EXPERIMENTAL AND avant-garde films fall well outside the mainstream but cinema goers with an ‘open to anything’ attitude can discover in them a whole new world of movie going and come away with new perspectives and a hunger to see more.
Fans of avant-garde movies and those completely unused to them will have something to look forward to when Different Directions, Galway’s new experimental film festival, takes place this Saturday and Sunday - the only festival of its kind in Ireland.
What’s on?
Different Directions will screen films from France, Austria, Japan, Spain, and the USA. Among the highlights are Jean-Luc Godard’s four-and-a-half hour tour-de-force Histoire(s ) du Cinéma on Sunday at 1.30pm.
Ménilmontant made in Paris in 1926 by Russian émigré Dimitri Kirsanoff will be shown on Sunday at 6pm. Kirsanoff is the grand-uncle of former Galway resident Francine Ryan-Kaplan, well known for her years of work with the Alliance Francaise. Ménilmontant will be introduced by Francine’s daughter Claire.
As a tribute to May 1968, Pierre Clementi’s Censorship Visa Number X will be screened. This is a gem of psychedelic cinema with a political slant and a must-see for those interested in the 1960s counter-culture. See it on Sunday at 8pm.
These films will be screened in Nuns Island.
FJ Ossang
The special guest at Different Directions will be the award winning French filmmaker, poet, and musician FJ Ossang. He will attend the festival’s official opening in the Nuns Island Studio on Saturday at 5pm.
He will introduce audiences to his films in the Town Hall when they are shown on Saturday at 12.20pm in the Town Hall.
Since the early 1980s, Ossang has developed a unique film style, working mostly in black and white under the influence of early filmmakers like Murnau and Eisenstein.
He began publishing poetry at 17, and since the 1980s has been singer with the band Mesaggero Killers Boys. His feature films are L’Affaire Des Divisions Morituri (1984 ), Le Trésor Des Íles Chiennes (1991 ) and Docteur Chance (1997 ), starring the late, very great Joe Strummer of The Clash.
In 2007 Ossang’s Silencio, a stunning 20-minute-long silent black and white film with a soundtrack by British band Throbbing Gristle, won the Prix Jean Vigo. Previous Vigo award winners including Alain Resnais, Philippe Garrel, Jean-Luc Godard, and other luminaries of the French cinema.
Ossang’s new short film Ciel Eteint! was shown at this year’s Cannes Festival. He is now preparing a new feature film to be entitled La Succession Starkov.
Films will be screened in Nuns Island and the Town Hall Theatre. For full details go to www.differentdirections.ie/ or contact the Town Hall on 091 - 569777.
