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Irish Film Institute, Dublin announces the line up for the
IFI Documentary Festival
running from 10 – 14 September 2025
Images and festival assets free to use across all media HERE
Tickets on sale Monday 28th July via https://ifi.ie/docfest/
Today, Monday 28th July, the Irish Film Institute (IFI) announces its lineup for IFI Documentary Festival 2025, its annual celebration of non-fiction filmmaking taking place from Wednesday 10th to Sunday 14th September. Bringing together bold voices, urgent topics, and inventive forms, the festival presents a cutting edge mix of screenings, panel discussions, and public interviews. It acts as a window for audiences into stories and contemporary realities both internationally and in Ireland, bringing the best new documentaries to Dublin, with 14 feature documentaries which include 7 Irish premieres, 2 shorts programmes, and a public-facing industry panel illuminating the landscape of documentary making in Ireland today under the umbrella of IFI Spotlight.
The 2025 festival will open with the Irish premiere of How To Build A Library, an inspirational triumph over adversity from Kenya in which the filmmakers document the quest to transform the formerly whites-only, colonial-era McMillan Memorial Library into a vibrant cultural hub for a new generation of Africans.
IFI Director Ross Keane said:
“The IFI Documentary Festival is a much-anticipated highlight in our annual calendar, offering audiences the opportunity to experience the very best in non-fiction storytelling from Ireland and across the world. Documentary is a unique and vital art form; its makers are pioneers, seeking out the untold stories of our world. Documentaries reveal the full spectrum of human experience, capturing both the ordinary and the extraordinary with honesty, bravery and urgency. This year, we invite audiences old and new to join us for a programme of bold, thought-provoking cinema that brings us closer to the world, and to each other.”
Festival Guests
This year’s festival boasts an exceptional selection of guests bringing both filmmakers and their subjects to the IFI stage for in-depth Q&As. From Gerry Adams joining the screening of Gerry Adams: A Ballymurphy Man with director Trisha Ziff to reflect on the 5 years of interviews that weave together to form this political portrait, Frank Shouldice getting the Once We Were Punks band back together, Lenny Abrahamson interviewing Carmel Winters about her poetic exploration of grief in The Art of Loss, and more. You’ll be given incomparable insight into this riveting programme of films and the journeys that shaped them. A notable highlight will be Victoria Mappleback and her son Jim joining for their film Motherboard. At 38, Mapplebeck found herself single, pregnant and broke. Forced to abandon her career in TV, she turned her camera on herself and Jim, documenting his life as he grew up and her journey through motherhood. Both Mapplebacks will be guests at a very special screening taking place during Jim’s first week at college in a full-circle moment that echoes Richard Linklater’s Boyhood (2014) in real life.
With more special guests still to be announced, this year’s festival promises a dynamic programme of candid discussion, personal reflection, and illuminating stories from behind the camera. Information will be available via ifi.ie/docfest-guests/
Current Affairs
Unprecedented access to some of the major political conflicts and personalities of our times feature across the festival’s programme. Facing War is an incredibly intimate exploration of Jens Stoltenberg’s last year as Secretary General of NATO, that gives us a fly-on-the-wall account of one of the most important political leaders of our time embarking on tense Ukraine negotiations with world leaders. Jacinda Ardern’s tenure as leader of New Zealand’s government comes to the fore in Prime Minister.
International Acclaim
Audiences will be treated to critically-acclaimed international entries ahead of the curve with the winner of the Audience Award at Sundance André is an Idiot presenting a wild journey to live life to the fullest in the face of death. Plunging further into the investigative field, Elizabeth Lo’s Mistress Dispeller, which premiered at Venice, is full of unexpected turns, following a professional for hire whose job it is to end affairs and infidelity by any means necessary in contemporary China. The latest entry from celebrated documentarian Raoul Peck, director of the Oscar nominated I Am Not Your Negro (2016), comes in the form of Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5. Embark on a dizzying dissection of contemporary global shifts towards authoritarianism, misinformation, surveillance, and populism from the ever prescient works of George Orwell.
