The Irish Film Institute (IFI) is opening its doors once again for their annual Open Day, where they’ll showcase movies old and new and exclusive previews throughout the day, as well as the always-popular Audience Choice feature film. The day is a great opportunity to see all that the IFI has to offer, with behind the scenes archive and projection tours, along with a pop-up museum of fascinating cinema equipment. New to the Open Day this year are special late night screenings of both old classics and exclusive new films across a range of genres, from horror, to comedy to drama. We talked to IFI Cinema Programmer, Kevin Coyne about what visitors can expect from the Open Day.
Tell me about the Open Day.
It’s an annual event in the IFI. It’s an annual tradition and it’s the main focus of IFI’s calendar, with free screenings throughout the day. Every open day we try to raise awareness of all the work the IFI does and people know us for the cinema and the bar, but we have a really strong education department for students and the Irish film archive as well, which has a huge collection of our moving image heritage. The open day is to raise awareness of all the work that goes on that people may not be aware about.
Is the open day the main event of the year or do you host other similar events?
This is the only event specifically like this. We do an awful lot throughout the year and cinema is my department so we do various festivals, ranging from the French film festival to the horror festival, and of course we collaborate with other festivals in Dublin as well. We do a lot designed to appeal to a broad range of people, as well as being simply an alternative to the multi-plex.
Open Day may inform someone who may have a misleading impression of the IFI as a serious, dour kind of place, which is not true at all. We do all sorts of things, this is just a way of maybe putting particular emphasis on the fact that we’re a place anyone can come to and there’s something for everybody.
Do you find that the IFI is a place where people can come to just chill?
Yes, absolutely. It’s a little bit of a hub. I don’t know if anyone intended for it to be a social thing, for people into film or filmmakers, but it turned into that and that’s nice.
How long have you been here at the IFI?
Four years but I had affiliations with the place for a long time before that.
Tell me about the screenings for the Open Day.
We have three screens. The structure of the Open Day is that we usually just do twelve, but this year there’s 15 films because we’re doing late night screenings. We intend to show the breadth of what we do [by the movies we pick]. For example, Back to the Future, they’ve chosen that for this year’s spot and I think it’ll be very popular. Then Wings as well; in so far as is possible we try to include silent film year round, and that’s something that other cinemas don’t do is reach back to the early days of film. There is definitely a demand. Every day on Open Day, silent film always sells out. They’re always really popular; I don‘t remember Wings ever being shown here, and it’s historical as it’s the first silent film to win an Oscar. The idea across each batch of three films is that there’d be something for everyone and a breadth of what we do in terms of programming; there’s a Western, a sci-fi, a horror, a drama.
Do you find you attract a lot of adults, particularly for the late night films?
We don’t really do late night shows; occasionally we’ll show previews or big upcoming horrors, but this year we thought it’d be something different to do on Open Day and I think those films will be successful.
Is this the first time that late night films are shown on Open Day?
Yes, at least in my time they haven’t done late night on an Open Day before.
Do you think the late night movies will be popular?
It’s just a bit of fun, like seeing Life of Brian in the cinema, but a late night show would be great. Jaws is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its release to the day in the US. I think 400 venues are doing it on the Sunday, but I can’t find anyone doing it on the day.
The ‘Bulid Your Own Time Machine’ workshop based on the Back to the Future movie looks fun. Are there any other kids events on during the Open Day?
Just on Open Day, this will be it around the Back to the Future screening. They’re busy preparing for family festival next month.
Is there anything day-to-day for children in particular?
There’s a family oriented slot on the last Sunday of every month. Something that maybe makes it more special than just going to the cinema.
Tell me a little about the planned barbecue.
That’s usually held in the patio or the smoking area outside. It’ll be burgers, beers, the usual you know! It usually stats at about five.
How many people do the screens hold?
Cinema one holds 258 people, cinema two holds 106 and three holds 61. The queue for Open Day usually starts outside cinema and once, during the longest year, it went out from the door round to the Olympia. We give out tickets at 11am and you can’t get them in advance.
So you could be queuing for an hour.
You could, yeah. One time someone came at half 7, so yeah the queue that was the longest reached back to the Olympia!
The tour around the projection booth will be a great opportunity to see behind the scenes. Is this something that was requested?
No, that was just an idea that I put forward at one point. I love going up to projection and seeing how the movie is made, and I still love seeing a print role. I make sure we get them on the day so you can see a proper projection running film. So much is digital now and there wouldn’t be a whole lot to see, but it is pretty cool in the projection box. I had the idea that people might be interested in going up and seeing and standing in the box and looking through the port hole where you’d [be able to see] people there watching the films.
There was a lot of interest and I’m not sure if there are any spaces available anymore. However, if someone randomly walked in and asked, we wouldn’t’ allow that. In terms of public access, this is a rare opportunity.
How do you find the Open Day personally?
It’s a nightmare every year [laughs]. Just trying to come up with films that are a good snapshot of what we do the rest of the year. Since the last Open Day, we had just over 150 new releases this year alone, never mind the seasons and festivals, so trying to get something to represent in one day all the work IFI does is incredibly difficult, and to appeal to our audience as well. Trying to balance this is what we do, but also [to get rid of that] solemn conception that everything is a four-hour black and white film with no dialogue.
Tell me a bit about the Audience Choice.
The poll is up online; there are top ten choices on the website for our audience to vote from, and we close the poll a few days before because I need time then to get the film. And it’s really interesting to see what the staff like and then to see what our audience likes too.
What kind of films could we see for Audience Choice?
Just the new releases from the past twelve months since the last Open Day, so about 150 as I did the list. There’s Whiplash, Birdman, a Russian film called Leviathan, there’s an Irish film on the list, there’s Ida. It was nice to see that it worked out and wasn’t a bad snapshot. The kind of range of stuff we show, is international and ranges from something like the popular Birdman, to the equally great but art house end of the scale, like Leviathan.
What’s your favourite of the choices?
Oh god, it’s impossible to pick. I think the film I’d pick is a preview from last year, and we almost argued over who got to introduce it because we loved it so much, was Boyhood, which I thought was an incredible piece of work.
The IFI Open Day 2015 takes place on Saturday 20th June in the Irish Film Institute on Eustace Street, Temple Bar from 10am. All the screenings are free on a first come first served basis. The full line-up and details are available at the event page on Facebook.
