Today marks the beginning of the Stranger than Fiction festival of documentaries at the IFI. The real meat of the festival begins tomorrow with a flurry of politically-charged films on rebellion, media shaping politics (and vice-versa), economics and

The Irish premiere of ‘The Sun Behind The Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom’ tracks the ramifications of the 2008 protests on the Dalai Lama and Tibetans alike.

Far from being the staple ‘this is rebellion’ docu, the filmmakers had access to the Dalai Lama before, during and after the protests and documented his reactions in contrast to the rhetoric spiking on the ground in Tibet.

The Sun Behind The Clouds shows at 12 noon, tomorrow the Friday 16th April.

Trailer: Youtube

Site: thesunbehindtheclouds.com

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In ‘Videocracy’, filmmaker Erik Gandini returns to Italy to explore where Berlusconi and the Television Age of Reality TV and fame has taken the country culturally and politically over the past 30 years.

The film interviews members of Berlusconi’s inner circle, follows a paparazzo that sees himself as a modern Robin Hood except liberating wealth for himself and takes a wry look at shopping centre auditions.

The trailer has been banned from Italian TV stations.

Videocracy shows at 2:15pm tomorrow, Friday 16th April.

NSFW Trailer: Youtube

Site: Videocracy (beware of NSFW imagery)

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‘Last Time Home’ follows the story of a family, the Zhangs. A family of factory migrant workers, they leave a newborn at home in their rural village and only to see her once a year at the Spring festival.  Years pass and embittered by being left behind, she leaves the countryside to seek work in the city.

The film explores the changes in family, education and society brought about by economic necessity in modern China. The story of the Zhangs is the story of over 200 million migrant workers in China today.

Debut film by Chinese-Canadian director Lixin Fan.

‘Last Train Home’ shows tomorrow at 3:30pm (Friday 16th April.)

Trailer: Youtube

Site: Last Train Home on Eye Steel Film

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In ‘South of the Border’, Oliver Stone travels to South America to account for the might of the left in Venezuela, Bolivia . Termed ‘a political road movie’, Stone’s documentary examines the economic agendas of the US and the IMF in the region and the effect these policies had to the economies.

On the trip, Stone interviewed the presidents of several South American countries. The movie was negatively received in the US, as ‘cheerleadery’.

‘South of the Border’ shows on Sunday, April 18th at 4pm.

Trailer: Youtube

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Tomorrow, a barrage of free events hit the STF festival at the IFI:

• Ethics in Documentary
• A Lifetime on Film: Directors of ‘American: The Bill Hicks Story’ talk about the ups and downs of making the documentary

Full detail of the films are available at the Stranger Than Fiction festival site.

And bang, they are off. Voting in the Irish Book Awards kicks off today. The Irish Book Awards are looking for the Irish book of the decade. Supported by Bord Gáis, the Irish Book Awards has shortlisted 50 Irish books published in the naughties in the shakedown to the top award.

While it’s a rather long shortlist, I’m sure there be cries of where’s the Four Angry Men are or what Roy Keane is doing on the list.

Notable nominees include John McGahern, Maeve Binchy, Cathy Kelly and Ross O’Carroll-Kelly.

Voting is open until May 28th. The awards show is set for November.

The Irish Connection

Two Irish animated movies have been nominated for this year’s Oscars.

“Granny O’ Grimm: Sleeping Beauty” was nominated in Best Animated Short Film category. The “Secret of Kells” starring Glenroe heartthrob Mick Lally is facing tough competition up against Up in the Best Animated Feature Film.

A third Irish nomination appears on the horizon. “The Door” directed by Juanita Wilson has been nominated in Best Live Action Short.

Updates as they come

Watch the full-length video of “Granny O’Grimm: Sleeping Beauty”

Juanita Wilson accepting the IFTA nom for Best Short for “The Door” last year

The Leaders

“Avatar” and “Hurt Locker” are tied with 9 nominations each, “Inglourious Basterds” has 8 with “Precious” and “Up in the Air” tied with 6.

