After years trapped in a stifling life wrangling cattle in the wilds of Canada, Charlotte escapes her controlling husband in a beat-up 1968 Ford Bronco. Her journey leads her back to New
York, where she seeks refuge at her childhood home on Park Avenue. There, her estranged mother, Kit, greets her with sharp wit and a blunt question: “Am I dying?”
Over the course of six tumultuous weeks, Charlotte, fiery and irreverent, clashes and connects with Kit, a master of secrets and lies. Together, they navigate old wounds, shared
history, and unspoken truths. As Charlotte reconnects with Anders, the building’s doorman and her former love, she is drawn back into the world she left behind at 18. Set against the
vibrant backdrop of New York’s Upper East Side and its colourful, intertwined residents, “Park Avenue” delves into the intricate and messy bond between a mother and daughter.
The screening of Park Avenue on Wed 12 Nov will be followed by a Q&A with the film's director, Gaby Dellal.
Irish Film and Identity on the big screen
Visions of an Otherworld is a season allowing viewers to see spiritual and mythical stories using the Irish language, telling contemporary and compelling stories that offer another world of Irish Film and Identity.
Irish culture has recently taken on a resurgence through literature, TV shows and particularly film, with Claire Keegan’s ‘Small Things like These’, Sally Rooney’s ‘Normal People’ and Martin McDonagh’s ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’. These stories offer a view of Ireland’s filmic identity currently, but they are still being spoken in English and not Irish. In a 2023 interview during the BAFTA Awards, Irish actor Paul Mescal stated, "Broken Irish is better than clever English," as he and many other young people have become advocates for reclaiming their language through films. My season offers a unique blend of films, all in Irish language from the last decade, from young Directors, which offer unique but universal stories which hope to question what it means to be Irish in our current times.
In Ireland’s distant past, there were seanchaí (travelling storytellers) who ventured from village to village, sharing stories around a campfire, orally presenting Ireland’s strong storytelling heritage to bring communities together around a shared passion for their unique cultural identity. This passion for stories and language, when combined with the medium of film, blends together in current directors who are crafting stories that are trying to redefine what it means to be Irish. Colm Bairéad’s 2022 fiction film ‘The Quiet Girl’, Ciara Nic Chormaic’s 2022 documentary ‘Clouded Reveries’, Pat Collins’s 2017 biographic feature ‘Song of Granite’ and Tomm Moore’s 2014 animation ‘Song of the Sea’ all offer unique views of what it means to be Irish, as this new filmic identity comes of age.
Visions of an Otherworld is presented in partnership with the National Film and Television School. This programme has been curated by NFTS Film Studies, Programming and Curation student, Joseph Pidgeon.
