West Belfast Film Festival
Yamila Petruschansky
The 4th West Belfast Film Festival will open on March 22 at the
Cineplex in the Kennedy Centre.
This Festival will be the biggest, brightest and most ambitious yet
says Brian Campbell of the Festival's press office,'' the presence of
Martin Sheen will put the Festival in the map''
In Fact, American star Sheen will launch the Festival with the Irish
premiere , of his latest work, The War at Home.
The top Hollywood actor will also participate in a Question & Answer
event.
A special theme this year will be films and film makers from the
North of Ireland. Four programmes of thirty short films including ,
Saoirse from North Belfast film director Brendan Byrne and A Rap at
the Door from West's Belfast rising star, screenwriter Pearse Elliot
will be on show at the Virgin Cinema.
``Although 90% of the shows are in Falls Road, I think it is good to
get out to Waterfront and Virgin Cinemas. It will help us to attract
the audience'', explains Campbell.
The programme includes a day of Irish language films, sponsored by
Felix Feirste, who will also host a seminar on the role of Irish
Language in film.
There will be also a show of Basque short films, ``there is a link and
similarities between what happens over there and over here, also
there are also lots of Basque people living here and in the rest of
Ireland, this is a way to recognise them'', adds Campbell.
Celebrating the 40th Cuban Revolution Anniversary, West Belfast Film
Festival presents a programme of wonderful Cuban films, featuring
particularly the work of the internationally well known director
Tomas Alea and the premiere of a documentary by the Film Festival's
manager, Michele Devlin, about a trip a Cuba by a group of Belfast
women last year.
As a part of Draoicht, the local children's Festival, films for
children will be screened by Cinemagic and animation workshops will
take place since on March 16.
A rare treat for movie- and music- fans will be a silent film with
piano accompaniment at the Waterfront Studio and for soccer fans, two
evenings of rarely screened films about football.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)