2011 has brought many changes for Cinema North West.
We have created and curated new festivals, visited many new venues, installed a new digital projection system, started providing training courses and begun exhibiting in venues other than the cinemobile.
New funding from the International Fund for Ireland has led to the appointment of new staff and the opening of an office.
The new office is, appropriately, in Dromahair. We discussed other options but Dromahair feels like home for us. Many of the board of directors live close by, our biggest audiences live here, and we are dedicated to the rural rather than the urban audience. Most importantly Dromahair is home to Adaptation.
The first Adaptation Film Festival was created by Johnny Gogan in 2004. Johnny had attended one of Stephen Cleary's workshops and heard Stephen talk about the importance of adaptations within the film business. A significant proportion of films are based upon adaptations. Johnny felt that it would be a good idea to create a festival dedicated to the art and craft of screen adaptations. Cinema North West face more changes this year as Johnny Gogan will be stepping down from the board to concentrate on new filmmaking opportunities and the growth of the collective Studio North West. We wish him well in his new endeavors and thank him for his hard work and dedication. More change comes in the appointment of Colin McKeown as programme director for Cinema North West and Adaptation.
Over the year's the festival has celebrated the work of John McGahern, William Trevor, Edna O'Brien, Roddy Doyle, Bernard MacLaverty and Jennifer Johnston. Each year the featured author has given a public interview. This year we will be looking at the many films based upon the work of John Le Carre. In a break with tradition the author will not be in attendance. John Le Carre will celebrate his 80th birthday a few days after our festival. We wish him a very happy birthday and will raise a toast to him during the festival. Thankfully the festival will host a range of exceptional guest speakers - all of whom have been involved with John le Carre and passionate about his work.
We are pleased to be hosting Stephen Cleary at this year's festival. He will hopefully be a regular visitor to Dromahair in the next few years as our commitment to training increases. Stephen worked for many years with the wonderful Hannah Kodicek. She was a multi-talented woman and an incredible thinker. She was, among many other things, a writer, composer, director, painter, actress, puppeteer and teacher.
Hannah played IRINA in the original Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy tv series. We will see clips of her over the weekend during our interview with Director John Irvin. Hannah died earlier this year. Hannah's son Danny will be in attendance at the festival. It is hoped that Cinema North West and Adaptation can pay tribute to this remarkable figure in a permanent way through an annual award. So 2011 is barely over and yet we are planning the changes for 2012...
We look forward to seeing you over the weekend.
We would like to thank all our volunteers, Chloe James, Jo Lewis, the board members, Johnny Gogan, Maeve Cooke at Access Cinema, Deirdre at GFD, Tommy Ahearne, Lara Byrne at The Model, Helen and Sorcha at Screen Training Ireland, Eibhlinn at Media Antennae, Alice Lyons , Padraig at Pure Designs, Julie Thomys, Cian Flynn, Blayze at Fremantle, Fleur at BFI, Jo and Jonny at Curtis Brown, Gavin LaGrange, and the people of Dromahair.
Adaptation is supported by an annual grant from The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Éalaíon.
Cinema North West acknowledges the support of the Irish Film Board towards our overall operation.
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