| Events Calendar · Music · Culture · Dance · Home |
1308 W. Dayton St.
UW map to locate Union South and nearby Parking Lots 17 & 20 http://map.wisc.edu/
Note: Parking is free on Saturday and Sunday in lots 17 and 20
The Celtic Cultural Center of Madison in collaboration with the Wisconsin Union Directorate Film Committee and the UW-Madison Celtic Studies Program presents the 2011 Celtic Film Festival.
Free admission to this festival is made possible by the generous support of the Irish Film Institute, Culture Ireland, the Arts Council and the Irish Film Board – Dublin, Ireland, and the partnership with the Wisconsin Union Directorate Film Committee.
The wide variety of feature films and shorts from award-winning contemporary directors in Ireland, Wales, Cornwall and Scotland include animation, documentaries, dramas and comedies. This year’s festival showcases selections in English as well as the Irish, Welsh and Cornish languages with English subtitles.
Highlights include Patagonia which has been selected as the UK nomination for Best Foreign Language film for the upcoming Academy Awards and Blazing the Trail: the O'Kalems in Ireland. Blazing the Trail is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 19th. Peter Flynn, film historian, writer, director, and cinematographer as well as co-founder of the Boston Irish Film Festival, will be in Madison to present his work on the Kalem production company. “Blazing the Trail traces the experiences of the ‘O’Kalems’— Sidney Olcott and Gene Gauntier of the New York-based Kalem Film Company—who made close to 30 films in Ireland in the early 1910s, and features never-before-seen footage and images underscored by an evocative selection of music from the period. The result is a lively and moving celebration of Ireland, the O’Kalems, and the art of the silent cinema.”
| Saturday, November 19 | Sunday, November 20 | 1:00 pm | Cornish shorts (52 minutes) Y Fargen (10 minutes) |
1:00 pm | Irish shorts (81 minutes) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3:00 pm | The Runway (95 minutes) | 3:00 pm | Jig (99 minutes) |
| 5:00 pm | Parked (94 minutes) | 5:00 pm | Kings (88 minutes) |
| 7:00 pm | Blazing the Trail (86 minutes) followed by Q&A |
7:00 pm | Patagonia (118 minutes) |
| 9:30 pm | NEDS (124 minutes) | ||
RSVP to the festival here!
Tom and the Giant. 2008. Director: Will Coleman.
Holiday ruined by rain, traffic, and road-works? You could only hope for roadside entertainment like “Once upon a time Cornwall was ruled by Giants…”
Jean and Diane 2.
2007. Director: Patrick Evans.
Two elderly ladies from bingo reflect on life now that their husbands are gone.
How Madge Figgy Got Her Pig. Animation & Puppets.
1997. Director: Julia McClean.
Celtic Film Festival 1998 Award for Young People under 12 Category. The story of crafty Madge is based on the landscape of the Cornish Droll-teller.
Nebes Geryow A-dro Dhe ‘n SFW.
2008. Director: Jack Morrison.
Winner of the Govynn Kernewek Award 2007. English and Cornish with subtitles. Cornish is a living language with a Standard Written Form. This film is a postcard to the thoughts and feelings of the Cornish people.
Pymp Gwel.
2003. Director: Andrew Edmonds.
Cornish with English subtitles. Kernewek for 5 pieces or viewpoints. An irreverent accompaniment to Pol Hodge’s Cornish poetry.
Welsh short
Y Fargen (The Arrangement). 2005. Director: James Nee.
Welsh with English subtitles. Two brothers, Maredudd and Caradog, get together for a farewell party at a country house before one leaves for the US. They make a pact to meet in the same place in one year’s time but Caradog dies in an accident before he can return home. Maredudd tries to deal with his grief by keeping the pact and reliving their last moments together.
