While the full programme of Dublin Doc Fest remains to be revealed, festival director Tess Motherway did offer us a few enticing tidbits, ‘I’m always drawn to unusual stories, things a bit left-of-centre, and strong visual storytelling, so there’ll definitely be plenty of that. Each screening really revolves around the entries, so I always take lots of time to curate the programme with a careful eye on running orders so that each work complements the others’. Dublin Doc Fest takes place on Saturday 28th February in the Irish Georgian Society on South William Street. We spoke to Tess to find out more.
The Dublin Doc Fest is in its third year now, but how did it begin?
There’s lots of reasons why Dublin Doc Fest came about. I’m a documentary filmmaker myself and I noticed that there were not many opportunities for short documentaries to be shown in film festivals, often just one or two amongst the short film programmes. I wanted to create a space where short documentary film could be showcased, to be given it’s own space and context for exhibition in a carefully curated programme. I believe Ireland has a really high standard of documentary filmmaking so I wanted to highlight this and create opportunities for these films to have a longer life. That, and the fact that I had been talking about doing it for years! I talked about the idea of DDF with anyone that would listen, because I thought, ‘Well, if I keep talking about it, I’m going to have to do it’.
I know the programme is not finalised but from what you know so far, what kind of things can we expect?
I’m always drawn to unusual stories, things a bit left-of-centre, and strong visual storytelling, so there’ll definitely be plenty of this to expect. We’ve had some great entries to date, casting our net wider this year with the aid of online submission platforms. We’ve already locked down two really exciting Irish shorts and there’s a student entry (the quality of which never fail to impress) I’ve got my eye on too. Each screening revolves around the entries, so I always take lots of time to curate the programme, with a careful eye on running orders so that the films complement each other.
Is there a wide variety of documentary styles?
I do like to screen a good variety of documentary filmmaking styles. In the past I’ve shown animated documentary, observational documentary, experimental documentary, films on digitised Super 8 and one which was entirely made up of archival footage. There’s no style I wouldn’t consider.
What previous entrants would we now be more familiar with?
Previous entrants you might be familiar with are Colm Quinn, Tony O’Donoghue, Aoife Kelleher, Anna Rodgers, Traolach Ó Murchú and I’ve been lucky enough to screen Pat Collins, possibly Ireland’s foremost documentary filmmaker and someone I have admired for years. That’s the thing, when you get out there and get something off the ground, you never know who you’ll be in touch with!
For more see dublindocfest.com
Words: Danny Wilson / Image: Still from ‘Fathom’ screening at DDF 2015
