DOCS IRELAND DAY THREE- FEAR AND DANCING IN LOS BELFAST
WE LOOK BACK AT DAY THREE AND FORWARD TO DAY FOUR
BEST BOY DISCUSSES POWERFUL FILMS, CREEPY EVENTS AND BEAUTY OF A CREAMY PINT, that we saw/supped at DOCS IRELAND 2024
Yesterday began with two more great Palestine events. The first was a lecture by Dr. Des O’Rawe entitled, HERE AND ELSEWHERE, THEN AND NOW. The seminar looked at the European attempts at representing the Palestinian struggle, left-wing filmmakers in the late 60s and 70s like Chris Marker and Jean-Luc Godard, made films about Palestine, having differing agendas and motivations. It seems, that struggles in film, can be co-opted, repurposed, or even misrepresented. Despite some filmmakers having what we may consider, ‘good’ motivations, colonialism can come even from the lens, the goal should be simple, help Palestine, tell Palestinian stories, not add a European narrative or political goal to the struggle, this is colonialism. There were many interesting European films discussed, but it seems the most in-depth, insightful, fair and helpful films about Palestine, come from Palestinians. A very enjoyable and eye-opening talk indeed.
Godard’s, Here and Elsewhere, 1974
Lucky for us in the afternoon we headed to a double bill of Palestinian films in the QFT.
Restricted, (Rawan Mazzawi) and The Cities I Live In (Rabie Mustapha), are two compelling films with the former winning, the Docs Ireland 2023 shorts competition. It is a beautiful and personal exploration into the places director Rabie has lived, and in turn, been displaced from. Further than that, it’s a letter to his two children, an explanation of their history and their family.
Restricted focuses on life in Palestine, specifically, how social media is used in Palestine by women and girls. Following a cast of women from different backgrounds and professions, we see the importance of social media to them, and the joy that they get out of it. Unfortunately, women and girls are not free to post whatever they want, facing restrictions from their society, the outside force of Israel, and social media itself.
Rawan Mazzawi’s, Restricted (2024)
Hold on to your tinfoil hats folks, it’s PSYOP time.
In their long and brutal campaign to beat Northern Ireland into shape, the British Army used many clandestine techniques, they even went as far as trying to induce satanic panic. We learnt all about this and more in Simon Aeppli’s, Operation Bogeyman: The Folk Horror Landscapes of 1970s Northern Ireland.
Simon has collected mountains of research on all things folk horror, Satan worshipping, fairy mounds, ghost soldiers and psyop in Northern Ireland, toward the idea of making a film on the subject, when this got tied up in funding limbo, as many films do, he reexamined his approach and instead channelled his passion into a PhD project. This was an extremely interesting and insightful lecture, Simon guided us masterfully through both our known landscape, in particular in the Carrickfergus area, which lends itself so well to the folk horror ideas discussed, and the shadow world of black ops and black magic. While this might not be something you can see if you missed it yesterday, you can head over to Simon’s website here, to watch his short films, and read about his PhD research into Operation Bogeyman, we hope to one day see such a film come to fruition.
OPERATION BOGEYMAN
From dancing around the Maypole to dancing in the Avenue CInema, we headed to Wim Wender’s, PINA, in 3D…
In the evening we headed into The Avenue for a 3D screening of Wim Wenders’ beautiful documentary, Pina. Released in 2011, the film is a deeply moving tribute to the late choreographer, Pina Bausch, and is an intense celebration of her life and her work. Using dance sequences, and very small sections of interviews, the film gives all involved the space to remember Pina.
Wim Wender’s, Pina (2011)
Dancing around in a ring to the ring doorbell? IDK FOLKS THESE ARE HARD LINKS TO MAKE!
Next to a friend of the show, NORMAL CINEMA CLUB. And what a night it was. In the usual NCC stomping ground of The Bean Bag Cinema, we were treated to a classic NCC double bill. We first saw Chris Marker’s Stop Over in Dubai.
