REMEMBER THE mainstream documentary boom? A few short years ago, following the success of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, it looked as if the multiplexes were finally opening their doors to nonfiction film-making. Alas, in 2010, even Mr Moore – note how fast Capitalism: A Love Storyvanished – has trouble securing a healthy theatrical release.
Three cheers, then, for the Irish Film Institute’s Stranger Than Fiction documentary season, which begins next Thursday, April 15th. Offering 22 films, including 19 premieres, the event secures at least one corner of the calendar for this, most important of cinematic forms.
“We’re delighted to present a programme of films that illustrates the incredible diversity and quality
of Irish and international nonfiction film- making,” Niall Macpherson, the festival’s programmer, bullishly announces. “These are films that will have you, by turns, shocked, excited, angered and entertained. The truth hurts but, as I hope IFI Stranger Than Fiction demonstrates, it can do plenty more besides.”
The event begins with Maya Derrington's Pyjama Girls, which attempts a study of working-class Irish women who, yes, like to wear pyjamas in public.
Space Tourists(pictured) examines a Russian adventurer who, after parting with a cool $20 million, seeks to become the first female to pay her way into space. The juicy subject of Silvio Berlusconi's Italy is examined in Videocracy,and a perennially popular political comic gets the doc treatment in Paul Thomas and Matt Harlock's American: The Bill Hicks Story(pictured).
What's that you say? Where are the yodelling Australian lesbians? Why, I think you're looking for Leanne Poolley's The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls.
- Stranger Than Fiction is at the IFI from April 15th to 18th. ifi.ie/stf, 01-6793477
