Hot on the heels of an exceptional Kerry Film Festival, comes another strong programme for film lovers in the south west with the start of the 5th Richard Harris International Film Festival in Limerick this Thursday 26th October.
Beginning with a double diaspora screening of Covadonga by Sean Hartofilis and Bakerman by David Noel Bourke at the Millennium Theatre and including an insightful Q&A afterwards with cast an crew, this five day festival features over 9 feature films and 100 short films as well as some extremely special events.
Three Irish features are on show throughout the festival with Eamon Norris' "Making It", Gerard Walsh's "Release" and Jason Figgis' "Urban Traffik" all shining examples of the high standard of Irish film being produced at present.
The Live Script Read introduced in 2016 also makes a welcome return to Belltable with a reading of US Feature film due to be shot in Limerick in 2018 – “For the Good of the Child” which focuses on the poorest of Ireland’s inhabitants in the 1950’s to 1970’s and the internment of poor children into Industrial Schools until they reached 16. Director and writer Marina Donohue joins RHIFF with lead actor and many special guests taking to the stage.
The centrepiece of each year’s festival is the Richard Harris Retrospective Screening, which this year is the Academy Award winning film Cry, the Beloved Country directed by Darrell James Roodt. Taking the coveted Sunday afternoon slot at the Belltable, director Darrell Roodt joins the Harris Family for the screening and a Q&A afterwards.
Saturday 28th October sees University Concert Hall staging the RHIFF annual concert, this year’s being Goldenhair. It spins the poetry of James Joyce through Golden Globe-winning Brian Byrne’s composition, with Stephen Rea and Patrick Bergin mastering the spoken word, with singers Kathleen Turner, Wiliam Byrne and more plus 16 musicians playing funk, jazz, chamber and bluegrass.
The final day of the festival will be a Sports Documentary day with the dominant feature being the LA made documentary by Mike Tollin 25 years ago, ‘Morningside 5‘ . It explores how basketball players coped with life have been sports superstars in school. The director is the man behind ‘One Tree Hill’ and of course, the original film of said players in their youth, ‘Hardwood Dreams’.
Overall, another quality festival packed with exceptional film and events and with the Cork Film Festival just around the corner it sure is a great time to be a lover of film in the southwest of Ireland.
For full details of the RHIFF 2017 go to https://richardharrisfilmfestival.com/
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