DOCS IRELAND DAY THREE: TEARS AND LAUGHTER
Well, well, well, it feels like just yesterday we were at Docs Ireland day three. And that’s because we were! Here’s what we got up to.
We began our day bright eyed and bushy tailed at the wonderful Queen’s Film Studio, for a lecture by Des O’Rawe: (De)framing The Asylum, explored the relationship between documentary filmmaking and various forms of radical psychiatry. It explored ethical questions of documentary filmmaking when engaging with people suffering with mental health issues. It explored films and works from the 60s and 70s but is as relevant an ethical question today as it was then. The lecture drew on Des O’Rawe’s recently published book, Documentary Film and Radical Psychiatry, a book worth reading for academics, simple film buffs and documentary filmmakers alike.
After that truly and honesty fascinating lecture, we set our sights on QFT’s screen two for a meditative afternoon watching North Cormorant Island, a film by John Williams, a Welsh man who has found himself living in Tokyo for the last twenty years. Shot over ten years, the film focuses on the small fishing village of Kitaushima on Sado Island, Japan, which is suffering due to its fleeting population.
A still from the gorgeous North Cormorant Island.
“North Cormorant Island, can be slotted into that perhaps overused category of gentle cinema, but it’s so much more than that.”
Now this may strike potential viewers as being a sad film about a dwindling community, and of course some aspects are, naturally, but it’s also a film full of resilience, dignity and a strong sense of community. One of the residents even says he left for Tokyo but missed his small village so much he had to return. The film is relaxing and gentle and at many points very funny, but it masterfully avoids overly romanticising the remote, simple and traditional way of life that many on social media express a longing for- (re: the rise of “tradwives”), instead opting to show a true display of how these lives progress over the 10 years. This life can be extremely hard: cats die, people get sick, winter comes, the rice patties are planted and life goes on, but so do the people…
We ended our day as any dream day should end…
Celebrating the late, great, David Lynch at Docs Ireland’s Pink Room: A Night of David Lynch Talking and Being Talked About, a one off event made up of archive clips, scenes from his work and interviews not just with the man himself, but with all of his regular collaborators.
Whether a David Lynch super fan or not, this was absolutely deeply appreciated by everyone in attendance. Masterfully executed, this moving tribute was clearly made carefully with love and passion for David, and for the films and art he created. There was a true sense of community, a room of people united by love and by grief. We laughed and we cried, we mourned and we celebrated, and I couldn't imagine a better way to have been able to pay respect, to appreciate the work of the wonderful David Lynch. Best Boy are deeply grateful to Docs Ireland for giving Belfast the opportunity to celebrate David in this uniquely special way, a night that won't be repeated, but that no one will forget.
David in Belfast in 2007.
If you aren't attending Docs Ireland events, this is your sign that you must. There is no where else in Belfast that you could see something this unique, and well put together (obviously other than a Best Boy x Normal Cinema Club screening), than Docs Ireland, the perfect film festival for true movie buffs and film heads. How lucky are we?
And with that our day came to a close, we headed home to dream of David Lynch, and to look forward to Docs Ireland day four, so much is yet to come!
