IFI Irish Film Archive
Cocktails
Duration57s
A pair of men convince a barmaid to serve them Guinness in a cocktail bar but are dismayed when the pints arrive decorated with cocktail cherries.
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Rúbaí
‘God is everywhere, Rúbaí. Everyone knows that.’ – Despite her teacher’s declaration, eight-year-old Rúbaí challenges the existence of God in the days before her Holy Communion. When Rúbaí continues to challenge her teacher and announces to the visiting priest that she is an atheist, she provokes their frustration and leaves them speechless when she cites Charles Darwin as ‘a fella who makes sense’. Enigmatic scenes of this solitary child purposefully digging in the garden are intercut with scenes of her reluctant preparations with her mother for the Communion Day. Her mother is impatient with her classroom defiance and her preoccupation with evolution but ultimately understands what is driving her to behave this way. This film won many awards including Best Short at the Babel Film Festival in Sardinia. This film is part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women.
Is it Peace?
October 11th 1921: London, and Sinn Féin delegates, including Arthur Griffith, arrive for the first formal peace negotiations at 10 Downing Street. In this newsreel, scenes of the Irish Embassy at 17 Grosvenor Place, London are shown, with the Irish Tricolour flag prominently placed above the main entrance. Crowds are seen kneeling and praying on the street outside and cheer with Flags as the delegates leave the Embassy and make their way to Downing street to discuss the Anglo-Irish Treaty. It’s interesting to note the strong presence of the Tricolour in this newsreel as the National flag. It was first presented as a gift to Ireland in 1848 by the French, representing the reconciliation between Protestant and Catholics. Following the events of the 1916 Rising it was locally accepted as the national flag but wasn’t until 1937 that this was made official under the Constitution of Ireland.
Statistic - Trish McAdam Filmmaker Playlist
Our second IFI Filmmaker Playlist is curated by filmmaker and visual artist Trish McAdam. Since the production of her early shorts in the 1980s, Trish has created a vibrant and varied body of work, embracing a range of forms and subjects and retaining a singular, independent voice. We're delighted to welcome Trish to the Irish Film Institute to select her top picks from films preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive and presented on the IFI Archive Player. ‘Who needs a pregnant waitress?’ is just one of the questions that fills Ellie Connolly’s mind when she discovers she is pregnant in 1980s Ireland. Statistic was made by film student Alison Kelly in 1983, the year which saw the passing of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution Act (which effectively criminalised abortion in most circumstances). Ellie (Edel McCrann) is pregnant as “the result of a drunken screw between two people who hardly knew each other”. She broods in her flat and discusses her predicament with her good friend Anne – she must tell her boyfriend Paul but she knows ’In the end it’s inside me, not him’. She finds information in a magazine about abortion services in the UK and Anne accompanies her to the ferry – following the footsteps of the many women before her. Statistic is invaluable as a contemporaneous response to events in 1983 – the film includes newspaper headlines and filmed sequences of pro and anti-abortion marches and dramatizes the plight of a young woman dealing with a crisis pregnancy. It is also a vivid record of the sights and sounds of Dublin in the 1980s - not least in the colourful cameos from mime artist Raymond Keane and indie band The Cuba Dares.
The Wake
A woman’s reflection on her life is expressed through poetic voiceover and dance. In a light-filled period mansion, a woman (Olwen Fouéré) reflects on her life, her sexuality and moments of great joy and sadness - her memories are articulated by a troupe of women of various ages through the eloquent language of dance. When the woman passes away, she is waked by the dancers and animated afresh in a vigorous, liberating ritual involving fire and water. Oonagh Kearney’s stunning film weaves together the art of dance (in the choreography of Cindy Cummings in collaboration with the director and cast); of music (in Linda Buckley’s ethereal score); and of cinema, to explore women’s experience, silence, domestic enclosure, the potent power of memory and the possibility of liberation. The filmmakers would like to dedicate this film’s inclusion in the F-Rated Collection to Emma O'Kane. This film is part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women.
Bye Bye Now
Residents of rural Ireland reminisce on the joys and sorrows of phone boxes as they become obsolete in the modern world. When phone boxes were first introduced in Irish villages in the 1920s, there was stern competition between local businesses to have one installed outside their property. The phone box would assume a monumental role in many people’s lives allowing them to stay connected with loved ones and receive all sorts of important news. In Mayo, a couple celebrating their 50th anniversary credit the box for helping to keep their long-distance romance alive. In Donegal, a man laughingly recalls how two women became trapped inside one while trying to wait out a bad storm. A young man nervously calls a maternity hospital for news of his young wife. Although many of those interviewed admitted they do not use the service anymore, the phone box is a fondly remembered feature of Irish village life. This film is part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women.
Statistic
‘Who needs a pregnant waitress?’ is just one of the questions that fills Ellie Connolly’s mind when she discovers she is pregnant in 1980s Ireland. Statistic was made by film student Alison Kelly in 1983, the year which saw the passing of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution Act (which effectively criminalised abortion in most circumstances). Ellie (Edel McCrann) is pregnant as “the result of a drunken screw between two people who hardly knew each other”. She broods in her flat and discusses her predicament with her good friend Anne – she must tell her boyfriend Paul but she knows ’In the end it’s inside me, not him’. She finds information in a magazine about abortion services in the UK and Anne accompanies her to the ferry – following the footsteps of the many women before her. Statistic is invaluable as a contemporaneous response to events in 1983 – the film includes newspaper headlines and filmed sequences of pro and anti-abortion marches and dramatizes the plight of a young woman dealing with a crisis pregnancy. It is also a vivid record of the sights and sounds of Dublin in the 1980s - not least in the colourful cameos from mime artist Raymond Keane and indie band The Cuba Dares. This film is part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women.