documentary

Brendan Gleeson’s documentary about legendary Irish pub is airing on TV

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The film had its world premiere earlier this year.

A documentary about a legendary Irish pub produced by and starring Oscar-nominated Irish actor Brendan Gleeson will be airing on [Irish]TV later this month.

Titled Brendan Gleeson’s Farewell to Hughes’s, the film coming to TG4 soon is about Hughes’s – the bar that was located behind the Four Courts in Smithfield, Dublin.

For decades, the venue served as a hub for traditional music before it closed its doors in 2021.

The documentary details how, in January 2022, Gleeson – who is a fiddle player and was a Hughes’s regular – met with musicians, dancers and singers in and around the pub and gathered them one last time to “recreate the magic of Hughes’s”

The plot synopsis for the documentary states:

“To some it was an unassuming pub on a side street in Dublin’s city centre. To musicians, dancers, singers and listeners, Hughes’s was a mecca of traditional music for more than 35 years.

“After it closes its doors for the final time, actor Brendan Gleeson returns to it to commemorate its invaluable legacy. In the midst of the current musical renaissance, this documentary celebrates the passionate and earnest story of an Irish cultural nucleus.”

Brendan Gleeson’s Farewell to Hughes’s had its world premiere last March as part of the Dublin International Film Festival (DIFF).

A documentary about a legendary Irish pub starring Oscar-nominated Irish actor Brendan Gleeson will be airing on [Irish]TV later this month.

Source: Brendan Gleeson’s documentary about legendary Irish pub is airing on TV

 

Bert Jansch documentary is a must-listen for fans of British Folk

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In this documentary, interviews and rare archive footage weave together performances from a landmark multi-artist concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London, celebrating the songs and artistry of the great folk-blues troubadour Bert Jansch. Ralph McTell, Robert Plant, Donovan, members of Pentangle, Bernard Butler, Martin Carthy, Martin Simpson, Lisa Knapp and more pay tribute to Jansch, who died in 2011.

Ivor Cutler – Looking for Truth with a Pin (BBC Four, 2005)

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“Interviews with family, friends and fans like Billy Connolly and Paul McCartney demonstrate why IVOR CUTLER has remained an important and relevant figure all these years.

The interview with Mr Cutler himself is what you would expect: enigmatic, amusing and a little unsettling, just like his live shows if you were ever fortunate enough to see him. Full marks for capturing this marvelous old man’s final show and high-lighting his bizarre and highly original contribution to the various worlds of humor, poetry, music and art.” – IMDB | Oct 11, 2005

Review: A moving documentary finds Sinéad O’Connor ahead of her time

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Kathryn Ferguson’s film argues that the fearless Irish star was, above all, a protest singer

Sinéad O’Connor
‘Proto #MeToo statements’

By Wendy Ide

Even before Sinéad O’Connor shredded a photograph of the pope on live television, she generated an unusually hostile response from certain sectors of the media. The shaved head, the androgynous look, the frosty stare from those huge eyes: nothing about O’Connor ticked the 1980s pop commodity boxes. But as this moving documentary explores, the young woman who idolised Bob Dylan saw herself as a protest singer foremost; her celebrity was a means of amplifying her political voice as much as her singing voice.

She was, the film argues, a woman ahead of her time, both in her style and in her outspoken proto #MeToo statements. A traumatic childhood made her tenacious in her support for vulnerable and voiceless people; it also made her sensitive to the criticisms targeted at her. It’s small wonder that she effectively torpedoed the stardom she never much wanted anyway.

Source: Nothing Compares review – moving documentary finds Sinéad O’Connor ahead of her time