Two new documentaries that you’ll want to see

TWO NEW documentaries are set to excite and entertain audiences in Edinburgh and Glasgow over the next two months.

First up is the acclaimed documentary A Want In Her by Donegal artist Myrid Carten.

When her mother goes missing somewhere in Ireland, artist Myrid Carten returns from London to find her. Her search takes her into a feuding family, a contested house, and a history that threatens to take everyone down, including herself. Intimate, surprising, and often darkly funny conversations with her mother and other family members reveal the trials of loving someone who struggles with addiction and madness.

A Want In Her is an immersive, first person account of the cost of love, and how difficult it can be to escape. It asks the universal question: How can we be with those we love without losing ourselves?

“A Want In Her is a film for the big screen, and I’m delighted it will be in cinemas across Ireland and the UK in October,” Director Carten said. “Some of the best moments of the festival run have been seeing it connect with audiences and getting messages like ‘what a feeling to be in a cinema where everyone is just entirely focused and immersed in what is happening on the screen.’”

The film will be shown as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, firstly at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse on Lothian Road on Monday October 20, where the director will attend for a Q&A. Further details can be found via the following link: https://www. mhfestival.com/events/a-want-in-her. A Want In Her then heads to Glasgow on Wednesday October 22 for a screening at Glasgow Film Theatre

Then, in November, a new documentary, We Only Want The Earth, on the life and ideas of James Connolly will be screened in his home city of Edinburgh next month.

The new documentary by Irish filmmakers Yellow Asylum and funded by Irish trade unions, features historians, trade unionists and political activists. It tells the story of James Connolly’s life and explores the relevance of his politics today. Also included are recitals of poetry, songs and Connolly’s writings, with Stephen Rea, Christy Moore and Connolly’s great great grand-daughter Tamsin Iona Connolly Heron among the performers.

“There has never been a better time to engage with James Connolly’s life and work,” Jim Slaven, from the James Connolly Society, said. “From Trump to Palestine to the erosion of working class culture to the rise of racism and the politics of hate. We can learn from James Connolly, not that he has all the answers for our 21st century problems, but rather he can inspire us, with his thinking, his commitment and most of all his confidence in working class people, like himself, to change our situation and change the world, through collective action.”

The Edinburgh screenings are supported by the Irish Consulate and will take place at the University of Edinburgh on Thursday November 13 in the Edinburgh Futures Institute Room 2.55 at 6pm and then the following day at the Filmhouse at 5.30pm. the latter screening will be followed by a Q&A with executive producers Noírín Greene and Des Geraghty. Producer Martin Mahon will be in attendance too.