Athlone Film Club is teaming up with Triathlone and Waterways Ireland to exclusively show the RTÉ footage of Triathlone 2009 in the Dean Crowe Theatre, Athlone on Tuesday September 29 at 7.30pm. This is a great opportunity for participants and spectators of Triathlone to relive all the excitement of the July event on the big screen.
There is further good news for all you sporting enthusiasts and film buffs! Following the screening of Triathlone, the Film Club will screen Joel Conroy's Waveriders, a superb and seamless Irish documentary about extreme surfing that won the audience award at the 2008 Dublin International Film Festival.
This is one of the finest documentaries- or feature films- to come out of Ireland in recent memory. Heading out towards the Atlantic, where some of the biggest waves on earth regularly crash against the Irish west coast, director Conroy has assembled an informative and engaging documentary that will appeal to more than just those familiar, or indeed interested in surfing.
Much of Waveriders concerns itself with soul surfing. The men who pursue it are like pioneers; bearded and gnarly faced, they travel the world for the most inaccessible and exciting waves. Taking in interviews with nine-time world champion Kelly Slater, as well as surfing stalwarts The Malloy Brothers, this is much more than talking heads on a beach. Conroy has shot some truly spectacular footage, with waves as high as four storeys being surfed by both local guys who grew up near the beaches, and their American counterparts. But some of the most absorbing stuff here comes from the history of surfing, as we learn that the man who pioneered the sport, as it's now known, is of Irish parentage. His story alone is a film waiting to be made, but as quickly as you're caught up in his amazing life story, Conroy has us back on the beaches of Bundoran - having dazzled us with an innovative use of grainy photographs and drawings, while various prominent surfers and journalists wax enthusiastically about his legacy. Waveriders has touched a global audience but its story is firmly rooted in Ireland and it most definitely has a green heart beating at its core. It's a very moving spectacle, and on a cinema screen it's staggering. It puts you back in touch with nature at its most elemental and exhilarating. So come along on Tuesday September 29 and be treated to a double spectacle of human feats and triumphs.
Temporary membership for the night is only €7 and you also have the opportunity to sign up as a member of the film club for the rest of the season. Doors open at 7pm with a complimentary wine reception in the Dean Crowe Theatre bar followed by the Triathlone footage at 7.30pm.
Check out www.athlonefilmclub.com for further information or email [email protected].
