The Galway Film Fleadh is back with inspiring and entertaining films & events in Galway from July 11th to 16th!

The 35th Galway Film Fleadh will feature Solar Wind Alley, Remember to Blink, Love-Lights, 7 Chapels, Twice Colonized, Who I Am Not at Pálás Screen 2 on the 14th.

Screenings:
Solar Wind Alley at 11am / Irish Premiere
Alice lives with her younger sisters in a rural Finnish village, in the house their mother build before she passed away. Alice has taken her mother`s place as the head of the family. She wants to protect her younger sisters and shelter them from the world. When a solar storm hits the village, it leaves everyone without electricity and puts the community in crisis.

Remember to Blink at 1pm / Irish Premiere
A French couple adopt two Lithuanian kids. To help them adapt they hire Gabi, a bilingual student who is just starting to taste the sweetness of feeling power. In her powerful debut, Director Austėja Urbaitė examines how cultural differences, mismatched attitudes, disparate values and diverse educational methods soon ignite conflicts between the adults.

Love-Lights at 3.30pm / Irish Premiere
Portuguese directors Acacio de Almeida and Marie Carré, in their directorial debut, present a poetic love letter to Portuguese cinema and the art of cinematography. The evocation of light in the cinema leads the character of the Man of Light to ponder over it, over its essence and its multiple manifestations in a revisitation of geographical places and memories. Love-Lights is a documentary by someone who dedicated his life to the invention, for each film in which he participated, of an expressive and original light, adequate to the purposes of its author.

7 Chapels at 5pm / Irish Premiere
A film about how sacred architecture embodies the human urge to give meaning & understand – existence itself or simply anything. Long takes, combined with music, draws you into a surreal trance. Architecture & portrait photographers, Jens Weber & Orla Connolly, joined forces with composer Wolfram Oettl, to create a non-narrative documentary, contemplating architecture. A meticulous visual study of seven chapels in the Swabian Danube Valley, built by seven architects: John Pawson, Hans Engel, Wilhelm Huber, Frank Lattke, Alen Jasarevic, Staab Architecs & Christoph Mäckler. The intrinsic qualities of architecture and how structures elicit reactions from people are observed through precise frame composition – witnessing intermittent, random interactions, between people and the structures. Observing the complexities of the human thought process – where people swiftly switch between practical thoughts of trying to understand the structure, to transient existential moments – enhanced, even appear surreal, through the accompaniment of the minimalistic meditative music played on a fortepiano tuned in “just intonation”. These integer-number frequencies have been implemented since Pythagoras in philosophy, theology and music theory, as a portrayal of the cosmic harmony. The film’s distinct aesthetic, with long takes, combined with music, draws the viewer in, evoking a near trance like state.
Post Show discussion will follow

Twice Colonized at 7.15pm / Irish Premiere
Renowned Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter has led a lifelong fight for the rights of her people. When her son suddenly dies, Aaju embarks on a journey to reclaim her language and culture after a lifetime of whitewashing and forced assimilation. But is it possible to change the world and mend your own wounds at the same time?

Who I Am Not at 9.15pm / Irish Premiere
In Tünde Skovrán’s non-fiction directorial debut, we see an intimate look at the struggle of living in a male-female world, when you are born in-between. What makes a male, and what makes a female? Where do we draw the line, and does it really matter? Sharon-Rose Khumalo, a South African beauty queen, plunges into an identity crisis after finding out she is intersex. She needs the guidance of somebody just like her. The only person who will help is Dimakatso Sebidi, a male-presenting intersex activist who turns out to be her complete opposite. The two parallel but divergent stories are an intimate look at the struggle of living in a male-female world, when you are born in-between. Who I Am Not gives a voice to the long-ignored and mostly silent two percent of the world’s population: the intersex community.

Photos courtesy of Galway Film Fleadh