 Kenny has just announced a season of films for their book club. It's the Luke film club. Sorry, do I say book club? It's the film club. It's the Luke film club. And it's a season of world films and cultural screenings. There's everything from an Oscar-nominated Irish film to, or Irish language film I should say, to big dramas based on true events. So the acting director at the RCC, Jeremy Howard joins us online. We're streaming as well. Gonna have a look in Jeremy. Thanks for coming in. Let's talk about the film club and the difference between say films that you're gonna be shown in the film club and films that will be shown in the local cinema. You seek out films that are a bit different foreign language and... Yeah, more I suppose slightly niche, more cultural films but I think that we don't tend to overlap much. Some of the Irish language films, Kallien Kuhn is playing at the end of April. I saw that in Century Cinemas last year. Absolutely loved it so I wanted to bring it back. But everything else tends to be a little bit more niche. Films from all around the world really. And it's great. I was reading about all the films in preparation for coming on this morning because I didn't actually pick them this time. I let the club pick the films themselves so every every few months. Yeah, it's free. Anyone who wants to come in, you know, we don't charge for the screenings but anyone who wants to come in and actually suggest films, they're more than welcome. I don't want to have complete control over that so I like to get as many people involved as possible. We're sent a list of new films every couple of months and everyone goes through them and picks out what they think will be great. You know, everyone has a different opinion but we try to pick about six or seven of them and just go for it. And people hear about film club and think-offs. It's gonna be all foreign language and it's gonna be subtitles. And you know what? The very same people could go home and sit down in front of Netflix and watch something like a Danish noir thriller or something that's, you know, it's really good and they get stuck into it and yet it'll have subtitles. Yeah, and it's about half and half. You know, there is a lot of smaller independent American and English and Irish films that are in English and about half of them are subtitled. I think this time there's a real mix. The first one is Tar. It starts March the 9th. It's just been Oscar nominated. Kate Blanchett has been Oscar nominated. She's absolutely brilliant in it. I've actually seen this one and that's in English. So, you know, it is a good mix. After that, there's a documentary that's in English. Just go back to Tar for a second. Just give us a very brief synopsis. Okay, so Kate Blanchett plays a fictional composer and conductor and let's just say her past behavior catches up with her and yeah, she's, I suppose she's cancelled. She's out. Okay. And she goes out of control. Right. And that's Tar. Yeah. So that is that's, that's the first one. That's the first one. That's on March the 9th. So it's after that, then it's every second Thursday night. Following that, then we have a documentary called All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, which is it's about an artist called Nan Golding and Nan was addicted to opiates for many years and that's the opiate crisis in America is huge at the minute. I think there's over half a million people have died in the last 20 years. Watch Dope Sick. I just I have a note down here to watch Dope Sick because I've watched it and it's absolutely brilliant. Nan is the person you see in Dope Sick that's protesting, you know, in the Sackler sponsored galleries. So this is her documentary. Half of it is about her art and half of it is about her protesting against this, I suppose this opiate crisis. Yeah, yeah, because a lot of these galleries, these high end galleries get got their funding from the Sackler in the United States, got their funding from the Sackler family. I think it was most in the United States. Did they did they fund? I think maybe some of the major British galleries as well, but we were still waiting at the RCC for any funding from them. Which of course you wouldn't accept, but nonetheless. Or the Qataris or any state owns people just you know where I am. Megan Offer. Megan Offer. So anyhow, so this is about the she wants to shine a light on that. She does and you know, she's come through the other side of that addiction. So she really wants to to make it more well known that this is this is so prevalent, not just in America and it's growing every year the numbers are growing. I actually was chatting to someone without naming any names. I was chatting to someone whose mum was prescribed opiates. I was thinking well with everything now that's happened and with everything that we know, this still goes on and it's happening here, which is which you know beggars belief because it's so easy to get to get hooked on. It is and I mean if you go on to the doctors with a migraine, you could get opiates and it's they're completely fine as long as you only take them for a few days. But of course, you know, if the pain still there after a few days, the temptation is to take them longer and it is that easy to become addicted. Yeah. Anyway, moving on to April and there's a Polish road movie about the life of a donkey. Yeah, this one, I haven't seen this one yet. I'm looking forward to it. So it's a circus. It