Category: CQAF2019 Sound & Vision

Celebrated Irish-American architect Kevin Roche was working right up until his death, aged 96 in March of this year.

Despite a lifetime of acclaimed work that included designing new galleries for The Met in New York, Roche had little interest in celebrity and always eschewed the label “Starchitect”.

Graduating from UCD in 1945, and after more than 60 years in the USA, his first Irish project, the Convention Centre Dublin, opened in 2010. Roche’s architectural philosophy focused on creating “a community for a modern society” and he has been credited with creating green buildings before they became part of the public consciousness.

He won awards for his designs of over 300 major buildings around the world, among them the Pritzker Prize in 1982 – the highest honour given to a living architect.

With The Quiet Architect, Irish Director Mark Noonan brings a cinematic yet intimate portrayal of the man and his staggering body of work.

Doors 5.45pm | Limited Unreserved Seating

It’s nearly 20 years since “the canine Spinal Tap” aka Best in Show hit the big screen.

Hilarious, heart-warming and 100 per cent doggytastic, Best in Show follows the journey of five eccentric entrants as they pit themselves and their pooches against one another in a prestigious dog show.

Directed by and starring the great Christopher Guest along with a stellar cast of comedy talent, we can’t think of a better movie for our first ever dog friendly cinema event! And what better venue than Belfast’s own official dog friendly pub – The Sunflower?

Come join us, bring a four (or two) legged friend with you, grab a beer or a bowl of water, and enjoy Best in Show – easily the funniest improvised film about American dog shows ever made!

Doors 1.45pm | Unreserved Seating

We’re delighted to team up with the Belfast French Club to bring you one of the most suspenseful French films in one of Belfast’s cosiest cinemas.

Considered to be the greatest film that Alfred Hitchcock never made, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s ‘ Les Diaboliques is set in a provincial boarding school run by headmaster Michel Delasalle.

A ruthless lothario, he becomes the target of a murder plot concocted by his long-suffering invalid wife Christina and his latest mistress, an icy teacher played by Simone Signoret.

A dark, dank thriller with a much-imitated “shock” ending, Les Diaboliques is a masterpiece of Grand Guignol
suspense.

Enjoy this classic slice of French film noir in the supreme cosiness of the Cathedral Quarter’s famous Beanbag
Cinema.

This is a BYOB event. There’s a small fridge to chill wines (French, naturally).

Doors 7.45pm | Unreserved Seating

With not one, but two highly anticipated shows at the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival this year, we thought it was a timely moment to screen the acclaimed Horslips documentary, Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts.

Horslips matter. They mattered in the 1970s and they matter still. Why? Perhaps, to quote from the opening narration of Return of The Dancehall Sweethearts, the 2005 documentary on the band, “We saw in Horslips something that was ours, something that was of us…[they are] part of what makes us, us.”

Horslips formed in 1970 in Dublin, drawing its members from across Ireland – Barry Devlin from Co Tyrone; Jim Lockhart (keyboards, whistle, flute) from Dublin; Johnny Fean (guitars) from Limerick; Eamon Carr (drums) from Co Meath; and Charles O’Connor (mandolin/violin), who was born in Middlesbrough to Irish parents.

Horslips paved the way for many Irish artists including U2. Bono himself, along with The Edge, Pat McCabe, Dave Fanning and Joseph O’Connor are among the artists who pay tribute to this unique band.

Doors 2.45pm | Unreserved Seating

The The’s Matt Johnson remained silent as a singer/songwriter for 15 years. Then, unexpectedly, wonderfully, in 2017 a film – The Inertia Variations – appeared.

With his song writing, Johnson has always been known for his blending of the personal and political with powerful intensity. In the film we see him no less impassioned as he tries to purge his feelings of disenchantment, and attempts to relocate his mojo and muse.

A long-term listener of shortwave radio he launches Radio Cineola, his conceptual version of this romantic medium, in a marathon show which includes not only live music and poetry, but also interviews and discussion about where local, national and international democracy now stands in the 21st Century.

But sudden grief and a promise to the director of the documentary, his ex-partner Johanna St Michaels, to write a new song for the broadcast, stirs up old demons of inertia and bereavement.Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival is thrilled to present the Northern Irish premier of the remarkable Inertia Variations.

Doors 1.45pm | Unreserved Seating

“This is what it means to be alive – to connect with people. To face your fears, to be afraid, and to do it anyway.”

In August of 2009, singer William McCarthy’s younger brother James was found dead of an apparent suicide inside Napa State Hospital. Just one week later, McCarthy’s band Pela imploded, leaving both him and band mate Eric Sanderson devastated, in financial ruin, and with a halffinished album that may never see the light of day.

The two resurfaced with a new name, Augustines and, together with drummer Robert Allen, rose up to become one of the most celebrated independent bands in the world.

Rise: The Story of Augustines chronicles the journey of these two men who faced their demons, refused to fall and established a lifelong brotherhood as they struggled to finish their seminal debut record, all while trying to maintain their own sanity and pay tribute to James.

Doors 5.45pm | Unreserved Seating