We love an IFI Festival and this is always one of their must sees. The annual celebration of non-fiction filmmaking takes place from Wednesday 10th to Sunday 14th September, bringing together bold voices, urgent topics, and inventive forms, to present a cutting edge mix of screenings, panel discussions, and public interviews. It’s impossible to pick out highlights but music lovers (and performers) of a certain age are bound to find many touchstones in Frank Shouldice’s Once We Were Punks and How To Build A Library, an inspirational triumph over adversity from Kenya in which the filmmakers document the quest to transform the formerly whites-only, colonial-era McMillan Memorial Library into a vibrant cultural hub for a new generation of Africans. The hot ticket is bound to be the Thurs Sept 11th screening of Gerry Adams: A Ballymurphy Man, to hear Adams’ uncensored perspectives on the conflict, a life spanning war and transition to peace, and an ongoing campaign towards Irish unity. It’s followed by a Q&A with Director Trisha Ziff and Adams, hosted by Betty Purcell.
IFI, 6 Eustace St, D2. Sept 10th – 14th. Info & Tickets: ifi.ie