Full list on the Oscar site.

Actress in a Supporting Role
Penélope Cruz in Nine
Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart
Diane Kruger in Inglourious Basterds
Mo’Nique in Precious

Actor in a Supporting Role
Christopher Plummer in The Last Station
Matt Damon in Invictus
Woody Harrelson in The Messengers
Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

Actor in a Leading Role
Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
George Clooney in Up in the Air
Colin Firth in A Single Man
Morgan Freeman in Invictus
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker

Actress in a Leading Role
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Carey Mulligan in An Education
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia in It’s Complicated

Animated Feature Film
Coraline (Henry Selick)
Fantastic Mr Fox (Wes Anderson)
Secret of Kells
The Princess and the Frog (Ron Clements and John Musker)
Up (Pete Docter and Bob Peterson)

Foreign Language Film
Ajami (Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, Israel)
A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, France)
The Milk of Sorrow (Claudia Llosa, Peru)
The Secret of Her Eyes (Juan Jose Campanella, Argentina)
The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, Germany)

Directing
Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
James Cameron (Avatar)
Lee Daniels (Precious)
Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
District 9 (Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell)
An Education (Nick Hornby)
In the Loop (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin and Tony Roche)
Precious (Geoffrey Fletcher)
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner)

Writing (Original Screenplay)
The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
The Messenger (Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman)
A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)
Up (Pete Docter and Bob Petersen)

Best Picture
Avatar (James Cameron – director; Brooke Breton , Laeta Kalogridis, Jon Landau, Josh McLaglen, Janace Tashjian, Peter M Tobyansen, Colin Wilson – producers)
District 9 (Neill Blomkamp – director, Bill Block, Philippa Boyens, Carolynne Cunningham, Elliot Ferwerda, Paul Hanson, Peter Jackson, Ken Kamins, Michael S Murphey – producers)
An Education (Lone Scherfig)
The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
Precious (Lee Daniels)
A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)
The Blind Side (John Lee Hancock)
Up

(Secret of Kells pictured)

Last Monday is officially know as the most depressing day of the year but we’re having none of it. In a squirt of good news, Coachella announced its desert stomping lineup for this year’s festival. While we’re almost half a world away, the three-day April festival in the Cali desert looks damned tempting.

Girls, Beach House, Sunny Day Real Estate, Echo and the Bunnymen, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Miike Snow and the Dirty Projectors would be on my list. Who would be on yours?

Three day tickets go on sale on Friday at 10am (PST) for $272 (around €192) plus service fees.

Photos: Coachella.com

Finding joy in the Bangladesh slums, killing giant insects and collecting bones on The Killing Fields – Henry Rollins‘ passport heaves under the entry stamps. For a butt-numbing but enthralling two and half hours last Tuesday night, Rollins’ played with his Vicar Street audience.

With the energy of a hundred Duracell bunnies, Rollins exploded on the Dublin stage (his first show in a marathon tour) and raced through his travelogs. Each one coloured by insane taxi drivers, language barriers crossed by shouts of “Obama, Obama, Obama” and a burning sense of wonder.

We sat on his lap in the passenger seat of the million dollar hand-built as a Saudi screamed through lunchtime traffic, pressing the phantom brake pedal. We sneaked in the Union Carbite factory in Bhopal on the 25th anniversary of the accident, took photos of ill-fated tank 610 that exploded and killed thousands. We headfucked hustlers that prey on tourists in Tiananmen Square by inquiring if they could do something for us and then asked them to leave Tibet. We shouted down Deakin from the Animal Collective  in a Timbuktu festival.

A tour obsessive, Rollins was quick to point out that his home is on the road. As the lead singer of Black Flag, he lived much of his adult life traveling. Where once he toured to play, he now tours to learn.

To understand what motivates Rollins to visit such far-flung places, one just has to look to America. He wanted to visit China to see what America’s loaner, recycler of plastics and trading partner looked like before it changed. Rollins is convinced that one must travel to learn more about their country.

