Fans of F1: DRIVE TO SURVIVE will love the new Michael Fassbender documentary THE ROAD TO LE MANS. The film follows THE KILLER star Fassbender as he prepares for the grueling 24-hr road race. On his journey with Porsche to the 100th anniversary of the endurance classic, the German-Irish actor experiences a rollercoaster of emotions – from the highest highs to the deepest lows. THE ROAD TO LE MANS is now available to stream from home via the link below.
To mark World Aids Day, award winning Irish feature documentary film, HOW TO TELL A SECRET, will land on Netflix on December 1st. Directors Anna Rodgers and Shaun Dunne find creative ways to tell the stories of people in Ireland living with HIV, while shining a light on the transformative power of sharing your story. The film has had a worldwide tour of over 35 film festivals including San Francisco, Tokyo, Sydney and Milan. It won Best Documentary Film at the London Irish Film Festival and Best Documentary at the LGBT+ Film Festival Poland in 2023. It was also nominated for two IFTAS (Best Documentary and Best Cinematography).
Margo Harkin’s STOLEN documentary uncovers the horrors of Ireland’s mother-and-baby institutions – essentially state- and church-run factories churning out children for adoption, shame and misery. Harkin interviews journalists, politicians, legal scholars and historians, but also poets such as Jessica Traynor, who read pieces about the pain of such places in the ruins that remain. We hear from sons and daughters who lived with mothers that survived these homes and are still searching for siblings who remain unaccounted for, and of course many survivors themselves. STOLEN is in theatres Nov 3rd 2023.
Irish director Laura McGann has told RTÉ Entertainment that the reaction to her freediving documentary THE DEEPEST BREATH is “just incredible”, with the film currently the fifth most-watched movie on Netflix around the world. A word-of-mouth hit and also critically acclaimed, THE DEEPEST BREATH tells the story of the Irish expert safety diver Stephen Keenan and the Italian freediver Alessia Zecchini and their love for one of the most dangerous sports in the world, where devotees travel to the deep on a single breath.
Sky has announced that award-winning documentary, NOTHING COMPARES, will broadcast exclusively on Sky Documentaries & NOW from 29 July. The critically acclaimed documentary film charts Sinéad O’Connor’s phenomenal rise to worldwide fame and how her iconoclastic personality resulted in her exile from the pop mainstream. Directed by Belfast-born filmmaker Kathryn Ferguson, the archive-led documentary takes viewers back to Sinead’s prophetic words and deeds from 1987-1993 and features era-defining music videos and concert performances, previously unseen footage, and a present-day interview with Sinead.
THE DEEPEST BREATH, which debuts on Netflix on July 19, tells the gripping, tragic story of two free divers, the world-record-holder Alessia Zecchini from Italy and her vigilant coach and safety expert, Stephen Keenan from Ireland. I won’t give away the nature of the tragedy, which took place in Dahab, Egypt, because McGann unspools it so suspensefully and movingly. But I will say that the documentary braids together many kinds of love: love between people, love of the ocean, love of excellence and adventure, love of original lives, love of tight-knit communities, and love of travel to places that are breathtaking, in both senses of the word.
Irish director Laura McGann’s latest film, THE DEEPEST BREATH, airs July 19 on Netflix. THE DEEPEST BREATH follows champion freediver Alessia Zecchini, who fell in love with the sport as a child growing up in Italy, astounding coaches with her raw talent and determination in pool swims and open water contests before she was even old enough to legally compete. The Deepest Breath will be released worldwide on Netflix on July 19, with limited theatrical release in Ireland from July 14.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN NORTHERN IRELAND is a new five-part documentary about the Troubles that combines personal accounts with archive footage to tell the stories of people and communities dealing with violence and conflict on a daily basis. Series director James Bluemel said his experience directing the Bafta and Emmy award-winning ONCE UPON A TIME IN IRAQ inspired him to take on the task of telling the story of a conflict closer to home. Now streaming on BBC iPlayer.