Short Film Showcase

Recent Irish Shorts Stephen Burke's 81 tackles the same subject as the Festival's opening night film, Some Mother's Son, and despite its half-hour running time offers a complex portrait of the impact the Bobby Sands hunger strike had on a wide variety of Irish subjects. John Bennett's Brothers In Arms (produced and co-written with Peter Sheridan), and Jo Neylin's The Cake also present different takes on the war in Northern Ireland, while Brendan Bourke's Fishing The Sloe-Black River (from a short story by Colum McCann) is an eloquent reflection on loss to emigration and aging. |John Moore's He Shoots, He Scores would make Samuel Beckett proud with its existential take on football and the afterlife at a sci-fi bus stop. But no program from the Emerald Isle would be complete without humor, and Damien O'Donnell's Thirty Five Aside is a black comic masterpiece that depicts the travails of a young schoolboy-outcast and his hilarious, dysfunctional family. 81 Directed by Stephen Burke Ireland, 1996, 16mm, Color, 28 minutes Brothers in Arms Directed by John Bennett USA/lreland, 1996, 16mm, B & W, 14 minutes The Cake Directed 6y Jo Neylin Northern Ireland, 1995, 3Smm, Color, 11 minutes Fishing the Sloe-Black River Directed by Brendan Bourke Ireland, 1995, 3Smm, Color, 14 minutes He Shoots, He Scores Directed by John Moore Ireland, 1995, 3Smm, B & W, 10 minutes Thirty Five Aside Directed by Damien O'Donnell Ireland, 1995, 16mm, Color, 28 minutes, U.S. Premiere