Film Hub Fortnightly – March 2022 (pt 2)

On the 21^st, at the Queen’s Film Theatre, they will show Ourselves Alone (1936), a historical drama and a key film in Ireland’s cinematic history, directed by Belfast filmmaker Brian Desmond Hurst. The screening will be followed by a talk from Dr. Sian Barber on the film’s censorship battles and the wider history of cinema and censorship. Also showing at the QFT, you can see rock opera Tommy (1975), by Ken Russell and The Who, on the 22^nd and the queer love story My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), starring Gordon Warnecke and Daniel Day-Lewis, on the 23rd. Hidden Figures (2016), a biopic about a team of black women mathematicians working at NASA in the 60s, will show at the Strand on the 24^th. While over at Vault Arts Studios on the 26^th, there will be a special screening of Emulator (2022), an experimental short film that combines drag with ‘abstract escapism’, accompanied by live performances from drag artists Bella Clava and Venus Blaok. The festival’s film programme will conclude on the 27^th with a screening of Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), starring Willem Dafoe, at the QFT.

Film Hub NI’s run of Wildfire (2020) continues with a screening at the Market Place Theatre in Armagh on the 18^th and the Ballyclare Community Cinema will be showing the film in The Picture House on the 26^th. Newcastle Community Cinema will be hosting an anime double on the 19^th, with Evangelion: Death (True)2 (1997) and End of Evangelion (1997), two feature-length entries into the cult series Neon Genesis Evangelion. And on the 27^th, they will be showing the Pixar film, Encanto (2021). On the 16^th, the Fermanagh Film Club in Enniskillen’s Ardhowen Theatre will be showing Arracht (2019), an Irish-language revenge tale set during the Famine, and on the 30^th, Memory Box (2021), a drama about a young girl uncovering her mother’s memories of an adolescence spent in 1980s Beirut. The Ghouls On Film feminist film club will be showing the detailed and engaging Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (2021) on the 20^th at The Black Box. And Cinemagic’s On The Pulse Short Film Festival continues into the second half of March. There will be bringing shorts programmes to the QFT, The Belfast Barge and the Black Box on the 19th. Followed by multiple screenings in the QFT and the Ulster Museum on the 20th and the 26th, with screenings also taking place in Odeon on the 26th, and the Ulster Museum and Black Box on the 27th.

At the Queen’s Film Theatre, you can currently see a wide range of titles. Until the 17^th, there will be showings of Ali & Ava (2021), Belfast (2021), Young Plato (2021), The Duke (2021) and Red Rocket (2021). From the 18^th to the 20^th, there will be another, short run of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza (2021), while from the 18^th to the 24^th, the new releases include Paris, 13th District (2021), a trio of love stories from director Jacques Audiard, and Hive (2021), a drama about a woman rebuilding her life years after the Kosovo War. The Japan Foundation conclude their series with crime comedy The Confidence Man JP: The Movie (2019) on the 19^th and Spaghetti Code Love (2021), a drama interweaving thirteen different lives, on the 20^th. The 19^th will also see a Dementia Friendly screening of Belfast, and from the 25^th to the 31^st, there will be a run of the Oscar-nominated Norwegian drama The Worst Person in the World (2021).

The MAC is hosting some quality film events over the next week; seminal documentary Women's Work, which was produced by DoubleBand Films in 1997, the  year before the Good Friday Agreement is screening in association with WOMEN'STEC on 19th at 3pm, and will be followed by a panel discussion hosted by political commentator Sarah Creighton and will include Bronagh Hinds and Nuala Haughy. On 20th, this time in partnership with Northern Ireland Screen's Digital Film Archive, The MAC present Dust on the Bible, a 1989 documentary by John T. Davis followed by a panel discussion on women's experiences within the evangelical Protestant tradition in Northern Ireland. Film Hub NI's Hugh Odling-Smee will introduce the film and jost a panel discussion featuring novelists Jan Carson and Sue Divin and poet, Moyra Donaldson.

At Movie House Cinemas, you catch Belfast, Young Plato and superhero epic The Batman (2022). You can also see British heist comedy Sideshow (2022) and from 18^th there will be showings of The Phantom of the Open, a sports comedy starring Mark Rylance. At the Strand Arts Centre, you can also currently see Young Plato, Ali & Ava, Belfast, The Batman and The Phantom of the Open (2021), will also be opening on the 18^th. Along with The Nan Movie (2022), starring Catherine Tate as her classic character. A Musical Evening with Bill Murray (2021), a recorded conversation and performance featuring the eponymous actor with cellist Jan Vogler, will play on the 22^nd, while on the 26^th there will be another Reel Movie Night hosted by filmmaker Vincent Kinnaird, featuring projections of his and others’ work. From the 25^th, there will also be a run of Ambulance (2022), a thriller directed by Michael Bay and starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

By Ruairí McCann