Results and Round-Up

First off I’d like to say a big thank you to all those who entered films into the film fest. Also those who travelled up to the event, the judges and all those who helped out and our sponsors, Sweet, System-X, WaveSport, Great Outdoors, Munster Dive and Canoe Centre, and all the staff in the Linen Hall and the TF Royal Hotel. Your all legends!

In particular I’d like to thank Aidan Doran, Mike Walkin-Jones, Will O’Connor, and Ronan ‘Bosco’ Shaw for helping pull everything together. Cheers lads.

So without further ado here are the results.

Judges Choice:

Best Overall Film: Silver Safari

Best Irish Whitewater Film: Huck’d

Best Non-Commercial Film: Chronicles of Gnarnia

Best Commercial Film: Sick Line IV

The Peoples Choice/ Audience Vote:

Friday Night:

Best Overall Film: Silver Safari

Best Irish Whitewater Film: Wot Ever It Tax

Best Non-Commercial Film: Circles

Best Commercial Film: Silver Safari

Saturday Night:

Best Overall Film: Huck’d

Best Irish Whitewater Film: Huck’d

Best Non-Commercial Film: Lost in Kerry

Best Commercial Film: Mission Epicocity

A MASSIVE congratulation must go to Naomi Britton. Not only did Silver Safari win best overall film at what is predominately a kayaking film fest, it won by a hugh margin on both the judges and audience fronts.

The judging system that we used for audience voting was a bit ad-hoc as we were toying with a few ideas right up until the last minute. But now we know what works and doesn’t work so next years system will be a lot tighter. And no, I did not bride the judges to vote for Huck’d….

Next years event will branching away from just whitewater kayaking even further and include more films from a number of adventure sports. So plenty of time to make something even Spielberg or his non union Mexican equivalent would be proud of.

Again, thanks to everybody who attended and helped out. Roll on next year.

Location, location, location

For those of you unfamiliar with Castlebar, the Linen Hall is represented by the yellow dot. There is parking available in the SuperValu car park. It's just off the main street and very easy to find.

Sponsors

Final Update

• Films will kick off on the button at 7:30pm each night. Doors will be shut 20 mins after this. So your best bet is to arrive between 7:00-7:30pm.

• Student rates require a student card. Looking like a student will not be considered as proof of ID. The same applies to OAP’s!

• After the screening on Friday night there will be free grub served in the Irish House along with a beer promotion which will include some free beer.
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• The admission charges for the Saturday night will be a flat rate of 7 Euro. Regardless of whether you’re a student or not. This includes free admission into the Son’s of Gingerbread Men and QT nightclub later that night. So pretty good value for money.

• There will be prizes (modest ones) awarded for best commercial film, best non-commercial film, best Irish Whitewater film and best overall film. Random spot prizes will also be raffled out to members of the audience on the Friday night (courtesy of System X).

• T-shirts will also be available on the night.

• There’s been a slight change to the Saturday line up. One of the changes is the addition of the short film Tenacity, which is fresh from being submitted to the Kendal Mountain Film Festival and is pretty darn inspiring.

• Don’t forget the audience will be involved in the judging process.

The Low Down

Right so, this year, Irelands 1^st International Whitewater Film Festival is going to kick off like this;

Friday 23rd March 2007

7pm: Reception at the †Linen Hall, Castlebar, Co.Mayo

*7:30pm: Screening commences.

10pm: Screening finishes.

10pm onwards: “Who can drink the most beer competition?”

Saturday 24th March

AM/PM – Recover and paddle (river-run, creeking or surfing)

§7:30pm – Second evening of screening commences at the TF Royal Hotel.

10pm – Screening finishes.

10:30pm – “Sons of Gingerbread Men” unleash their unique musical talents in the TF and on Castlebar.

12am onwards – The ‘Castlebar Experience!”

Judging:
This years film festival will be judged, but in a good way. The idea is to award an overall non-commercial winner and a commercial winner, with maybe a few prizes thrown in for good measure. The judging system will be based on a professional editor’s verdict and audience say so. If nothing else it should provide for a bit of entertainment.

Admission

5Euro – Student and OAPs

7Euro – Everyone else.

Notes:

† - The Linen Hall has a seating capacity of 148

* - Due to time constraints screenings will start at precisely 7:30pm

§ - Door charge TBA (if there is one).

Graham Clarke
Event Organiser.

Film Line Up

Well everything is finally falling into place. The following is the film line up for the weekend.

Friday night

Commercial
B:east - Lisa Utroni
Mission Epicocity – Tripp Jennings & EP crew
Sick Lines IV – Olaf Obsommer
Wot Ever It Takx – Colin Wong and David ‘snax’ Ryan
Silver Safari - Naomi Britton
Corduroy – Rage Films

Non Commercial
Circles – GMIT Castlebar Kayak Club
PainKillers II – Olaf Obsommer
Styx & Stones – WIT Kayak Club

Saturday night

Commercial
Dynasty – Young Gun Productions
Huckd – Wet N’Twisted Productions
This Is The Sea II – Justine Curgenven
Nomads – Polly Green
Gravity – Chris Gorman

Non Commercial
River Nomads – Colin Irvine
Chronicles of Gnarnia – World Class Kayak Academy
Lost in Kerry – Jackie Ferguson
Bussey – Moe Kelleher
Tenacity – Rob Grange

*This line up is a provisional listing. The organisers will do there best to ensure that the line up remains as displayed, but changes may be unavoidable

Graham Clarke
Event Organiser

Blood, guts and gore...maybe!

