For about a century, June 16th has been a day of celebration for fans of James Joyce, who honour the writer’s work by embarking on the same pilgrimage around County Dublin that Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of his magnum opus, Ulysses, took in 1904.
Between Ulysses’ first publication in 1922 and the official establishment of Bloomsday in 1954, Joyce fans had reenacted the order of Bloom’s eighteen-hour trek as written, which Joyce had observed in his lifetime.
Fourteen years after Joyce’s passing, Bloomsday was formally recognised in Dublin, and exactly forty years later, in 1994, it was expanded into a week-long festival to venerate not only Joyce but the arts as a whole.
For the 2020 edition of the Bloomsday Festival, the British-Irish filmmaker Tommy Creagh established the Bloomsday Film Festival, which was initially held remotely due to the pandemic.
“It went from just a few films about James Joyce to an actual film festival, which revolves around Bloomsday [and] James Joyce, but not even that specifically,” Emma Fagan, the Bloomsday Film Festival’s Co-Producer, tells Totally Dublin.
“Anything really modernist, anything inspired by Joyce. That could be films about poetry, it could be a literature film, Dublin films are a big thing for the festival, and experimental films, as well. So, it doesn’t have to have a Joycean theme, as such. It’s quite broad.
Noting that “Joyce is Ireland’s most famous modernist,” Fagan highlights “Modernism” as a key theme of what the film festival looks for. Beyond narrative films and documentaries, the festival encompasses experimental material and other forms of artistic expression, like dance, theatre, music and, of course, poetry and literature.
Expanding on this, Fagan says, “Joyce was influenced by cinema. He may have also been interested in our event, Joyce and the Magic Lantern, which harks back to pre-cinema films, you could say. It features lantern slides from that era. So, it is really broad.
“If you come to see any of the films during the festival, you will notice, ‘That’s not very directly related to James Joyce or Bloomsday,’ but it does fit into our criteria.”
Fagan admits that the decision to expand thematic eligibility was based on an initial uncertainty about the quantity of Joyce-related films that would be available; a concern which turned out to be unfounded. “We thought that there’d be fewer Joycean films, but they’re being made now, more and more,” she says.
“It’s just amazing to see young film students and young people fascinated by him. […] If you look at the films in the film festival, even the ones that aren’t Joycean, you can just see that they’re trying to do something different, and I think that’s what the festival champions. He was out there on his own, doing something very different, and that’s what the festival is trying to showcase with filmmakers.”
Highlighting this year’s selection, Fagan says, “So, there are five short film programmes. Then we have two feature films. We have Horrible Creature by Áine Stapleton, and that’s part of a trilogy of films about Lucia Joyce. So, it’s going that route, talking about his daughter, and there’s a lot of dance involved with that.
“And Songs of Blood and Destiny, directed by Trish McAdam. That’s based on a poem called “iGirl” by Marina Carr. That screened at the IFI a couple of years ago, but that’s one to see on the big screen if you haven’t seen it. There will be Q&As with both of those films.
“In the IFI on Bloomsday itself, we’re screening what’s called A Volta Ciné Concert. So, it’s seven short films from the time that Joyce opened the first cinema, the Cinematograph Volta, in Mary Street, which is now a Penneys, unfortunately. [Laughs] So, that’s a huge deal.
There will also be a talk at that from an academic at the University of Dundee, Dr Keith Williams, who has written a book about Joyce and pre-cinema, so that will be really interesting.”
Fagan also highlights the New York-based nonprofit The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation, who seek to highlight the significance of poetry to an international audience.
The foundation are supporting this year’s film festival, and will be hosting a free event at Belvedere College on the 13th, titled Universal City, which takes its name from this quote by Joyce:
“For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin, I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal.”
The Bloomsday Film Festival takes place as part of the Bloomsday Festival from June 11th to 16th. The full programme and event tickets can be found at bloomsdayfestival.ie
bloomsdayfestival.ie/bloomsdayfilmfestival
Words: Aaron Kavanagh
