Bandit Films have commenced the adaptation of Johnny Gogan’s novel Station to Station with Johnny and screenwriter Joe O’Byrne collaborating. Published this year, the novel has been listed in the Irish Times Best Crime Fiction of 2022.
We made our first research trip to Spain in late October for Behind the Lines, a documentary at the centre of which is the Spanish Civil War service of Irish nurse Ruth Ormsby (right). Pictured (left) is co-producer Niall Flynn, Barcelona based researcher Catherine Howley and Carola Duran Tort, daughter of the leading innovator in Blood Transfusion during the war, Frederick Duran Jorda
Following this visit, Bandit Films have signed a coproduction agreement (Dec. 22) for Behind the Lines with Barcelona-based production company Funicular Films.
For the second time this year Black Ice is selected in the Sunday Times Demand Pick of the Week
Sept 24th: Love Song to a Bicycle, Laura McMorrow’s directorial debut, plays to a full house at the Irish Film Institute’s Documentary Film Festival.
THE ADVENTURES OF FLANNERY:
A Profile of Cathal Coughlan (2007)
screens at the Irish Film Institute 18th August, 2022
https://ifi.ie/film/from-the-vaults-the-adventures-of-flannery-a-portait-of-cathal-coughlan/
Generate the State (2015)
Limerick, Belltable May 16th
Screens as part of the inaugural Future Limerick Climate Festival. Generate the State is about the building of the Shannon Scheme (1925-29) with Ardnacrusha Power Station as its centre-piece, how it revolutionised electricity production and supply in Ireland, and it was 100% renewable energy. Click on image below for more information on film and tickets.
Black Ice (2013)
is available on Netflix from 3rd December
Jane McGrath (Red Rock) and Killian Scott (Love/Hate, Dublin Murders, The Commuter) lead a strong Irish cast in this story of cars and speed set in the No Man’s Land of the Irish north-south border. Alice (McGrath) is drawn into the underworld of her recession hit town and while she is more than a match for Jimmy there is the surprise of how town and family really work and the fatal consequences of that.
Hubert Butler Witness to the Future (2016)
is now available on Netflix
It tells the story of one of Ireland’s greatest writers and human rights champions, focusing on his uncovering of the genocide in the Balkans during the Second World War and his smuggling of Jews into Ireland before the war. Featuring Chris Agee, Olivia O’Leary, John Banville, Roy Foster and Fintan O’Toole the film is given a strong personal feeling through interviews with his daughter Julia, his work as a market gardener and his strong connection with his native Kilkenny.
Groundswell in cinemas in Ireland and Britain
The Dukes, Lancaster, 11, 14, 15th June
Derry’s Gasyard Festival, The Nerve Centre, 8th August
Northumberland, Star and Shadow Cinema, 14th August
Oban, Phoenix Cinema, 18th and 22nd Sept
Online in Ireland from 30th April
Disappear Here Festival, Donegal Sept 29-30
Gate Cinema, Cork Support if you are in Munster
Triskel Cinema, Cork Support if you are in Cork City
IFI@Home Support in Dublin
Volta Support in Leinster region
Queens Film Theatre Support in Belfast region
banditfilms.ie in Connacht/Ulster (Watch On Demand button below, also for Worldwide)
In Great Britain
Chapter Cardiff
Broadway Nottingham
Dukes Lancaster
HOME Manchester
Art House Crouch End London
The Bonington Nottingham
Alnwick Playhouse Alnwick
Quad Derby
Galeri Caernarfon
Phoenix Leicester
Dome Cinema Worthing
Picture House Uckfield Uckfield
David Lean Cinema Croydon
Saffron Screen Saffron Walden
Birks Cinema Aberfeldy
Macrobert At Home Stirling
Picturedrome Wisbech
Aberystwyth Arts Centre Aberystwyth
Bracknell Film Society Bracknell
Hebden Bridge Picture House Hebden Bridge
DCA Dundee
Irish Film London (May 3rd)
13th November
World Premiere of feature documentary Home is a Sacrifice Zone
Bandit Films was set up by Johnny Gogan in Dublin in 1990 to make the award-winning short film Stephen. Over the past thirty years it has been the development and production vehicle for his documentary and fiction work and a range of other distribution and exhibition ventures. In 1997, he moved to Leitrim in the Irish North West and Bandit Films soon followed.
November 13th sees the premiere of Home is a Sacrifice Zone as part of the 65th Cork Film Festival.
This will be followed in early 2021 with the publication of Johnny’s second novel Station to Station.
Bandit Films are also at an advanced stage with preparation for the four part drama Rare Earth in collaboration with Fine Point Films (Belfast) and Palatin Media (Munich).
Amazing films from the edge.
Featured Film: Last Bus Home
“Blink and you would have missed writer-director Johnny Gogan’s deeply personal coming-of-age story on its limited release earlier this year; here’s a second chance to take a look at one of the most interesting Irish directorial debuts of recent times. Charting the rise and fall of The Dead Patriots, an uncompromising Dublin punk band of the late ’70s, Gogan tackles a period of massive cultural, spiritual and sexual change head-on - all wrapped up in a bittersweet tale of teenage love and a superb song-score from the great Cathal (Fatima Mansions) Coughlan. Driven by a fine ensemble cast led by Brian F. O’Byrne, Annie Ryan and Anthony Brophy there’s considerable ambition and an obvious passion at play here, and the finished results are truly engaging. Lazily dismissed by some critics as a poor cousin of The Commitments, Last Bus Home deserves much better.”
IRISH FILM INSTITUTE PROGRAMME NOTES