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Magners Irish Film Festival
Harvard Film Archive
through November 24
Schedule | Tickets
The Magners Irish Film Festival kicked off last week with features Eden and Vox Humana, followed up by an additional assortment of features and shorts. Bostonist attended the documentary shorts feature on Sunday, learning a bit about Irish culture and yearning to try our hands (and feet) at rowing and dancing. The festival continues tomorrow night with a special spotlight on John Boorman.
The first two documentary shorts from last weekend fascinated us, perhaps in part because they featured folks from Conemara—also the home of our favorite ponies. But it was the tap-tap of dancin' feet, not the clip-clop of equine hooves, that took center stage in Ceolchuairt: Nua Eabhrac (The Irish Hoofer), directed by Paddy Hayes and produced by Laura Ní Cheallaigh. The film starts out with Irish sean nos ("old style") dancer Joe meeting some New York tappers on a Brooklyn roof. With the goal of holding a dance-off in Times Square reminiscent of the 19th-century challenge dances held between Master Juba (pictured) and John Diamond, Joe goes around New York City learning about how tap echoes and expands on different dancing traditions. From that roof in Brooklyn to a playground in Queens to a kids' tap studio in Canarsie, Joe learns about more soulful alternatives to his old-school stepping tradition, and even tries to loosen up a bit himself. The film gently touches on race relations, never calling them out directly, but still reminding us of the way in which African traditions central to tap dancing were often ignored or overlooked in favor of emphasizing other cultural contributions. Ceolchuairt: Nua Eabhrac demonstrated how our backgrounds inform our chosen hobbies and infuse them with individuality. No one style emerges victorious, but all are recognized as meritorious in their own right.
An Tostal, directed by Mikey Ó Flatharta, tells the story of three young men who conquered stiff competition to win the All Ireland Rowing Championship in 1955. The men reflect on their youth and inexperience, but note it wasn't naivete so much as extensive training and planning—not to mention a fine, buttered currach—that helped them win. The boys took smart steps, such as plotting out landmarks that would help them find the best places to turn, and also biked miles to practice rowing—without realizing that the biking was a form of training as well. The men retrace their championship route, and it's remarkable how much of their former selves you can see in their rowing motions and mannerisms. All relatively trim and fit for their age, the Irish rowers are a testament to the continual value of sport and spirit.
Maybe it's because we enjoyed the other films so much, or maybe it's because we have a secret hatred of poetry, but whatever the reason, we found Nead an Dreolin (The Wren's Nest) almost insufferable. Perhaps we were just too tired from a long weekend of drinking Guinness, but we literally could not keep our eyes open for the film—a bit problematic, since subtitles and imagery are important to it. The premise of the film is interesting: brief interviews with Irish poets about their work, followed by reading a piece out loud (in Irish, with English subtitles). Unfortunately, the pace of the film was positively plodding (in contrast to the swift rhythms of the dancers and rowers), and the visuals didn't seem at all connected to the poets or their poems. Ultimately, it seemed an unfocused stab at celebrating some excellent poets—but again, we're willing to chalk it up to being too exhausted to appreciate art.
Continuing the Magners Irish Film Festival, John Boorman's Excalibur screens tomorrow night, followed by The General and Point Blank on Friday.
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