Film buffs are in for a real treat this week with the return of The Irish Film Institute Documentary Festival, an annual celebration of non-fiction filmmaking, which gets underway from Wednesday 10th to Sunday 14th September. Bringing together bold voices, urgent topics, and inventive forms, the festival presents a cutting edge mix of screenings, panel discussions, and public interviews. Providing a window for audiences to gain insights into stories and contemporary realities both here and internationally, this year’s iteration sees festival organisers bringing some brilliant new documentaries to Dublin. The packed programme boasts fourteen feature documentaries, including seven Irish premieres, two shorts programmes, and a public-facing industry panel illuminating the landscape of documentary making in Ireland today under the umbrella of IFI Spotlight.
This year’s festival opens with the Irish Premiere of Maia Lekow & Christopher King’s How to Build a Library, which has been described as, “a nuanced exploration of legacy and reclamation that extends beyond the library’s walls.”
The documentary takes us to Kenya’s capital Nairobi, where two intrepid young women, Shiro Koinange and Angela Wachuka undertake an inspirational yet daunting project to transform the formerly whites-only, colonial-era McMillan Memorial Library into a vibrant cultural hub for a new generation of Africans. Over the course of eight years, they must navigate local politics, bureaucratic resistance, raise millions for the rebuild, whilst tackling difficult questions about which histories should be preserved, and confront the lingering ghosts of Kenya’s colonial past.
Speaking about the work, directors, Maia Lekow & Christopher King said, “Shiro and Wachuka have made it their mission to not only rebuild this library physically, but psychologically as well. They have given us incredible access to film their lives and work, which we feel is an important and untold story of the urban Nairobi we know.”
The premiere takes place at 6.30pm on Wednesday September 10th. It will be followed by a Q&A with Directors Maia Lekow & Christopher King hosted by David O’Mahony.
Other highlights include the Irish premiere of Prime Minister, a film which follows Jacinta Ardern in her final year in office in New Zealand, Orwell, 2 + 2 = 5, a re-evaluation of the life of the famous author, and Gerry Adams, A Ballymurphy Man, featuring the big man’s uncensored perspectives on the conflict, a life spanning war, and an eventual transition to peace.
We’re also looking forward to catching The Art of Loss by acclaimed playwright Carmel Winters, a queer and quirky exploration, radiant with love and meaning, of aging and loss. Speaking about the film Lenny Abrahamson said, “It’s so beautiful, not like anything else I have seen. Very moving and funny and wildly original. And those beautiful dogs broke my heart. It deserves to be seen by everyone.”
The screening takes place at 2.10pm on Saturday September 13th will be followed by a wide-ranging conversation with Carmel Winters and Lenny Abrahamson.
The Irish Film Institute Documentary Festival takes place from Wednesday September 10th to Sunday 14th September. For full programme info and to buy tickets see ifi.ie
