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.

Apologies on the lack of updates, Election.ie Towers was moving over the past week. The cable broadband was installed yesterday and we’re raring to go. All hands inside the car!

Best known for traveling the highways and byways, Nationwide’s Michael Ryan is embroiled in a legal battle over land in County Wexford. The RTE 1 television presenter brought a civil action against one of his neighbours last week on a boundary between their adjacent lands.

The New Ross Standard reports:

Michael Ryan, of Killowen House, Dunganstown, New Ross, brought the civil action before Judge Alice Doyle at Wexford Circuit Civil Court, against John Whitty and Mary Whitty, of Dunganstown, arising out of a dispute over a boundary where a row of trees are grown.

Colman Cody, B.L. for Michael Ryan, told the court that what precipitated these proceedings was an issue over the ownership of trees which his client says lie inside his boundary. The defendants are disputing this.

The case was adjourned until June 2nd so Judge Doyle can visit the site and inspect the disputed boundary.

If not for the politicians (who are looking hagard at best), then for the correspondents and the politicial junkie bloggers and Twitterers?

Barely a day is going by without a national shitfit in the Houses of Oireachtas. Just before the explosive media feeding frenzy, the political news junkies were setting themselves up to track the passage of the Finance Bill 2010 through committee. Yesterday was supposed to be celebratory for the Greens, with a fresh-faced senator in the upper house – instead they lost a former leader and Junior Minister.

Who’s next and who’s up for Berocca?

Sunday Tribune
The Trib leads with a story by Shane Coleman and Conor McMorrow that claims Brian Cowen will wait to reshuffle his cabinet until after Easter.

The Taoiseach is believed to be contemplating the options this weekend to fill thew gap caused by O’Dea’s resignation.

The piece goes onto to detail his options

• If a straight replacement for the portfolio is sought in the coming week, Coleman and McMorrow believe that Tony Killeen would the likely choice
• Let things die down for a couple weeks, before announcing a replacement and then reshuffling later in the year
• Holding off all decisions until after Easter and then do a complete reshuffle

The reshuffle, Coleman and McMorrow believe, would be the best option and would give Cowen the chance to appoint someone to help Finance Minister Brian Lenihan with his workload during his treatment for cancer. They note, also, the irony that this would have been the perfect job for O’Dea.

The lead picture on the Trib is of Senator David Norris who has expressed interest in running as president next time around.

The Sunday Business Post

Predictably, the SBP leads with O’Dea’s resignation. The lead by Niamh Connolly and Pat Leahy says that Cowen asked the Greens to allow O’Dea resign “in his own time” but the Greens insisted O’Dea resign immediately. The lead writers claim that the Greens “hardline stance” was adopted to “curtail damage caused by the Party’s support for the Minister in a confidence motion the previous day.”

Samantha McCaughren has a story on the front-page claiming that Denis O’Brien will net over half a billion euros from the sale of Digicel Pacific to its parent company Digicel Group. The deal which will take place between two O’Brien businesses, will allow O’Brien to realise €510m in cash into his pocket.

Sunday Independent

The Sindo leads with the fallout of the O’Dea resignation as well, but takes an interesting peek into the future. The lead by Jody Corcoran claims that the Moriarty report will drive the Greens to the brink of their support for Fianna Fáil within weeks.

Green Party leader John Gormley will come under intense pressure from within his party should he continue to accept further government support from the now-Independent TD, Mr Lowry, if the tribunal report proves to be as critical of him as predicted.

The Trib leads with an exclusive by Mark Hillard on how Irish donor kidneys were sent to the UK as acute bed shortages barred those organs being offered some 580 patients on the donor waiting list in Ireland.

Hillard writes:

It is believe to be the first time kidneys have been given away because of the inability to offer them to patients in Ireland.

The incident is understood to have led to angry exchanges between a top doctor and health minister Mary Harney, sparking a crisis meeting to ensure such a failure of life-saving is never repeated.

On the numbers and destinations of the kidneys:

The incident occured on 26 January when four kidneys and one pancreas became available for transplant. While two if the kidneys were used in the Temple Street Children’s Hospital, the other organs were sent via Beaumont Hospital to the United Kingdom Transplant Service.

The minor lead on the front of the Trib is on #glee. Jennifer Bray’s piece details how George Lee spent just a day working at BCP Stockbrokers in the late 1990′s before fleeing back to RTE.

There’s also an interesting piece in the Trib claiming that Ireland’s new European commissioner, Maire Geoghegan-Quinn is refusing to give up her €100,000+ pension as a former minister and TD. Her current job yields a salary of €238,000 plus pension.

#gleelovers be comforted by the fact that there’s loads to read on all of the papers this weekend.

Sunday Independent

A Sindo/Millward and Brown Lansdowne poll leads the Sindo. The poll reveals that a majority (62%) the electorate want a national all-party government to lead the country for the duration of the economic crisis.