This years line up of films for the first time branches outside the realm of whitewater kayaking and into other disciplines. Most noticeably this year we have the addition of our first ski film by Rage Films. I couldn’t possibly do these guys enough justice. Slick camera work, seamless editing and some of the craziest footage I’ve ever seen. Seeing is believing. We also have our first surfing film entry by Naomi Britton, “Silver Safari”. This film chronicles 40 years of Irish surfing and will be launched Paddy’s weekend. Be one of the first to see it at this year’s film festival.

We also have a great selection of both Irish and international kayaking films, shot around the globe. There has definitely been a noticeable trend of Irish entries getting better and better. And this year hasn’t disappointed. There are some great entries from Irish paddlers and colleges. Doin' us proud lads, and lasses.

Graham Clarke
Event Organiser.

Submission Details

If you have a short film that you would like to enter into the film fest you can post them to the following address;

Graham Clarke,
Apt 24 Northwood,
Hazelwood,
Santry Demesne,
Dublin 9,
Ireland.

Anybody wishing further details about the film fest can contact my good self on graham-at-huckd-dot-com.

The deadline for film submission is the 25^th of February. Those of you that will be submitting films and are planning on heading to the varsities '07 in Letterkenny can submit your entry to me up there if you wish.

All the best,

Graham Clarke.
Event Organiser.

GMIT Castlebar Whitewater Shorts Film Festival 2007

Following on from the festivals in 2004,2005 and 2006 we are hosting the 4^th Irish Whitewater Shorts Film Festival. Watch a variety of short features introduced by their directors and get a real feel for what people have been up to for the last year or two. This years festival kicks off on March 23rd 2007, in the Linden Hall Arts Centre, in Castlebar. Co. Mayo.

GMIT Castlebar Whitewater Film Festival 2007 - What's It All About?

The idea for this film festival grew out of a desire for people to see a wide selection of the latest footage of what people were at in whitewater kayaking within Ireland and abroad. There has been a huge upsurge in interest in video kayaking and with cheaper, better equipment people have been putting together some great footage. With a great range of international venues for kayaking now established we have had some great shows in the past. It is interesting that some of the features on Irish Rivers have held their own in terms of content and professionalism. The idea is to have a festival of whitewater films -so thats it. A great variety of films, an iintroduction from the director and a pint in the bar afterwards.

The All Important After Party.

As we all know you can’t have any kind of paddling event in Ireland without having an after party. And we won’t be breaking the mould with this event. So the plan is to have a live band playing in one of the many local pubs after the film fest followed by a dance off at the local night club or in Super Mac’s, whichever’s handier. Plans are currently being finalised and further information will be posted as soon as it becomes available.

After-Party Update:

The Son’s of GingerBread have confirmed that they will be playing the night of the March 23^rd at a local venue not a 5 minute walk from the Linden Hall. Big band, with some big talent. So get those dancin’ shoes on…

Castlebar, the Adventure Capital of Ireland.

The Irish Whitewater Film Festival has been held for the last four years in Castlebar, Co. Mayo, Ireland. There are a number of reasons for this choice of location. Well actually there are two. Castlebar is the academic base for Ireland’s only BA in Outdoor Education at GMIT Castlebar and with good reason. Within an hours drive in any direction of Castlebar there is a multitude of activities available. These include kayaking (river, surf and sea), surfing, rock-climbing, hillwalking, bouldering, caving, mountain biking, sailing, windsurfing, cliff jumping etc. You get the idea. The original concept behind the film fest is the brain child of Stephen Hannon, one of the Outdoor Education courses chief lecturers.

The second and perhaps the most important reason from a paddlers point of view is that the area’s surrounding Castlebar offer a hugh resource to paddlers of all abilities. Historically Mayo receives the largest amount of rainfall in Ireland per annum. So it’s not a bad spot to be for paddling. To me personally what makes the area of Mayo particularly special for paddling is it’s abundance of mountain creeks and world class surf. Within 50 minutes of Castlebar there are the internationally renowned point and reef breaks of Easkey and numerous others that I would be beated up for mentioning, so I'll keep my mouth shut. And that’s only the tip of the ice berg. Co. Mayo has a hugh concentration of surf breaks along its coast.

Paddling in Mayo is in itself an adventure. Especially if your willing to go off the beaten track. In four years local paddlers have racked up about 7 first/repeated descents in the area. I think that this speaks volumes for the nature of the paddling in Mayo and gives some idea of what an untapped resource it is. When you have the likes of Ali Donald saying that one of his favourite Irish runs is the Shranalong, Co. Mayo then you know you’re onto a good thing.

A run down on some of the runs can be found on Irishwhitewater.com. A big shout out must go to Mr.Seanie Byrne for all hard work he put into designing the site and administrating it. A feat made all the more impressive given the fact that he’s studying for finals this year. I think I speak for allot of people when I say that it’s a great resource for all Irish paddles.

Graham Clarke.

Film Fest Organiser.