On Tuesday December 1, Ballina Arts Centre will host Oska Bright: On the road. This unique film event is brought to Mayo by the Arts and Disability Networking Partnership an initiative of The Arts Council, Arts and Disability Ireland and Mayo County Council Arts Office.
Oska Bright is the first film festival anywhere in the world to be run by, and for, people with a learning disability. Now in its sixth year, the festival will visit Mayo for the first time, presenting an enormous, exciting and inspiring range of short films including animations, documentaries, a soap-opera and western.
A highlight of the day will be the screening of Tom and Mary by Scannán technology, a group of learning disabled film makers based in Ballina who will also participate in a master-class led by the Oska Bright team.
Oska Bright is unique and successful because it concentrates on peoples’ skills and not on disability. Films are selected by a panel of artists with learning disabilities, and are submitted by groups and individuals. www.oskabright.co.uk Each screening will show between eight and 15 different films, with a total of 44 films being shown in four screenings over the course of the day, at 1pm, 2pm, 3pm and 4pm. So you can come to them all or pick and mix to suit yourself.
Vanessa Daws exhibition at Ballina Arts Centre
Throughout the month of December, Ballina Arts Centre will present Volute, an exhibition of work by Galway-based multimedia artists Vanessa Daws.
Vanessa’s work combines different media of painting, sculpture and animation. She is inspired by art where the viewer can discover aspects of the work that they can manipulate, manoeuvre or peer into, all underpinned by the anticipation of the unexpected. All are welcome to attend, the exhibition runs until December 22.
Ballina film club
Ballina film club’s autumn/winter season continues next week with Bronson, on Tuesday December 8 at 8pm. Nicolas Winding Refn’s portrait of notorious lifer and the UK’s ‘most violent prisoner’, Charles Bronson, is an ambitious and brave attempt to create a biopic of a man who has spent 34 years of his life in prison, and 28 of those in solitary confinement. While confronting the extreme brutality which has characterised Bronson’s life, the film endeavours to get to the heart of such a desperate existence. Born Michael Peterson, Bronson’s ambition was simply to be famous. With a limited sphere of opportunities, the criminal world offered a theatre in which he could cultivate his stylised persona. Admission is €7 and seasonal membership is available.
