Film Hub Fortnightly – August 2022

This July and August, you can experience a rich array of events as part of Eastside Arts, a festival celebrating art and the culture of East Belfast. The festival’s film programme, at the Strand Arts Centre, includes the John Travolta starring remake of Hairspray (2007), showing on the 4^th of August with a live, introductory dance perform from the Ni Stars. Showing on the 7^th with a Q&A featuring its cast and crew, Earth to Alice (2022) is a fantastical short comedy; on the 9^th you can see the ensemble drama Crash (2004), and on the 11^th, there will be a special screening of the classic Burt Reynolds vehicle Smokey and the Bandit (1977). And on the 14^th, at the Vault Art Studios, there will be a screening of the work of Ken Fanning, an independent filmmaker and circus artist.

At the Queen’s Film Theatre, the Film Feels Curious season continues, as does their retrospective of the work of experimental filmmaker John Smith, with a second volume of shorts showing on the 27^th of July. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992), David Lynch’s feature-length curtain call to the original series of Twin Peaks, will show on the 28^th, while on the 29^th the season’s LGBTQ+ themed sidebar Queerious will conclude with Passion (2021), a Swedish documentary about love and BDSM. Ida Lupino’s classic thriller The Hitch-hiker (1953) will get its 2^nd screening on the 30^th, along with a double bill of 1986 John Hughes classics, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Pretty in Pink. The season will conclude on the 31^st with a SCREEN/PRINT presentation of another 80s pop legend, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth (1986), a dark fantasy starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly.

There are some great re-releases coming soon to the QFT. The Wim Wenders retrospective will bring the German director’s most iconic and American film, Paris, Texas (1984), starring Harry Dean Stanton as a mysterious, heartsick drifter. It will show from the 29^th to the 4^th. The retro will conclude with a screening of his 3-hour epic Kings of the Road (1976) on the 6^th, and with a more recent work, his documentary on the acclaimed photographer Sebastião Salgado, The Salt of the Earth (2014), showing on the 7^th. Also running from the 9^th to the 4^th, Mahanagar or The Big City (1963) is a drama about an independent woman in a freshly independent India, from one of the greatest filmmakers, Satyajit Ray.

There are also plenty of new releases on the horizon. Playing from the 29^th to the 4^th, Joyride (2022) is an Irish buddy comedy and road trip movie starring Olivia Colman and directed by Emer Reynolds. Playing from the 5^th to the 11^th, Hit the Road (2021) is the acclaimed debut from Panah Panahi, the son of the legendary Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, and Fire of Love (2022), which recently featured in this year’s Docs Ireland, is a documentary about a pair of star-crossed lovers, filmmakers and volcanologists. From the 12^th, you will also be able to see Nope (2022), a new science-fiction horror from Jordan Peele, starring Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer and Steven Yeun.

Over at the Ulster Museum on the 30^th, it will be a big movie day, courtesy of Cinemagic, with screenings of Pixar classics Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Inside Out (2015), as well as the animated and animal themed heist comedy The Bad Guys (2022). At the Strand, and in addition to the Eastside Arts film programme, you can see new releases such as Pixar’s Lightyear (2022), Elvis (2022) and from the 3^rd, Bullet Train (2022), a thriller starring Brad Pitt. At Movie House Cinemas, you will also be able to see Lightyear, Elvis, from the 3^rd, Bullet Train and from the 12^th, Nope. Newcastle Community Cinema will also be pulling from the Disney/Pixar Canon with a screening of the latter’s 2021 film Encanto on the 31^st, and a special ‘relaxed screening’ of the original The Lion King (1994) on the 4^th.

By Ruairí McCann