Irish films take Arts Court spotlight
By Rachel Jaskula
The Ottawa Irish Film Festival opened March 31 at Arts Court with a screening of A Date for Mad Mary.
The film is about Mary McArdle, who goes home to Drogheda, Ireland after being in prison. She learns that her best friend is engaged and Mary is supposed to be her maid of honour.
Other films to be shown shown at the festival on Saturday, April 1 include: War of the Buttons at 2 p.m., Atlantic at 5 p.m., and The Young Offenders at 8 p.m.
On the last day of the festival, Sunday, April 2, the film Dance Emergency will be screened at 2 p.m. and Handsome Devil at 5 p.m.
Handsome Devil is about two boys, a loner and a star athlete, who have to share a room at their boarding school and end up becoming friends.
John Butler, the director of Handsome Devil, said the film was based on his passion for American high school films and his childhood. “I grew up gay and being really into sports and for a long time I wasn’t able to reconcile those two things. It took me a long time to realize that you don’t have to be one thing or the other.”
Butler will be engaging in a live question and answer period with the audience via Skype after his film is screened at the festival.
Handsome Devil was shown at Toronto’s TIFF last October, when Butler had a chance to travel from Ireland to Canada to attend the festival. The production was released in the U.S. in October.
Butler’s film The Stag was also featured at the Irish Film Festival in 2015. “In the case of both of my films, their first world premiere has been on Canada soil, so it’s cool to be going back again.”
Patrick Murray, the creator of the Ottawa Irish Film festival, said people who attend the festival can look forward to, “quality, contemporary Irish films.”
Butler said this festival is a great opportunity for people to experience Irish culture. “Irish culture is something that resonates around the world because of our diaspora being so big, but also because some of the stories we tell are universal.”
Eithne Considine Shankar, a member of the festival’s board of directors, said the event demonstrates that commemorating Irish heritage is about much more than celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. “Our mandate is to promote Irish culture through film because at this time of the year we get a really bad impression.”
Murray said there’s something for everyone at the festival and everyone should go. “Anybody who loves film, there’s all genres there, all types of film…including a children’s film.”
The festival is not only directed towards people who are Irish, said Shankar. “We set up the program in such a way that it appeals to everybody.”
Murray said creating a film festival has always been a “hobby” for him.
“I was looking around Ottawa for what festivals are playing and Ottawa has a huge Irish component,” he said, “and I realized that there was no Irish film festival so I decided to start one up.”