Hello all,

First up we wanted to draw your attention to two events we have coming up in quick succession that will be of significant interest to anyone working in or connected to artist film. At 11am this Sunday February 23rd as part of Dublin International Film Festival we are proud to present ‘Artist Film and the Festival Circuit‘, a conversation between aemi and IndieLisboa film festival programmer and film researcher Anastasia Lukovnikova. This hour-long conversation taking place at The Complex, Dublin will focus particularly on effective strategies for navigating an international film festival circuit that is increasingly making space for more meaningful engagement with first-person, independent and analogue cinema. Tickets here.

The following day on Monday February 24th we are presenting ‘Intrinsic Access with artist Jenny Brady and Elaine Lillian Joseph‘, a FREE workshop on accessibility and artist film taking place at TCD’s Arts Technology Research Laboratory from 7pm to 9pm. This session will comprise of screenings of Jenny’s extraordinary films Receiver (2019) and Music for Solo Performer (2022) as well as discussion of the importance and benefits of making accessibility an intrinsic part of any creative filmmaking process. Spaces for this are extremely limited so email [email protected] right away to secure your place.

In other news we were delighted to host our first event last week at Unit 4 on James Joyce Street, the space we are currently sharing with the wonderful Fanvid Dublin through Dublin City Council’s Incubation Space Award. This inspiring Rough Cut event comprised of three presentations of works in progress from Chloe Brenan, Luke van Gelderen and Temmuz Süreyya Gürbüz, all artists taking part in our Tier 2 Artist Support programme. More info here.

aemi were also delighted to be in attendance this year at International Film Festival Rotterdam as part of DINAMO: Distribution Network of Artists’ Moving Image Organizations to present two screenings of Lisa Freeman’s excellent Hook, Spill, Cry Your Eyes Out. Elsewhere in the programme were screenings of Cáit and Éiméar McClay’s just above the tear duct on each side and Keira Greene’s Máthair, two films which aemi are proud to have supported through previous Rough Cut sessions. Frank Sweeney was also at the festival serving on the jury for the IFFR Tiger Award. Frank’s film Few Can See won the Tiger Award last year and also features in aemi’s touring programme 2025 ‘The said and the unsaid’. All in all probably one of the strongest showings for Irish work at this prestigious festival that we have seen in recent years.

There are a huge number of screenings and exhibitions focusing on artist film taking place across the country at the moment. We have highlighted some of those below including screenings at the Dublin International Film Festival, which kicks off next week. We have highlighted the premiere of Myrid Carten’s documentary feature ‘A Want in Her’ but there is plenty more to look forward to at the festival. Elsewhere, an exciting solo show by Holly Márie Parnell at VISUAL, a Patrick Hough work screening at RHA, Eva Richardson McCrea’s new work at Project, a Maria Fusco & Margaret Salmon screening at Hugh Lane this Friday and plenty more.

On another more distressing note many of you at this point will have seen the news about the Arts Council’s significant write-off of funds in relation to a failed I.T. project. A major failure by all accounts but our concern upon reading this news was that the impact of this would be borne by artists. In correspondence from the Director of the Arts Council we were assured that “this matter has no bearing on the funding commitments we have made and we will continue to offer application opportunities as per our published schedule.
The Arts Council deeply regrets that this non-delivery has happened. However, this project is separate from our funding schemes and it will not impact on the awards of grants.” Our fear with a failure like this is that any punitive response will ultimately impact artists themselves, aemi will continue to remain in contact with the Arts Council on the issue, advocating as best we can for artists now and into the future.

That’s it from us for now

all of our best wishes,

Alice Butler, Daniel Fitzpatrick, Anne Hendrick

Upcoming and Ongoing: Screenings, Events, Exhibitions 

History of the Present (2023) by Maria Fusco and Margaret Salmon at the Hugh Lane. With an introduction and post-screening Q+A with co-directors Maria Fusco and Margaret Salmon led by aemi’s Alice Butler.

The Decameron / Na Deich Lá by Eva Richardson McCrea at Project. The Decameron / Na Deich Lá was made covertly while the artist stayed as a resident at a co-living development, and the characters and plot lines were developed through a series of Character-Based Improvisation workshops. We were proud to support Eva through one of our Rough Cut sessions in July 2023.

Patrick Hough The Black River of Herself screening as part of ‘BogSkin’ at RHA. Patrick Hough’s excellent film, which featured in aemi’s 2022 touring programme In The Long Now screens at RHA until April.

‘This is how I say yes’ by Holly Márie Parnell at VISUAL. aemi worked closely with the filmmaker Holly Márie Parnell on her remarkable film Cabbage (2023). That film, alongside a new work hole in the stone (2025), screen as part of this solo exhibition. While concerned with apparently different subjects, the two films share a meditative mood that taps into the stubborn and disobedient, in contexts of both personal and communal forms of resistance.

Visit this page of the aemi website for a list of upcoming opportunities for film artists including this week’s deadline for the Arts Council’s Film Bursary Award.

N FOCUS: A Want In Her by Myrid Carten and artist film at DIFF

aemi worked closely with the filmmaker Myrid Carten when we commissioned an earlier work by the artist titled Sorrow Had a Baby (2022). That work relates closely to A Want In Her which will have its Irish premiere at DIFF this year. We couldn’t be more excited about seeing this work by a truly talented and singular artist. Screens March 1st at Light House Cinema

Elsewhere at DIFF this year we recommend:

Amanda Directed by José Miguel Jiménez | February 24th 18:30 IFI Screen 1
Amanda has painted in isolation for years, using art as both expression and refuge. Institutionalised and labelled, she reclaims her narrative through her canvas. Visit here for tickets and further details.

Latina Latina Directed by Adrian Duncan | February 25th 18:30 IFI Screen 1
An Irish geologist teaching in Italy gets a call from a Berlin hospital: her estranged father, whom she hasn’t seen for over 30 years, is unconscious after a fall. Visit here for tickets and further details.