Anatomy of a Film with Hugh Garry and Lenny Abrahamson
Friday 25 April | Block T | 2.30pm, €10
Part of the series of symposia and discussions that’ll be presented by TD’s very own editor-at-large Daniel Gray is a talk with creative strategist Hugh Garry and Dublin’s own Lenny Abrahamson, director of the phenomenal What Richard Did and the forthcoming Frank. The pair will be discussing how ideas get made into films and with a pair of minds as exciting and talented as these two it should be a very illuminative afternoon.
The Act Of Killing [Director’s Cut]
(Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012, Denmark)
Friday 25 April | Light House Cinema | 6.30pm, €10
The Act Of Killing film has a truly outrageous premise: members of Indonesian death squads are invited to recreate the violent acts of their pasts in any cinematic style that they wish. While it missed out on the Academy Award for Best Documentary recently, it has received near universal critical acclaim. Director Joshua Oppenheimer will be taking questions as part of Q and A after the screening of the Director’s Cut of The Act Of Killing which is receiving its Irish premiere at Darklight.
A Spell To Ward Off The Darkness
(Ben Rivers & Ben Russell, 2013, USA)
Saturday 26 April | Cinemobile | 6.30pm, €10
Two experimental film makers, Ben Rivers from London and American Ben Russell teamed up to create A Spell To Ward Off The Darkness which follows an unnamed character, played by Robert AA Lowe, through a trio of points in his life across the incredible scenery of the remote Estonia, Finland and Norway (where the protagonist is a lead screamer in a black metal band, natch.) The film proposes to be “a radical proposition for the existence of utopia in the present,” and appropriate gushes with same intense agonies and ecstasies found that pervade black metal. The screening is followed by Q and A session.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Wetlands&sm=3
Wetlands
(David Wnendt, 2013, Germany)
Saturday 26 April | Light House Cinema | 6.30pm, €10
Darklight provides the only chance for Irish audiences to see what was dubbed “Sundance’s crassest, most outrageous movie” [Vulture Magazine]. This unapologetically vulgar film comes from German director David Wnendt and is based on author Charlotte Roche’s 2008 erotic best-seller Feuchtgebiete. The film is carried by Carla Juri playing a bodily fluid obsessed teenage, and who has been dubbed by some as the “German Greta Gerwig”, though we don’t recall Greta Gerwig sticking this many things up her bum.
Journey To The End Of Night
Saturday 26 April | CHQ Building, Georges Dock | 8pm, Free but ticketed
Make and Do collective will be putting participants into the middle of a city-wide street chase scene through Dublin’s nighttime where they’ll encounter performers and artists. Bring your own sneakers – for sneaking. This game has previously been played in San Francisco, NYC, Berlin and now it’s Dublin’s turn. See ichaseyou.com for details.
Electro Moscow
(Elena Tikhonova & Domink Spritzendorfer, 2013, Austria)
Sunday 27 April | Light House Cinema | 2pm, €10
There’s been a Polivoks synthesizer that is the communist equivalent of the Minimoog for sale on adverts.ie for about a year. It always causes great interest but everyone is afraid to take the plunge on it, and with good reason: “On a western device, you push a button and get a result,” runs the tagline, “but on a Soviet instrument, you push a button and get something.” Electro Moscow takes a peak behind the Iron Curtain to look at how Soviet technology aped the technologies of the West and how their own genius (Leon Theremin) fared in communist Russia.
Wizard’s Way
(Socrates Adams, Joe Stretch & Chris Killen, 2013, UK)
Sunday 27 April | Light House Cinema | 5.30pm, €10
Competing for the WTFiest moment is this festival, this mockumentary follows flatmates Barry and Julian who play the crazy retro titular video game, a MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game, duhhh) which overtakes the lives of the two heroes. Two documentary makers then enter their lives to follow these two strange fellows as they go through their 8-bit rites of passage. It’s got ‘future cult classic’ written all over it.
Darklight Party 2014
Saturday 26 April | Generator | 10pm, €15 (free for Season Ticket holders)
Generator Hostel on Smithfield Square gets in on the action, playing host to a mid-festival shindig featuring DJ sets from Forza Italo, Elastic Witch and Skinny Wolves as well as a live soundtrack performance of horror classic Haxan from Earthslayer & The Abyss (a.k.a. electronic squelchmeister Simon Bird and noiseniks Turning Down Sex.)
Tickets for the films at the rebooted Darklight Festival are available online at entertainment.ie/darklightfestival and from the box office in Block T, Smithfield Square between 10am and 7pm throughout the festival on 24th to 27th of April. Ticket prices include membership of the festival, entitling you to view any uncertified titles.
