Film Hub Fortnightly – April 21

Showing from the 12^th to the 19^th, Skate Kitchen (2018) is the first fiction feature from documentarian Crystal Moselle, following a New York teenager who falls in with all-girl skateboarding crew and for a boy skateboarder played by Jaden Smith. Cicada (2020), available from the 13^th to the 20^th, is a queer love story between two men haunted by their pasts. And from the 14^th to the 21^st, you can watch for free The Rape of Recy Taylor (2017), a documentary about the sexual assault of a young black woman in 1944 Alabama, the aftereffects when Taylor decided to fight her case and its connections to the Civil Rights Movement.

Family Romance, LLC (2020), showing from the 15^th to the 22^nd, is a fact and fiction blurring documentary from the highly prolific and legendary Werner Herzog. The film follows a Japanese man whose profession is to impersonate the recently departed for his clients, their bereaved loved ones. From the 16^th to the 23^rd, you can view two titles. Groundswell (2020) is an Irish documentary about how border communities fought private, and government led oil and gas extraction. The film also looks at the wider anti-fracking movement. This screening will be preceded by a pre-recorded introduction from director Johnny Gogan and will be followed by a Q&A with Gogan and farmer Dianne Little, who is featured in the film. Growing Up Downs (2014) is a documentary that tracks the experience of people with Downs Syndrome through the lens of a theatre troupe for actors with learning disabilities, Blue Apple Theatre, and their performance of Hamlet. There are also two titles showing from the 17th to the 24^th, including another free admission. 66 Months (2011) documents the life of Nigel, a homeless man, over the course of six years, and his relationship to wider society and the state. Based on a true story, Love Sonia (2018) follows a young girl’s attempt to find and rescue her sister from the world of international sex trafficking.

Both showing from the 18^th to the 25^th, Amá (2018) is a documentary that relays and examines the abuses that Native American women suffered at the hands of the United States government in the 1960s and 70s. While Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat (2017) is a look at the pre-fame years of the short-lived but enormously gifted painter. Showing from the 19^th to the 26^th, No Ordinary Man (2020) looks at the life of American jazz musician Billy Tipton, who found acclaim and fame in the 1940s through to the 70s, while keeping his identity as a trans man hidden. While Magic Medicine (2019), available from the 20^th to the 27^th, documents the first medical trial to investigate psilocybin (the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms) and its use as a treatment for clinical depression.

Showing from the 21^st to the 28^th, Hidden Heart (2019) follows three second-generation British women who have found love outside their faith and so have been struggling with ostracism and other tensions. While The Penalty (2019), available from the 22nd to the 29th, is an investigative documentary that looks at the effects of capital punishment within the United States. I Am Belmaya (2020) follows a young Dalit woman in Nepal who attempts to escape the restrictions of her class, gender and an abusive marriage by venturing into becoming a documentary filmmaker. The Divide (2018), showing from the 24^th to the 1^st of May, takes a more purposely disparate approach. Looking at the gap between the wealthy and everyone else by following 7 lives in the US and the UK. Also available within the same time frame, The Town of Strangers (2018) looks at many individuals but situated within a single community, as it explores the lives of foreign nationals in the village of Gort, Co. Galway.

The festival will conclude with two titles showing between the 25^th and the 2^nd of May. Available to book for free, Making Montgomery Clift (2018) builds a portrait of the celebrated but troubled actor, co-directed by Hillary Demmon and Clift’s nephew, Robert Clift. While the greatly acclaimed Minari (2020), starring Steven Yuen, is a drama inspired by its director Lee Isaac Chung’s own childhood. It follows a Korean family in the 1980s, who decamped for the rugged American Ozarks in order to make a life for themselves as farmers.

More information about the festival, its programme and booking can be found at the Foyle Film Festival website.

By Ruairí McCann