Like the characters in Sidney Lumet’s classic film we have all become hostages in a sense. Captured by the virus, with our lives on hold, there’s great danger at hand, not only in the form of the spikey-crowned insurgent that lives in the breath of loved ones as much as in a stranger’s cough, but also in the atrophy of our society.
While we wait for the vaccine, life must go on – we have to believe that a new and better world is waiting. But we must also reflect: the First World has grown complacent, indulged and flabby, believing as Greta Thunberg puts it … ‘in the fairy-tale of endless economic growth’ – when we get our second chance, we mustn’t screw it up.
Guth Gafa is delighted to be presenting Doc Day Afternoon, our first virtual documentary event, supported by The Arts Council, Meath County Council and Creative Ireland. We have been building a virtual hub for the last few weeks, and will be offering a selection of top new documentary films from around the world, with Q&A’s, that in one way or other excavate ‘the time of the virus’ and form the backdrop to 2 strands of further comment and debate. Full details of the programme will be announced next week, but we would invite you to sign up now as places are limited for this event. The link to our registration form is here shorturl.at/bJQTZ.
Guth Gafa has for thirteen years hosted the cream of the documentary world: directors, cinematographers and editors who have shaped the most powerful stories of our age – we’ve brought them to the festival to mingle with the punters in an intimacy not seen at other festivals. We hope to do the same next year and have the chatter of debate once again infused with African and Russian accents, and voices from Japan and Sweden telling their stories. But for now we have to reach across the divide through the Web to say: hang on, this will pass. We want to record this time and the voices that will be quoted in years to come and that means not only the work of filmmakers making art under almost impossible conditions but the thoughts of everyman.
Films will be screened at specific times from 2pm Sunday 13th, and all our live discussions and events will take place on Sunday afternoon and evening, however our Doc Day Hub will be open from Saturday 12th at 2pm for participants to view the schedule and trailers.
Couples Make Films: Three filmmaking couples talk candidly about the process of, making a film in between minding kids, supervising homework and cooking for a hungry family. Featuring clips from their award-winning films, the filmmakers discuss the process of sharing a creative vision.
Irish Filmmakers talk new projects : We have invited some of Ireland’s top documentary makers to join us live to talk about their upcoming projects, or recently released films, and to take questions from visitors to our Doc Day Hub
The Meaning of Liberty: Confinement under lockdown has felt like an unjust sentence meted out to innocents. We examine the concept of incarceration as portrayed in film. Is our society now more sympathetic to prisoners?