peter flynn
festival director

dawn morrissey
festival producer

harvey o'brien
associate director

The Irish on Films by Nicholas Patterson

Inspired by recent upsurge of American interest in Irish culture, from Seamus Heaney to Riverdance to In the Name of the Father, Dublin-native Flynn teamed up with [Emerson College professor Jim] Lane a year ago to organize Split/Screen which opens this Friday and runs through April 18. / "We wanted to capitalize on the Irish-culture craze but no show people the same olds stuff, explains Flynn. "Part of the selection criteria was to bring together films that were as diverse as possible. We wanted to present films that had not been distributed in theaters and on TV in America but which were still good films, not substandard My Left Foots." / One of the highlights of the festival will be the appearance at 7pm on April 16 of director Cathal Black . . . . "Ireland is often viewed through idealized, rose-tinted glasses in films made by Americans such as Far and Away," says Black over the phone from his home in Dublin. "My films pulls Americans up short because they are not expecting someone to examine the things I do and be so self-critical doing it." The Boston Phoenix, April 2, 1999.

Identity Crisis: Illuminating Divided Ireland by Nicholas Patterson

Peter Flynn and Jim Lane, the Emerson College professors who are curating the Harvard Film Archive's "Split/Screen: Divided Identities in Ireland Film and Television," have assembled an impressive group of more than 25 feature films, documentaries, and shorts that explore both Irish social and political issues - Catholic/Protestant violence, the legacy of the civil war, the role of women in Northern Ireland, and the fate of the Irish language - and the history and future of Irish filmmaking. The Boston Phoenix, April 9, 1999.

Get Acquainted with Ireland's Cinematic Jewels by Lisa Schaprio

"The mission of the festival," says Peter Flynn, professor of Visual and Media Arts [at Emerson College] and co-curator of the festival, "is to expose Boston-area audiences to Irish films and TV programs which they would not otherwise see, giving people a sense of the immense diversity that exists within those industries. / "While this is ostensibly an Irish film festival, our interests are broad enough that we hope to attract Irish as well as non-Irish audiences - lovers of film period," Flynn says. The Berkeley Beacon, April 8, 1999.

Explore Irish Cinema at Harvard Archive by Paul Sherman

Irish films are more a part of the American moviegoing experience than a decade ago. In the last year alone, Irish imports have ranged from the inspired (The Butcher Boy, The General) to the irreverent (Waking Ned Devine, I Went Down) to the cliched (Dancing at Lughnasa). / But these movies are just a hint of what's been going on in the burgeoning Irish film industry during the past 10 years, typified by such worldwide hits as My Left Foot and The Crying Game. Bostonians have seen only a fraction of this cinematic history. Until now. Harvard Film Archive's ambitious Split/Screen: Divided Identities in Irish Film and Television" series runs the next two weekends. The Boston Globe, April 9, 1999.

Film Festival Fun in Boston by Lauren Byrne

A film festival starting next week at the Harvard Film Archive in Cambridge, Massachusetts takes advantage of the current interest in all things Irish, but not to show more of the same - Irish culture watered down for an international audience. The festival, titled "Split/Screen: Divided Identities in Irish Film and Television," will showcase the best of Irish film made for home audiences from the 1920s to the 1990s. / "Our effort is an attempt to say to audiences, there's more than Jim Sheridan out there. There's so much more, and its wonderful stuff," says Flynn, a professor of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College. / "These are films with simple production values that rely on solid scripts and sharp dramatic movements," says Jim Lane, who has curated film and video for the UCLA Film and Television Archive as is himself a filmmaker and professor at Emerson College. Irish Voice, April 7-13, 1999.

