Irish short films draw
a full house as usual

This year’s selection included two documentaries, three dramas and three animations

By Byron Toben

May 1, 2023

Cine Gael Montréal always fills the house with its annual evening of Irish short films. One reason is the variety – if you don’t like one, wait a few minutes and watch a different one. Another reason is that audience members can feel more involved than usual by filling out ballots ranking their first, second and third choices as the best. The results are collated by the board and the first-place winner sent the result along with a monetary award of, I believe, $1000.

I particularly enjoyed Nothing to Declare about two Irish lads, aged 10 and 13 in 1985, who managed to stowaway on an Air India jet from London to New York City and pass through customs there with little money and no contacts.

Curating this year’s selection of eight films were, as usual, Heather Macdougall and Kester Dyer, both of whom welcomed the crowd with a few words explaining their process.
The selections included two documentaries, three dramas and three animations. The shortest was three minutes, and the longest was 29 minutes.

I particularly enjoyed Nothing to Declare about two Irish lads, aged 10 and 13 in 1985, who managed to stowaway on an Air India jet from London to New York City and pass through customs there with little money and no contacts. Now, 38 years later, the two, now 48 and 51, recollect how helpful New York police aided them in contacting their parents and arranging a return trip back, courtesy of Aer Lingus Irish Airline, while staying in a nice hotel and seeing some famous sights.

Their misadventures were reported in the New York press at the time. In 1967, Andy Warhol was allegedly quoted as saying, “In the future, everybody will be famous for 15 minutes”. This prediction may now have come to pass with modern technology, but for those lads, it came true in 1985 and with this documentary for years to come.

I also liked An Irish Goodbye, a drama wherein two estranged brothers reunited upon their mother’s untimely death despite arguing about what to do with her ashes in an urn and the inherited farm.

I was spoiled by the wonderful full-length animation Wolfwalkers earlier in the series, so I did not pay much attention to the three animated shorties here, The Forty Foot (about a sea swimming area near Dublin), Regular Rabbit (a white rabbit’s battle against misinformation) or Borda (a woman compares urban living with simpler lifestyle).

I also liked An Irish Goodbye, a drama wherein two estranged brothers reunited upon their mother’s untimely death despite arguing about what to do with her ashes in an urn and the inherited farm.

In the documentary For the Birds, Esther, who daily feeds dozens of pigeons outside her apartment, reminisces about parenthood, sin and past secrets.

Rounding out the selections were two dramas. Wednesday’s Child deals with the disillusioning first day on the job of a child protection worker. Sucking Diesel has a tough lady employer of a petrol station defending her idiot employee against a dangerous criminal.

While I felt that this year’s short selections, each having their moments, were not as rich as in some past years, this is no reflection on the fine work of Heather and Kester. They do not make the films, they just arduously deal with what is out there now. Some years better, some years less so.

Cine Gael concludes its 2023 season on May 5, which features the documentary Seamus Heaney and the Music of What Happens.

A reception will be held after the show in honour of Lynn Doyle, Cine Gael Montréal president since its inception until now, when Martina Branagan replaces her. The Irish Ambassador to Canada will also be in attendance.

cinegaelmontreal.com

Feature image: frame from Bucking Diesel

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Byron Toben, a past president of The Montreal Press Club, has been WestmountMag.ca’s theatre reviewer since July 2015. Previously, he wrote for since terminated web sites Rover Arts and Charlebois Post, print weekly The Downtowner and print monthly The Senior Times. He also is an expert consultant on U.S. work permits for Canadians.