_{Cinephile Paradiso presents | In association with The Silent Cinema & Pálás Cinema}

— The Look of the Irish —

For a small island, Ireland has an impressively long and unique cinematic history that continues to evolve. It seems that Irish Film has entered a new era as we can see from its strong foothold in this year’s Award Season – 14 Academy Award nominations! But long before Pádraic Súilleabháin (Colin Farrell) fell out with his friend on the fictional island of Inisherin, Terry (Sydney Olcott) left his sweetheart on a farm and traveled to the States for a better life in The Lad from Old Ireland (1910). There is no better way to understand how Irish cinema has evolved over the decades than to observe its beginning…

This St Patrick’s weekend, Cinephile Paradiso invites you to watch the earliest representations of Ireland on screen. Drop into the Silent Cinema on the 17th to watch our Kalem Film Company exhibition which will be screening all day - this includes a selection of the first Irish short films. If you miss them, catch them in Pálás Bar the next day!

Also included in our programme is Blazing the Trail: The O’Kalems in Ireland, a documentary that looks at the work of American director Sydney Olcott and the ground-breaking work he did for the Kalem company in Ireland during the early 20th century. The documentary will be preceded by a talk by University of Galway Film & Media Studies Lecturer, Dr. Tony Tracy. If you didn’t have enough, come see the acclaimed Man of Aran (1934) which will be screening on Friday evening in the Silent Cinema.

Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona duit!

_{Admission is free, except for the Man of Aran screening.}