The Second Annual Boston Irish Film Festival (BIFF2)

Hub Film Festival Celebrates Ireland by Paul Sherman

"We had originally conceived of [the festival] as just a one-off event," said co-founder Peter Flynn, an Irish native and Emerson College professor of Visual and Media Arts. "Somewhere in the middle of last year's event, we realized the reaction was very positive, and it seemed viable as as annual event." / Encouraged by the reaction, Flynn contacted Boston College's Irish Studies Program, and asked them to be the event's main sponsor. / "We wanted to make it bigger if it (was) going to be annual," Flynn said. "The first festival focused on what it means to be Irish in Ireland. This year we've expanded it to what it means to be Irish anywhere." The Boston Herald, Friday, March 24, 2000.

Boston Irish Film Festival Set by Lauren Byrne

For Irish films not big on flash or cash, but not short on excellence either, the Boston Irish Film Festival, now in its second year, looks set to provide a regular venue. Emphasizing films that won't be showing at your local Sony multiplex, the festival will run over the two weekend of March 24 and March 31. / "I wanted to do a local Boston-Irish filmmakers' program right from the get-go," Peter Flynn, the originator of the festival who teaches Visual and Media Arts and Emerson College, said, explaining the inclusion of a number of works by local filmmakers. "I'm hoping it will become a regular element to the festival." Irish Voice, Vol. 14 #12, March 15-21, 2001.

Watch It! Irish Film Festival Opens this Weekend by Irish Emigrant Staff

Many readers will remember the incredible wealth of Irish films on show at Boston's first ever full-scale Irish Film Festival, which took place at the Harvard Film Archive last April. This year the festival will again take place over two weekends . . . . A rake of Irish filmmakers will be crossing the pond for the duration to introduce their films, some of which will be making their North American debut . . . . One of the highlights will be the US Premier of A Vertical Man, a film directed by Christoper Swann, based on the life and work of Irish composer and musician Sean O Riada. The film will be introduced by Sean's son Peadar O Riada, himself an acclaimed musician. The Irish Emigrant, March 20, 2000.

Green Screens: The Second Annual Boston Irish Film Festival by Scott Heller

Every time a tear is shed for Frank McCourt, or a bead of sweat darkens Michael Flatley's satin headband, a little bit of Irish culture is bought and sold. You don't need to have seen Riverdance or caught the Three Irish Tenors on PBS to know how popular Irishness has become on these shores. / But the curators of [the Second Annual Boston Irish Film Festival] are shrewd, not starry-eyed. How the Emerald Isle has been marketed to American audiences is part of the program. A series of four tourist films, produced from the 1930s to the 1960s, is scheduled for March 26 at 2 p.m. The Boston Phoenix, March 24, 2000.

Film Fest Brings out the Best by Colin Regan

"In the 1990s, Irish culture in America reached the zenith of its revival. It was a new Ireland reflected in its cultural exports. Writers, Riverdance, music - everything green was turning to gold. Peter Flynn saw one area as missing out. "I looked around and saw all this stuff going on," recalls Flynn, "but I thought, 'Nobody is doing anything about Irish film.' So I decided to give it a go and see how it turned out." / Flynn originally started the Boston Irish Film Festival with a colleague, Jim Lane, who has since moved on to California, as a once off venture. Its success, however, prompted him to make it an annual event. / "We ran two weekends at the Harvard Film Archive back in 1999 and people came out of the woodwork to see the films," says Flynn. "The response was so positive and favorable that I just decided to do it every year." / Following on from the continued success of last year, Flynn believes that the Boston festival is building a name for itself, attracting not only more visitors, but more stars." / This year promises to be the biggest success yet, and Flynn is sure that he will keep the festival up and running for many years to come. Irish Voice, Vol. 15 #16, April 11-17, 2001.

Film Feast at Boston Festival by Lauren Byrne

This year Flynn, curator and originator of the festival who teaches film studies at UMass and Mount Holyoke College, proved it's possible to single-handedly establish a successful film festival. All it takes is year-round dedication, inspired selection, and the find of reserves of energy that could keep California alight indefinitely. Irish Voice, Vol. 15, #18, April 25, 2001.

