This event took place on Saturday 26th  September 2015. 

A centrepiece of the Festival in recent years has been the world premiere of the Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board Reality Bites documentary shorts. This year’s selection is stronger than ever and is programmed alongside a brace of new independent shorts.

The Reality Bites shorts feature Katie Loncoln’s 45, and Niamh Heery’s Displaced. 45 is set in Reillys bar in Ardmore, West Waterford and is a portrait of a card game, ongoing since 1942, and its participants. Displaced, explores the global occurrence of displacement and how persons ease their own discomfort in being dislocated.

This year’s Independent shorts are as vibrant and thoughtful as ever. Winner of best doc award at this year’s Galway Film Fleadh, Paula Geraghty and Cara Holmes’ Our Gemma is a touching, funny story about identity and how one person responds to bigotry and political sectarianism in her life. The setting of the Guild Inn in Scarborough, Toronto, provides a backdrop for Anne Maree Barry’s new experimental documentary No Mean City, a dystopian vision of architecture, heritage and loss.

Sinéad McDevitt’s Ballsy, fresh from its official selection at Sheffield Doc Fest, is the story of 32-year-old Bondi-surfing advertising executive Ben, who lost a testicle and grew some balls. Sorcha Clark’s animation, Paper Planes, featuring the voice and drawings of her grandfather Ron Clark, is a tender account of his WW2 experience. Deirdre Mullins and Nathan Fagan’s Fallen Bird is a delicate portrait of a man making amends. Fallen Bird explores both the challenges of life as an ex-prisoner, and the truly transformative power of art.

Reality Bites

• 45 – Katie Lincoln. Ireland. 15 min. Col. 2015.

• Displaced – Niamh Heery. Ireland. 15 min. Col. 2015.

Independent

• Our Gemma – Cara Holmes and Paula Geraghty. Ireland. 12 min. Col. 2015

• Ballsy – Sinéad McDevitt Ireland/Australia. 8 min. Col. 2015

• Paper Planes – Sorcha Clark. Ireland. 5 min. Col. 2015

• Fallen Bird – Deirdre Mullins and Nathan Fagan Ireland. 8 min. Col. 2015

• No Mean City – Anne Maree Barry. Canada/Ireland. 15 min. Col. 2015

All shorts in this programme are in competition as part of our Audience Award for Best Short Documentary. Find out more here.

This event is screening as part of IFI Documentary Festival 2015 (September 23 – 27)