At SHIFT Festival in Hanover, Filmmakers Present a 'Portal to the Sky' - Seven Days
At SHIFT Festival in Hanover, Filmmakers Present a 'Portal to the Sky' - Seven Days |
- At SHIFT Festival in Hanover, Filmmakers Present a 'Portal to the Sky' - Seven Days
- The new Once? The next Adam & Paul? Galway Film Fleadh unveils 2019 line-up - The Irish Times
- Limerick wants to become a Learning City-Region - TheMayorEU
| At SHIFT Festival in Hanover, Filmmakers Present a 'Portal to the Sky' - Seven Days Posted: 19 Jun 2019 07:14 AM PDT click to enlarge 
Throughout history, humans have gazed up at the night sky and pondered their place in the cosmos. But only since the moon was first photographed in 1840 have scientists been able to use such technology to advance their understanding of the universe. The study of heavenly bodies has inspired not only knowledge but also art. This week, some astronomy photos will be on view in "A Portal to the Sky: Cinema and Space," an evening of short films by three experimental filmmakers. The event, billed as "an artistic celebration of the sky, space and worlds beyond," features works that use actual stills, archival images and long-exposure photography from space as source material. The evening is part of the second annual SHIFT festival, 10 days of presentations, performances, classes, workshops, films and discussions at the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College. This year's festival, which runs from June 21 through 30, explores the push and pull between humanity and nature in the current Anthropocene era. Among the sky-themed films screening on Monday, June 24, is "Meridian Plain" by Buffalo, N.Y., filmmaker Laura Kraning. A frenetic, 18-minute visual exploration of eerie, desertlike landscapes, the 2018 black-and-white avant-garde film was meticulously edited from tens of thousands of archival NASA images, captured from space and on the surface of Mars. "Observando el Cielo" (which translates to "observing the sky") is a 2007 short by Jeanne Liotta. The 19-minute work, shot on 16mm film, took seven years to make and incorporates sound recordings by Peggy Ahwesh of naturally occurring VLF (very low frequency) radio waves, which are generated by the Earth's magnetosphere. These recordings "allow the universe to speak for itself," notes the filmmaker on her website. click to enlarge 
"Lunar Almanac" is a 2013 film by Malena Szlam Salazar, a Chilean-born filmmaker now living in Montréal. This four-minute visual diary chronicles the moon as it moves through the sky in ever-changing phases. The evening will feature two experts from quite disparate academic disciplines: cinema production and computer science. The shorts themselves were chosen by Jodie Mack, an associate professor of film and media studies at Dartmouth College. Joining her is Dan Rockmore, associate dean for the sciences and director of the Neukom Institute for Computational Science at Dartmouth. Mack, herself an experimental filmmaker and animator, pointed out that these aren't space-themed explanatory documentaries in the traditions of Neil deGrasse Tyson and the late Carl Sagan. "But I think they're definitely creating bridges between artistic representation and science," Mack said. "They try to represent the soul of the universe." Rockmore may be familiar to Seven Days readers for his work in launching the Neukom Institute's Turing Tests in Creative Arts. The annual, yearlong competition challenges teams of mathematicians, programmers and computer scientists from around the world to develop algorithms and software that mimic humans' ability to create music, poetry and literature. The competition is named in honor of British computer scientist Alan Turing and the Turing test, an assessment of a machine's capacity to exhibit behaviors that are equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, those of humans. After the film screenings, attendees will be invited outdoors, weather permitting, for a telescope-assisted stargazing event with Dartmouth associate professor of physics and astronomy Ryan Hickox.  |
| The new Once? The next Adam & Paul? Galway Film Fleadh unveils 2019 line-up - The Irish Times Posted: 25 Jun 2019 09:59 AM PDT It has always been tricky to predict what's going to emerge most strongly from the programme at a Galway Film Fleadh. That's the thing about a festival that thrives on the new and the unexpected. Over the past three decades the event has confirmed its role as the key portal for new Irish features. Somewhere in this year's line-up, which was announced at the Galmont Hotel on Tuesday evening, we may find the next Once or the next Adam & Paul. You never know. There will be many eager eyes on Ivan Kavanagh's long-gestated western Never Grow Old, which closes the event, on July 14th. The director of Tin Can Man and The Fading Light has Connemara double for California in a tale of the gold rush starring John Cusack and Emile Hirsch. Already a smash at the South by Southwest Film Festival, in Austin, Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman's Extra Ordinary stars Maeve Higgins in a comedy about a driving instructor with supernatural abilities. Higgins will join her costars Will Forte and Barry Ward for a Q&A after the screening. It's also worth keeping an eye on Dathaí Keane's Finky. The creator of the TV series An Klondike casts Dara Devaney in the tale of a puppeteer who gains a kind of redemption after suffering an accident in Glasgow. There are no signs that the picture will fit into any cosy categories. Colour us intrigued. It has been a long time – 15 years, in fact – since Karl Golden's The Honeymooners emerged to an Ireland not yet used to local romcoms. Golden has remained busy and touches down in Galway with an intriguing project called Bruno. Diarmaid Murtagh and Scarlett Alice Johnson appear in a drama about a man propelled on to the streets of London after a tragedy.   