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Irish Film Night

22 May 2015 | 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

NSCAD University Academy building – corner of Sackville and Brunswick

Oidhche Sheanchais
(Robert Flaherty, 1935, 12m, Irish w/English subtitles):
From the programme notes of the : “A lost film until the 2013 discovery of a 35mm nitrate print at Harvard University, Robert Flaherty’s 1935 short film Oidhche Sheanchais offers a disarming and fascinating distillation of his ardent belief in cinema as a mythopoeic art and folkloric tradition.... Oidhche Sheanchais, was recorded entirely in the dialect of the Aran Islands and is, in fact, considered the first talkie in the Irish language.â€

Aran of the Saints
(Catholic Film Society of London, 1932, 28m, silent with live accompaniment by Nova Scotia fiddler ):
From the programme notes of Town Hall Theatre, where this was shown in 2011:  “Providing a richly textured counterpoint to the elemental extremes of Flaherty’s Man of Aran (made two years later in 1934), the film presents the islands’ inhabitants in many of their day-to-day activities: school going, church attending, fishing, farming, weaving and playing tag in the lush green fields.â€

His Mother
(Sidney Olcott, 1912, 11m, silent with live accompaniment by by Nova Scotia Cassie MacDonald):
One of eight surviving films made by the American Kalem Company in Ireland between 1910 and 1915. Directed by Canadian-born Sidney Olcott, His Mother is a simple story of a talented country fiddle player who leaves his peasant roots in Ireland for the bright lights of the New York stage—but he abandons his poor long-suffering mother along the way. The film was shot on two continents in rural and urban locations.

Igloo a Thógaint
(Douglas Wilkinson / National Film Board of Canada, 1949, 10m, Irish w/no subtitles):
is one of the most famous films to be made by the . In its day, the film was distributed internationally—and dubbed into local languages. It’s now mostly remembered affectionately as a slightly quaint dispatch from a time of greater cinematic innocence.  We are particularly happy to present a genuine cinematic rarity, for which we are confident no translation will be necessary.

A special presentation in partnership with