Culch.ie » Allan

Film: Counting Sheep at the 22nd Galway Film Fleadh

Allan — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 20:28:53 +0000

Counting Sheep, a documentary by Romanian director Dieter Auner, is on this Friday 9th July in the Town Hall Theatre, Galway, as part of the 22nd Galway Film Fleadh. Dieter spent the better part of five years constructing this tale of Romanian sheep farmers, living among them in some of Europe’s most remote landscape. From the programme:

Counting Sheep chronicles a world, untouched for centuries, struggling with profound change. Since joining the EU, Romanians are free to work as agricultural labourers and earn more in one month than a year in their traditional occupation, as shepherds.
Against this changing landscape, Dieter Auner’s documentary introduces us to Albin Creta, a teenage Romanian shepherd from Northern Transylvania. We experience a year of his life as he works shepherding, cutting hay, making cheese and dipping sheep. In this sensitive documentary, the drama is observed in the minute: the purchase of a car, the selling of lambs, the departure for Germany, the dark nights on the mountain and the day to day routines. Albin and his family adapt to each trial, changing to meet the new demands asked of them.
One can feel the loving attention to detail to the world of the rural Romanians – who seem entirely oblivious to the documentary production documenting the small changes in their lives. Small changes, yet the harbingers of a new world.

I chatted to Dieter briefly today, and he told me about the documentary. There are no interviews, no voice-overs, no pieces to camera. He tried to let the story tell itself, to let the poetry of it recite its own tale. I put it to him it’s a fly on the wool documentary. He liked that.

Counting Sheep will be screened at 5pm this Friday 9th of July. Tickets are €7. Dieter will be attending the screening.

The 22nd Galway Film Fleadh opens tomorrow, and the full programme can be found here.

© Allan for Culch.ie, 2010. | Permalink | No comments yet | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dieter auner, documentaries, film, galway film fleadh, Movies & TV, romania, sheep farming

Get down here! Galway Arts Festival 12-25 July 2010

Allan — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:01:16 +0000

Summer heralds Galway at its most attractive: the city’s waterways achieve colours of an almost impossible intensity for the short duration of the warmest season. White swans swarm the Claddagh and Spanish Arch, blue dragonflies dance over the canals whose banks heave with explosions of flowers, and the daylight plays that golden trick that attracts painters and photographers west. Of course, there’s the Beijing-rivalling number of bikes that listlessly cake the canal beds, and the bobbing keg caught in the weir’s wake, but surely they only serve to remind the visitor of the playful high jinks that these heady days imbue in the imbiber.

Thus is set the backdrop against which the Galway Arts Festival takes place, kicking off this year on the 12 July and running until the 25th. The full programme is available online here, and bookings can be made here. A few of the theatre highlights include:

Penelope by Enda Walsh (Druid)

“I never thought I’d have the backbone for suicide but faced now with the likelihood of watching my own backbone being removed and flung onto that barbecue, I think it’s only fair that I should give suicide a shot.

A shot we can’t do… we have knives though.”

It’s 11.30am and already it’s 33 degrees Celsius. At the bottom of a drained swimming pool, four ridiculous men face their inevitable deaths, and play for an unwinnable love.

Druid’s previous partnerships with Enda Walsh (Edinburgh Fringe First winners The Walworth Farce and The New Electric Ballroom) have led to sell–out runs in six countries worldwide, wowing critics and audiences alike.

Freefall by Michael West (Corn Exchange)

A sudden shock and a man’s life flashes before his eyes. He experiences an intense rush of extraordinary images and tangled memories, revelations and lost connections. People, time and places swirl around him. As he valiantly attempts to stitch it all back together, will his luck hold out?

A sharp, humorous and exhilarating look at the fragility of a human life, performed with The Corn Exchange’s trademark blend of beauty, poignancy and comedy.

A huge hit at last year’s Dublin Theatre Festival, Freefall was awarded the 2009 Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards for Best Director and Best New Play.

The Grippe Girls by Eileen Gibbons (Electric Bridget)

The ancient and decrepit twins Obstina and Hildegard Grippe, played by Eileen Gibbons and Helen Gregg, are the last remnants of a bygone age, seeing out their final years in the crumbling remains of their once magnificent country pile. They have now agreed to be interviewed about their flamboyant and shameless past, much to the irritation of their faithful and equally ancient retainers, Margaret and Brigid, who are also twins.

