And Back to the Arts! well briefly anyway...

The Smurfit Samhain International Poetry Competition and Festival is on from the 27th to the 29th October in Gortahork. Prizes this year amount to 6000 Euros. There is also music, art and food to be had over a fine weekend, but the most interesting of them all, to me anyway!, is the Calligraphy workshop with the President of world haiku club Susumu Takiguchi on the Saturday. It's on from 10am to 12 noon - The cost is €45 euros which includes lunch.

Oxford based Susumu is the Japanese founder of the world haiku club, www.worldhaikuclub.org. He is the publisher of the renowned e-journal, World Haiku Review. Sounds good to me.

The whole festival is hosted by my good mucker Cathal O' Searcaigh so here's a pic of him.


Film Club this week,

Letterkenny Film Club kicked off again last Thursday and a great crowd turned out. I've just watched the trailer for the next one and I must see it! click here TRAILER
This, the second film of the season is Ballet Russes (USA 2005) and will be screened on Thursday October 26. Created by filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, this film is a look into the revolutionary twentieth-century dance troupe known as the Ballets Russes. The story begins when a group of Russian refugees set up a ballet troupe in their adopted city of London. The group gradually evolved into not one but two rival dance troupes fighting the infamous Ballet Battles that consumed London society before World War II. Directed with consummate invention and infused with juicy anecdotal interviews from many of the company’s glamorous stars, Ballet Russes treats modern audiences to a rare glimpse of the singularly remarkable merger of Russian, American, European, and Latin American dancers, choreographers, composers, and designers that utterly transformed the face of Ballet.

‘Hugely entertaining….dazzling, entrancing, amazing’ – Film Review

‘One of the finest documentaries ever made……inspires and enchants.’ - Empire

And now the disclaimer! :

Films are open to members only. Members must rejoin each season. Membership is available to anyone over 18 from the arts centre (€1.50). All films start at 8.15pm and are screened at Century Cinemas, Port Road, Letterkenny. Admission is €7.50.