DOCS IRELAND DAY FIVE- HUMANITIES JOURNEY FROM ANCIENT CAVE ART TO SHORT FILMS
WE LOOK BACK AT DAY FIVE AND FORWARD TO THE FINAL DAY
BEST BOY WATCHES SHORT FILMS, HOKES ABOUT CAVES AND LEARNS THINGS AT DOCS IRELAND DAY FIVE!
Ah, feels like only yesterday we were at Docs Ireland day five! Because we were. Here’s the lowdown.
STARTING THE DAY OFF WITH SHORT FILMS ON TOP.
A still from Making Waves.
We had the absolute privilege of seeing the competition shorts yesterday, with stories from home and afar. Every film was spectacular, and we aren’t sure where to start with talking about them, so we’re going to do shorts on the shorts, if you will, with one-line reviews for each.
Fourth Wall And A Ceiling - A film so full of love for the people and place within it you could feel it pouring out of the screen.
Anthony And The Bees - Following Anthony the beekeeper, we’re welcomed into his life to see his inspirational outlook, to always see the beauty in things even if you can’t find it in yourself.
Fabric Film - Exploring the very medium of film, and how we view film or footage, it isn’t just material, but instead something beautiful, and something with an aliveness to it.
Gerry - A touching portrait of a man you could listen to for hours, both the film and Gerry are deeply passionate and caring of their subjects.
The Building And Burning Of A Refugee Camp - A film that shows two sides of Ireland, and should absolutely be watched by all, as beautiful as it is essential, the film is a reminder of what we must be standing up for, and who we must stand up against.
Nido - Strikingly gorgeous, with warm cinematography that makes you want to live in the world of the film, only furthered by the comforting nature of its protagonist, Theysi.
Canine - Absolutely fascinating, the film explores a subject I’ve personally never even known exists, and does it beautifully, with a deep connection of human to animal, and animal to animal on screen.
Cumha - A love letter to home, and to our taken identity, the film reveals the peace and happiness we could find within ourselves if we reclaim ourselves.
Bishop Cox - A beautiful portrait of a behemoth of a man, prominent in his community and further afield, this film shows his kindness and his love for the world around him.
The Banfoot Ferry - Showcasing an amazing use of archive film and beyond to put together an exhilarating deep dive into a captivating piece of local history that could have almost been forgotten altogether.
MOVING ON FROM THE SHORTS AND INTO THE LONGS, THE LONGINGS OF WERNER HERZOG IN A CAVE.
I’m the type of cat that don’t know no science stuff no good. If you start talking about hadron colliders, atoms, stalagmites or gravity, I’ll glaze over and start thinking about something cool, like samurais.
Really though I love Werner Herzog but as an anti-science dark-age-truther, I find it hard to watch his scientific documentaries, that is to say, I’m a moron. But when Cave of Forgotten Dreams was on this year’s programme of this year’s Docs Ireland, I faced my fears of learning something… and went and learnt something. Especially because it was 3-D.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Werner Herzog, 2010
Cave of Forgotten Dreams, follows as Werner Herzog and a skeleton film crew, along with a team of experts in archaeology, art history and other disciplines related to caves, venture down into the Chauvet Cave in southern France, which contains some of the oldest ever paintings, some of which were crafted 32,000 years ago. And they’re astonishing. These paintings are genuinely quite moving, in one particular painting Herzog notes an animal is painted with extra legs and refers to it as ‘photo-cinema’. The 3-D aspect of film is part of what makes it so engrossing, we float through these caves and see these images float out toward us.
The film is distinctly Herzog. His trademark poetic meanderings on the nature of life and dreams appear throughout the film, guiding the film naturally. The film, in other hands, may not have captured the wonder and sense of perhaps, pride, humans should feel while seeing these paintings, after all, there was a tiny crew with lots of constraints and very limited time. The paintings could not be dramatically lit or staged in any way, Herzog had to rely on the images alone. This is, however, a testament to the 3-D technology, it creates a sense of reverence, it takes the shots from simple drawings on a wall to important human history you could reach out and touch. That combined with Herzog’s ruminations creates a film full of wonder.
It struck me though that, sometimes, Herzog would say something poetic and the audience would laugh, we’ve come to know this style of speaking, his ability to identify philosophic questions in the sometimes mundane, he’s been so oft parodied (us included) there’s an idea of him, so when he actually says something like, ’Are we today the crocodiles who look back into the abyss of time when we see the paintings of Chauvet cave?’, I imagine it feels the as same as seeing your favourite superhero say their catchphrase. Exhillerharing.
FINALLY, WE HEAD BACK TO THE VENERABLE QFT FOR A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON OUR HISTORY, THE BLACK AND THE GREEN.
The Black and the Green, follows five black American civil rights activisvists on a fact finding mission to the North of Ireland and meet local Republican leaders and activists, The film was made by prolific New York documentarian St. Clair Bourne, and recently received a remaster meaning it can shown and enjoyed on the big screen.
It is a remarkable film, the activists are of course sceptical before going over. After all some of the most right ring racist people in America, still, shamefully are Americans who claim Irishness. They are also the students of Dr Martin Luther meaning they’re adamantly against violence, a hard thing to reconcile for them therefore is the IRA’s armed resistance.
However, by the end of their trip they feel seem to be extremely connected with the local community, feeling a great sense of solidarity. If you have a chance to see this, please do it’s an important film that asks genuine and important questions of the struggle in the North of Ireland and works to cement links of solidarity between Black American’s and Northern Irish nationalists as well as hopefully, showing the facist Irish Americans, we don’t want their racist corruption of Irish identity. SOLIDARITY FOREVER.
The Black And The Green, St. Clair Bourne, (1983)
SOMEONE PASS US THE TISSUES, IT’S THE LAST DAY OF DOCS IRELAND AND WE DON’T WANT IT TO END.
As we weep we grab the nearest thing to wipe our tears, a Docs Ireland programme, thankfully it reminds us of all the amazing things on today, the final day.
The shorts continue today with the selection shorts showing in the Strand, starting at 12:30 pm. This year’s lineup sees butter, eels, swimming and aliens, to name but a few of the subjects. Sure to be a heartwarming and fascinating afternoon, you’d be crazy to miss it.
Moving on in the day, The Ban, is showing, and don’t try and ban us from seeing it, we’re too excited! The film explores the time in the Troubles that the British government decided to ban people associated with the IRA from being able to use their own voices to speak on the news, instead hiring actors to dub them over. An interesting look into censorship, and the attempted justification of censorship, the film will play at 4:45 in the QFT.
As Docs Ireland comes to a close, so do the films, specifically, the closing film; No Other Land. The film was made by a collection of four Palestinian activists and follows the story of one of the directors, Basel Adra, who has been displaced from his home in the West Bank at the hands of Israel. Not one to be missed at all, catch it this evening in the QFT at 6:30.
-love love love, Best Boy x
