Indie cinema returns to Donabate this month as the latest edition of local film festival the Bleeding Pig Film Festival is back. This September 16-18, some of the best Irish shorts and features of 2024 will be making their way to the Dublin coast.
Organised by Emma Fagan, for the last few years the Bleeding Pig Film Festival has served as the cinematic strand of the area’s wider cultural festival, and this year will see 15 shorts and one feature, one of the best Irish films of the year, being shown at the unique venue of Donabate’s St. Patrick’s Church of Ireland.
The short films programmed for Day One of the festival are all F-Rated, all written/and or directed by women. Filmmakers will be on hand after for a Q&A hosted by Sinead Brassil. Familiar names to indie film fans like Anna Rodgers and Gemma Creagh will have their films features, you can see star Hazel Doupe in Eva Birthistle’s Kathleen Was Here and emotional animation in Worry World. Admission is free for this selection of shorts, but booking is essential as the venue fills up fast, and you can secure your tickets HERE. See the films picked out for this Women In Film strand below.
Anthony and the Bees written and directed by Zoe Nolan
Of Mice and Dogs written and directed by Eve Duffy
Graphite on Canvas written by Aisling Keogh, director Jaka Joze Prosenik
Two Mothers directed by Anna Rodgers, produced by Zlata Filipovic
Kathleen Was Here written and directed by Eva Birthistle
Conveyance written and directed by Gemma Creagh
Missing You written and directed by Emma Ray
Worry World director Jessica Paterson written by Hugh O’Connor
7 more shorts screen on Day Two, across a variety of genres. Free admission again but booking essential, and you can get tickets now HERE. See Lochlainn McKenna’s Two For The Road, acclaimed across the festival circuit, Derek Ugochukwu’s latest film Pediment and more.
Room Taken written by Michael Whelan, directed by TJ O’Grady Peyton
Two for the Road written and directed by Lochlainn McKenna
Two Halves written and directed by Patrick Osborne
Bean Feasa written by Daniel Butler & Mike Henegan, directed by Daniel Butler
The Life of Lester Wink written and directed by Cassidy Harrison
Pediment written and directed by Derek Ugochukwu
Dembaya written and directed by Borja Espana Guillot
For the final day, the Bleeding Pig Film Festival have announced That They May Face the Rising Sun as this year’s feature film. Based on internationally acclaimed Irish author John McGahern’s award winning novel of the same name, the film is a vivid evocation of nature, humanity and life itself, set in a 1980’s rural community in Ireland.
Pat Collins’ latest film is an enriching experience, one of the best films released in Ireland this year. From our review earlier this year:
In sweet and steady rhythms That They May Face the Rising Sun, its lovely flow of language and slow flow of life, show great creatives like McGahern, Collins and his crew drawing from their experience, their empathy and their curiosity to create a reflection as beautiful as what you might find in the lake Joe and Kate’s farm overlooks. Loss and regret and missed opportunities are all woven through this year in the life but on balance they can’t dampen the mood – when the dead face the sun they’re safe that’ll it’ll always shine on them again, as it does often and exceptionally in this glowing spiel.
Tickets for the Wednesday 18th Septmber screening of That They May Face the Rising Sun will cost €10 and are available now HERE.
A festival for filmmakers to mingle and make connections, and for Dublin locals to get to know some great new films, the Bleeding Pig Film Festival is sure to go down well down in Donabate later this month.