Join us for a special Showcase of Irish Cinema, both past and present, from Thursday March 25 to Sunday March 28. Films will screen at the Brattle Theatre and at the Somerville Theater. Receptions will be held at Grafton Street Bar and Grill (Harvard Sq.), Orleans (Davis Sq.) and at the Burren (Davis Square).

Among the films selected to be screened are the hit Irish comedy Wide Open Spaces and the award-winning documentary The Yellow Bittern: The Life and Times of Liam Clancy.

Gabriel Byrne will be present for a screening of the new documentary on his life and career, Gabriel Byrne: Stories from Home

Tickets to each screening are $9. All receptions are free. A special All Access Festival Pass (allowing you access to all screenings and receptions) is available for $50.

To purchase tickets click on the button below:

7.30pm

WIDE OPEN SPACES
Director: Tom Hall 2009 / Ireland, UK Duration: 85 mins
Ardal O’Hanlon, Ewen Bremner, Owen Roe, Morwenna Banks, Don Wycherley

Have you ever had a best friend you couldn't stand? Myles (Ardal O'Hanlon) has one - Austin (Ewen Bremner) - only he's too much of a slacker to do anything about it. In fact, each one of these layabouts is as useless as the other: a pair of thirty-something’s who laze around watching their lives flutter past. Fate, however, has plans to remedy their lack of motivation. Up to their necks in debt, they decide to help a dodgy entrepreneur, Gerard (Owen Roe), to create a new landmark in Irish tourism: a Famine Theme Park. WIDE OPEN SPACES is an absurdist comedy about how breaking up with your best friend can be tougher than ditching a fiancée. Filtered through the singular mind of writer Arthur Mathews (FATHER TED), and directed by Tom Hall (BACHELOR'S WALK), the film channels classic double act dramas, from Laurel and Hardy to Withnail and I, combined with a stark visual and thematic sensibility, to create an unforgettable comedic escapade.

Reception to follow @ Grafton Street Bar & Grill, Harvard Square 9.30pm Open to the public

7.30pm

GABRIEL BYRNE: STORIES FROM HOME
Director: Pat Collins 2008 / Ireland Duration: 76 minutes

Over the last thirty years, Irishman Gabriel Byrne has established himself as one of the leading actors of his generation. Leading critic David Thompson has said of his performance in Miller's Crossing “This is one of the great performances in American cinema”.

Stories from Home, is a poetic and lyrical portrait of a man who, through both his life and career, exists in a self-imposed exile. A film that manages to transcend the limitations of many such portraits, creating a truly cinematic work, the topics covered in the documentary are deeply personal, and demonstrate a palpable sense of trust between filmmaker and subject.

The documentary unfolds in a collage of photographs, home video, archive clips and interviews. All these elements, crafted in this wonderful portrait, seek to understand the man who we see in a candid moment at the opening scene, struggling to connect with the familiar.

Reception to follow @ Orleans, Davis Square 9pm Open to the public

1:00pm

New Irish shorts Program - Duration: 57 mins

The Irish Film Board and Network Ireland Television present a selection of the very best of contemporary Irish shorts.

MOORE STREET MASALA
Director, David O'Sullivan (2009) 3 minutes
Ireland's first Bollywood movie. Shop clerk Baba falls for the sexy estate agent across the street. When he sells her lunch, she steals his heart. There is only one way their love can make it....Bollywood Style!

SUGAR STICK
Director Laura Way (2009) 6 minutes
Mary is trapped in a toxic friendship. Miriam with her chain-smoking and vicious tongue is that toxic friend. Morning tea and vitriol. There is no smoke without fire.

SUNSHOWER
Director Liam Gavin (2009) 14 minutes
A very bizarre, ultimately sublime, meeting between two strangers on a chilly morning in the middle of nowhere... one, a teenage girl, drunk and driving a stolen car; the other, an old man who has escaped a hospice and is trying to find his way home

TUFTY
Directors Jason and Brendan Butler (2009) 8.5 minutes
What if you knew where your teddy bear really came from?

THE CONFESSION
Director Thomas Hefferon (2009) 4 minutes
A young man, Johnny Smith, goes to confess his sins but the priest seems more interested in gossiping about the local women than granting him absolution.

