Boston, MA – The Irish Film Festival, Boston (BIFF) returns this year with its Director’s Choice Screening Series on Friday, March 22 at the historic Somerville Theatre.
Float Like a Butterfly will be honored with the festival’s 2019 Director’s Choice Feature award following its premiere screening at the Somerville Theatre. Winner of the 2018 Film Critics award in Toronto, the film will screen alongside Late Afternoon, the 2019 animated short Oscar-nominee, which also gets its New England premiere that night as well as the Director’s Choice Short Film.
Attendees will experience two of Ireland’s most popular films, both female-directed, that touch on a variety of themes including empowerment and equality. The audience will also have the opportunity to engage with Carmel Winters, director and writer of Float Like a Butterfly, alongside lead actors Hazel Doupe and Dara Devaney, as well as Toma McCullim, the film’s production designer, in a post screening Q&A.
Float Like A Butterfly, recipient of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Prize for the Discovery Program at the 2018 Toronto Film Festival, is a powerful and timely story of a teenage Irish traveler Frances (Hazel Doupe) and her fight for freedom and belonging. She lost her mother in a boxing fight; the same fight which landed her father (Dara Devaney) in prison for the last ten years. Frances never forgave the police sergeant who she deems responsible for her father’s imprisonment, and when he’s released she aims to take on the world and box with her father. To her dismay, he urges her to give up boxing and act like a “lady” now that he must remain obedient amongst the same policeman who sent him away. Frances refuses to listen and knows she must train and fight because winning will end the war.
Late Afternoon, the 2019 Oscar-nominated animated short film directed by Louise Bagnall, tells the story of an elderly woman, Emily, who lives between two states: the past and the present. Throughout the 10-minute film, she goes on a journey into an inner world where she relives moments from her life and searches for a connection within her fragmented memories.
The Irish Film Festival, founded in 1999 and brought to Boston in 2003, also co-presents and supports two additional Irish Films getting their theatrical release in Boston on March 23 and 24, Maze and Lost and Found.
Maze, the Irish Film Festival’s 2018 Director’s Choice Feature, is a film based on the true story of the 1983 mass breakout of 38 IRA prisoners from the HMP Maze high-security prison. As Larry Marley, the chief architect of the escape, schemes his way towards this feat, he meets prison warden, Gordon Close. What follows is an intense intriguing drama during which an unlikely relationship is forged between two adversaries. Maze opens at the Somerville Theatre Saturday, March 23 while Lost and Found, a quirky, comedic feature film with multiple interconnecting stories set in and around a lost and found office in an Irish train station, will open at the Kendall Theatre Sunday, March 24.
“We are excited to continue the tradition of bringing the best of Irish film to New England audiences, and it makes our team and partners proud to continue our mission of supporting films written and directed by women,” said Dawn Morrissey, Executive Director of the Irish Film Festival. “As we prepare for our 20th anniversary next year, we want to ensure our Irish Film Festival community still gets to experience a weekend of Irish films this year, which is why we’re thrilled to support the screenings of Maze, our 2018 Director’s Choice Feature, and the new Irish film, Lost and Found, as part of their theatrical run in Boston in addition to this year’s Director’s Choice recipients,” added Morrissey.
For more information on the Director’s Choice Screening and to purchase tickets, visit Irish Film Festival.