Just as found my first international academic conference in AoIR 11.0 in Göteborg, the opportunity to exhibit something you have lovingly crafted over a number of months and possibly years has to be an exciting experience. It certainly was for me when I chaired my panel on Twitter. I was completely nervous and anxious about the reception, but the applause for a job well-done was a reward beyond any measure. They liked me, they really liked me!
I attended two shorts presentations, a 10:00 am showing on Friday and the 12:00 pm showing on Sunday. The set of presentations were a mixture of the overly ambitious historical drama to the simple yet witty comedic short one might see from a YouTube college comedy channel. Almost all dealt with the epiphany, the one moment where the punchline, the plot revelation, or even the surprising (or unsurprising) twist. I wouldn't call these quite Joycean in nature, but they were epiphanies just the same.
One short that struck me especially was a film shown on Friday titled Still Early. The film contained very little dialogue and very little narrative, just two lovers whose relationship is possibly ending but left rather unexplored and nebulous in the few short minutes we see them. No exposition, no explanation. Yet, the film is shot so sumptuously, with such passion and attention to the smallest visual details, no frame goes unwasted.
But perhaps the most powerful of these was a very well crafted film, The Christening. There was some serious money involved, as the film was shot on location in both Cork and London, and the credits revealed funding was obtained from a variety of film boards and sources. It was superbly acted, and the difference in professional actors and equipment set the film apart from other shorts included in this program. But it's the subject matter that is most striking. Abortion is not an easy subject to make a film about, and in fact, The Christening never uses the word abortion as it portrays the difficult decisions young Ailbhe faces, and the perilous journey she faces in traveling abroad to London to have the procedure. The last shot is the clincher; a harried and unkempt Ailbhe arrives at the church where she is honored as the godmother to her sister's infant. As she holds the baby in her arms, we see the bundle of emotions she has become, a mixture of relief that she made this all-important ceremony in time, love for her new role, and sadness and possible regret for the decision she made not 24 hours before, yet all wrapped in a shell of confusion amongst these varying feelings. It is truly a powerful image.
The movie makes no judgement call about the morality of her decision; it is ambiguous as to reasons why and even as to how she feels upon making it. The larger point is clear: as long as women have to make a decision to leave, morality
surrounding the issue is irrelevant. One source claims nearly 4,500 Irish women a year leave the country to obtain abortions in the UK, a figure, though down from 2001's 6,600, not due to change anytime soon. While in Dublin, a large "rally for life" took place just near the city centre as thousands came out to place voice the pro-life position, despite the European Union deciding Ireland's anti-abortion laws violate civil and human rights protections provided by Ireland's entry into the EU. The Irish government has routinely argued that abortion violates what it means to Irish, citing the “profound moral values embedded in Irish society” as enough to prohibit women from seeking medical care. The Catholic Church, not one to show concern for women's sexuality or gynecological health, has remain even more defiant in its opinion.We were asked about Ireland and the EU on our final exam, but nowhere is the friction between the two more readily apparent than in this case. A number of Irishmen intimated to me that Ireland is no more European than Martian. The notion was carried by a number of films which dared to suggest the same for Iceland, who like Ireland lies on the outskirts of the EU geographically and socially, for quite diverse reasons, but unified in the idea that a European-identity just doesn't quite fit either island.
This might be an issue to explore at another time, but in conclusion here, it's film festivals like these that ask these important questions through independent and non-commercial films. The Irish Shorts Programme was successful in at least that endeavor.
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