We had an opportunity to spend some time this Christmas near the sea in County Cork.
Pure bliss...
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Monday, December 28, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Fuel for the Climb - Traditional Irish Breakfasts
- Egg, bacon, sausage, black pudding, white pudding, tomato
- Lemon Sole
Thought I'd share how our day started...
UNESCO World Heritage Site
My wife and I made the journey to Skellig Michael this weekend.
It's not an easy trek but well, well worth the effort...
Located about 8 miles off the southwest coast of Ireland, Skellig Michael is the home of one of Europe's oldest and best known Christian monasteries.
Approximately 12 monks and an abbot lived here in the 7th Century in relative seclusion, living ascetic lives of prayer, scriptural study, and exhausting physical work in service and worship of Christ.
Pondering the lives that these dedicated men lived more than 1,400 years ago really makes me wonder how much, if at all, we humans have advanced since this time...
Take away our televisions and automobiles, planes and Blackberries, Botox and spray tans...
What are we left with?
I think everyone could and should spend more time reflecting on answering the timeless and essential question -- What is your purpose in life?
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Festroia – Year 25
The Festroia International Film Festival is unique with respect to international film festivals in that it focuses purely on films from countries that produce a maximum of 30 feature films annually. This restriction tends to immediately eliminate films from countries such as the U.K., Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Russia, China, Japan and the U.S. thus giving films from smaller countries an opportunity for greater international exposure.
The festival is situated in Setubal, Portugal, which is located some 60 kilometers from Lisbon. Traditionally held in June with film screenings taking place in several venues (particularly in the city’s Municipal Forum), the festival, like many other international festivals, worked hard to maintain its numerous corporate sponsors in this year’s tumultuous global economy. Festival director Fernanda Silva can be credited with finding a solution to the delayed refurbishment of the Municipal Forum by erecting a gigantic tent in the city center to showcase this year’s films.
The show must go on as they say and indeed it did from September 3rd through September 12th for this 25th celebration of Festroia. This year’s festival screened 181 films in a variety of competitive sections. Though a much smaller festival than Berlin, Cannes, or Venice, it is staffed by experienced professionals with big hearts who offer a friendly, courteous, and a much more personal festival experience.
Our SIGNIS Jury consisted of five members -- Alfred Jokesch (Austria), Maria Eugenia Van-Zeller (Portugal), Teresa Tunay (Philippines), Francisco Perestrello (Portugal) and myself – and we were tasked with choosing a film from the official competition which best represented our SIGNIS criteria. The critical lens through which we viewed the films specifically looked for a film of high artistic quality that was universal in nature, was inventive in expression, and offered a story of human progress, Christian responsibility, while portraying the message of the Gospel.
The thirteen films in the Official Section of this year’s festival represented productions from a wide range of countries. These films from Finland, Denmark, Israel, Iceland, Indonesia, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway also presented a wide range of film genres for our jury to discuss.
The films in this year’s official competition lacked an overall unifying theme connecting them with one another. Instead a number of smaller themes became apparent as there were several films which highlighted some form of corruption in the modern world (Katia’s Sister, The Exchange, The Reason Why, Terribly Happy), two unique comedies (Out of the Blue, White Night Wedding), two historical dramas (Broken Promise, Guard No. 47), films about recapturing the past (The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner and The Storm in My Heart) and several films concerning children and adolescence (The Rainbow Troops, Mammoth, Forbidden Fruit).
After much deliberation our jury selected the Bulgarian film “The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner” for this year’s SIGNIS award.
This is a tightly woven tale, which artfully transports the viewer on a non-linear journey between an escape from the repressive communism of the Bulgarian past and a two-wheeled spiritual European journey of the present.
Backgammon serves as the family and generational unifier that allows a grandson to heal from a tragic accident and once again place his feet firmly on the ground and fulfill his grandfather’s proclamation, “Destiny is the dice in your hand and what happens after that depends on your skill and luck.”
Based on a Bulgarian novel and directed by Stephan Komandarev, this is certainly a film about many things, especially life, loss, repression, freedom, the love of family, survival, and most of all – self-discovery.
A worthy and most enjoyable film that also took the top Audience prize and Best Director award at this year’s festival.
Our jury also chose to offer a Special Commendation to the film “Mammoth” for its unique portrayal of children and their needs in our increasing materialistic global economy.
The 26th edition of the Festroia festival will once again take place in its traditional June time period. Until then remember… the world is big… and salvation lurks around the corner…
The festival is situated in Setubal, Portugal, which is located some 60 kilometers from Lisbon. Traditionally held in June with film screenings taking place in several venues (particularly in the city’s Municipal Forum), the festival, like many other international festivals, worked hard to maintain its numerous corporate sponsors in this year’s tumultuous global economy. Festival director Fernanda Silva can be credited with finding a solution to the delayed refurbishment of the Municipal Forum by erecting a gigantic tent in the city center to showcase this year’s films.