This film is a meticulous placing together of CCTV footage that depicts the murder of Al-Mabhoub, a founder of a military branch of Hamas. In a way, a found footage film, the CCTV is low quality, sometimes undistinguishable, but Marker guides us, using simple text and red circles highlighting key players, through this seemingly mundane task for the killers. They methodically move through this grainy footage to the soundtrack of a classical score, written by Henryk Górecki for the Kronos Quartet, simple movement coupled with the context and music, builds up momentum and tension, despite the fact, that we are simply watching silent CCTV footage. Without the prompts that Marker offers, the footage would be unremarkable to the average viewer. The film speaks to the surveillance state in which we live, the all-seeing eyes and yet the powerlessness individuals have against large governments, the cameras are not there to keep us safe but to keep us in sight.
That leads us to our next film, Graeme Arnfield’s 2023 Home Invasion. The film is similar to Marker’s in its use of found footage and messaging. The documentary essay film takes the new surveillance aesthetics of the Ring doorbell camera and combines them with classical Hollywood, modern Hollywood horror and the historical Luddite struggle, to form a nightmarish film.
Graham who is in attendance introducing the film (wonderfully), mentioned how this film was made from his bed between the hours of 9 pm and 4 am, every night giving the oeuvre of those late night hours where there’s something in the air.
Graham weaves the narrative around the fact that we have laid the bricks of the Panopticon in which we are all now prisoners in, ourselves. We are enabling the fascistic surveillance state in which we exist, by using things like Ring doorbells, that literally require you to profile whoever comes to your door. We have taken a bite of the forbidden knowledge, we know too much, but so do they…The tools of fascism these days are, yes, the police forces, political leaders and toxic forms of media, but also the things we have been told are there to keep us safe, similar to Marker, Arnfield is telling us, that these cameras aren’t for us, but for them…
Despite being a film that would at a glance be about the history of the doorbell, it is incredibly genuinely creepy. In the context of the film and surveillance state, simple things take on new troubling meanings. Neighbours spy on neighbours, and police incept hyperlocal neighbourhood apps like NextDoor, and Ring sell on your data or simply pass it along whenever asked. This film will change how you approach a front door.
The Ring sound will haunt our nightmares for years.
Most importantly…
The night ended in lovely pints in the John Hewitt, folks this is what the movies is all about.
Finally, TODAY…
Ah, Friday, the start of the weekend, and the start of another amazing day of films at Docs Ireland! Here are our top picks for today!
At 2 pm in the Ulster Museum, Ransom 79 will screen as part of the Pull Focus Competition. The film tells the story of legendary Irish journalist, Charlie Bird, who in October 2022 was told that he was suffering from the early stages of Motor Neuron Disease, an absolutely devastating diagnosis. The film follows Charlie as he battles against this diagnosis, attempting to break one last huge story, a story about a criminal gang who attempted to pull off the most unbelievable heist Ireland had ever seen. The story was completely untold until now, thanks to Charlie and film director, Colm Quinn. In September 1979, a letter was sent to the Minister for Agriculture, detailing that if he did not hand over five million euros, the Foot and Mouth Virus would be purposely set loose in Ireland. As emotional and inspiring as it is thrilling, this is a film not to be missed.
Also screening today is Asif Kapadia’s masterpiece, Senna, a film that has consistently been praised as one of the greatest sports documentaries of all time. The film follows Ayrton Senna, a racing driver who achieved almost mythical status. Tracking his physical and spiritual achievements both on the track and off, using mainly archival footage and no formal commentary, the film revolutionised the documentary landscape. Senna will screen at 7 pm in the Odeon, and Asif Kapadia himself will be speaking tomorrow night, Saturday, in the QFT at 6:30 pm.
Today isn’t just an ordinary day, it is in fact, the Solstice, and what better way to close out the Solstice than with, Womenfolk. A celebration of Irish culture and tradition, and women's place within this, Womenfolk brings together rare, archival films featuring women folk singers, and specifically folk song collectors, with live music. Starting off the films is David Hammond’s film about the legendary singer, Sarah Makem, and extremely especially, Sarah Makem’s own great-granddaughter will be performing at the event, alongside other extremely talented performers. Taking place tonight at Rosemary Street Church at 9 pm, the perfect way to close out the Solstice.
