A free movie series sponsored by the Irish Studies program at Fairfield University kicked-off its 10th anniversary season on Sept. 27, with the first of five films. The films are screened at the university”™s DiMenna-Nyselius Library on Wednesday evenings at 7 o”™clock and are introduced by a faculty member who fields questions from the audience after the screenings. Light refreshments are served.
On Oct. 4, director Scott Cooper”™s American crime drama “Black Mass” (2015) will be presented by professor of English and author Michael C. White. Based on the true story of James “Whitey” Bulger, the film stars Johnny Depp as a ruthless south Boston gangster and brother of a senator (Benedict Cumberbatch), who becomes an FBI informant during the 1980s.
On Oct. 11, “A Monster Calls” (2016), directed by J.A. Bayona and based on a coming-of-age novel by Patrick Ness starring Lewis MacDougall as Conor O”™Malley, a 13-year-old whose mother (Felicity Jones) becomes fatally ill. He moves in with his unsympathetic grandmother (Sigourney Weaver). Robert Epstein, professor of English, will introduce the film.
On Oct. 18 director Ken Loach”™s “Jimmy”™s Hall” (2015) will be introduced by English professor Nels Pearson. Set in Ireland in the 1930s and based on actual events, the film stars Barry Ward as Jimmy Gralton, an Irish communist and community activist, who returns from New York after a 10-year, self-imposed exile.
The series concludes on Oct. 25 with “After ”™16” (2016), a collection of short films commissioned by The Irish Film Board to commemorate the 1916 Easter Rising. There are nine shorts by various Irish filmmakers. They will be introduced by the university”™s co-director of Irish studies, William Abbott.