Irish Highlights
Home-grown wonders abound, with a delightful yarn following one Irish man’s 1968 quest to beat the world record for being buried alive the longest in Beo Faoin Bhfód / Buried Alive!, artist and filmmaker Myrid Carten’s search for her missing mother in A Want In Her delivering a raw study on the cost of love, a multi-layered and multi-media essay film where Kilkenny’s highest peak, Brandon Hill, becomes a poetic protagonist in A Shooting on Brandon, and Nuala O’Connor presenting In Time – Dónal Lunny, the first film on the life and music of one of Ireland’s most outstanding artists.
Full festival line up below
Tickets available now at https://ifi.ie/docfest/ or from the IFI Box Office on 01 679 3477, or in person at the IFI, Eustace Street, Dublin 2.
The IFI is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.
AVAILABLE FILM TRAILERS:
A Shooting on Brandon
A Want In Her
Beo Faoin Bhfód / Buried Alive
Facing War
Gerry Adams: A Ballymurphy Man
In Time: Dónal Lunny
Mistress Dispeller
Motherboard
Prime Minister
The Art of Loss
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10TH
HOW TO BUILD A LIBRARY (18.30)
Christopher King, Maia Lekow | 103 mins | Kenya-USA | 2025 | Digital | F-Rated
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH
GERRY ADAMS: A BALLYMURPHY MAN + Q&A (18.00)
Trisha Ziff | 117 mins | Ireland-Mexico | 2025 | Digital | F-Rated
BEO FAOIN BHFÓD (BURIED ALIVE) + Q&A (20.50)
Daire Collins | 52 mins | Ireland | 2025 | Digital | Subtitled
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12TH
IFI SPOTLIGHT: REPORTING ON IRELAND’S FACTUAL SCREEN SECTOR (11.00)
IFI Documentary Festival welcomes Dr Judith Pernin and Rónán Ó Muirthile (both IADT), authors of a major new report on the Irish Factual Screen Sector. 90 mins.
PRIME MINISTER (18.10)
Lindsay Utz, Michelle Walshe | 101 mins | USA | 2025 | Digital | F-Rated
MISTRESS DISPELLER (18.20)
Elizabeth Lo | 94 mins | China-USA | 2024 | Digital | F-Rated
ONCE WE WERE PUNKS + Q&A (20.30)
Frank Shouldice | 96 mins | Ireland | 2025 | Digital
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH
IFI & DCU: MASTERS OF DOCUMENTARY (12.00)
100 mins | Ireland | 2025 | Digital | F-Rated
THE ART OF LOSS + Q&A (14.10)
Carmel Winters | 27 mins | Ireland | 2024 | Digital | F-Rated
A WANT IN HER + Q&A (15.40)
Myrid Carten | 82 mins | Ireland | 2024 | Digital | F-Rated
IN TIME – DÓNAL LUNNY + Q&A (18.00)
Nuala O’Connor | 95 mins | Ireland | 2025 | Digital | F-Rated
ORWELL: 2+2=5 (20.40)
Raoul Peck | 119 mins | USA-France | 2025 | Digital
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14TH
IFI & GALWAY FILM FLEADH: WHERE WE STAND (13.00)
A SHOOTING ON BRANDON + Q&A (15.20)
Michael Higgins | 110 mins | Ireland | 2025 | Digital
MOTHERBOARD + Q&A (15.40)
Victoria Mapplebeck | 87 mins | UK | 2024 | Digital | F-Rated
ANDRÉ IS AN IDIOT (18.10)
Tony Benna | 88 mins | USA | 2025 | Digital
FACING WAR (20.15)
Tommy Gulliksen | 100 mins | Norway-Iceland-Denmark-Finland-Sweden-Belgium | 2025 | Digital
IFI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL 2025
Festival notes by David O’Mahony, IFI Head of Cinemas, and Sunniva O’Flynn, IFI Head of Irish Film Programming
HOW TO BUILD A LIBRARY
Opening Film + Gala Irish Premiere
Wednesday 10th, 18.30
In Kenya’s capital Nairobi, Shiro Koinange and Angela Wachuka, two intrepid young women, undertake an inspirational yet daunting project to transform the formerly whites-only, colonial-era McMillan Memorial Library into a vibrant cultural hub for a new generation of Africans. Over the course of eight years, they must navigate local politics, bureaucratic resistance, raise millions for the rebuild, whilst tackling difficult questions about which histories should be preserved, and confront the lingering ghosts of Kenya’s colonial past.