While one set of twins drags forgotten skeletons and salacious tales out of the closet, the other set is determined to keep those same skeletons and stories carefully hidden away.

Citizenship by Mark Ravenhill (Galway Youth Theatre)

A frank and confrontational look at the confusions, desires and anxieties of a teenage boy on a journey of self discovery. This beautifully written, bittersweet comedy about growing up follows Tom’s journey as he tries to discover who he is.

© Allan for Culch.ie, 2010. | Permalink | No comments yet | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2010, Galway, Galway Arts Festival, The Arts, Theatre

Much like operating a TARDIS: Matt Smith & Orbital perform Doctor Who Theme at Glastonbury

Allan — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:40:44 +0000

Matt Smith: kinda silly, but very cool. Via Forbidden Planet.

© Allan for Culch.ie, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Doctor Who, Glastonbury, glastonbury 2010, Matt Smith, orbital

Summer Drama for Kids – 2 Week Drama Camps in Galway

Allan — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:27:44 +0000

Galway actor Sarah O’Toole will be running her popular kids’ drama programme this July.

First camp starts week of July 5th and runs for 2 weeks meeting on Tuesdays Wednesdays and Thursdays. Venue is Anno Santo Hotel, Salthill, Galway.

Second Camp starts week of July 19th and runs for 2 weeks meeting on Tuesdays Wednesdays and Thursdays. Venue TBC.

Two different age groups -
10-12 year olds – classes take place from 11.00am to 2.00pm
12-14 year olds – classes take place from 3.00pm to 6.00pm

Price: €120 per 2 week camp (18 hours quality tuition)

For any enquiries or to book a place call 087 237 3531. As there are only 12 places available to ensure quality tuition, it is advised to book as soon as possible! Fee payable in advance or on first session. Tutor is an experienced teacher and theatre practitioner with a Masters in Theatre Directing.

© Allan for Culch.ie, 2010. | Permalink | No comments yet | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: acting classes galway, acting courses, Drama, Galway

Annie West Exhibition, in hospital, making good recovery

Allan — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 10:41:46 +0000

If you’re around Galway it’s worth checking out illustrator Annie West‘s new work in the Art Corridor of University College Hospital, Galway. Vividly beautiful and hilarious, featuring many figures from the Irish literary canon in what if moments. The exhibition runs until 2nd July.

© Allan for Culch.ie, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: annie west, Cartoons, exhibitions, illustration

The Greenpeace ad Nestlé’s trying to kill

Allan — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:52:04 +0000

Have a break? from Greenpeace UK on Vimeo.

Nestlé had this ad pulled from Youtube claiming copyright violation. Greenpeace put it up on Vimeo instead. Remember, Nestlé are as dirty, as dodgy as they come.

Pietà for Nintendo Geeks

Allan — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:52:33 +0000

Via Kotaku.

Palladius- he beat Saint Patrick you know.

Allan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:01:29 +0000

Palladius (fl. 408-431; probably died ca 457/461) was the first Bishop of the Christians of Ireland, preceding Saint Patrick. The Roman Catholic Church considers Palladius a saint.

It is believed that he is the same Palladius that is earlier described as the deacon of Saint Germanus of Auxerre. If this is the case, then he was the son of Exuperantius of Poitiers, of whom the contemporary pagan poet Rutilius Claudius Namatianus wrote: “Exuperantius now teaches the inhabitants of the Armorican coastal regions to love the restoration of peace; he re-establishes laws, restores freedom, and prevents the masters from being slaves to their own servants.” Exuperantius was apparently praefectus praetorio Galliarum (“Praetorian prefect of the Gallic provinces”) when killed in an army mutiny at Arles in 424.

Digging, by Seamus Heaney

Allan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:08:23 +0000

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests: snug as a gun.

Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft against the inside
knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade.
Just like his old man.

My grandfather could cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner’s bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, digging down and down
For the good turf. Digging.
…
The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll dig with it.

The Irish language

Allan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:01:50 +0000

Irish (Gaeilge) is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language only by a small minority of the Irish population but is also used as a second language by a larger and expanding minority. It also plays an important symbolic role in the life of the Irish state and is used across the country in a variety of media, personal contexts and social situations. It enjoys constitutional status as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland, and it is an official language of the European Union. Irish is also an officially recognised minority language in Northern Ireland.

