More films from the Film Festival

So then...

1) Return To Gorée - A documentary following Youssou N'Dour as he "jazzes up" his music, and tries to examine his roots, and the routes that slaves might have taken. It's slightly overlong, but the sheer proffessionalism of the musicians sparks some intense moments. There's an interesting clash between N'Dour and a accapella group from Atlanta, concerning religion (N'Dour is Muslim, the group are Christian). However it's not developed and explored in the manner it could have been.

2) Comrades In Dreams - A lovely lovely documentary examining a cinema in each of India, America, Burkino Faso and North Korea. The discrepencies and parallels that are highlighted are both touching and insightful. The two most interesting strands were the Burkino Faso story and (perhaps obviously) the North Korean one. The group in Burkino Faso were practising an almost communist form of self-reliance and bartering which was uplifting to watch. The belief in North Korea of the power of movies to uplift the farmers (comrades) and workers was remarkable to watch. The cult of Kim Jong-Il was extremely prevalent but not in the expected manner, the depth of feeling concerning "dear leader" was slightly breathtaking. And North Korea looks like a beautiful country.

3) Irish Film Board Shorts - There were two things to take from this showing of shorts, namely that the Irish pysche is still as twisted and dark as it used to be when it came to story-telling, and all the interesting films being made in Ireland are as Gaeilge. Mainly the films I saw were overlong, and could have done with some serious editing, but Rolla Saor (Free Roll) and An Creatúr were probably the stand out efforts. The Short Shorts were better overall, their shortened time perhaps focusing the minds of the directors. Considering that Declan Conlon and Marcella Plunkett were in it, Basket Case was a dissapoint, Owen O'Neill didn't seem to know what kind of movie he wanted to make, apart from the fact that he knew he wanted to borrow heavily from Pat McCabe. Also, the above two actors aside, some of the casting jarred.