DIRECTOR: CHRISTOPHER KING, MAIA LEKOW | 103 MINS | KENYA-USA | 2025 | DIGITAL | F-RATED
GERRY ADAMS: A BALLYMURPHY MAN
Thursday 11th, 18.00
Watch / share the trailer
Gerry Adams met Englishwoman Trisha Ziff, a community activist and founder of the “Camerawork Derry” workshop, at the height of the Northern Ireland conflict in 1981, remaining in contact for over forty years. This film weaves together 5 years of interviews with layers of photographs and moving images, many not seen before. Hear Adams’s uncensored perspectives on the conflict, a life spanning war and transition to peace, and an ongoing campaign towards Irish unity.
DIRECTOR: TRISHA ZIFF | 117 MINS | IRELAND-MEXICO | 2025 | DIGITAL | F-RATED Followed by a Q&A with Trisha Ziff & Gerry Adams.
BEO FAOIN BHFÓD / BURIED ALIVE
Thursday 11th, 20.50
In 1968, Mick Meaney, a Tipperary barman employed by Butty Sugrue (who brought Mohammed Ali to Dublin), was buried six feet under the London soil in a wooden coffin. Hundreds came to see his burial as he aimed to stay underground for 61 days to beat the world record. A delightful yarn told through terrific British and Irish film and TV footage, animation, and the recollections of Mick’s daughter Mary.
DIRECTOR: DAIRE COLLINS | 52 MINS | IRELAND | 2025 | DIGITAL | SUBTITLED
Followed by a Q&A with Daire Collins and James O’Brien Moran.
PRIME MINISTER
Irish Premiere
Friday 12th, 18.10
Prime Minister follows Jacinda Ardern during her tenure as leader of New Zealand’s government. With exceptional access to her day-to-day life, the film captures the personal and political pressures of leadership in a time of crisis, from the COVID-19 pandemic to mounting global tensions. With an unobtrusive approach, Prime Minister reveals Ardern’s quiet strength, vulnerabilities, and the challenges of maintaining compassion in an increasingly polarised world. A nuanced portrait of power, responsibility, and the human cost of governance in the 21st century.
DIRECTORS: LINDSAY UTZ, MICHELLE WALSHE | 101 MINS | USA | 2025 | DIGITAL | F-RATED
MISTRESS DISPELLER
Friday 12th, 18.20
Wang Zhenxi is a professional mistress dispeller; available for hire by couples experiencing infidelity, she is tasked with breaking up affairs by any means necessary. With strikingly intimate access, Elizabeth Lo reveals stories usually hidden behind closed doors, exploring the ways emotion, pragmatism and cultural norms collide to shape romantic relationships in contemporary China. Mistress Dispeller follows a real case of infidelity as Wang attempts to bring a couple back from the edge of crisis, as sympathies between husband, wife, and mistress begin to shift in surprising ways.
DIRECTOR: ELIZABETH LO | 94 MINS | CHINA-USA | 2024 | DIGITAL | F-RATED
ONCE WE WERE PUNKS
Friday 12th, 20.30
1980s Bailieboro, Co Cavan, four school friends form a punk band and set their sights on world domination. When the big breakthrough never comes, careers, adulthood, and emigration intervene. But when they meet up at a funeral 25 years later they pick up where they left off. Frank Shouldice (The Man Who Wanted to Fly) has found another bunch of witty Cavan men to beguile us as they reignite friendships and revisit their musical youth.
DIRECTOR: FRANK SHOULDICE | 96 MINS | IRELAND | 2025 | DIGITAL Followed by a Q&A with Frank Shouldice & Band Members.
THE ART OF LOSS
Saturday 13th, 14.10
The Art of Loss is a wholly original interspecies meditation on bereavement. Filmmaker and playwright Carmel Winters joins their dog pack in re-imagining the death of their mother and dog not as the end, but a beginning of new ways of seeing and being together. Recording every day for three years, returning to the same landmarks time and time again, Winters creates a queer and quirky exploration, radiant with love and meaning, of aging and loss.
DIRECTOR: CARMEL WINTERS | 27 MINS | IRELAND | 2024 | DIGITAL | F-RATED Followed by a wide-ranging conversation with Carmel Winters and Lenny Abrahamson.
