Solas Nua's CIFF@Home with NYU DC Dialogues presents School Life.
This event took place on
Wednesday, January 25 • 6 PM ET
2016 | Documentary | Runtime: 99 minutes | English
John and Amanda teach Latin, English and Guitar at a fantastical stately-home-turned-school. Nearly fifty year careers are drawing to a close for the teachers who have become legends with the mantra: reading! rithmetic! rock n roll! .... but for pupil and teacher alike, leaving is the hardest lesson to learn.
Registration gave you access to an on-demand film link to view ahead of the Q&A discussion.
This is a free screening series - donate what you can to help Solas Nua bring you quality Irish film programming and provocative discussion.
A pre-recorded Q&A with directors Neasa Ní Chianáin and David Rane will aired on January 25th. The discussion will be moderated by Maedhbh Mc Cullagh, Director of the Capital Irish Film Festival.
Rewatch the full discussion below | Runtime: 21 minutes
This hilariously funny and yet poignant observational documentary following two 'prep school' teachers, John and Amanda Leyden, on the brink of retirement, with a collective 90 years of chalk, is pure magic. Housed in a Hogwarts-like 18th century estate, school life at Headfort, the last remaining boarding school in Ireland for primary age kids, embraces tradition and modernity. It appears that for John, the differences between Latin, Mathematics and Rock ‘n’ Roll are nominal, while for his wife Amanda, the key to connecting with children is the book, and she uses all means to snare the young minds. The film reflects a unique kind of fondness that existed between tutor and ward in years gone by, a genuine love of all that makes childhood so precious. The film carries a warm message for parents and kids alike: schooldays can be cool days.
Hand-picked by Solas Nua's Capital Irish Film Festival, CIFF@Home with NYU DC Dialogues is a bi-monthly, curated series of Irish film.
Selected for you to watch from the comfort of your own home, registration will give you access to an on-demand film link to view any time between now and January 25, as well as a Q&A that will be streamed via Zoom Webinar after you have watched the film on your own schedule.
Neasa Ní Chianáín is one of Ireland's up-and-coming documentary talents. Neasa trained at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin and worked as a freelance Art Director on Irish feature film and television projects, before switching to docs in 2001. She has directed 9 single docs (4 feature-length) and one tv series. The docs include ‘Frank Ned & Busy Lizzie’, which won Best Feature Doc at The Celtic Film Festival 2004 and was sold around the world. ‘Fairytale of Kathmandu’ world premiered at IDFA 2007, in the Silver Wolf Competition. It was then invited to over 30 more international Festivals including Seattle (North American Premiere) and Edinburgh (UK premiere). 'Fairytale' won 3 Best Documentary/Director awards and screened on YLE and Canvas. The Stranger, funded by MEDIA, RTÉ and The Irish Film Board, had its world premiere at the 67th Locarno Film Festival.
David Rane is a BAFTA-winning producer who over the last 20 years has produced many award-winning documentary films for national and international broadcasters, a number of animated films, and a number of short fiction films. David is also the founder and festival director of the Guth Gafa International Documentary Film Festival in County Meath, which held its 11th edition in August 2017. David has an M.A. in Film & Television (Distinction) from University of London, Goldsmiths College in 1993, and is a graduate of EAVE 1999, ARISTA 1998, SOURCES II 2007 and EURODOC 2014. He was on the board of Screen Producers Ireland for a number of years. David has won international Best Doc awards for 3 of his films, and a BAFTA for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, an animation he produced for Channel 4 in 2002.
Registration is required in order to receive access to the on-demand film link, as well as the log-in details for the Zoom webinar. Please note that this program may be recorded.
Live auto-transcript captioning will be available on this Zoom webinar.
• CIFF@Home takes place on the last Wednesday of selected months - see schedule for details •
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