireland's leading film critic and historian, who offers this introduction:
“The images of Ireland seen by non-Irish audiences have usually been those of the green-tinted John Ford and other foreign film-makers or the equally green-tinted ones of the Irish Tourist Board. This short season of contemporary Irish fiction films is the first U.S. presentation of a small group of Irish-born film-makers who, with extremely limited resources, have over the past 10 years succeeded in making films which oppose or ignore the dominant representations of Ireland.
“Though the concerns with history of a few earlier independent film-makers are still there (Quinn and McArdle, in particular), others have set out to examine subjects as various as the interpersonal relationships of the urban middle class (Hickey), working class culture (Comerford), rural family oppression (Black, McArdle, Gebler), the conscious attempts to demystify John Ford's Ireland (Quinn's Poitin), or even attempt new forms of film language (O'Sullivan's On a Paving Stone Mounted, Quinn's Lament for Art O'Leary). The only documentary included is Gebler's Over Here, an investigation of Irish culture in Britain, which will be of interest to Irish Americans.” --Kevin Rockett
