Docs Ireland launches its seventh festival programme celebrating documentary legends and announces new Irish Language Talent Development Scheme

Docs Ireland returns to Belfast this June (23^rd-29^th) with its seventh programme, showcasing hard-hitting, eye-opening, and life-affirming documentaries from Ireland and around the world. Dedicated to powerful non-fiction storytelling through premieres, screenings, and awards, it also features a robust industry programme, connecting filmmakers with leading commissioners and film financiers, drawing a host of influential industry representatives to the city.

Tickets for all events can be found here 

GALA SCREENINGS

Docs Ireland, in partnership with Queen’s University Belfast, is honoured to welcome former US senator George Mitchell for a Gala Screening and world premiere of The Negotiator directed by Trevor Birney (producer of Kneecap). The film explores Mitchell’s involvement in chairing the talks process that culminated in the Good Friday/Belfast agreement and will be followed by a Q&A with Senator George Mitchell and hosted by Miriam O’Callaghan.

Closing Docs Ireland this year will be the award-winning debut feature by Belfast-based artist Myrid Carten, A Want In Her. A deeply personal, beautifully conveyed film which explores the filmmaker’s relationship with her mother. Her search takes her into a feuding family, a contested house; and a history that threatens to take everyone down, including herself.

SPECIAL EVENTS 

This year Docs Ireland is excited to celebrate the work of three filmmakers whose impact on the world of film cannot be underestimated. World class editor Joe Bini (You Were Never Really Here, My Best Fiend, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed) will be live and in person at QFT for a live commentary on Werner Herzog’s classic Grizzly Man. 

The legendary Bob Quinn will be celebrated with an award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Documentary alongside screenings of his films The Family and Atlantean and no festival would be complete without a weird and wonderful exploration of the work of David Lynch in the The Pink Room – A Night Of David Lynch Talking And Being Talked About.

This Docs Ireland moves outside of Belfast for one night only for a special world premiere screening of Music For Domes directed by Dawn Richardson from Hosta Projects and scored by RÓIS, at the Armagh Planetarium.

Live performances accompanying documentaries have become a staple of Docs Ireland. Docs Ireland’s Night for Palestine will bring together artists from throughout Ireland to raise money for Palestine with a night of live music, poetry readings and talks, ending in a DJ set by David Holmes. 

Director of Docs Ireland 2024’s opening film and Pull Focus competition winner The Flats, Alessandra Celesia, returns to the festival with an extraordinary workshop blending art forms to explore the relationship between theatre and documentary with live excerpts from the soon-to-completed live documentary, ALIENS.

NEW IRISH DOCUMENTARY

Docs Ireland is dedicated to introducing the best in new Irish documentary and this is exemplified in the annual Pull Focus Irish Documentary Competition. From an investigation into the disappeared in Hunting Captain Nairac by Alison Millar, an exploration of folk horror in 1970s Northern Ireland in Operation Bogeyman by Simon Aeppli, Amanda by José Miguel Jimenez is an intimate insight into the life of a reclusive Dublin artist, Latina, Latina by Adrian Duncan and voiced by Wendy Erskine which follows an Irish geologist who discovers the diaries of her estranged father from fascist-era Italy and Born That Way by Éamon Little exploring disability, care and the life of Music journalist Patrick Lydon in the last years of his life.

This year’s Pull Focus competition also includes two documentaries in the Irish language; a career at a crossroads is explored in Paddy Hayes’ Irish language documentary David Keenan: Focla Ar Chanbhás/ Words on Canvas and Ag Taisteal Siar/Travelling Back takes a look at music in the Irish traveller community.

This year the festival will recognise acclaimed Irish cinematographer, stills photographer and documentary director Ross McDonnell, who tragically lost his life in 2023 with the Ross McDonnell Award for Best Cinematography in an Irish Feature, the winner of which will be selected from the films nominated for the Pull Focus Irish Documentary Competition by an independent jury.

Belfast Docs, a programme of short film created with The Hearth (commissioned by Belfast 2024), will see the world premiere of three short documentaries made in collaboration with Belfast community groups; Seeking Home directed by Gillian Callan, Stranded Dreams directed by Alison Millar and Ardoyne Youth Club directed by Seán Murray.

INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY

Docs Ireland’s Maysles Documentary Competition celebrates the best in international observational documentary. This year sees films from six different countries and four continents; Always: (A Letter to Childhood), a poetic coming of age exploration from China, Bogancloch, Ben Rivers’ follow up to the award-winning Two Years At Sea, is a subtle depiction of a quiet life in Scotland, from the same filmmakers as Oscar winning 20 Days in Mariupol, 2000 Meters to Andriivka is a devastating account of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. 

