Menu
Director
Ciaran Cassidy
Credits
Producer: Maria Horgan
Cinematography: Richard Kendrick, Jaro Waldeck
Writer: TBC
Category
Documentary
Between 1969 and 1995, women all over Ireland competed to win the Housewife of the Year, a competition celebrating “cookery, nurturing, and basic household management skills”. Broadcast on RTÉ from 1982, the programmes featured not just the competition itself but also footage of the contestants at home – creating a vivid, nationwide tapestry of ordinary lives. Here, former contestants share our bewilderment at their acceptance of societal strictures and recount their experiences of marriage bars, contraception, Magdalene institutions, financial vulnerability, marital breakdown, and shame. The film is a poignant, often hilarious, and uplifting story of a generation of resilient women and a country in transition. Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn World premiere: CPH:DOX, March 2024 Awards Best Irish Feature Documentary, Galway Film Fleadh 2024
76 minutes, Ireland, 2024, Colour
A COMPLETE UNKNOWN 15:10, 20:20
A REAL PAIN 16:40, 20:50
BLUE ROAD – THE EDNA O’BRIEN STORY 12:00, 18:40
HARD TRUTHS 13:00 (OC), 18:10
MARIA 14:10
PRESENCE 17:15
THE BRUTALIST (70MM) 13:15, 19:10
WILD STRAWBERRIES: BLITZ 11.00
The IFI is supported by The Arts Council