A WANT IN HER
Saturday 13th, 15.40
When her mother goes missing somewhere in Ireland, artist Myrid Carten returns from London to find her and risks losing herself. Her search takes her into a feuding family, a contested house; and a history that threatens to take everyone down, including herself. An immersive, first person account of the practical and emotional complexities of a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship. A raw and deeply unsettling story about the cost of love, and how difficult it can be to escape.
DIRECTOR: MYRID CARTEN | 82 MINS | IRELAND | 2024 | DIGITAL | F-RATED Followed by a Q&A with Myrid Carten.
IN TIME – DÓNAL LUNNY
Saturday 13th, 18.00
Dónal Lunny is one of Ireland’s outstanding artists. Nuala O’Connor presents the first film on his life, revealing a peerless contribution to culture and music through major cultural, political and historic changes both in Ireland and globally. A founding member of Planxty, The Bothy Band and Moving Hearts, Lunny helped revive and transform Irish traditional and folk music. This exquisite portrait revels in the pleasures of the musical odyssey, featuring rare performances and a powerful reunion with Christy Moore.
DIRECTOR: NUALA O’CONNOR | 95 MINS | IRELAND | 2025 | DIGITAL | F-RATED Followed by a Q&A with Nuala O’Connor.
ORWELL: 2 + 2 =5
Saturday 13th, 20.40
Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5, directed by Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro), reexamines the life, work, and legacy of George Orwell through the lens of today’s turbulent political climate. Blending archival material with Peck’s signature essayistic style, the film draws powerful parallels between Orwell’s warnings about authoritarianism and the rise of misinformation, surveillance, and populism in the 21st century. As Peck interrogates the distortion of truth and the weaponisation of language, Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5 becomes both a searing critique of contemporary politics and a call to vigilance against the erosion of reality.
DIRECTOR: RAOUL PECK | 119 MINS | USA-FRANCE | 2025 | DIGITAL
A SHOOTING ON BRANDON
Sunday 14th, 15.20
Part documentary, part daydream, part getting lost on purpose, this personal multi-layered essay film positions Kilkenny’s highest peak, Brandon Hill, near the River Barrow and Graiguenamanagh, as the protagonist with supporting roles from a range of colourful characters – local historians, al fresco religious congregations, re-enactors, and filmmakers. Through alternative documentary methods, home movies, re-enactments, and meticulous research, Higgins, an award-winning experimental filmmaker, explores the past and present of the hill with a honed, formal approach that remains playful and humorous.
DIRECTOR: MICHAEL HIGGINS | 110 MINS | IRELAND | 2025 | DIGITAL Followed by a Q&A with Michael Higgins.
MOTHERBOARD
Sunday 14th, 15.40
At the age of 38, Victoria Mapplebeck found herself single, pregnant and broke; forced to abandon her career in TV, she turned her camera on herself and her son, Jim. Filmed over 20 years, Victoria captured each twist in Jim’s life, from the thumbs-up he gave during her first pregnancy scan to his first day at college. Honest, funny and infinitely relatable, Motherboard is a celebration of messy lives, single parenthood, and epic journeys close to home.
DIRECTOR: VICTORIA MAPPLEBECK | 87 MINS | UK | 2024 | DIGITAL | F-RATED Followed by a Q&A with Victoria & Jim Mapplebeck.
ANDRÉ IS AN IDIOT
Sunday 14th, 18.10
Eccentric advertising creative André Ricciardi learns he’s dying from a disease he could have detected with a colonoscopy and decides to document what time remains. His sobering diagnosis, enduring sense of humour, and insatiable curiosity, send him on a quest to learn how to die happily and irreverently. Winner of the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, this film is a comedic celebration of life, resilience and the beauty of the human experience, and a cautionary tale about listening to your doctor. A life-affirming film about death.
DIRECTOR: TONY BENNA | 88 MINS | USA | 2025 | DIGITAL
FACING WAR
Sunday 14th, 20.15
Jens Stoltenberg’s last year as Secretary General of NATO, filmed with unprecedented access to one of the most important political leaders of our time. As Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on, President Joe Biden persuades Stoltenberg, who vowed to stand by Ukraine, to extend his tenure. But as Western support falters and divisions among allies deepen, his promise hangs in the balance. NATO decisions must be unanimous and Stoltenberg is tasked with building consensus between global leaders including Zelensky, Erdoğan, and Orbán, and rally in support of Ukraine.
