This is the second Docs Ireland short film competition.
NOTE: TWO OF THE FILMS BELOW ARE ONLY ACCESSIBLE FROM UK/ROI. IF YOU ARE BASED OUTSIDE OF THIS AREA UNFORTUNATELY YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO VIEW WELCOME TO A BRIGHT WHITE LIMBO AND HYDEBANK.
This year we have a fantastic range of films showing just how versatile and expressive the short film can be. The documentary short is an artform of its own, and excitingly, many of the films in this collection have used experimental and essayistic approaches to their visual style and structure, broadening the artistic landscape of Irish documentary.
We are delighted to invite 21 filmmakers to showcase their work (listed below) as part of the Docs Ireland short documentary competition. Thanks to Doubleband Films for supporting this event again this year.
On Saturday 14th November you will be able to watch all 21 short documentaries for free from the comfort of your own home. Simply book your place by clicking the (Buy Tickets) button on the right and bagsy your space on the sofa!
Welcome to a Bright White Limbo
(NOTE: THIS SHORT FILM IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO WATCH IN UK/ROI)
Director: Cara Holmes
Running Time: 10:45
A stylish portrait of critically-acclaimed, Belfast-based dance artist Oona Doherty, whose work reflects on class and gender identity. The film delves into the creative process behind her work Hope Hunt.
Hydebank
(NOTE: THIS SHORT FILM IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO WATCH IN UK/ROI)
Director: Ross McClean
Running Time: 17:00
While serving out his sentence in Hydebank Wood, Ryan reflects on the actions that led him there as he tends to the prison’s flock of sheep.
Up & Away
Director: Jamie Goldrick
Running Time:15:30
Told through the eyes of four men who were in the prison on the day of the Mountjoy Helicopter Escape, two Wardens and two Republican prisoners, this documentary illustrates how a 60 second event that took place over 46 years ago is imprinted on the memory of those who witnessed it.
Maid in America
Director: Kathy Raftery
Running Time:1:00
Josephine from Co. Galway talks about the period of her life spent working as a maid in the United States in the early 1950’s, including the time she encountered a member of the Rockefeller family.
A Short Film About Guts
Director: Tadhg Dennehy
Running Time:10:45
A Short Film About Guts is a personal film concerned with the role art can play in helping a patient express the realities of living with a chronic illness.
Mood Atlas
Director: Mia Mullarkey
Running Time: 18:30
Mood Atlas is a short documentary exploring Bipolar Disorder through one man’s experiences, and his search for hope in neuroscience.
Bleed
Director: Lisa Keogh
Running Time: 18:40
People who experience menstruation discuss openly how it affects their lives in this refreshing documentary.
More Than Lemonade
Director: Vincent Kinnaird
Running Time: 9:40
Brightly coloured lemonade, made in a factory in Ballymoney and delivered to your door in glass bottles from a retro, open-sided lorry. Where else in the world would you get it in 2020?
The Grass Ceiling
Director: Iseult Howlett
Running Time: 15:00
Three successful female athletes explore what drives them to play, how the punishment, effort and joyful reward in sport reveal something essential in the human spirit that is often elusive for women.
Give Me A Sign
Director: Emmet Colton
Running Time: 13:37
The story of roadside Christian evangelism in Northern Ireland and three men who are trying to spread the word of God.
20 Yards From A Crow
Director: Al Butler
10:10
Ricky Whelan looks at the world of Crows that exists around us. Filmed in Portlaoise and Wexford.
A Line Was Drawn
Director: Mairead McClean
Running Time: 13:30
A Line Was Drawn (2019) weaves together material from a number of different sources to explore issues of how our world is structured through the creation of borders and boundaries limiting movement, thinking, questioning and agency. Through its layered format and contrasting sources of sound, the film aims to question the construct of seamless television documentary and news narratives tasked with conveying a particular story to convince or intrench a point of view.
Polaroid Boys
Director: Lia Campbell
Running Time: 6:33
Polaroid Boys’ follows lens based artist Mark Francis Fenning as he explores masculinity through the lens of his Polaroid camera and demands his subject’s body issues to be expressed.
At Present
Director: Deirdre O’Toole
Running Time: 5:06
Dancer’s body changes with age. Your body changes with age – but does your life have to? Suzanne has always been a dancer, and for the first time in her life, she is feeling her body change and affect her work.
The Fews
Director: Éanna Mac Cana
A portrait of the filmmaker’s artist father, Paddy McCann, as he creates a new body of work. The Fews is a forest area in south County Armagh. An place synonymous with the Northern Ireland conflict. It is close to where McCann is from and where his studio is now based.
Spread the Wings
Director: Alice McDowell
Running Time: 11:35
Sisters Maggie and Nora are from the Irish Traveller community – an indigenous nomadic ethnic minority group. Although forced off the road in the 1980s with the introduction of anti-trespass legislation, Maggie and Nora still travel back to Connemara (West Galway, Ireland) every summer to rekindle their connection with the land.
A Woman of Aran
Director: Thomas O’Donoghue
Running Time: 7:00
Bird O’Griofa, a native of Inisheer, reflects on life in pre-modern times in this poetic ethno-documentary that seeks to capture a portrait of island life of the past.
Hanging Over The Atlantic
Director: Fionn Walshe
Running Time: 8:46
Dursey Island is linked to the mainland by a single cable car. This lifeline allows its people to call Dursey Island home. Each day it brings new people, challenges, and life to this island.
The Quiet
Director: Georgia Kelly
Running Time: 8:28
An intimate and poignant observation of 87 year old, Ruth. Loneliness, fear, memory and the reality of ageing are examined through her eyes, as she lives alone in old age.
Oileán
Director: Ryan Coney
Running Time: 9:17
Generations of Paraic’s family have lived and fished on the Aran Islands, with life on the island changing, Paraic may be the last in his family to keep this tradition going
Jill and Giles
Director: Alison Byrne
Running Time: 13:05
A human interest portrait piece based on an English couple who have spent 20 years living and working on a boat with half of that time being spent on the River Shannon in Ireland. It explores the themes of unconventionality, freedom and belonging.
This year’s Docs Ireland Competition Jury are: