Irish Film Projects For US Festival

Four Irish projects have been officially selected to screen at the AFI/Silver Docs Film Festival which takes place in Maryland, US from 21st-27th June.
They include the feature documentary His & Hers, and three short documentaries Bye, Bye Now, If These Walls Could Talk, and The Herd
Fresh from its recent screening at Hot Docs, Ken Wardop's His & Hers explores women's relationships with men by visiting moments from the lives of 70 female characters. Produced by Andrew Freedman for Venom Films and financed by the IFB, this beautiful and innovative film has been a huge success on the international circuit since its premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh last year, where it picked up the Best Irish Film award.
Since then His & Hers has won numerous awards such as the Audience Award at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival and Best Cinematography Award at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.
It recently won a Special Jury Prize in Non-Fiction Storytelling at RiverRun International Film Festival in the States and is also set to screen at Guth Gafa festival next month.
Bye, Bye Now, co-directed and co-produced by Ross Whittaker and Aideen O'Sullivan, follows the proposed removal of a number of phoneboxes from around the country which sparked many fond memories in the lives of the rural Irish communities.
Produced by True Films, the film reflects on how the phonebox has gone from the centre of Irish life to the verge of extinction.
It has picked up the Audience Award at both the Corona Cork Film Festival and the IFI Stranger Than Fiction festival and had recent screenings at the Athens International Film Festival and at Vancouver Film Festival.
It has also been selected for competition at the Krakow Film Festival in Poland which takes place from 31st May - 6th June.
Anna Rodger's If These Walls Could Talk, takes a look at psychiatric institutions as they approach their demise, questioning the faint traces of forgotten voices of the people who spent the best part of their lives committed to these asylums.
Produced by Siobhán Ward for Yellow Asylum Films, this haunting documentary scooped the Best Short Award at the IFI Stranger Than Fiction film festival last month.
Both Bye, Bye Now and If These Walls Could Talk were financed through the IFB short documentary scheme Reality Bites.
The Herd, which was also directed by Ken Wardrop, is also no stranger to the festival circuit having previously won the Short Documentary Grand Jury prize at the Seattle International Film Festival, as well as selcetions for the LA Film Festival, The Hamburg International Short Film Festival and the Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto.
The quirky documentary produced by Andrew Freedman of Venom Film, received funding from the IFB through the Print Provision scheme.
AFI/Silverdocs is an internationally renowned film festival that celebrates independent thinking and generates global media attention.
The festival takes place in Silver Spring, Maryland in the US from 21st-27th June.
(BMcC/GK)