From Mexico comes Niñxs which follows a young woman exploring her transgender identity, How to Build a Library follows a group of women in Nairobi, Kenya in an 8-year struggle to establish a truly anti-colonial institution in the city and Silent Trees is the heartbreaking story of a young Kurdish girl in Poland who lost her mother at the Polish-Belarussian border. 

Docs Ireland this year will focus on three countries Palestine, Poland and Kenya. Alongside How to Build a Library is Shadow Scholars which explores the hidden industry of essay writing, directed by Eloïse King and executive produced by Steve McQueen. A collection of short films, From Ground Zero by Palestinian filmmakers document the devastation of the destruction of Gaza and also the resilience of the Palestinian people and A State of Passion follows heroic doctor Ghassan Abu Sittah as he faces his sixth war in Gaza and fights to bring vital medical care to the people of Gaza during the ongoing genocide. Finally this year Docs Ireland’s spotlight on Poland, in partnership with Krakow Film Festival, alongside Silent Trees brings short film Talking Heads (1981) and Everything Needs to Live  which follows the unusual life of athlete and animal rights activist Anna Kurkurina. 

Other international documentary offerings include; a crazy journey into the minds of Rocky Horror super fans in  Sane Inside Insanity, an experimental exploration of Space Tourism in Doppelgängers³ and a look at the invisible strings of consumerism that control our lives in You Need This. The Shellshock Music Documentary series also returns with Move Ya Body: The Birth of House directed by Elegance Bratton (The Inspection) and Pavements  examining iconic 90s indie band Pavement.

SHORTS 

Docs Ireland celebrates the contribution of short filmmakers to the Irish documentary landscape with two shorts competition programmes and 4 shorts selection programmes exploring everything from Belfast lamp lighters to queer nightlife in Dublin to the British Sumo wrestling championships, aemi (Artists and Experimental Image) return to Docs Ireland with a curated programme including shorts from Sarah Browne and Omar Chowdhury which engage in humour and performance, and both Ulster University and the Centre for Documentary Research at Queens University Belfast present a series of short showcases and talks.

INDUSTRY

Docs Ireland returns with a jam-packed industry programme of workshops, panels and networking opportunities. The BFI Doc Society’s Creative Documentary Making in Focus will present the first roundtable addressing issues in the documentary film industry across both the UK and Ireland.

The How to Fund Market and Sell a Documentary in a Post-Covid Landscape panel will provide vital industry insight into sustainable documentary filmmaking in our current landscape. This will be followed by a screening of Tom Burke’s documentary The Gap in Consent in which he spoke to Irish filmmakers about the complicated issue of consent and documentary participants.

The Anatomy of the Frame panel with world-class filmmakers such as Kate McCullough (An Cailín Ciúin/ The Quiet Girl, Normal People) and Magda Kowalczyk (Cow, High & Low – John Galliano), will be a fascinating deep dive into the work of cinematographers in documentary; the return of the Northern Ireland Screen Pitch in association with Yellowmoon and Docs Ireland’s Industry flagship Marketplace will bring decision makers from throughout the industry to Belfast to meet with filmmakers.

In collaboration with Cork International Film Festival, Docs Ireland has announced the first short documentary in the Irish language training/mentorship programme, supported by TG4, and the Irish Language Broadcast Fund. LASAIR New Talent Development scheme is an extension  of the IGNITE-Docs talent development programme which is currently in its fifth year.

The Docs Ireland Industry Pass is now available on the Docs Ireland website (£85 full price, £55 students) https://docsireland.ie/industry/industry-passes/

Michele Devlin, Chief Executive at Docs Ireland said: “Among the international guests, Docs Marketplace and brilliant films, audiences will find stories about incredible music, film culture, social justice, current world conflicts and the people who strive to resolve them. Rare archive and modern tales sit alongside brand new exhibition concepts, with fusion events including documentary and theatre, a planetarium and a homage to the great David Lynch. This year’s programme is bursting with creativity and talent from across the island of Ireland and beyond.”

Richard Williams, Chief Executive at Northern Ireland Screen commented: “We are proud to support Docs Ireland as it enters its seventh year, a festival that continues to be an important platform for both emerging and established documentary talent. Docs Ireland plays a key role in fostering cross-border collaboration, attracting international co-productions, and advancing the global reach of Irish documentary through sales and distribution opportunities. We’re especially pleased to see the IGNITE-Docs initiative expand through LASAIR, a new strand for Irish language short documentaries, developed in partnership with the Irish Language Broadcast Fund and TG4. It’s great to see the festival close with A Want In Her, directed by Myrid Carten — a project that received its first development grant at Northern Ireland Screen’s inaugural pitch in 2019 and stands as a testament to the long-term impact of this festival and its partners.”

Docs Ireland is supported by Northern Ireland Screen through the Department for Communities, Belfast City Council, Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, BFI/Film Hub NI, and British Council and is proudly sponsored by TG4, BBC NI, Yellowmoon, FinePoint Films and Stellify Media.