Transformations: The Greening of the Screen at the Irish Film Festival by Mike Miliard

Change - be it purposeful self-reinvention, the ineluctable alterations brought about by the passage of time, or even the metamorphosis of a man into rodent - is one consistent theme unifying the Third Annual Boston Irish Film Festival. That's not surprising given that these movies from from a new Ireland, one that has changed radically, permanently, and fundamentally over its history, but never more than over the past few decades. The Boston Phoenix, April 20, 2001.

Irish Without the Cliches by Scott Nelson

"One things festival goers are likely to appreciate, whether they're fans of Irish cinema or not, is that [festival curator] Flynn is bringing to town a director, producer, or cast member for most of the productions. That's a notable achievement for any festival, but especially impressive in this case, since most have to make the trek from the Emerald Isle." The Boston Sunday Globe, April 15, 2001.

A feast of Film Fests: All Kinds of Movies are Celebrated at Three Events by Ed Symkus

Peter Flynn, curator of the Irish festival, says he does everything from getting the films and the filmmakers to sweeping up after audiences leave. "I started the festival in 1999," he says. "Boston of course is the heart of Irish America. And there was no Irish film festival. Nobody seemed aware that there was an Irish film industry that was comparable to Irish theater and Irish dance and the Irish arts. So I thought, 'Let's start something up.' I was teaching at Emerson College at the time and I organized it with another faculty member. We ran it at the Harvard Film Archive thinking that it would be a one-off." / His thinking was wrong. The festival caught on immediately, although this year's edition hardly resembles that initial one. / "The first year of the festival was a showcase of everything," says Flynn. "We were showing films from the 20s, the 50s, right up to the present day. We did a sort of run-through of cinema from the very beginning. But the evolution has been to move into contemporary film that were of interest to a broad base of people in Boston." The Boston Tab, Friday, April 20, 2001.

The Fourth Annual Boston Irish Film Festival (BIFF4)

An Irish Lullaby: Music Highlights this year’s Film Fest by Mike Millard

Alcoholism, sectarian animus, abandonment, and abuse are no strangers to Irish cinema. But though these themes frequently make for sodden bathos, the music-themed documentaries in the fourth annual Boston Irish Film Festival respond with eloquent remonstrance, playful defiance, and canny reversals of adversity. The Boston Phoenix, April 26, 2002.

Seeing Green: Irish Film without the Stereotypes by Rebecca Prime

The Boston Irish Film Festival is on a serious mission: updating Ireland’s cliched screen image. With a few exceptions (2000’s About Adam and When Brendan Met Trudy), most Irish films that make it to the States adhere to the Waking Ned Devine school of whimsy, portraying Ireland as a land of spectacular scenery, spirited women, and daft old men. Yet these outworn stereotypes bear little relation to the cosmopolitan new Ireland that is infusing itself into Irish cinema. Indeed, festival director and Dublin native Peter Flynn believes the lack of a strong Irish filmmaking tradition makes the medium ideally suited to capturing a society in transition: "There are no models, no forefathers. This is what makes it so exciting, so liberating." Boston Magazine, April 2002.

Film Festival turns Camera on the Irish by Jim Sullivan

[Says Flynn of Hollywood’s Ireland:] "There’s a new colonialism which has been Hollywood. It’s been the sole projector of cinematic images of Ireland. The standard American view is one of emigrant nostalgia – of looking back to the homeland. It tends to be idealized and romanticized. It’s very flattering, but it doesn’t do justice to the complexity of the culture. As an Irish person I don’t see myself [in Hollywood movies] . . ." Boston Sunday Globe, April 21, 2002.

Irish Eyes are Watching: Ireland as the Irish See It by Leigh Hornbeck

Flynn says two things define Irish film, compared to American film. One, there are no Irish blockbusters made in Ireland. Filmmakers don’t have the money to make loud splashy action flicks, so they make smaller movies that focus on everyday events. Secondly, "revolution" in America is the Boston Tea Party, Flynn said. It is the epic drama of the American revolution and it is 200 years old. In Ireland, it is 800 years of colonialism and feeling like a slave. For Ireland, revolution is a tragedy. The Cambridge Chronicle, Wednesday, April 24, 2002.

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