Paco is a 9 year old living in 1980s rural County Cork anticipating the return of his Spanish father when out of the night sky comes a blazing light and a crash. A Colombian pilot emerges from the wreck. Thus begins the adventure for the small community inspired by Paco’s creative English translation of Ernesto’s story of his family desperately awaiting his return to South America.
Colm Meaney is Fred, middle-aged and recently returned to Dublin from England. Colin Morgan plays Cathal, a young drug addict, with gentle cheerfulness. They are neighbors living in their cars by the sea. Cathal sees potential in Fred and brings an infectious joy to their dismal environment. As Fred flourishes and Cathal descends into the oblivion of the drug world, those closest to Cathal reflect on the different influences he had on their lives.
Superbly researched and documented, this is the story of the Kalem Film Company in Ireland in the 1910s. “Affectionately known as the O’Kalems, actress Gene Gauntier and director Sidney Olcott and their crew became the first American filmmakers to shoot overseas and the first to produce films that reflected the realities of the Irish experience.” Peter Flynn will on hand to present the film. Q&A follows the screening.
Nominated for 4 Scottish BAFTA awards. This is the story of a promising young student who is overwhelmed by the grim environment of 1970s in working class Glasgow. Mullan focuses on the hopeless outlook for children under constant barrage from mercurial alcoholic parents and contemptuous teachers. With glimmers of humor the film has been described as “sharply written and brilliantly acted.”
Agricultural Report. Animation. 2004. Director: Melinda Sydney Padua.
One resourceful cow’s reaction to the threat of Foot and Mouth Disease.
Boris.
2004. Director: Stephen Burke.
Irish officials planned a gala reception for a Russian dignitary during a 1994 stopover at Shannon Airport but he won’t get off the plane. Diplomatic relations are in danger!
Bye Bye Now. Documentary. 2009. Director: Ross Whitaker.
Best Short Documentary at numerous US and European film festivals. Documenting the removal of the iconic phone boxes from the Irish countryside, the film records their role in romantic and humorous memories of courtship, marriage, and births. And then there was the unfortunate incident when 2 women got stuck…the teller of the tale is still laughing.
Cáca Milis. 2001. Director: Jennifer Keegan.
Irish with English subtitles. Engrossed in her novel a woman travelling on a train is irritated by the arrival of a talkative blind man (Brendan Gleeson). When he ignores her insensitive rebuffs she takes revenge.
Filleann an Feall.
2000. Director: Frankie McCafferty.
Irish with English subtitles. In the “I Went Down” of Irish shorts, two bumbling criminals set out for Connemara to buy poitín. The wily characters they meet aren’t as dumb as they look. The cow rates a place in the credits.
Frankie. 2007. Director: Darren Thornton.
Frankie is only 15 but he’s about to become a father. Taking the responsibility seriously he trains with a doll and stroller and is taunted by his friends on the street. You’ll love him even when he gives into teenage temptations and parks his training wheels at the curb.
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty. Animation. 2008. Director: Nicky Phelan.
Granny has a unique interpretation of Sleeping Beauty guaranteed to keep her granddaughter awake all night.
This documentary of the 2010 Oireachtas in Glasgow presents Irish dancing’s most accomplished competitors for the world title. We meet fiercely determined and articulate young dancers representing the US, Ireland, Scotland, England and Russia at this exhilarating international extravaganza. We applaud the winners, but celebrate the gracious fraternity expressed by all.
Ireland's entry for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2008 Academy Awards. Inspired by the play “Kings of the Kilburn High Road,” the film opens with the affecting scene of 6 young friends departing from the west of Ireland for a new life in England. After many years of separation they come together for the funeral of one of the group. Though their paths have diverged greatly they remain immigrants who hold hope for a home and the cohesion of friendship.
Selected as the UK entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. A young couple travel to Patagonia to photograph Welsh churches built by early settlers and to revive their flagging relationship. An older Argentinean woman leaves her home to travel to Wales in search of her mother’s birthplace. This is a film of “big landscapes and intimate portraits.”