The Cedar Lounge Revolution

If Irish radical politics teaches you one thing it is the truth of the old saying that reality is stranger than fiction, which provides a nice little segue into the fact that the IFI’s annual documentary film festival begins on the 7th of September, with the bulk of documentaries taking place over the weekend of the 14th to 16th.

Those of us with an interest in Irish history might be most attracted to Get Collins, dealing with the ruthless conflict between Collins’ squad and British intelligence as distinct from the traditional Flying Column view of the War of Independence as put forward by Mr Loach. Now or Never deals with the feud between De Valera and Churchill and the implications of what, if anything, Churchill was offering for Irish entry into WW2.

A couple of others that stand out:

Mosney is an insight into the surreal world of what generations of Irish people knew as a holiday camp and which is now a hodge podge of asylum seekers from every corner of the world forced to live cheek by jowl in old holiday chalets.

Our Daily Bread is a film about food, what we eat, where it comes from and the processes by which it arrives on our table. Interestingly voiceover free, an unusual approach for a documentary, it relies on camera and sound work to tell the story of automaton workers and the animals they process.

Manufacturing Dissent is not the always watchable Chomsky documentary, but possibly an equally interesting dissection of Michael Moore’s approach to filmmaking by two US liberals who seek to separate fact from fiction.

Iraq in Fragments has already notched up a few awards on its way. It tells three stories of modern Iraq. An orphan boy apprenticed to the owner of a Baghdad garage, followers of the cleric Sadr rallying for regional elections, and a family of Kurds welcoming the American presence.

Can’t recommend this festival highly enough. The problem is not a lack of interesting films, but that too many films are shown at the same time and moviegoers never have the chance to see everything they want.  Highly recommended. And it you mention you saw it advertised on the Cedar Lounge, you get 10 percent off the price of the ticket.

Okay…..maybe not. But it might be worth a try.