Foyle Film Festival to begin in Derry

THIS week marks the start of the two-week-long Foyle Film Festival which champions small and independent cinema from around the world and close to home.

The Derry festival is in its 37th year and runs until April 27, with a wide range of new and vintage choices for filmgoers to choose from.

One of the most anticipated showings is the film ‘Baltimore’, which depicts the true life story of English woman, Rose Dugdale (Imogen Poots), who enjoys a life of wealth and privilege, but her rebellious nature soon leads her down a militant path. During the political turmoil of the 1970s, her sympathy towards the IRA led to her involvement in the failed plan to bomb Strabane police station from a helicopter, 50 years ago.

The film will be screened on April, 25 in the Nerve Centre.

GROCERY RUN

Another film with some Tyrone interest is a short documentary, ‘The Grocery Run,’ based on a mobile grocery shop ran by the McConnell family from Gortin. The documentary features testimony from local people who used the shop and an interview with 92-year-old Pat McSwiggan who worked as the driver of the shop for nearly 50 years.

The film will be shown this Saturday at the Nerve Centre for free at 2pm.

A preview screening is also taking place of Best Irish Film at 2024 Dublin International Film Festival, ‘That They May Face The Rising Sun.’ Joe (Barry Ward) and Kate Ruttledge (Anna Bederke) have returned from London to live and work among the small, close-knit community near to where Joe grew up. Now deeply embedded in life around the lake, the drama of a year in their lives and those of the memorable characters around them unfolds through the rituals of work, play and the passing seasons as this enclosed world becomes their everywhere.

The film will also be shown in the Nerve Centre on April 16.

The Foyle Film Festival’s Light In Motion awards will take place at the end of the festival with the recipients of prestigious awards qualifying for consideration in the Live Action and Animated Short Film categories of the Academy Awards without needing a theatrical run.

For the full line-up of films and what is on offer at the Foyle Film Festival you can visit www.foylefilmfestival.org.