STRANGER THAN FICTION DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL 2007

The Undertaking

The Lynch family has been in the mortuary business since 1948. They are funeral directors operating in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. Thomas Lynch an undertaker for over 30…

Thursday 13th Sep 2007 20.45

In the early 1800s Sarah Island in Maquarie Harbour, Tasmania, was considered the most notorious and brutal penal colony in the British Empire. In 1822, seven convicts made an escape…

Friday 14th Sep 2007 13.00

The popular image of the 'Tan War' is of Flying Columns battling it out with British troops in the hills of Cork and Tipperary. In truth, however, the decisive battles…

Friday 14th Sep 2007 13.00

The Catalpa Rescue

In 1868, the HMS Hougemont embarked on its final voyage as a British convict ship. In its hold, 329 of Britains 'most depraved' criminals and 63 'Fenian' prisoners. They could…

Friday 14th Sep 2007 14.05

Mise, Sean O Riordain

Sean O Riordain (1916-77) is the greatest Irish language poet and one of our leading poets in any tongue. His work stands as a testament to his genius and extraordinary…

Friday 14th Sep 2007 15.10

It has been over 40 years since George Morrison's Mise Eire and Saoirse lit up our screens, and over 30 years since he last made a film. Dublin Day is…

Friday 14th Sep 2007 15.20

Thirty miles north of Dublin lies a collection of colourful chalets and rusting fairground rides. This is Mosney, for fifty years a family holiday destination, which at its peak could…

Friday 14th Sep 2007 17.00

Typography, graphic design and global visual culture find their home in this witty and intelligent film. The proliferation of a typeface which celebrates its 50th birthday this year …

Friday 14th Sep 2007 19.00

Flight of the Earls

On the 14th September 1607, Hugh O Neill, Earl of Tyrone, one of Ireland's most charismatic political leaders who led the Nine Years War against England, along with most of…

Friday 14th Sep 2007 21.00

Jack Doyle A Legend Lost

Jack Doyle was the real deal: a heavyweight boxing champion from the mean streets of Cobh, blessed with a pure tenor voice and rugged good looks. 'The Gorgeous Gael' hung…

Saturday 15th Sep 2007 11.00

Pleasure at Her Majesty’s

Roger's Graef's first documentary with Monty Python member John Cleese was an Amnesty International comedy benefit gala, the forerunner of Comic Relief. Cleese, along with Amnesty's Assistant Director Peter Luff…

Saturday 15th Sep 2007 11.15

Saviours centres on a boxing club in Dublin's north inner city, St Saviour's Olympic Boxing Academy. It's not a pretty club (are they ever?), but for three hopeful boxers from…

Saturday 15th Sep 2007 12.00

Academy Award®-winning director Jessica Yu examines the essence of human drama: extremism. Her film features four individuals who have been devoted to personal odysseys a cause, a quest, an…

Saturday 15th Sep 2007 13.00

A Complaint of Rape

This fly-on-the-wall documentary on the Thames Valley Police captured a group of male detectives persuading a woman to drop her rape accusation, by being relentlessly grotesquely dismissive to…

Saturday 15th Sep 2007 13.25

The Pere-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, perhaps the most beautiful graveyard in the world, is a landmark devoted to art, love and death. As the final resting- place of a gifted…

Saturday 15th Sep 2007 15.00

Iraq in Fragments

This prize-winning documentary is a genuinely awe-inspiring work of cinema verite filmmaking. Longley spent more than two years filming in Iraq, often under extraordinary duress, to create this stunningly photographed,…

Saturday 15th Sep 2007 15.30

Roger Graef Masterclass

Aimed at industry professionals with experience of documentary filmmaking, this is a chance to hear how one of the world's leading Documentary film-makers gets the job done. The Masterclass will…

Saturday 15th Sep 2007 16.00

Losers & Winners

German efficiency and Chinese industriousness pass each other on globalization's economic ladder in this revealing, candid and wryly humourous look at the efforts of 400 Chinese workers, supervised by 30…

Saturday 15th Sep 2007 17.15

A Very British Gangster

Donal MacIntyre is Britain's best known investigative journalist. He first met Dominic Noonan, the head of the Noonan crime dynasty, in Britain's high security Belmarsh Crown Court. 'Everybody I know…

Saturday 15th Sep 2007 19.00

Manufacturing Dissent:Uncovering Michael Moore

Manufacturing Dissent Uncovering Michael Moore is an expose documentary on film-maker and polemicist Michael Moore. It chronicles the supercharged climate in America that has fuelled Moore's transition from struggling…

Saturday 15th Sep 2007 21.00

Short Film Competition

Losing Myself: Stewart Director: Alice Nelson Country: Scotland. Duration: 7 mins. Stewart Lee (80) is a life-long artist; this film explores how his passion for art and creativity persists through…

Sunday 16th Sep 2007 12.30

Escape From Suburbia

In Escape from Suburbia: Beyond the American Dream, Canadian documentary film-maker Gregory Greene, director of the hugely successful The End of Suburbia (2004), takes us on a journey of discovery…

Sunday 16th Sep 2007 14.15

A Winter’s Journey

As the film opens, Kalle Koiso-Kanttila is at a dead end, devoid of self-esteem, burdened by the past, unable to support himself and his family. His career is overshadowed by…

Sunday 16th Sep 2007 16.00

Our Daily Bread

This film creeps into one's life with beautiful stealth: it is a documentary about what we eat and where it comes from. Stripped of voiceover, left with images and their…

Sunday 16th Sep 2007 17.45

In 1965 Dr Yash Pal Suri left India for Darlington, Northern England. He bought a pair of Super 8 cameras, projectors and reel-to-reel audio mixers, sent one to his family…

Sunday 16th Sep 2007 19.00

In the Shadow of the Moon

In what remains one of the most incredible human accomplishments to date, American spacecraft voyaged to the Moon between 1968 and 1972, and enabled twelve men to walk upon its…

Sunday 16th Sep 2007 21.00