DENTAL BREAKDOWN
Director Ian Power (2009) 5.5 minutes
A musical comedy about five reluctant student dentists whose eyes are opened to the cruel consolations of their career by a sadistic tutor. Warning: this may hurt a little.

JAMES
Director Connor Clements (2008) 17 minutes
Focusing on a boy in Northern Ireland isolated by his sexuality and alienated from his family due to his parent's martial troubles "James" reaches out in desperation to his teacher for support and guidance

2.30pm

THE BASS PLAYER: A SONG FOR DAD
Director: Niall McKay 2008 / Ireland/USA Duration: 62 mins

In this eloquent, witty homage to his father, filmmaker Niall McKay wrestles with his family’s unsettling past to overcome his fear of commitment. As Niall helps his elderly father Jim, a jazz bass player, return home to Ireland, father and son revisit Niall’s tumultuous childhood with an abusive, unpredictable mother and a musician father who was often on the road. It’s a parallel journey into Niall’s admiration for his father and his innermost doubts about love, and their conversations take on a confessional quality as they reveal their darkest moments. But the film lyrically (and sometimes limerickly) takes us full circle, capturing joyous moments of healing and celebration. Shot in Switzerland, France, Ireland and the US, geography and the idea of home play prominent roles. Scored with Irish jazz and, particularly, Jim’s bass, the music is much more than a soundtrack, and the film is not unlike the tunes Jim strums as it explores and captures the nuances, tones and oscillations of life and relationships. Striking many poignant chords, the filmmaker’s evolving notions of family and commitment will charm and amuse. — Carrie Lozano

4:00pm

THE RACE
Director Andre F. Nebe 2009 Ireland/Germany Duration: 90 mins
Colm Meaney, Susan Lynch, Niamh McGirr

Eleven-year-old Mary lives with her estranged parents on a struggling farm in rural County Antrim, Northern Ireland. With her exasperated mother and proud, stubborn father constantly at each other’s throats over lack of funds and the future of the farm, life at home is far from ideal.

But Mary has other plans. Ever since she can remember, she has dreamed of becoming a racing driver, so when a rich local farmer sets up a go-cart race down in the valley, she can’t resist the chance to enter. But with opposition from home, general scorn from the community and the fact that she is a girl trying to make it in a boy’s world, the road to success is never going to be easy.

Mary does not give in so easily though. With perseverance, determination and a little help from her loyal friend, Tom, she sets about building a go-cart until, eventually, her spirit and dedication win over the most unlikely hearts.

The Race is an inspirational drama in the best tradition of Billy Elliot - guaranteed to warm the heart.

4.30pm

It is 1999 and Northern Ireland is an independent State. Behind the scenes old hatred continue to fester, but something is different. For the first time in decades, the people are united. Prime ministerial candidate Michael Brinn is poised for a landslide victory on the 'peace in our time' ticket. And everyone believes in him. Everyone, that is, except Dan Starkey, a hard-drinking, 30-something hack who refuses to swallow the spiel. However, when Starkey is caught by his wife in the arms of a girl he hardly knows, he discovers that he and Brinn are destined to become more than casual acquaintances. The girl, Margaret McGarry, is the daughter of Brinn's right-hand man. and within hours of seducing Starkey, she has been shot dead in a bed still warm from their love-making.

Before Margaret, Starkey had always made it a point of principle to keep out of the political fray, preferring instead to snipe at both sides from the safety of his weekly newspaper column. Now his quest to find her killers, rescue his floundering marriage and save his country, leads him directly to its rotten heart.

12.30pm

When Irish Shorts are Shining! Irish Short Film Retrospective (86mins)

The Irish Film Board and Network Ireland Television present a selection of classic award-winning short films from the past 10 years, including Academy Award and BAFTA nominated titles.

DANCE LEXIE, DANCE (1996) 14 minutes
Director: Tim Loane
Laura, a 12 year old Protestant girl wants to be a Riverdancer when she grows up. However, with her mother dead, will her Dad, Lexie, help her?

NOBODY HOME (2002) 3 minutes
Director: Eamon Little
A dramatic day in the life of a remote answering machine, which leaves the viewer wondering about the real stories behind some of the cryptic messages left for the recipient.

