STRANGER THAN FICTION DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL AND MARKET 2006

A warm welcome to this year’s Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Festival, the fifth year of this event. In a sense it is the most culturally significant body of work that the Irish Film Institute curates, in that it is unique in the island of Ireland in staging a stand-alone documentary festival. We screen 32 films in all, and this includes a record 20 Irish productions, both short and feature length documentaries. This is an encouraging salute to our own film-makers. As part of the IFI's commitment to breaking down barriers for audiences all around Ireland, the festival will tour to Galway, Belfast and Waterford this year. This programme celebrates the music documentary, from the Opening Night screening of Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man, to the late night presentation of LoudQUIETLoud: A film about the Pixies; a sublime portrait of Brazilian cult singer Maria Bethania, and the oddities of the Air Guitar Championships in Finland are mused upon in Air Guitar Nation. From the barely concealed anger of such documentaries as Black Gold about the coffee industry, the majestic journey from the mouth to the source of the world’s greatest river basin in Congo River, Au dela des tenebres,

to the spin doctors of This Brand is Crisis—a bullet-paced documentary about American political consultants advise a former Bolivian president on his campaign for re-election, this years programme hopes to bring some of the diversity of both subject and style of recent documentary work from around the world. With our Short Documentary Competition, our annual Documentary Masterclass, and of course the Industry Market, co-ordinated by Screen Producers Ireland, there is much for the Irish film professional to enjoy. Our great thanks are due to The Irish Film Board, RTÉ, TG4 and other highly supportive sponsors.

Director, Irish Film Institute