Film Hub Fortnightly – September
A mixture of classics and newer titles are still filling up the schedules of Northern Ireland’s newly reopened cinemas.
At the Queen’s Film Theatre, you can currently see Tenet (2020), Christopher Nolan’s new time bending sci-fi spectacle. Along with Broken Law (2020), an Irish crime directed by Paddy Slattery and starring John Conners about two brothers on the opposites of the law in the midst of a Dublin gang war. You can also see Babyteeth (2019), an acclaimed Australian coming of age comedy drama about a seriously ill teenager who falls for a troublemaker.
From the 4th the QFT will be showing the previously screened Les Misérables (2019), a drama set in a Parisian neighbour where high tensions are flared up by police brutality. From the 11th you will also be able to see one of the films that inspired Les Misérables, with French classic La Haine (1995), starring Vincent Cassel, screening as part of its 25th anniversary.
The Strand Arts Centre are also still showing Tenet, along with Russell Crowe road rage thriller, Unhinged (2020) and the Pixar fantasy, Onward (2019). You can see The New Mutants (2020), a Marvel spin-off starring Maisie Williams and Anya Taylor-Joy, and 100% Wolf (2020), a family friendly animation about werewolves. Over the new few days, you will be able to see the award winning Korean thriller Parasite (2019) and the ensemble whodunnit Knives Out (2019) at The Strand. While they will also be showing older titles such as The Karate Kid (1984) and Singin’ in the Rain (1952).
Fans of classic horror should keep an eye on the Movie House, who are screening Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1981) and William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973), surely the scariest of them all.
Moving to online now, there has been a few new titles added to the QFT Player. Following on from the addition of We Were There (2014), you can now stream for free Armagh Stories: Voices from the Gaol (2015), another film derived from the moving image oral history project, the Prison Memory Archive. That film was directed by one of the project’s organizers Cathal McLaughlin who also has another film streaming for free on the player. Co-directed with Siobhán Wills, It Stays With You: Use of Force by UN Peacekeepers in Haiti (2018) is a documentary investigating the collateral damage caused by UN peacekeeping raids in the Cité Soleil neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
If you are interested in exploring more of the Prison Memory Archive, they recently launched a new website (https://www.prisonsmemoryarchive.com/), where along with information about the archive you find scores of clips and other short and feature length films derived from its footage.
Cinemagic's YouTube channel continues to offer excellent film making masterclasses, and also features insightful film reviews by young people from across NI.