From Monday 13 to Saturday 25 March, primary, post-primary schools, colleges, community groups, and the general public, will enjoy a programme of international films, workshops, and outreach screenings, exploring the themes and issues involved.
Families will enjoy a special preview screening of the latest DreamWorks Animation The Boss Baby in Brunswick Moviebowl on March 25. The film is a hilariously funny universal story about how a new baby's arrival impacts a family, told from the point of view of a delightfully unreliable narrator, a wildly imaginative 7-year-old named Tim. With a sly, heart-filled message about the importance of family, DreamWorks' The Boss Baby is described as ‘an appealing original comedy for all ages’.
Highlights ofthis year’s primary programme include special screenings of The Lego Batman Movie, Moana, Finding Dory and Sing. The Nerve Centre’s Creative Learning Centre team will also bring the Intercultural & Anti-Racism Programme into schools giving students an opportunity to use green screen technology, iPads and editing software to create their own films that explore the festival’s themes.
The post-primary programme features two critically acclaimed films based on real life events. Hidden Figures is the story of a team of African-American women mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the US space progamme. While Loving follows Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple, who in 1958, were arrested for violating Virginia’s anti-miscegenation statute by marrying at a time when the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited marriage between people classified as ‘white’ and people classified as ‘coloured’, was in place.
The BAFTA-winning film, I, Daniel Blake will screen in Nerve Centre on March 14, open to the general public. Ken Loach's tour de force, chronicling the desperate and unfair nature of the British benefits system, earned five BAFTA nominations in total and won Loach the coveted Palme D'Or at Cannes last year. It stars Dave Johns as a middle-aged carpenter and Hayley Squires as a single mother brought together by their struggles.
Other special public screenings in Brunswick Moviebowl include I Am Not Your Negro, an elegantly precise and bracing film essay on the still tragic state of race in America from Raoul Peck on March 13. It’ll be followed by Indignation (March 15), based on Philip Roth's 2008 novel of the same name and Lady MacBeth (March 16).
Foyle Film Festival's Intercultural & Anti-Racism Programme is funded by the Department of Communities through Northern Ireland Screen and venue partner, Brunswick Moviebowl.
To book a school/educational screening or workshop, please contact Christopher Morrison: email: c.morrison@nervecentre.org; tel: 028 7137 3456/ 028 7126 0562. Tickets for all public screenings are available to book on www.nervecentre.org.