Arts & Culture

Two Clare youth groups are calling on the people of the Banner County to register their votes for film projects they have shot for the X-HALE Film Festival 2013. Ennis Youth Project and Fishbowl Youth Service, Tuamgraney have devised and created films called Think Before You Inhale and Don’t Be Smokin, Be Smokin respectively and are competing for the Most Popular Online Award at the event.The X-HALE Film Festival is part of the X-HALE Youth Awards, an Irish Cancer Society initiative looking at novel ways to encourage young people to address smoking in their own communities. The festival sees over 38 youth groups from around the country enter a film for the showcase event and this year they will be in with a chance of winning awards under various categories.Ahead of the festival, which takes place on July 4, the youth groups will compete for the Online Award, seeing them vie against each other for the public’s vote. The films …

Artists with disability and deaf artists from Clare are being encouraged to take advantage of a cross-border grants scheme designed to nurture and develop their artistic talent.The Arts and Disability Awards Ireland (ADAI) scheme is managed by the Belfast-based Arts and Disability Forum (ADF) on behalf of both arts councils. The deadline date for receipt of completed applications is June 19.ADF chief executive Chris Ledger outlined the scheme is open to practitioners with all types of impairment, including unseen conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy and mental health conditions. “Some artists have never regarded themselves as disabled and so aren’t sure if they qualify for an award. If people aren’t sure they are eligible, they are welcome to contact us for advice” she said.The ADF offers appropriate support and guidance to all applicants during the application process and makes adjustment to allow for individual circumstance. For example, ADF is willing to accept applications in BSL or ISL if necessary and paperwork …

The Hangover Part III  DIRECTED BY: Todd Philips STARRING: Zach Galifanakis, Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Kim Jeong CERT: 15A IN The Hangover Part III, there is no hangover. There is no party, no debauchery, no excessive all-night consumption of heavy substances, from which a hangover might arise. In fact, I can’t remember any of the lead characters consuming anything stronger than a lollipop.The point here is not celebration but rehabilitation. That’s how it works in this new breed of bad boy movies. No matter how bad the boy is, no matter how crazy the wild man gets, in the end he will grow up and see the error of his ways. He will become a new man, or at least, a man who is now good enough for the girl he loves. Most of the time, this process only takes 90 minutes. It’s taken three films for the Hangover crew to get to it, but you knew they would and …

MILTOWN Malbay concertina player Edel Fox has never over-analysed how a traditional music session evolves. The best of them appear to sprout organically but once they’re over, that’s it. There’s no need for a post-mortem. However, Edel has had to be more forensic of late, having eyed a session from behind the camera.“I’m looking at it as a producer and a director so I’m looking at it much more critically, although I can never remember sitting back after a night in Friel’s or The Blonde’s in  Miltown and critically analysing a session,” she laughed.Recently, students of the higher diploma in television production at Waterford IT and Nemeton Productions screened their productions to family, friends, industry professionals and media journalists in the SGC cinema, Dungarvan.One of the programmes screened was a pilot music programme for TG4 directed, produced and presented by Edel, who is now based in Ferrybank, Waterford, where she also teaches traditional music classes. Edel is a former recipient …

THIS weekend, the Galway One World Centre will host the sixth Galway African Film Festival (GAFF).Kinvara-resident Trisha Buddin is one of the organisers and has been involved in the festival since the beginning. The festival will present a series of contemporary African feature films, shorts and documentaries, all of which will be free of charge.“I work for Galway One World Centre and six years ago, as part of Africa Day celebrations which take place on May 25 each year, we decided that we would do something a bit different and celebrate Africa as a whole and the countries of Africa,” Trisha explained.With greater cultural diversity in Galway’s towns and villages, Trisha believes the festival helps to break down stereotypes about the continent and its people.“We would like to open people’s minds a bit more and balance out the negative publicity. We want to bring a more positive side of African culture and people than people get to see and hear …

CONNECTIONS will be made in Mountshannon over the next two weeks as this year’s annual Iniscealtra Festival of Arts gets underway with a host of events taking place across the 11 days. This year’s festival theme is ‘Connections’. Sheila Pratschke is the special guest and she will open the festival at the Church of Ireland Mountshannon on Saturday at 8pm.Sheila grew up in Limerick and was a teacher in both Ireland and Africa before taking on the arts. She has been director of the Irish Film Institute and director of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, the artists’ retreat at Annaghmakerrig and is presently the director of the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris. Dermot Byrne and Florian Blancke will also be on hand to perform as part of the festival launch. Fishbowl Youth Club is celebrating 10 years this year and will hold a display of their creative young talent at the Fishbowl Café on Friday from 8pm. The youth group has …

{morfeo 186}