Illuminate is Cork Film Festival’s unique series of film and discussion events that uses film to explore different aspects of mental health and wellbeing. These carefully curated events are unique in enabling dialogue about mental health in an open and welcoming space. The 2018 programme includes a new documentary, a debut feature and a classic film title, offering three very distinct platforms for discussion.
For the Birds examines one woman’s obsessive connection, whilst Trauma is a Time Machine explores the emotional consequences of sexual abuse. Both screenings are followed by an extended panel discussion and Q&A session comprising of filmmakers, artists, mental health professionals, service end users, ethicists and advocates.
This year we are especially delighted to welcome director Frank Berry (Michael Inside, 2017 Audience Award; I Used to Live Here, 2014), as a special Illuminate contributor. We invited Frank, as an established and respected director and an empathetic advocate for Mental Health in Ireland, to choose and champion a film that has inspired and influenced him. Frank will present an extended introduction to Ordinary People.
‘When asked to pick a film influence for the Illuminate strand, Ordinary People was the first film that came to mind, probably because of the sheer impact it had on me as a teenager. A visceral story about how the accidental death of a teenage boy affects his family, Ordinary People revealed to me that films could be much more than entertainment. For me, it’s one of those early influences that you carry around with you as a measure of what a film can do and mean to a person.’
Frank Berry is an Irish filmmaker working in both drama and documentary. His career began with ten years of community filmmaking and television, and this work has led to three award-winning and critically acclaimed feature films: Ballymun Lullaby, I Used to Live Here and Michael Inside.
