National Youth-REC Short Film Festival at the Light House Cinema this May
This project hopes to ignite young people's passion and also encourage them to return to the cinema, by making them the creators!
The Irish National Youth-REC Festival will take place on Monday, 20th May 2024 at 5:30-8:30pm in the Light House Cinema. This exciting one-day event will involve a screening of ten short films, filmmaker Q&A, awards presented by industry professional judges and an opportunity for young emerging filmmakers and enthusiasts to network!
The National Festival is organised as part of the Youth-REC Erasmus Project by Irish Partner Instruction and Formation by festival director and head of the Youth-REC Ireland Team Clarice Makarevitch. The project is supervised by Joe Cabello and graphic design done by Alanna Kane.
Youth-REC (YREC) is an EU Project and Festival created to empower, engage and inspire young people to speak up on topics which are important to them, through filmmaking. The project also aims to connect European youth from seven countries, understanding the problems that affect other young people, in order to promote empathy and solidarity. National Youth-REC Festivals are being held in all partner countries across Europe in advance of the International Festival.
10 Irish films have been submitted especially for the National Irish Festival, organised by Instruction and Formation. These films cover topics such as mental health, discrimination and the impacts of technology. Two filmmakers and their films will be chosen from each country to travel to Greece for the International Youth-REC Festival in September.
Judges for the National Irish Festival are the esteemed: Aisling O’Brien (Head of Marketing at the Light House Cinema), Nell Hensey (Filmmaker and Co-Founder of Pure Divilment Pictures) and Eleanor Melinn (IFI International Programme Manager at the Irish Film Institute).
The films have come from filmmakers across Ireland and have been programmed by William Reynolds, Saoirse White and Fatoumata Gandega.
The films (in order of programming) are: Dolce Far Niente (Sweet Doing Nothing) by Michael Antonio Keane, Reminisce by Cian Conachy, FREEquencies by Olivia Curto, Tomorrow by Áine Fahy, Knight of the Living Dead by John O'Neill, Bittersweet by Greta Thornton, St Nick's Cinnamon Sticks by Cathal Moran, State of Mind by Aoibhín O'Byrne, Natural by Marlyatou Diallo and Alive Again by Seán Treacy.
Leading up to the festival, Clarice Makarevitch led a series of free masterclass discussion zooms with industry professionals Gráinne Humphreys (DIFF Festival Director), Nell Hensey (Filmmaker & Co-Founder of Pure Divilment Films) and Alice Black (Head of Programming at Light House CInema), attended by young filmmakers and enthusiasts from across the country. These were fantastic opportunities for young people to connect, hold space for conversations with people in the industry they hope to enter into and learn something new.
The Youth-REC Ireland Team are delighted to be hosted by the Light House Cinema for the National Youth-REC Short Film Festival and look forward to a splendid evening of cinema!
Tickets can be booked through Eventbrite. Tickets are being made free to allow the widest possible audience to attend.