At a glance, Clones Co. Monaghan is your typical small rural Irish town. Imposing 18th and 19th century buildings whisper of a more prosperous past . Now, however, the newsagents, supermarket , and a handful of pubs punctuate a streetscape largely composed of empty commercial buildings and charity shops. Straddling the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic , Clones was hit hard by partition, and later the violence during the Troubles. Initially, it may not seem like the sort of place where one would expect to see screenings of an Icelandic drama about estranged brothers trying to save their sheep after an outbreak of scrapie (Rams (Grímur Hákonarson, 2015)), documentaries about the struggles faced by ordinary Palestinians trying to live their lives (Gaza, (Garry Keane and Andrew McConnell, 2019)), or the latest Studio Ghibli animation, but that is exactly what has happened every October Bank Holiday weekend since 2001. This border town, which has been without a cinema for thirty years, is the home of Clones Film Festival – Ireland’s “biggest little festival”, as its committee of volunteers puts it.
The Diamond Cinema in Monaghan town shut its doors in 2013. It wasn’t until the end of 2016 that a cinema replaced it, meaning that the county was without a cinema for three years. The nearest cinemas were in Armagh, Enniskillen, or Cavan, and these were large cinemas that generally only showed the latest blockbusters. Even after the Monaghan Omniplex opened, it was difficult to see a diverse range of arthouse or independent films. It’s a long way from Clones to either the IFI in Dublin or the QFT in Belfast. The festival helps to make international and independent cinema more accessible to rural areas, screening films and documentaries that aren’t available in mainstream cinemas.
Over the years, the committee have worked hard to keep the festival alive and thriving. From the beginning screenings took place in The Lennard Arms, a local hotel which is now derelict. Other buildings have since been refurbished and repurposed with the Old Post office now serving as an Art studio, screening room and box office. Through funding and with the support of the local authority, the unused courthouse in the town has been transformed into an 80-seat cinema with state of the art audio and an enormous screen. The festival has survived a global recession, the subsequent loss of the Lennard, the threat of Brexit, and the closure of the Cinemobile, which provided an additional screen. However, the recent Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent shutdown of the country has affected our lives in unforeseeable ways. Music festivals and concerts have been cancelled or postponed, theatres shut, and many studios are releasing films online as cinemas are closed. The Irish Film Festa in Rome has been postponed, among others around the world. Some, like the Glasgow Short Film Festival has made part of its programme virtual. What will the Clones Film Festival do? To find out, I spoke to Seamie McMahon and Cathy Sheerin, film festival committee members for 15 years.
“The festival isn’t until October,” says Cathy. “So we’re hopeful that the situation might be somewhat improved. This will be our 19th year. We are determined that the festival will go ahead in some form and obviously abiding by the health regulations.”
Will social distancing be feasible (for the festival)? “Some of our venues would be large enough to implement social distancing The other venues could prove a challenge. Events like the art and film workshops for small children may also be a casualty this year. However, we have in the past run a number of stand alone drive in cinema events and these could play a bigger part in our programme this year,” says Seamie.
Clones Film Festival is still accepting online submissions for their short film competition which traditionally culminates in the Francie award ceremony on the closing night of the festival. The competition will go ahead, though Seamie concedes that the social aspect of the awards ceremony will be impacted.
“Normally quite a few cast and crew members come to watch their films, and stay on for the ‘craic’ of the awards ceremony but this year that is not likely to be possible due to social distancing requirements.”
Clones Film Festival is more than just a novelty for the people of Clones. It is a whole-community event and works hard to be inclusive. Workshops, competitions and screenings cater for younger patrons, with the local library hosting many events. The festival has a pop-up coffee shop, and the festival club provides live music events every night. Not only does CFF bring non-mainstream indie films to a marginalised area, but it taps into a need to engage with art in a community setting.
“We have a very mixed audience, families, younger people home for the bank holiday weekend, and a lot of older patrons retired or widowed who don’t have all that many outlets in terms of social activities. It is great to see them out, engaged, discussing films, connecting with others. In addition to the main festival, we also have a cinema club which runs from January to May and screens monthly,” says Cathy.
The committee have gone to great lengths to make the cinema experience accessible and to recognise the changing demography of the area and the diversity of the cinemagoers.”
A few years ago, Cold War (Paweł Pawlikowsi, 2018) was screened and a large number of Polish people – not just from here but from towns twenty or thirty miles away – came to see it and hear it in Polish on the big screen. The festival are conscious of marginalised groups in the surrounding area.
“We have links with our local DP center, and did a screening there a number of years ago, however, we want to make our festival as inclusive as possible, so we have worked hard to make it possible for residents to attend the festival with other patrons. Our local sponsors are amazing and we have managed to fund transport to bring the children to one of the kids’ screenings at the festival. We provide the tickets and their treats… For a lot of these kids it’s their first time ever being in a cinema.” Unfortunately, this is another initiative that will be likely impacted by Covid restrictions.
“Look,” says Seamie. “There is no way around it, we won’t be able to run the festival we would like to run this year, but Clones Film Festival 2019 will be on, in some form. The people here are used to dealing with challenges and we will deal with this one, as a community and emerge better and stronger when this is over .”