Other new Irish features include Shelly Love's A Bump along the Way, a "wholesome, sex-positive" comedy starring Bronagh Gallagher, and Steve Barron's Supervized, featuring Tim Berenger and Fionnula Flanagan as apparent superheroes in an Irish retirement home. Flanagan, a Fleadh regular, will be in the house. Fresh from raves at Sundance, Sophie Hyde's Animals, starring Holliday Grainger and Alia Shawkat, concerns two pals kicking about a colourful version of contemporary Dublin. The buzz around that film is already deafening. Irish documentaries include Paul Duane's Best Before Death, that director's latest missive from the court of the art oddball Bill Drummond, Michael McCormack's Breaking Out, a belated celebration of the musician Fergus O'Farrell, and Ciaran Cassidy's Jihad Jane, a revelatory film about the madness that resulted from the "war on terror". As ever, many of the international releases that have made noise at earlier festivals make their first Irish appearance at the Fleadh. There will be feverish enthusiasm for Joanna Hogg's The Souvenir. Starring Tilda Swinton and Honor Swinton Byrne – mother and daughter in the real world – the picture has already attracted breathless notices for its dissection of romantic traumas in Bohemia. Lulu Wang's The Farewell, featuring Awkwafina in the tale of a warring Chinese family, competed with The Souvenir for the title of best-reviewed film at Sundance 2019. The Fleadh will see them again locked in friendly competition. There will be famous people. James Schamus, renowned producer of so many Ang Lee films, will deliver the keynote address at the Fleadh Forum and will receive the Galway Hooker award, the Fleadh's lifetime-achievement gong. Tyne Daly, whom we assume to have deep Irish roots, is in town to speak about her new film, A Bread Factory, Parts One and Two. She will also – and this sounds delicious – discuss Cagney & Lacey before a much-loved episode of that 1980s cop show, which she starred in with Sharon Gless. You want more? How about Robbie Ryan, Oscar-nominated Irish cinematographer, on one of his great influences (and namesakes). The "Robbie on Robby" strand sees Ryan selecting key works by the German master Robby Müller. Enjoy Barfly, Dead Man, and Paris, Texas. You'll never spell either's name wrongly again. The 31st Galway Film Fleadh runs from Tuesday, July 9th, to Sunday, July 14th  |
| Limerick wants to become a Learning City-Region - TheMayorEU Posted: 25 Jun 2019 04:37 AM PDT  Limerick has just launched a new website dedicated to lifelong learners. It provides information on the availability of courses and learning opportunities in the area of Limerick. LearningLimerick.ie wants to reinforce the digital presence of the Irish city while promoting the presence of Learning Limerick, which is seen as a strategic priority and has the objective to integrate the latter with the Limerick City and County Council's Digital Strategy. At its launch, Deputy Mayor of the City and County of Limerick, Cllr Adam Teskey confirmed that the website will have an important role for the promotion of the city as a Learning City-Region which goes beyond national borders. It is also essential for promoting the cooperation with UNESCO and the members of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities as it also enables the city to share the knowledge acquired over the years. Eimear Brophy, Chairperson of Learning Limerick, for his part was convinced that the portal will enable citizens to adapt to the societal changes and help Learning Limerick to reach its communication goals. Among them - to show that learning is already taking place in communities and colleges, but also at the workplace and is in accordance with other regional and national policies in place. The website facilitates collaboration between all parties concerned with improving the access to lifelong learning. Limerick itself has received the Learning City Award given out by UNESCO in 2017 and builds on its image with the Learning Limerick Strategic Plan 2018 - 2022 (Helping to Grow Limerick as a Learning Region)." In addition, Learning Limerick organises the yearly Limerick Lifelong Learning Festival which will turn 10 next year. Like the article? Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest from the EU cities right into your inbox.  |
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