The Guth Gafa Film Festival has announced it is to be one of only a handful of festivals chosen to screen the award-winning documentary ‘Talhotblond’, by Emmy award-winning filmmaker Barbara Schroeder. The screening will be followed by a public Skype interview with Barbara. The festival’s organisers have also announced their final programme entries which include several Irish projects such as ‘Bye Bye Now’, ‘Ó Pheann an Phiarsaigh’, ‘His & Hers’ and ‘Colony’.
‘Talhotblond’, for which Paramount Studios immediately bought the feature film rights on its release, and MSNBC, the television rights, tells the true story of a beautiful teenage vixen who uses Internet game rooms to lure men into her cyberspace web. When she discovers she’s been double crossed and lied to by one of her victims, she wants revenge, and unleashes a fantasy online that escalates into real life murder – all because of a girl no one ever met in person.
After only screening at a couple of international Festivals, ‘Talhotblond’ was temporarily held back from further festivals, as rights were negotiated for the documentary’s iTunes release, and the feature film and television right deals were agreed. The film has won two Best Documentary Awards (Seattle Film Festival 2009 and Cinema City Int’l Film Festival 2009) and was screened in the Official Selection of IDFA 2009 before festival screenings were suspended. The film re-emerged on the Festival circuit with a screening at HotDocs 2010, and Guth Gafa will be the second European Festival, after IDFA, to have screened the film.
The last of the festival’s programme entries were also announced today and include two German entries, namely ‘Autumn Gold’ by Jan Tenhaven and the international premiere of a new documentary ‘Adrian’s Dream’ by Manuel Fenn. ‘Autumn Gold’ tells the life-affirming stories of five senior athletes between 85 and 100 years old from across the world who all have one goal - to take part in the track and field World Masters Championship. Spanning eight years, ‘Adrian’s Dream’ is a long-term documentary about a boy, who wants to be a ballet star, and his father, who works as a heavy equipment operator on a construction site.
The previously confirmed Irish selections ‘His & Hers’ and ‘Colony’ will be joined by four long and four short Irish documentaries including ‘Gilbert O’Sullivan – Out on his Own’ by Adrian McCarthy, with Gilbert O’Sullivan confirmed to attend the screening; Alan Gilsenan’s TG4 film, ‘Ó Pheann an Phiarsaigh’; ‘Horses’ (Ireland/ UK, 2009) by Liz Mermin and ‘Begums’ by Ivars Zviedris. The selection of short films includes Irena Maldea’s ‘Dídean ar an M50’; Anna Rodgers’ ‘If These Walls Could Talk’; Ross Whitaker and Aideen O'Sullivan’s ‘Bye Bye Now’ and Cúán Mac Conghaile’s ‘On The Block: Oileán Thoraigh’, which is part of the seminar event, Through Kids Eyes, supported by RTÉ Young People’s Programming.
Guth Gafa are offering an early bird industry accreditation package of €25, half-price until 28th May 2010, which allows film professionals free entry into all screenings, all industry seminars, panels and events (except the FÁS/STI Masterclass) and to the Festival Club gigs on Friday night, featuring Túcan, a guitar duo with drum and bass backing, and Saturday night, featuring Sounds of System Breakdown, the electro post-punk ensemble. The film runs from the 11th to the 13th June 2010 and more information is available at www.guthgafa.com