The show must go on as they say and indeed it did from September 3rd through September 12th for this 25th celebration of Festroia. This year’s festival screened 181 films in a variety of competitive sections. Though a much smaller festival than Berlin, Cannes, or Venice, it is staffed by experienced professionals with big hearts who offer a friendly, courteous, and a much more personal festival experience.
Our SIGNIS Jury consisted of five members -- Alfred Jokesch (Austria), Maria Eugenia Van-Zeller (Portugal), Teresa Tunay (Philippines), Francisco Perestrello (Portugal) and myself – and we were tasked with choosing a film from the official competition which best represented our SIGNIS criteria. The critical lens through which we viewed the films specifically looked for a film of high artistic quality that was universal in nature, was inventive in expression, and offered a story of human progress, Christian responsibility, while portraying the message of the Gospel.
The thirteen films in the Official Section of this year’s festival represented productions from a wide range of countries. These films from Finland, Denmark, Israel, Iceland, Indonesia, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway also presented a wide range of film genres for our jury to discuss.
The films in this year’s official competition lacked an overall unifying theme connecting them with one another. Instead a number of smaller themes became apparent as there were several films which highlighted some form of corruption in the modern world (Katia’s Sister, The Exchange, The Reason Why, Terribly Happy), two unique comedies (Out of the Blue, White Night Wedding), two historical dramas (Broken Promise, Guard No. 47), films about recapturing the past (The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner and The Storm in My Heart) and several films concerning children and adolescence (The Rainbow Troops, Mammoth, Forbidden Fruit).
After much deliberation our jury selected the Bulgarian film “The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner” for this year’s SIGNIS award.
This is a tightly woven tale, which artfully transports the viewer on a non-linear journey between an escape from the repressive communism of the Bulgarian past and a two-wheeled spiritual European journey of the present.
Backgammon serves as the family and generational unifier that allows a grandson to heal from a tragic accident and once again place his feet firmly on the ground and fulfill his grandfather’s proclamation, “Destiny is the dice in your hand and what happens after that depends on your skill and luck.”
Based on a Bulgarian novel and directed by Stephan Komandarev, this is certainly a film about many things, especially life, loss, repression, freedom, the love of family, survival, and most of all – self-discovery.
A worthy and most enjoyable film that also took the top Audience prize and Best Director award at this year’s festival.
Our jury also chose to offer a Special Commendation to the film “Mammoth” for its unique portrayal of children and their needs in our increasing materialistic global economy.
The 26th edition of the Festroia festival will once again take place in its traditional June time period. Until then remember… the world is big… and salvation lurks around the corner…
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Back in Ireland...
This is what the south of Ireland (Cork coastline) looks like from 35,000 feet...
Saturday, September 12, 2009
More film commentary to follow
My apologies for the lack of content on the many films I've seen here at Festroia.
There has been a slight difficulty with access to a computer to post comments and I will fill in the gaps as soon as possible...
And the winner is...
... the Bulgarian film "The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner."
A tightly woven tale, which artfully transports the viewer on a non-linear journey between an escape from the repressive communism of the past and a two-wheeled spiritual journey of the present.
Backgammon serves as the family and generational unifier to allow a grandson to heal from a tragic accident and once again place his feet firmly on the ground and fulfill his grandfather’s proclamation -- “Destiny is the dice in your hand and what happens after that depends on your skill and luck.”
A film about life, loss, repression, freedom, the love of family, survival, and most of all – self-discovery. “The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner” is the recipient of this year’s SIGNIS Award.
Our Jury
from left to right: Fr. Alfred Jokesch (Austria), Francisco Perestrello (Portugal), Maria Eugenia Van-Zeller (Portugal), yours truly, and jury president Teresa Tunay (Phillipines)
Friday, September 11, 2009
Antonio
We had one driver for getting around the festival -- Antonio.
He was never without an opinion and kept us fully informed on everything Portuguese, including politics, the festival, traffic, world history, folk music, local cuisine, you name it...
On Monday he goes back to his real life as a chemistry student studying at the local university.
A very entertaining young lad... thank you.
Favorite local fish
The Portuguese diet consists mainly of seafood.
This was our favorite... grilled Dourada (sea bream) cooked fresh with a light brushing of salt and olive oil...
Air conditioning
The temperature inside the tent continues to be... ummm... a bit warm (in the 90's) during the afternoon screening.
This is just one of the twelve overworked, portable air conditioners used to cool the tent.
Streets of Setubal...
Thursday, September 10, 2009
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