After its successful debut last year, Irish Film Berlin returns with Irish Music on Screen on St Patrick’s Day Eve at Babylon.
This special curation, by OFFline Film Festival, celebrates the best of Irish contemporary music on film throughout the day and into the night on Saturday 16 March at the famous Berlin arthouse cinema.
The four films on the programme will honour Irish music icons Sinéad O’Connor and Shane MacGowan, host a German premiere of The Camino Voyage and explore the rich musical landscape of Dublin’s North Inner City.
Programme
14:00 North Circular
Directed by Luke McManus, North Circular is a documentary musical that travels the length of Dublin’s North Circular Road, from the Phoenix Park to Dublin Port, exploring the history, music and streetscapes
16:00 The Camino Voyage ** German Premiere **
A crew including a writer, two musicians, an artist and a stonemason embark on the Camino by sea in a traditional boat that they built themselves all the way from Ireland to Northern Spain. Featuring Oscar-winning musician Glen Hansard and renowned Irish musician Brendan Begley,
18:00 Shane
A deep dive into the life of the legendary Irish singer, best known as the lead singer and songwriter of The Pogues, who famously combined traditional Irish music with the visceral energy of punk rock.
20:30 Nothing Compares
At the peak of Sinéad O’Connor’s rise to worldwide fame her iconoclastic actions resulted in her exile from the pop mainstream. Focusing on her prophetic words and deeds from 1987-1993, the film by Kathyrn Ferguson, reflects on the legacy of this fearless trailblazer through a contemporary feminist lens.
On May 24th-26th, there will be a further three-day Irish Film Berlin Festival in ACUD Kino, where the audience will get to meet and greet a range of Irish filmmakers bringing their creativity to German screens – many for the first time. Features, documentaries, animations and short films travel to Berlin with plenty of social events along the way.
Tuilleadh eolaisIrish Film Berlin was founded in 2023 by Berlin-based Denis Madden and Irish-based Gary Hoctor of OFFline Film Festival. Irish Film Berlin takes up the
mantle from Shebeen Flicks after it ran successfully in Berlin for several years until 2018. May 2023 saw three days of screenings take place in ACUD Kino where Irish filmmakers showcased their screen talent to eager audiences.
Now in its fifteenth year, OFFline Film Festival has been led by Gary Hoctor since its inception – bringing cultural cinema to Irish audiences over five days every October. As well as delivering a programme of short and feature length documentaries, animation and live action screen creativity, OFFline also runs successful youth and education strands of screenings and workshops. In 2018 OFFline established an Animation Residency part-funded by Creative Ireland which has seen two IFTA wins for animations produced at the Residency. The Festival is a recipient of annual Festival Investment Scheme funding from the Arts Council of Ireland. Recently it has spearheaded the formation of the Birr Festivals Collective which works collaboratively to address strategic goals in artistic development, audience engagement, and strengthening Birr’s position as an attractive and accessible cultural
destination.