Harrow Observer

This year's festival focused on Kilburn's longstanding Irish communities, and as such it was bookended by two films representing the very best of the new talent in the Irish film industry. Both screenings at the Tricycle Cinema were UK premieres, and we were lucky enough to have both directors, Lance Daly and Ian Fitzgibbon attend and perform Q&A sessions with the audiences.

Kisses (dir. Lance Daly), "a captivating and poignant portrayal of life on the edge of our society" (Empire Magazine), formed the centrepiece of our festival's gala opening, and we closed our Irish film season with A Film with Me in It (dir. Ian fitzgibbon), an original and outrageously funny black comedy starring comedian Dylan Moran.

Our celebration of Irish cinema was completed by a "host of amazing films by legendary Irish director Bob Quinn" (Camden New Journal). Headlined with a screening of his latest work Vox Humana, a beautiful, moving film, featuring the Galway Baroque Singers, and attended by the director himself, our Bob Quinn Retrospective offered film-lovers a rare chance to see the work of, and interact with, this unique director, who for 40 years has been making Irish language films depicting the authentic Ireland.

Away from Ireland, this year Latin America House gave a screening of Ken Loach's trade unionist drama Bread and Roses, presented by Jorge Rodriguez. It also hosted a varied selection of Ethiopian films presented by Ethiopian director Kefale Alemu.

Our well-attended Sunday Movie Brunch at the Tricycle Cinema, described by the Camden New Journal as the "pick of the indies", featured a host of short films made by local filmmakers, whose content ranged from a claymation warning of the dangers of corporate greed, to the solar system as imagined by a class of primary school children, to a vivid depiction of the hardships of a life in a South African township.

We are also proud to announce that the short film Half Lives, directed by our very own festival director Anna Bowman, has been shortlisted for Best Documentary at the Clones Film Festival.

About Beauty, Connor Horgan's haunting documentary about the noted Irish artist Dorothy Cross, and a variety of new films by local talents formed the Night of Artists' Films at the Kingsgate Workshops.

We also featured the first Granville Plus Youth Arts Centre Youtube Contest, which was won by the film Text, with Earthquake a close runner-up.


With such a wide variety of cinematic content it is no wonder "FilmsatKilburnFestival has become an interesting date on any movie lover's calender" (Camden New Journal)

We would also like to sincerely thank the tireless efforts of the following people, who were instrumental in the staging and quality of this year's festival:

• Nessa King, who organises London Irish Film at the London Irish Centre in Camden. For more info on London Irish Film visit their Facebook page (click on link)
• Jorge Rodrigues, who organises Cineclub at the Latin American House in Kilburn. For more info on Cineclub visit their webpage (click on link)