Brigid 1500 film programme through February
Following a very successful inaugural season through recent months, the Kilcullen Lions Club cinema initiative has put together a special month-long programme of films to celebrate the values represented by St Brigid, writes Brian Byrne.
The Kilcullen Bridge Cinema Brigid 1500 season will involve screenings in Kilcullen Town Hall of films with themes of equality, peace, social justice and leadership. Award-winning films from Irish and international producers will kick off on 30 January 2024 with Herself, starring Clare Dunne as a Dublin cleaner fleeing domestic abuse and having to fight a system of callous bureaucracy. Among the awards the film has received is winner of Human Rights Film Award, Dublin International Film Festival 2020.
Róise and Frank screening on 8 February is an Irish-language film set in the Gaeltacht of Ring, Co Waterford. It's a charming comedy-drama about a recently widowed woman who believes that a stray dog embodies the spirit of her late husband.
The enchanting Song of the Sea on 11 February is a family-friendly afternoon screening. It is a magical adventure steeped in the wondrous worlds of Irish myth and inspired by the legend of the “selkies” — magical beings who live as seals in water and humans on land. It was the winner of Best Film, Irish Film & Television Awards 2015.
Girl on 20 February is a character drama exploring the bond between a mother and daughter resettling in Glasgow. A debut film from British-Nigerian filmmaker Adura Onashile's, it is rich in atmosphere and social commentary.
The special Brigid 1500 season closes on 27 February with La Syndicaliste, the real-life story of Irish woman Maureen Kearney, a senior trade union representative in a French power company. Maureen’s efforts to expose top-secret deals resulted in her life being turned upside down when she was violently assaulted, with all made worse by police subsequently accusing her of faking the attack.
Tickets for the season are available from Woodbine Books in Kilcullen and also on Eventbrite Kilcullen Bridge Cinema.
The Lions cinema initiative got under way last September with a screening of The Fablemans, and brought cinema back both to Kilcullen and the Town Hall location after an absence of some 47 years. The Kilcullen Town Hall venue is the only such in the world where the 110 seats are leather ones made for Volvo S80 cars — it opened in the year 2000. The seating came about when local Volvo dealer, the late Pat Dunlea, got Volvo to donate the seats to Kilcullen’s newly refurbished Town Hall Theatre.
The Kilcullen Lions Club is a member of Access Cinema, a resource organisation for regional cultural cinema exhibition in Ireland, funded by the Arts Council. Access Cinema negotiates with film distributors, and provides to its members lists of commercial and cultural films and documentaries available for screening at reasonable costs. The first Kilcullen season ended last week with cinema-goers enjoying festive treats of mince pies and mulled wine ahead of a special screening of Frank Capra’s iconic Christmas film It’s a Wonderful Life.
Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy
