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TWO IRISH DOCUMENTARIES selected for the prestigious Sundance Film Festival have been getting great reviews.
It’s Not Yet Dark, about the filmmaker Simon Fitzmaurice, who has Motor Neuron Disease (ALS), and In Loco Parentis, about the Headfort boarding school, have both been on show at the festival this month.
Sundance, which runs for 10 days in Utah, is an opportunity for Irish filmmakers to get their work seen by critics and film insiders – and a chance for networking and the all-important reviews.
“As the largest independent film festival in the US, the Sundance Film Festival provides an important and powerful platform for both Irish films It’s Not Yet Dark and In Loco Parentis to achieve global recognition,” said James Hickey, Chief Executive Bord Scannan na hEireann/the Irish Film Board.
He noted that Ireland has had a very successful experience at the festival over the years, with films such as Brooklyn, The Guard and Calvary all having had world premieres there.
“The importance of being selected for major festivals such as Sundance cannot be underestimated in terms of ensuring wide international audiences for the films,” he said. “Both films were chosen from thousands of international films and we are very proud of the teams behind each project.”
Of being selected for Sundance, Frankie Fenton – who directed It’s Not Yet Dark – said:
It’s the highest honour to have our film invited to screen at the Sundance Film Festival. We’re all smiling with the news. It means so much to our small team to know that we are bringing Simon and Ruth’s inspirational story to Utah audiences.
The documentary, which is narrated by Colin Farrell, was funded by the IFB and Wellcome Trust in the UK. It looks at how Fitzmaurice himself was premiering his short film The Sound of People at Sundance when he noticed an unusual pain in his foot. He was diagnosed with ALS soon afterwards.
The film explores his journey since, and how he directed his feature film My Name is Emily.
It’s Not Yet Dark has been getting excellent reviews, with IndieWire describing it as “inspirational”, and giving it a grade B-:
Fenton, however understandably, is too drawn to the raw power of Simon’s story to let viewers work their own way through its darkness. On the other hand, it’s the questions that Fenton can’t answer — maybe even the questions he doesn’t mean to ask — that make “It’s Not Yet Dark” such an illuminating experience.
On RogerEbert.com, Brian Tallerico writes that the film is “incredibly powerful”.
Ultimately, what makes It’s Not Yet Dark so remarkably powerful is the open-book honesty of its subject and those he loves. Ruth is such an honest, well-spoken, interesting woman. Many people will walk out of the film praising Simon, but this is Ruth’s story too. And it’s something relatable for all of us. When Simon says “I dance for the last time,” remembering the moments before he lost control of his muscles, that’s something that connects with the heart.
Over at Screendaily, they praised Fenton for the way she shapes a portrait of Fitzmaurice, and add:
But it’s as much through his words – the film takes material from, and shares a title with, an autobiography written by Fitzmaurice – and the words of his loved ones, that we get to know the man.
In Loco Parentis, directed by Neasa Ní Chianáin, is a documentary about a year in the life of the Headfort boarding school. The Kells school is run by married couple John and Amanda Leyden, who have been in the role for 46 years.
“When we got the call from the Sundance Film Festival programmers, we couldn’t believe it,” said Ní Chianáin. “They said that ‘the world needs a life-affirming film like this at the moment’.”
Indiewire gave the film a Grade B, saying:
In Loco Parentis thrives whenever it regards Headfort as a place suspended between an ancient institution and an overgrown home, one that fosters both the transient children and the adults who have become part of the furniture.
Variety, which calls the school a ‘prep school’, compared the documentary to Nicolas Phillibert’s Etre et Avoir, and said that “it’s hard not to be moved by the dedication and affection that the Headfort staff… put into their work”.
…the filmmaking is delicately executed in every department. Eschewing any visual or graphic gimmicks, Ní Chianáin keeps the look airily naturalistic throughout, lighting and framing Headfort’s rather imposing architecture — which could look darkly austere in a different film — with a consistent emphasis on its breathing room.
The Film Stage said that the film is a “warm work of cinéma vérité”, and “a celebration of the school experience, free of the kind of context that a talking head interview may provide”.
In Loco Parentis has moments of rich beauty as we watch the exact instant where the light bulbs go off for pupils. For those not without background knowledge on the institutions it studies and the alternative it offers to traditional schooling, the film could benefit from a little added context, even if it would sacrifice the its adherence to the traditions of its cinéma vérité approach.
Keep an eye out on Irish festivals this year for your chance to watch both documentaries.
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Heartbreaking. Is that the best that the USA can do, with its huge resources. So many live in abject poverty.
They’d sooner spend their billions on other children from far flung areas of the globe turning them into orphans and refugees. If they don’t care about their own children own whey would they care about anyone elses.
Kid needs to check his privilege.
Congrats to the boy
Poor little boy hasn’t had a great start in life, so many more out there like him, contrast this and the story about little Prince George and it’s just such a shame how one little boy has it all while another little boy has nothing!, hardly seems fair, hope his future is brighter!
Good luck to them all. Tis hard to be a child growing up without a proper home. Hopefully they can make it through.
And people give out about having to stay in hotels
Wow. Poor little guy. And sometimes we have a cheek to complain about silly things
Land of the Brave, Home of the Free. If you can cut it in the rat-race, never get ill, never get tired, never make a mistake. Given this country’s adoration of all things American, look out for a similar story in a venue near you – sooner rather than later.
Has already happened, SDCC evicted a 17 year old girl from her family home on Wednesday morning after the passing of her mother last year. They wouldn’t even let the poor child back in to get her mothers ashes and left her curled up in a ball, in her pyjamas, on the doorstep heartbroken. They told her she wasn’t their concern….. an orphaned 17 year old should be everyones concern.
Ann…i didnt hear about this..tell us more?
Please share more information on this story. Those responsible need to be called to account for their despicable behaviour. We can’t do that with sufficient information.
Scroll down their page – the media is too busying with other stuff!
https://www.facebook.com/Cairdeas-Homeless-Action-Group-768034629939704/?fref=photo
The girl wasn’t actually living in the house ..
You seem to know more than I do Suzie – do you know what the story behind it is? I searched the other night when I came across the post but could find nothing more about it. But the fact remains regardless of whether or not she was living there, her mothers ashes need to be returned to her.
Ann , the young girl is living wuth her grandmother and they were corresponding with her at all times , she knew it was happening so I would say she had her belongings in her grandmother’s house .
When this young ladies mother was alive she used to spend a couple of nights a week in her grannies and the rest of the time at home with her mother. When her mother got sick she stayed with her all of the time. Before her mother passed her gran was diagnosed with a terminal illness and when her mam died she stayed with her granny to look after her while she was sick (and lets not forget this young girl has school and doing her leaving cert). Her grandmother is now dying and in the hospice. In February the council wrote to her and told her that because she was a minor they could not leave her in the house and that as it was a 3 bedroom house it was needed for a family. So it will probably be back to square one when her granny passes.
Contemporary sociologists have a nice cuddly descriptive term for this type of non traditional family unit – “a blended family”. Its essential…mandatory even,to be non judgemental about such social constructs so i will say only…well done.
You know the sad thing about this.
In a decades time some angry feminist or rights group activist will accuse him of having had a privilieged white male existence.
And social media will believe them.
Ireland 5 to 10 years on ?
Land of the free, home of the brave. Shocking how those in most need are let down by society.
For the love of God tell me if I can donate to this family. I don’t have much but I will send what I have. I can’t comprehend what these people have been through. Is this America?
Yeah.
Obama’s America.
Democrat’s America.
thejournal.ie you are way to PC with what people want to say, shame on you.
Ah god she left the buying of his birthday cake til the middle of his birthday party. …..that’s a bit odd
If only the Patriarchy would come to this guy’s rescue
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