The insular world view of Americans is something that irks Rollins – especially through his references to “those loud Americans”. Betreyal of principles bites him too. Despite his joy at Obama winning the presidency in 08, Rollins’ disappointment with the ongoing deployment of troops to Iraq is raw. Triumph tainted by bitter disappointment. Side swipes at our new blasphemy law book-ended proceedings.

To finish on a high note, he encouraged the spellbound crowd to travel and to pass those learnings on to the next generation. A positive note to finish on and something the crowd feasted on into freezing January darkness.

Photo: HenryRollins.com

So the response of The Sunday Times’ trolling piece on the death of Irish blogs is alive and kicking.  I am not going to barge in and rechew all of the comment.

What The Sunday Times doesn’t understand that most bloggers don’t want to be journalists, but secretly might want to be better writers, working out ideas or perhaps – and let’s stretch here – for the fun of it.

Why is a British newspaper so afraid of bloggers living in Ireland? Would the French not be a more suitable target or is this the further tabloidisation (look, a new word invented – the sacrilege!) of the Sunday Times? Perhaps Brenda Power can write the next blog piece….

Were I the imbodiment of the Sunday Times, I’d be more worried about the melding of new news sources like Mark Little’s upcoming project. But perhaps that’s just me being rational.

Catch RTÉ1′s much-vaunted reality show starring Victoria Mary Clarke and Shane McGowan last night that followed the pair learning the ins and outs of veggie growing? Far from being the billed reality show, we were treated to VMC visiting her BFFs, all fabulously intertwined into the faded vestiges of landed aristocracy and the Orts.

Besides the dubious well of reason of growing potatoes in planting pots, VMC came up with the goods talking about her conversations with angels. All matter of fact. Yet only a few minutes before she peepeed one of her plant experts telling her that his plants instructed him to attack encroaching black slugs with pair of scissors at night. Now, which one is more sane?

We were also treated to a lesser-seen Guinness, a BFF and cousins of Lily Allen. There’s a double ding score on that. This all transpired while VMC dancing around McGowan indie fame like a post-modern Sharon Osbourne; McGowan ‘s culchie expertise being hammed up for off-beat comic relief.

Is it too cynical to believe that this piece was timed to up the sales of ‘Fairytale of New York’?

Let me first state that I’m actually a great fan of the series but I’ve shed the adoration for team Edward to be an objective critic.

Popular culture announces the Twilight Saga is enormous force to be reckoned with, even with over-flowery prose and a distinct lack of conventional obedience.

Drawing on the school of Psychoanalysis developed by Sigmund Freud, it can help explain why paranormal romance, specifically vampire-centric, holds such appeal to a female audience. Not only is a vampire a creature shrouded in mystery but usually the act of a male vampire biting a female human has phallic symbolism. The female victim is effectively being speared and dominated by the vampire which in turn helps to assuage the female’s feelings according to Freud’s Castration Theory. (Please keep in mind that this is simply an application of a literary theory which helps to explain the appeal of Twilight.)

Moving on the conventions of vampire focussed texts, which if is taken into critical observation is exceptionally frustrating. Meyer nearly breaks every single traditional vampire convention except the phallic symbolism of biting, an unquenchable thirst for blood and lack of aging.

If the first rays of dawn shine upon Meyer’s vampires, instead of bursting into flames they glisten and sparkle somewhat akin to a Christmas tree bauble. Garlic and holy water are also ineffective as tools of destruction.

So let’s get rid of the vampire aspect of Edward Cullen shall we? Let’s substitute it for something else. Magician? Rehash of the Harry Potter legacy. Werewolf? We already have them on team Jacob. Incubus? Effectively renders audience potential to the over eighteen category. So without the glowing eyes, indulgence in self-hatred and eternal life poor human Edward Cullen holds very little appeal, doesn’t he?

So let’s use the only thing that works.

Vampire.