US PREMIERE
First premiered at the London Film Festival
Presented by Foxtrot Films (London)/Turlough McConnell Communications
Written and Directed by Margy Kinmonth
Cast: Niall Toibin, Patrick Laffan, Tom Hickey and Brendan Cauldwell
Narrated by John Huston
Tue Jan 19 3pm
Sat Jan 23, 8pm
Tickets at $5
The US premiere of BAFTA winner Margy Kinmonth’s fascinating documentary film is given a new look (and its first American screening followed by a panel talk produced by the noted theater writer and curator Turlough McConnell.
The dramatised documentary, which reconstructs a journey made by John Millington Synge and Jack B. Yeats when they were sent to document living conditions in Western Ireland for the Manchester Guardian. Their article, which appeared in 1905 and written before either man had achieved notoriety in their respective artistic fields, reported on the “Congested Districts,” the barren, overpopulated and most poverty-stricken stretches of Connemara. Full of insight, remarkable people and captivating stories, the original articles disappeared in the newspaper’s archives after publication. Filmed on location in the district itself, something of a ruin drained of its population by continuous emigration, the production features an exceptional cast and is narrated by John Huston.
The talk-back panel to follow the 35-minute film will be hosted by Turlough McConnell, and include the filmmaker Margy Kinmonth; historian Christine Kinealy, an expert on Ireland at the time of the Yeats/Synge journey; and an art expert Cormac O’Malley, whose father, the rebel leader Ernie O’Malley, was a friend of Jack Yeats and owned some of the Yeat’s sketchbooks from that time.
Winner The European Community Award
Nominated for the Fiction Award Cork Film Festival