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Docs Ireland
Watch screenings from this year's DOCS Ireland International Documentary Film Festival in the Ulster Museum Lecture Theatre!
DOCS Ireland celebrates the best of new international documentary filmmaking and showcases the work of Ireland's indigenous non-fiction culture and creatives. This year, you can watch screenings from the festival in Ulster Museum's Lectures. See the programme below;
Friday 19th June
ALWAYS (a letter to childhood) | 15:00 | 88mins
Beautiful, patient, fun. Always focuses on an exceptionally talented child, Youbin Gong, tracking his profound psychological evolution through poetry as he transitions from childhood to adolescence.
The film very skillfully uses poems to tell it’s story. These short poems are used as frames, placed in between long shots of great beauty, and dialogue scenes of equal meaning. It includes amazing faces, humans and animals alike, and like the last poem mentions, is an appropriate farewell to childhood.
Saturday 20th June
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Outsider Cinema: Northern Ireland's Alternative Filmmakers | 12:00
Northern Ireland has a rich heritage of amateur and independent cinema that includes several prolific filmmakers and collectives. This illustrated talk will explore the work of these image makers, many of whom garnered prestigious awards on the international independent film circuit and had their work shown in film festivals and on television.
Dr Ciara Chambers is Senior Lecturer in Film & Screen Media, University College Cork. She is also an advisor to Atticus Education, the digital education company established by Oscar-winning film producer Lord David Puttnam.
This special event is to launch her new book Outsider Cinema: Amateur and Independent Filmmaking in Northern Ireland, 1929-1989 (Edinburgh University Press, 2026).
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GUGGI + Q&A | 14:30
An intimate portrait of Irish artist Guggi - from his anarchic days with post-punk legends Virgin Prunes to his quiet mastery as a contemporary painter - revealing a life shaped by beauty.
Born Derek Rowen, Guggi grew up in Dublin in a turbulent household, escaping into
creativity and music. As co-founder of the Virgin Prunes, he pushed performance art andmusic to extremes before leaving the band to focus entirely on painting.