looks good. Yeah, it's a circus donkey who escapes the circus and he goes on a yeah a journey and meets a lot of different people. I think it said he meets a young Italian priest, a Polish football team, a Countess and it slowly becomes more about all the people he meets rather than the donkey. And I don't know if it's related to the donkey in Banshee's of Anna Sharon, but I wouldn't be surprised. Donkeys are popular. Yeah, well, they are now. Yeah. And then also in April, there is a another film that's been Oscar nominated or sorry, submitted for. Yeah. So I think this was Pakistan submission. It's a modern love story and it's funny and sad and equal measures and has a lot of kind of LGBT themes. I haven't seen it yet, but it's also it's got great reviews, so I can't wait to see it. Okay. And then as you mentioned at the start in Colleen Cuen and on we go into this at the end of April. Yeah, I think everyone's heard of in Colleen Cuen, but now this is actually part of a festival we have at the end of April, a soundtrack festival. So we're going to have four nights of live music along with films and then a couple of screenings and workshops. That's all announced next week, but I'm very excited for that. What is a film, because I've never been to one at the RCC, what's the film experience like there? Is there is there like popcorn and yeah it's available and stuff? So there's no drinks available. People are welcome to bring in their own sweets or drinks, but I do try to make popcorn for everyone. Okay. It doesn't always work when there's huge crowds, but we try, we try. Very good. And I'll usually get you know maybe tea and coffee as well. More of a bespoke. Yeah, people like to stand around and actually talk about the film afterwards and I love that. Sometimes I come out of these films, I'm not entirely sure what it was about, so it's nice then to have a few people to explain it to me. Okay, okay. And the money does the theater hold? 150. Right, that's sizable, yeah. Okay, and then there's more films into May as well, there's a couple in May. That's right. It goes right up until June and then we'll probably take a little break for the summer and start again in September. All right, and info online. It's all regionalculturalcenter.com. Now that you're here, I want to chat about a couple of other things. First of all, there is a string trail that's coming next month and this looks very interesting because there's a Grammy nominated violinist amongst them. Yeah, it's next month that I only realize today. It's actually Mother's Day, so it's 4pm on Sunday the 19th, so it'd be a very good Mother's Day gift. You go out for a concert about an hour long and then out for dinner maybe. So it's led by a Ukrainian violinist and look, they're three world-class musicians. They're playing a mixture of Mozart and Beethoven, so it's quite accessible. I think it would just make for a really nice afternoon. Okay, okay, so that's, yeah, and then I actually want to weave it further and listen to some of the stuff that they've done. I was looking down through the resume, where they played and who they played with and it does look fantastic and that the fact that they're playing local is great. Okay, and speaking of music, music of a different sort, mind you, and it's an unusual project, it's called the Dream Baby Dream project. Yes, this started during one of the lockdowns. I was working with, I suppose, a producer, stroke broadcaster called Legues O'Toole, who used to present a TV show on RT called No Desco. And that's when I was younger, that's where I discovered a lot of my musical taste. So Legues was out of work during lockdown because there was no gigs, so we decided we'd work together and we'd commissioned some filmmakers to work with musicians and have interesting collaborations. So those three films are finished now, they're going to premiere at the RCC and we've invited all the musicians that worked on those projects to come and do concerts. So that's Friday the 3rd and Saturday the 4th of March. It's a mix of contemporary folk and electronic and kind of alternative rock. But yeah, no, it should be really, really nice concerts. Lemon Shallow are the first night and one of them, Claire is from Letterkenny. We've had them before for a Trad Week a few years going sold out pretty much instantly. And I do think they're probably the best current Irish contemporary folk act. They have an album coming out this year that I I've heard, an early version of it and it's probably one of the best Irish albums I've heard in a few years. So I'm really excited for that. Keep an eye out for that. Okay. And then on the Saturday night? Saturday night is a... Yeah, we have the films... That's the afternoon, is it? Films in the afternoon and then in the evening we have another concert. So it's a lady called Kitty Kim with a band and Elaine Howley. Mix of electronic and rock and slightly more weird stuff. But look it up, it is really good and I've never had them here. I've seen them down the country at different bigger gigs so I'm delighted to have the opportunity to bring them to Donegal. Okay. So very interesting contemporary musicians and artists including upcoming film makers and it's important that they have a platform. So that is the next weekend in Dream Baby Dream at RCC next to Friday and Saturday. Let's play out the wee piece with a bit from Lemon Cello. This is a mantelpiece. Thanks Jeremy. Thank you John.