35 – ASIDE (1996) 26 minutes
Director: Damien O’Donnell
Philip is being bullied at his new school. As his father is in prison, it falls to his mother to sort out his nasty classmates, which she does with stunning aplomb.

BORIS (2004) 3 minutes
Director: Steven Burke
Shannon Airport, September 1994 – Irish Government representatives wait for Boris Yeltsin. Unfortunately, El Presidente can’t meet the Irish delegation on the tarmac. Some plain talking on the Irish side escalates into a diplomatic incident.

MY NAME IS YU MING / YU MING IS AINM DOM
(2003) 12 minutes (Irish language with English subtitles)
Director: Daniel O’Hara
Yu Ming wishes to escape his dull life working in China. Randomly, he chooses Ireland to relocate to. Arriving in Dublin he is puzzled to find that nobody understands a word he says! Best International comedy at the Aspen Shortsfest Film Festival.

SCREWBACK (2004) 10 minutes
Director: Brian O’Malley
Harry thought his past was behind him. He was wrong. Harry must do one last job for his old boss. If he refuses, his young daughter dies.

FLYING SAUCER ROCK ‘N’ ROLL (1997) 12 minutes
Director: Michael and Enda Hughes
A toe tappin’ Rock ‘n’ Roll rebel (Ardal O’Hanlon) from Northern Ireland saves the planet from mute-ants, with only his hearing impairment, a trusty tractor, and a fertiliser/moonshine bomb. Brussels International Film Festival, January 1998 – Prix Canal+ Best European Short. Fantasporto Portugal, February 1998 – Best short Film Fantasporto 1998.

UNDRESSING MY MOTHER (2004) 6 minutes
Director: Ken Wardrop
This poignant documentary explores a woman’s unique take on her overweight and aging body. Having recently turned sixty, Ethel continues to be self-assured and happy with the way she looks. European Short Film of the Year 2005.

2.30pm

THE YELLOW BITTERN: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LIAM CLANCY
Director: Alan Gilsenan 2009 / Ireland, Duration: 105 min

The Yellow Bittern is a revealing and surprising portrait of the man Bob Dylan called “ the best ballad singer I’d ever heard in my whole life. This confessional and highly cinematic film charts the remarkable rise to fame of these devil-may- care Irish singers, from their small-town beginnings in County Tipperary in Ireland to the folk hey- day of Greenwich Village in the Sixties where they absorbed black musical influences, played for JFK and out-sold the Beatles.

The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem would go on to influence a host of popular artists from Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger to The Pogues, and become a powerful iconic presence on the Irish cultural map.

Many myths and legends have grown up around The Clancy Brothers, but the legend of Liam Clancy, the youngest, is perhaps the most potent of all.

Drawing on the power of Liam’s storytelling, and unseen behind-the-scenes footage of the band at their height, as well as on Clancy’s own personal archive, this film is a compelling look at an iconic and influential life lived to the full.

Director Alan Gilsenan in person

“Special Introduction by Robbie O’Connell”--Liam Clancy’s nephew
Since 1977 Robbie O'Connell has performed both solo and as a member of the Clancy Brothers & Robbie O'Connell, Moloney O'Connell & Keane, The Green Fields of America, Clancy, O'Connell & Clancy, and Aengus. He has recorded fourteen albums for such labels as RCA, Vanguard and Green Linnet, and he has appeared on an additional seven compilation albums. Winner of the Boston Music Award as Outstanding Celtic Act, he has appeared at almost every major venue in the USA from New York's famed Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center to the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles.

Reception & Session @ The Burren, Davis Square 5 pm Open to the public

IFI Reel Ireland

A number of films in this program have been brought to you in association with The Irish Film Institute’s (IFI) Reel Ireland Programme. Through, Reel Ireland, the IFI works with international programmers of Irish film events to gives audiences everywhere access to the best of Irish cinema. This year’s program comprises both classic and contemporary titles and is a response by the IFI to increased international awareness of and demand for Irish cinema.

Reel Ireland is funded by Culture Ireland for further information please visit www.cultureireland.gov.ie or www.reelireland.ie