DIRECTOR: TOMMY GULLIKSEN | 100 MINS | NORWAY-ICELAND-DENMARK-FINLAND-SWEDEN-BELGIUM | 2025 | DIGITAL
IFI SPOTLIGHT: Reporting on Ireland’s Factual Screen Sector
Friday 12th, 11.00
IFI Documentary Festival welcomes Dr Judith Pernin and Rónán Ó Muirthile (both IADT), authors of a major new report on the Irish Factual Screen Sector. Funded by Coimisiún na Meán, this data-driven research illuminates how the sector functions, assessing those working independently and in the broadcast sphere. It identifies challenges and opportunities, making solid policy recommendations for sectoral growth. This session will launch this timely report, igniting much-needed conversation on the state of Irish documentary culture. 90 MINS
Dr Judith Pernin and Rónán Ó Muirthile will be joined by documentary makers, commissioners, and programmers to discuss their findings.
IFI & DCU: MASTERS OF DOCUMENTARY
Saturday 13th, 12.00
Striking shorts from emerging filmmakers await in this programme presented by the IFI and DCU. From the journalistic to the deeply personal, they testify to the elasticity of documentary. Programme includes: Beyond the Wake (Joe Rooney & Simeon Boris); The Invasives (Joe Reilly & Aashish Dangol); Watching Him Fade (Patrick Hever); The Ferryman (Aisling Murphy, Paul Frey & Oscar Pichel); The Wig for the Washing Up (Ellen Donovan-Hill, Diego Arribas, David Coughlan); The Cost of Asylum (Joshua Perry & Lisa Maslovskaya); Super Musical Bros (Fiachra Galvin & Michael O’Neill)
100 MINS | IRELAND | 2025 | DIGITAL | F-RATED
IFI & GALWAY FILM FLEADH: WHERE WE STAND
Shorts Programme
Sunday 14th, 13.00
Irish shorts exploring power, place and belonging. From asylum seekers in Dublin to farmers fighting to hold onto the land, Roma families reclaiming space in Donegal to an intergenerational South Armagh reflection on conflict and memory, a drag artist seeks acceptance and a haunting oceanic reckoning with history. Selected from the 2025 Galway Film Fleadh Shorts Programme, curated by Holly Buckley: The New Policy Regarding Homeless Asylum Seekers (Dennis Harvey); Hole in the Stone (Holly Marie Parnell); Anziety (David O’ Carroll); Aggregat (MJ Whelan); Sam Rom (Katie-Ruby McLaughlin Robinson); Dragon’s Teeth (Lennart Soberon).
100 MINS | IRELAND | 2025 | DIGITAL
BOOKING INFORMATION
Online: ifi.ie/docfest By phone: 01 679 3477 In person: IFI, 6 Eustace Street, Temple Bar, D2
Tickets to the Opening Gala are €17.00. All screenings are €15.00 IFI Members / €16.50 (incl. Festival Membership) Non-Members. IFI Spotlight panel discussion is €5.00
Ticket Bundles: 5 for €60 IFI Members / 5 for €65 (incl. Festival Membership) Non-Member 3 for €30 IFI Members / 3 for €35 (incl. Festival Membership) Non-Member
About the IFI
The Irish Film Institute (IFI) is Ireland’s national cultural institution for film. It provides audiences throughout Ireland with access to the finest independent, Irish and international cinema, including online via its streaming platform IFI@Home; it preserves and promotes Ireland’s moving image heritage through the IFI Irish Film Archive, and provides opportunities for audiences of all ages and backgrounds to learn and critically engage with film. As the only cinema with a 70mm projector, the IFI is the home of film in Ireland with a commitment to analogue exhibition.
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IFI Documentary Festival is supported by RTÉ Supporting the Arts.
The IFI acknowledges the support of our primary funder the Arts Council.
BLUE MOON 14.00, 20.50
BUGONIA 15.50 (35mm)
DIE MY LOVE 20.30
HORSESHOE 16.00, 18.30 (+ Q&A)
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT 13.30, 18.10
L’ATALANTE 16.10
PILLION 13.40, 20.40
SUNSET BOULEVARD (75th ANNIVERSARY RE-RELEASE) 18.20
The IFI is supported by The Arts Council
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