1916 flavour to film screenings at Gap festival
THE centenary celebrations continue at the Gap Arts Festival this weekend with the screening of two films and a piece of theatre.
Festival director Garrett Keogh said that ‘ this year has been full of 1916 events and we wanted to do something different.’
So with a grant from the Gorey District 1916 Commemoration Scheme the organisers put together a unique programme as part of the 1916-2016 celebrations.
Fíbín is an award-winning Connemara-based theatre company. They work in Irish, but they use puppets, sometimes ten feet tall, and concentrate on the visual aspects so their work is accessible to all, with or without Irish. They’ve been acclaimed wherever they’ve performed, from China to Canada, from Paris to the USA.
In Mac Piarais i bPictiúir – Pearse in Pictures Dara McGee uses the same mesmerising technique – he paints, he creates pictures right in front of you. With live music and narration the pictures tell a story of five leading figures of the Rising.
‘ The filmmaker George Morrison was born in Tramore,’ Keogh said. ‘He spent years searching the film archives in Ireland, England and Europe to make a documentary about the events of 1916.’
His collaboration with the great composer Seán Ó Riada resulted in the full-length film Mise Éire. It was released in 1959 and became an instant classic. It is the first film ever made in the Irish language. At the Gap it will be shown with subtitles.
The Raheenleagh Windfarm Community Fund has contributed to new Gap cinema equipment, so O’Riada’s inspiring music will be heard to its full effect. But it’s not suitable for younger kids.
The short film Bandages and Bullets is showing with Mise Éire. Commissioned by Wexford County Council and Enniscorthy Municipal District this 12 minute documentary was made by local film director Terence White.
It looks at Cumann na mBan and the role that women played in 1916 in Wexford.
County Archivist, Gráinne Doran, author Helen Ashdown, and Jacqui Hynes from the Library Service’s Memories of 1916 Oral History Project are among the contributors.