Documentaries
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
BOOK NOWThursday 12 October | 10pm
Tin Jug Studio
€12
Tucked in a lush green forest in southern Estonia, a group of women gather in the safe darkness of a smoke sauna to share their innermost thoughts and secrets. Enveloped by a warm, dense heat, they bare all to expel fears and shame trapped in their bodies and regain their strength. This “small, smoky, steamy miracle” (Variety) of a documentary won the Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary at Sundance Film Festival.
Director | Anna Hintis
Mincéir
BOOK NOWFriday 13 October | 7.30pm
Birr Theatre & Arts Centre
€12
Followed by Q&A with director.
Mincéir is a very important and unique documentary that brings the audience on a journey across the Irish Traveller’s tradition exploring the strong connections with art in their past traditions, present transitions and future views. It portrays how their culture has evolved through the collaborations of various members of the community from very different backgrounds including story tellers, wagon makers, singers, hair and makeup artists, writers, actors, flower makers, tinsmiths, cooks and recyclers.
Director | Teresa Lavina
A Bunch of Amateurs
BOOK NOWFriday 13 October | 9pm
Birr Theatre & Arts Centre
€12
Followed by Q&A with some of the cast.
Award-winning documentary about the enduring amateur filmmaking club of Bradford, where the members grow old together over a shared passion for film and filmmaking.
With endless cups of tea and weekly meetings, the Bradford Movie Makers keep themselves and their love of cinema alive, as they go to endless lengths to recreate famous film scenes for their amateur films.
Director | Kim Higgins
The Last Playboy
BOOK NOWFriday 13 October | 10pm
Tin Jug Studio
€12
70-year-old Maurizio Candidi is an old-style playboy who claims to have had more than one thousand women. Despite his age, he is in excellent physical shape, he still approaches women and provides his gigolo services. He loves the high life and good fun. While he shares his tricks of seduction and satisfying women, without any restriction, between myth and reality, the figure of a melancholic seducer emerges.
Director | Mauro Russo Rouge
Hungry Hill
BOOK NOWSaturday 14 October | 6.30pm
Birr Theatre & Arts Centre
€12
Followed by Q&A with directors.
** Please be advised this start time is a change to our printed programme **
Hungry Hill documents the daily struggle of a community of sheep farmers in a mountainous region of Ireland, against the backdrop of an historical warning of ecological catastrophe from another part of Europe.
Filmed on the highest point on the Beara Peninsula in the southwest of Ireland, Hungry Hill follows the day-to-day lives of a community of sheep farmers who are in perpetual negotiation with the demands of the terrain, changing societal attitudes, and the impact of globalisation.
Directors | Mieke Vanmechelen & Michael Holly
100 Years of Change
FIND OUT MORESunday 15 October | 3pm
Birr Theatre & Arts Centre
€12
Closing Film
After 2 SOLD OUT screenings in Birr in September, now is YOUR chance to catch the must see documentary of the season.
The movie deals with Mabel Wallace’s journey through life and is also a testimonial on a rapidly changing country: Ireland.
Director | Nicholas Purcell Ryan.