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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
AMÉLIE (25th ANNIVERSARY) 15.45
FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER 13.25
HOKUM 11.05, 18.15
ONCE UPON A TIME IN A CINEMA 20.10
PRIMAVERA 11.00, 20.35
ROSE OF NEVADA 20.20
THE STRANGER 13.05
THIS MORTAL COIL: ANXIETY + DEATH & TRANSFIGURATION 15.40
TRAD 13.20, 18.20
The IFI is supported by The Arts Council