Irish is the main community and household language of 3% of the Republic’s population^[2] (which was estimated at 4,422,100 in 2008).^[3] Estimates of fully native speakers range from 40,000 up to 80,000 people.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7] Areas in which the language remains a vernacular are referred to as Gaeltacht areas.

Acting Classes for Adults in Galway

Allan — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:39:21 +0000

Galway based actor Sarah O’Toole will be running drama workshops in Galway in the coming weeks.

Introduction to Acting – Wednesday Nights 7.00 – 9.00pm This course is aimed at adults from 16 upwards covers all the basics in approaching acting and theatre through a varied selection of games, exercises, improvisations and techniques, whilst sharing with the students all the fun to be had in the rehearsal room! Starts 7th April.

Acting for Fun – Tuesday Nights 7.00 – 9.00pm This course is aimed at adults with some experience of acting and deepens the skills encountered in previous classes, moving towards working on scripted scenes. Starts 6th April.

Price: €120/100 (students/unemployed). For any enquiries or to book a place call 087 237 3531. As there are only 12 places available to ensure quality tuition, it is advised to book as soon as possible! Fee payable in advance. or on first night. Further details on www.myspace.com/galwayactorsworkshop.

(Disclosure: Sarah is a friend of mine).

© Allan for Culch.ie, 2010. | Permalink | No comments yet | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: acting, acting classes galway, Galway, performance, The Arts

Random Acts of Macnas, Sunday, 14 March 2010 8pm

Allan — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:48:07 +0000

Macnas will take to Shop Street in Galway on Sunday 14th March with the first of its “Random Acts of Macnas”, The Hare.

“A giant hare wanders the streets with some rather bizarre ladies with unusual hairstyles, bringing some of the Macnas style to St. Patricks Festival in Galway. Don’t miss this fabulous new street show which is debuting on Sunday Night.”

This is part of the St. Patrick’s Festival Galway/Féile Pádraig Gaillimh programme of events for 2010. Should be fun! (And webmaster, please resize those thumbnails. Ages to load).

View Shop Street in a larger map

An Audience with Garry Hynes

Allan — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:21:21 +0000

The Literary and Debating Society of NUI Galway is hosting an Audience with Garry Hynes, founder and Artistic Director of the Druid Theatre Company, tomorrow evening, Thursday 11th March, in the Aula Maxima in the main Quadrangle of NUI Galway, at 7pm.

Hynes will be interviewed by Adrian Frazier, Professor of English in NUI Galway and Director of the MA in Drama and Theatre Studies.

The interview will cover topics such as theatre in Galway and Ireland, the role and influence of Irish theatre on the global stage, and will be followed by an audience Q&A.

Entry is free and everyone is welcome.

View Aula Maxima, NUIG in a larger map

© Allan for Culch.ie, 2010. | Permalink | No comments yet | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Druid Theatre, Galway, Garry Hynes, NUIG

There’s a play in my soup! Lunchtime Theatre for Galway

Allan — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:15:00 +0000

Starting today and for the rest of March Kelly’s will be hosting lunchtime theatre at 1pm. The programme is as follows-

8, 9, 10 March: Waterdonkey Theatre presents The Fourth Wall and What Does a Duck Mean? by Meadhbh Haicéid

15, 16, 17 March: Moonfish Theatre presents Brewers Fayre by David Greig

22, 23, 24 March: Winner of the Jerome Hynes One Act Play Award

29,30, 31 March: Truewest Theatre Co presents The Head of Red O’Brien by Mark O’Halloran

Admission is only €5 so if you’re in town grab a sandwich and a show.

Kelly’s Bar & Lounge, Bridge Street, Galway, Ireland.

Tel.: +353 (0) 91 563804

View Kellys in a larger map

Leap Year is a Time Travel Rom Com, possibly set in Lost universe

Allan — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:16:47 +0000

It’s easy to write Leap Year off as another inbred descendent of The Quiet Man. First appearances are of a film full of twinkly-eyed drunken charmers with secret pasts and promiscuous fists having twinkly eyed drunken fights over promiscuous pasts in secret fields. However, this mere shillelagh shop window dressing hides a more sophisticated cloth cap of time travel and love and – begorrah, no it doesn’t.

