Poetic Truths: The Cinema of Pat Collins

IFI Press Release 23^rd July 2012

POETIC TRUTHS: THE CINEMA OF PAT COLLINS

Pat Collins’ rich and distinctive Irish documentaries are celebrated with a retrospective to coincide with his stunning new feature Silence

There’s a long and distinguished history of critics turned filmmakers including greats such as Truffaut, Wenders and Bogdanovich. To this illustrious canon add Pat Collins, Cork polymath, editor of the late, lamented Film West magazine and a former programmer of the Galway Film Fleadh. He made his first remarkable documentary in 1999 and hasn’t stopped since, producing consistently stunning documentaries at a breathless rate. The IFI will present a broad mid-career retrospective from the 4^th-21^st of August that showcases many of his features as well as a selection of his short works and which coincides with the release of his first fiction feature Silence which screens from 27^th July.

Collin’s eclectic filmography offers a series of deeply revealing artistic portraits, psycho-geographical topographies of Irish places, and experimental mood pieces. There’s a particular focus on rural living and those quiet rebels who, like the filmmaker, have a unique way of seeing.

One of the highlights of the season is 2011’s Tim Robinson: Connemara, Collins take on Robinson’s massively popular trilogy exploring the wilds of Connemara. The two men have kindred artistic souls, both sharing a profound, lyrical and heartfelt connection to the Irish landscape. There’s another exploration of place in Oileán Thoraí (Tory Island in Donegal) from 2001, somewhere Collins would return to a decade later in his new release Silence, a deeply immersive meditation on places free of man-made noise.

Collins’s portraits of artists in documentary demonstrate a considerable ability to capture some of the deepest and most personal parts of their character. His acclaimed Gabriel Byrne: Stories From Home sees the Walkinstown lad turned international film actor recount the events that have defined him with unstinting candour and a wry sense of humour. The season also holds a number of shorter portrait gems including Abbas Kiarostami: The Art of Living, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill:Taibhsí I mBéal na Gaoithe, and a particularly revealing portrait of one of Ireland’s finest modern writers in the final year of his life in John McGahern: A Private World.

Pat Collins will be interviewed by Derek O’Connor at the IFI on Tuesday 14^th August at 18.30.

Pat Collins Schedule

Silence is on release at the IFI from 27^th July

Talking to the Dead & Michael Hartnett – A Necklace of Wrens August 4^th 14.00

Gabriel Byrne: Stories from Home August 5^th 13.30

Tim Robinson: Connemara & Pilgrim August7th 18.30

What We Leave In Our Wake August 11^th 14.10

Shorter Works

Abbas Kiarostami: The Art of Living August 12^th 14.00

John McGahern: A Private World August 12^th 15.10

Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill:Taibhsí I mBéal na Gaoithe August 21^st 18.40

Oileán Thoraí August 21^st 19.50

Public Interview : Pat Collins with Derek O’Connor August 14^th 18.30

Tickets are available from the IFI Box Office on 01 679 3477 or online at www.ifi.ie. Tickets are at normal IFI prices except for the Shorter Works which are priced at €5 each. The Pat Collins Interview on August 14^th is FREE but ticketed.

For more media information, high-res images and interview requests please contact Patrick Stewart at the IFI Press Office on 01 679 5744 or email pstewart@irishfilm.ie.

The IFI acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council.

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