MAKING capital on its new digital equipment, Belltable’s Cine Club is flying colours for Limerick’s summer nights. A mix of mainstream, documentary and art house films are scheduled right through until late October, punctuated by theatre, a seminal jazz festival and Culture Night activity. Going by calendar chronology, artistic director of Belltable Arts Centre, Gerry Barnes reels through a sample of screen and live performances ahead.
“Cine Club on Tuesdays is ticking away all they time, our audiences showing up at 8pm. There’s a small break now until Tuesdays September 11, 18 and 25 which will show very good, high quality ‘art house’ films – see www.belltable.ie for detail,” he begins. “We are featuring documentaries on Wednesdays, a series called Real Life Wednesdays. ‘Barbaric Genius’ on Wednesday September 12 is about the life of John Healy, a first generation Irish down-and-out alcoholic in London who turned out to be the most extraordinary chess player. ‘Barbaric Genius’ is screening in association with Limerick Writers Centre and we engage with them again on Wednesday 26 to show ‘We are Poets’ which is a study of performance poetry competition”.
Thursday Nights (‘Moonrise Kingdom’ this Thursday August 16) are for more mainstream cinema. Athough released to the Irish Film Institute these movies may not get a widescreen national release.
“At Belltable we can show all new releases that we chose to in the one season. Previously it used to take between six and 12 months to get a film”.
September 14 to 16 sees Belltable staff host a closed Access Cinema event at which all clubs in the country will pool their 2012 collection and the Belltable will programme further according to selection.
“Some six to seven films will screen daily for those three days,” Gerry Barnes says. “We are also hosting Access Cinema’s October festival of films from Southern Mediterranean, a joint project with Maretta Dillon that is an Arts Council Touring vehicle”.
The next theatre performance will be five nights of Limerick Youth Theatre’s take on Moliere’s ‘The Miser’. Directed by Wildebeest’s Marie Boylan who has a current hit with ‘TAN’, the 8pm production is designed by LYT’s director for ‘Faust’ and ‘Richard 111’, Simon Thompson.
The youth musical ‘Crusade’ follows from August 29 on and Bottom Dog has chosen No. 69 O’Connell Street for its 2012 suite of 4 New Plays, the annual rehearsed readings as opposed to full staging due to lack of funding.
For daily Belltable dates and visual arts, key into www.belltable.ie for bookings and schedule.