The piece by Jody Corcoran goes on to look at the standing of the parties:

When the headline finding is broken down, it reveals that supporters of Fianna Fáil (66 per cent), Fine Gael (56%), Labour (64%), Green (50%) and Sinn Féin (64%) want a national all-party government.

The Sindo also has a frontpager by Ronald Quinlan reporting that Ryanair honcho Michael O’Leary has “slammed” the Tanaiste for “the loss of 500 engineering jobs which the low-cost carrier had intended to create at Dublin Airport”.

O’Leary shared correspondence with the Sindo that reveal:

… how Ryanair offered to take over the former SR Technics facility at Dublin Airport and reemploy 500 of the aircraft engineers who worked there before it closed last summer.

In making the offer, Ryanair’s only condition that Ms Coughlan, as Minister for Enterprise, or the IDA would act as intermediary with the Dublin Airport Authoriy (DAA) as it negotiated the lease of the former SR Technics hanger.

The minor lead in the Sindo by Jerome Reilly reports about how Gay Byrne has “taken a sideswipe” at Brian Cowen’s social habits saying he “should not be seen sitting on a high stool of his local pub sipping pints.”

More papers as they come to hand. Links go live to the pieces as their sites get updated.

Sunday Independent

The Sindo leads with a piece by Jody Corcoran and Maeve Sheehan on a Sunday Independent/Quantum Research telephone poll to gauge public feeling on the Government and the economy.

The poll consisted a sample of just 500 households randomly selected.

The questions asked:

• Do you have confidence in the political system produce answers to our current economic crisis?
  • Yes – 24% / No – 76%
• Do you worry about your ability to earn or to continue earning a living?
  • Yes – 48% / No – 52%
• Are you concerned that you could possibly lose your home?
  • Yes – 20% / No – 80%
• Have you felt ashamed because you could not pay your bills?
  • Yes – 27% / No – 73%
• Have financial worries ever seriously affected your mood?
  • Yes – 54% / No – 46%
• Do you believe Ireland has anything to offer to those who will finish their education in the next few years?
  • Yes – 38% / No – 62%
• Would you see emigration as an option for yourself?
  • Yes – 22% / No – 78%

The Sindo also says it can:

reveal that officials empowered to seize goods to meet an undischarged debt are coming away empty-handed from the often palatial homes of wealthy developers, lawyers and celebrities.

Dublin County Sheriff John Fitzpatrick said: “A different class of individuals are coming into us. We are getting developers, lawyers, celebrities… and for very big money too.”

…

His current caseload includes a court order against a property developers for €18m, a judgment of €3m against a solicitor and one for €1.4 against a “celebrity”. He does not believe he has a “hope in hell” of getting the money back.

The minor lead is a piece on how the late Celine Cawley’s family is upset with her characterisation as a “ruthless, domineering businesswoman.”

Brendan O’Connor is kicked to the inside pages by Ann Harris with a piece on Brian Cowen’s speech to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce dinner last Friday.

Sunday Business Post

The SBP leads with a story by David Clerkin and Ian Kehoe on how a loophole allowed companies and the super-rich to avoid paying Capital Gains Tax to the tune of €400m in a single scheme. Some 26 taxpayers availed of the scheme.

Ian Kehoe follows up the lead with a front page piece how the owners of the Shelbourne hotel “may never see any return on their €230m investment in the St. Stephen’s Green property.”

He writes:

The consortium of investors, including Bernard McNamara, bought the hotel in 2004 for €120m and injected a further €110m into a redevelopment and refit of the property.

However, court documents filed by John Sweeney, the Galway businessman who owns one-third of the hotel, state that investors have earned nothing from the investment to date and there is no indication that there will be any return in the near future.

Another minor lead by John Burke says that the ESRI was forced to withdraw a “controversial report” on waste management in Dublin due to errors.

Professor Richard Tol said that the move was being taken after the institute identified significant errors after publication. He confirmed that the conclusions reached in the report would be reviewed in the light of the errors and could potentially be changed.

“Any errors identified will be corrected… we’re in the middle of redoing what needs to be redone,” Tol told the Sunday Business Post.

Burke follows this piece with a page 2 piece on how Dublin City Council has paid almost €15m more to consultants that gave it advice on the controversial Poolbeg incinerator.

The council agreed to pay €6.5m to the consortium, headed by consulting engineers RPS, in July 2001, according to documents seen by the Sunday Business Post. However, the local authority has paid more than €21m up the start of this year for services connected to the incinerator project.

Links go live as the pieces do, so do pop by and I’ll send you to the full stories!

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)

CANADA: A call to end pelvic exams without consent under anesthesia << Never getting a kidney stone removed there!

SOMALIA: Pirates are clubbing together and sending booty to help the people of Haiti.

BELFAST: A Playgirl honcho is traveling to Northern Ireland with a TV crew to track down Iris lover Kirk McCambley.

USA: Video of the phantom chicken kisser and hugger on the New York subway via the Breakfast show on Newstalk.