~~Amy’s~~ Anna’s desperately trying to get to Dublin to propose to her cardiologist boyfriend (to give him her heart, see?) on Leap Day, which is Monday 29th February in the film. The last time 29th February was on a Monday was 1988. Is Anna intending to travel back in time as well as cross the Atlantic? It would certainly put the depictions of Ireland in context. There’s no doubt where the film is headed when Anna boards the plane. She’s seated beside a twinkly eyed priest, played by the baddie from Ros na Rún, who looks about as comfortable as Harrison Ford must feel when he sits down to shoot a Japanese whisky commercial.
(Further evidence of the time travel thesis: Quantum Leap, a show about time travel, has the word Leap in the title. The main protagonist of that show is called Samuel Beckett. Samuel Beckett is the name of a drunken, twinkly eyed Irish playwright. Anna goes to Ireland. Ergo, time travel. Also, She’s travelling back in time to 1988. CIE was rebranded in 1988. There is an Irish Rail train in the film. Coincidence? I think not).

The plane hits bad weather before it reaches Dublin and has to make an emergency landing in “Cardiff, Wales” because Cork, Shannon and Belfast must have been choc-a-fucking-block with American chicks arriving looking for love. The oxygen masks fall from the roof, demonstrating that the cabin crew are every bit as shit as the pilot: not a single passenger puts one on. The airline is called Gaelic Air, and has obviously since ceased trading. That or Aer Lingus were too tight to stump up for the product placement.

Stranded in Cardiff the intrepid/stupid Anna hires a boat to take her to Cork, a journey of 370km or so. Cardiff to Dublin by sea is around 400km. Obviously the Irish Sea and the entire eastern coast of Ireland was too chock-a-fucking-block with American chicks looking for love for the boat to dock. However, the weather is so bad the ship’s pilot can’t berth in Cork, so he decides on Dingle instead. You know, on the weather-beaten, dangerous Atlantic coast. Much safer. And only 620km from Cardiff by sea.

After dropping Anna off on a beach (why would you bother using the pier in Dingle?) the boat heads off again, presumably back to Cardiff (1240km round trip). Don’t worry about all that bad Cork weather though, he probably went up around Ulster to avoid it. Dingle has obviously shrunk in the rain, all Anna can find is a little pub where the cast of Killinaskully are on holidays. She meets ~~Pádraic Breathnach~~ Declan. Declan has a brain disease that affects his speech, because that is not an Irish accent.

After Anna’s American technology proves incompatible with backwards Irish electricity and a night in which she manages to trash her room with her arse, Declan agrees to taxi her to Dublin for some of her American wealth. The wily bastard just drives her around the Dingle peninsula for the morning. I’ve worked this out by the complete lack of any driving on anything that looks like the N86 that would get you to Tralee in about 20 minutes from Dingle where you can get any amount of buses or trains to Dublin. Then they meet some cows and Anna manages to destroy the parked car in a scene notable for its lack of hilarity.

There is much walking around and talk about suitcases. Declan totally perves on her arse as he falls behind her. Then Anna’s suitcase is stolen by men in a van. Vans play baddies in this film, appearing like Godfathers that belch forth henchmen at several junctures. Declan’s promicuous fists get an outing on this gang shortly thereafter, and they end up really sorry for trying on Anna’s bras on their heads.

They make it on foot to a tiny train station in Tipperary. Dingle to the Tipperary border on foot would take around 15 hours without stopping, so clearly Anna can add teleportation to her list of incredible powers. I know that begs the question of why she doesn’t just teleport to fucking Dublin, but shut up right?

There just happens to be a massive CGI castle up a big CGI hill behind the tiny train station, so Anna and Declan decide to prick around up there instead of waiting for the only train. There’s some shite about Diarmuid and Grainne, and Anna gets wet in her knickers a bit. And what do you know, the train comes early and she’s so slippery in her knickers that she slips on the way down the hill and ends up all covered in clingy wet mud and stranded again.

But never fear, the station master takes them home to the best B&B in Ireland which he and his wife run. Declan has skillfully avoided any towns or villages and is rewarded with a good view of naked Anna through the shower curtain. We are thankfully spared the sight of him jerking off but we know it happens. All that jerking off leaves Declan hungry and murderous, so he offers to cook the dinner. He and Anna ~~go to the shop~~ no they don’t they go to the garden and pick ALL the ingredients for dinner and Declan chokes the chicken.

