Packed schedule for Junior Film Fleadh

The Junior Galway Film Fleadh, which will run from Wednesday November 8 to Sunday November 12, will focus on the science of cinema with filmmaking workshops, and a special screening of X-Men which will look at the science of superheroes.

Describing the Junior Film Fleadh as “a great opportunity train, challenge and exhibit work from Ireland’s future filmmakers”, its programmer Gar O’Brien said the event would bring “the best in new cultural cinema to the young people of Galway and Ireland”.

World cinema is always to the fore at the Junior Fleadh, with films selected to complement school’s language curricula.

French titles this year include Ma Vie de Courgette (My Life as a Courgette) for Senior Cycle, an Oscar-nominated animation adapted from a Young Adult novel by Girlhood director, Celine Sciamma.

The award-winning tale of courage, determination and survival in occupied France, Le Voyage de Fanny (Fanny’s Journey) will lend itself to Junior Cycle students.

The German title Tschick (Goodbye Berlin) – for ages 15+ – is a funny, endearing, coming-of-age film; while RaRa (ages 13+) sees a young girl deal with a new familial set-up in contemporary Spain.

The Fleadh’s Gearrscannáin programme, for ages 13+, features short films aimed at students studying Irish for Junior Cert 2018. Study notes will be provided after each screening.

The Fleadh will also present a series of Outreach titles, taking cinema into the classroom. These include Auf Augenhohe (At Eye Level) for ages 13+; and the Irish Language Outreach title, An Mhallacht, a short film about the Mayo GAA ‘curse’, also for ages 13+.

The Fleadh will host a special screening of the documentary, Condemned to Remember, which follows the last remaining Irish Holocaust survivor, Tomi Reichental, on a moving journey across Nazi-controlled Europe. This moving and insightful film offers an eyewitness account of one of the greatest atrocities in modern history.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.