The show goes on as Film Fleadh ‘pivots online’
Fans of Galway Film Fleadh won’t be congregating at the Town Hall Theatre or the Pálás this July to see the best of Irish and international movies and documentaries – and they certainly won’t be enjoying the post-screening festivities at Galway Rowing Club.
But the good news is that although the 32nd Galway Film Fleadh cannot take place in its usual format because of Covid-19, it will be held, starting on July 7.
People can buy tickets and stream their chosen films via the Film Fleadh website, watching them at home on their TVs or other devices, with a streaming quality that’s equal to Netflix.
“We’re going to try and stick to the physical festival format as much as possible,” says the Fleadh’s Managing Director Miriam Allen.
“So, on July 7 we will have the opening film, with the introductions and a Q&A afterwards.”
There will also be “a virtual party at the Rowing Club”, she adds.
Some events will be free, while tickets for feature films will be between €5-€7 across the board. And the Fleadh will only sell a maximum 400 tickets for any screening, keeping to the format of the physical festival – the capacity of the Town Hall is around 400.
The programme will include international screenings as well as Irish documentaries and shorts. Normally the Fleadh runs from Tuesday to Sunday but it will run over a longer period this year, Miriam says, with a scaled-back programme of 50 films, between features and shorts.
“These will be over a more extended period. What we are still working out is the window people have in which to watch a film. Say, if the film you book is showing at 8pm on Tuesday, will you be able to watch it at 10pm or 11pm if you can’t watch it live? That’s what we are trying to work out because films can’t be left up indefinitely.”
Security is a big issue in the film world given the prevalence of piracy. For that reason, the Fleadh has partnered with top-of-the range streaming platforms, Festival Scope and Shift72, which are used by companies such as Warner Bros and by other film festivals worldwide.
And every film shown will have to be watermarked so it can’t be pirated.
All screenings are geo-blocked to the island of Ireland, which means you can only access films if you have an Irish IP address – that’s what identifies your computer when you go online. But, because the festival is online, once you have an Irish IP address, you can watch a Fleadh film from anywhere in the country, which she’s thrilled about.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
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