Mrs. Mary Walsh of Dorchester, the mother of Mayor Martin J. Walsh, was interviewed by reporters at Ireland’s Shannon Airport in September 2014. Mrs. Walsh and her son are featured in a documentary that will be screened at this weekend’s Irish Film Festival in Somerville. Bill Forry photo
The final film to be screened at this weekend’s Irish Film Festival, Boston (IFFB) – “The Mayor of Boston, My Son” – is a documentary about one Dorchester resident that is narrated by another.
More than 45 films will be shown from today (March 10) through Sunday at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square. The IFFB, the largest Irish movie festival outside the Emerald Isle, attracts discerning movie-lovers who don’t know where the Emerald Isle, or Dorchester, are.
Visiting Irish filmmakers and directors, special guests and legendary post-screening hooleys celebrate the best Hibernian films of last year. IFFB announces its awards prior to the event, allowing directors, producers, and actors to attend screenings and take part in talk-backs.
The theme of this IFFB is “16 in 16,” alluding both to the 16th iteration of the Boston festival and to a watershed time in Irish history.
Sunday’s schedule will deliver an array of screenings marking the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising in Ireland in 1916. Supported by Culture Ireland as part of the Rising’s 2016 centenary, the festival proudly hosts the US premiere of “After ’16 Program,” a one-off short film initiative to commemorate the landmark occasion.
Commissioned by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board (IFB), nine short films are scheduled for screening. Also on tap, Neil Jordan’s historical biopic of Irish revolutionary, “Michael Collins,” which will be celebrating its 20th anniversary at the festival. Collins led a guerrilla war against the UK, helped negotiate the creation of the Irish Free State, and led the National Army during the Irish Civil War. The film stars megastars Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, and Julia Roberts.
Another highlight: “The Woman’s’ Council – Women of the Revolution” screens on Sunday afternoon, showing with the recently discovered earliest-known Irish-language “talkie,” “A Night of Storytelling” by Robert Flaherty, from the Harvard Film Archive.
Today (Thursday), Director Mark Noonan will appear at the screening of his debut feature film, “You’re Ugly Too,” this year’s Best Breakthrough Feature Award winner and festival opener, a comedy/drama starring Aiden Gillen (“Game of Thrones”) and Lauren Kinsella (“Albert Nobbs”).
First time filmmaker Kev Cahill’s comedy “More Than God” has been awarded Best Short Film and represents the best of Irish shorts 100 years after independence on the wave of last year’s historic gay marriage law. The film follows a religious man’s attempts to uncover his wife’s suspected affair.
As always, IFFB excels with its documentaries, starting with “Older Than Ireland,” which delves into the memories of 30 Irish centenarians.
Saturday’s schedule will showcase Global Vision Documentary’s awardee, “Unbreakable: The Mark Pollock Story.” Created over the course of six years, this remarkable film chronicles the triumphs and setbacks of an indomitable Irishman, the first blind man to reach the South Pole, who shortly before his wedding fell from a second story window and was paralyzed from the waist down. Six years in the making, “Unbreakable” shatters the mold of the “inspirational” documentary.
The above-mentioned festival closer, “The Mayor of Boston, My Son,” a documentary about Mayor Martin Walsh, is paired with the film “An Klondike,” a unique Irish language western tale featuring Walsh’s own Connemara home town of Rosmuc, Ireland.
Take note that this four-day festival which in recent years had been scheduled after the St. Patrick’s Day revelry, will this year precede it in order to avoid any conflict with the St. Pat’s and Easter holidays.
Tickets to each IFFB screening are $15 for opening night and $12 for all other screenings, to be paid online or at the box office. An All-Access Festival Pass is $85. A complete schedule of events is available at irishfilmfestival.com.