No, he really chokes the chicken.

They have a snogging competition with Mr and Mrs B&B and a random Italian couple who are written into this to fill up another 5 minutes and before it turns into an orgy everyone goes to bed. Then Anna and Declan (who are pretending to be married because in this recession-free fantasy Mrs B&B is an uptight Catholic nut who turns away good business from unmarried couples and probably murders gays and buries them in the veg patch out the back) spend the night trying to dry-hump each other without the other one noticing.

The next morning they set off and Declan again manages to avoid any human settlement until they’re half murdered by hailstones, which, judging by Anna’s surprise, they musn’t have in Boston. They take shelter by crashing a wedding and, this being Ireland, where we have to act like we’re the most welcoming fucking people in the world when there’s an American about, they get to stay for the reception and the afters. This is all in a marquee by a lake next to a church in the middle of nowhere. What a coincidence!
Hey, it must be time for Anna to gain a superpower. This time, she can defy physics and make objects gain momentum when thrown from her foot. She manages to concuss the bride when one of her shoes flies off during a dance. It’s a brilliant aim, she gets her right between the eyes. Also, we’re starting to believe Anna’s heart’s not really in this marriage thing any more as she hasn’t bothered her hole to contact her boyfriend in 2 days to let him know she’s still safely defying the laws of physics.

Anna gets pissed on vodka by the lake after they get kicked out of the wedding and passes out. Then Declan obviously gets a crafty taxi because suddenly it’s Monday morning and they’ve slept the night on a bench IN A TOWN! And they get a bus! To Dublin! After 2 days! They should have frozen to death but let’s not quibble at this stage!

Now, I thought I’d be spared any further insult at this point. I thought they couldn’t do much harm in Dublin. I thought they’d just get lots of establishing shots of Dublin landmarks, and it really looked like that for a time. They prick around Stephen’s Green, which appears to think it’s June, what with the leafy trees and flowers everywhere. Then Declan, being a backwards Kerryman with no mobile phone, needs to make a phonecall. In the middle of Dublin. In one of these:

Now I’m not going to tell you how this ends. I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you. But it’s not the gay sex/ threesome ending I was expecting.
Ah fuck it I am going to tell you: Anna gives into her Stockholm Syndrome, drops her whole life in Boston and returns to the pub in “Dingle”, which seems to be the only place left to get anything to eat in Ireland judging by how busy it now is. Declan pricks about with Anna, she gets upset and teleports to Dun Aengus on Inis Mór, he teleports after her and asks her to marry him. She says yes and R2D2 and C-3PO turn up to watch them dangerously consummate their love right on the edge of the cliff.

If the writers of this film (Simon Beaufoy, Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan) had bothered to get out a map and set this in Ireland the script would have been serviceable enough to make a mild, harmless romantic comedy. But the diddley-iddley fuckwittery of setting and the sheep’s raisons that fall from the sawdust-filled characters’ mouths maim it. However it is the performance of Matthew Goode that nails the coffin shut, lowers it in the ground and makes sandwiches for the bereaved. I’m so offended by his performance I’m petitioning my local TD to pass the Matthew Goode Bill that will make it illegal for him to ever set foot here again.

And if you’re wondering why I went to see it, well, Emer wanted to see it. I did it for love.

© Allan for Culch.ie, 2010. | Permalink | 38 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Amy Adams, films, Ireland, leap year, Matthew Goode, Movies & TV, shite, stage irish

New trailer for Doctor Who!

Allan — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:14:09 +0000

This is rather special: Rather than a montage of clips, the new Who trailer is a self-contained fantasy sequence that synopsises the coming adventures of the 11th Doctor, Matt Smith. It also suggests a break with the overwrought Russell T. Davies cul-de-sac that Tennant’s last few outings became (stupid clicking gun, stupid jumping out of spaceship for no reason, stupid hungry Master, and so on).

Matt Smith is going to be great, there’s definitely a Troughton air about him. I’m anticipating Karen Gillan as Amy Pond will be a wry foil without the Catherine Tate facial gymnastics.

Thrilled to bits with this.

© Allan for Culch.ie, 2010. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Doctor Who, karen gillan, Matt Smith