Leigh for 'No-Cinema' Festival

Film director Mike Leigh will be the star gues tat a film festival without a cinema.

The Corona Fastnet Short Film Festival, now in its fourth year, will take place in Schull, West Cork from 24-27th May and will bring together first time filmmakers, film enthusiasts and established writers and directors to celebrate the element of short film.

Despite the fact that the town has no cinema, organisers have come up with innovative methods to showcase over 200 films all over the town by encouraging filmmakers, tourists and locals to access the submitted competition films locally, on their laptops, iPads and smart phones, simply by logging on with the use of distributed Cinema - Schull’s very own intranet network dedicated to short film. For four days at the end of May, Schull village itself becomes a screen offering a completely different film festival experience.

One of the more exciting interviews at this year's festival will be the open discussion with Mike Leigh whose successes as a writer and director include' Life is Sweet', the comedy-drama 'Career Girls', the Gilbert and Sullivan biopic 'Topsy Turvy' and the bleak working-class drama 'All or Nothing'. Leigh has earned a persona among film lovers as he begins his projects without a script, but starts from a basic principle which is developed through improvisation by the actors. His  support of the Corona Fastnet Short Film Festival reaffirms the festival’s position as being an independent festival of, and for, filmmakers. Other participants at the festival will include filmmakers Ken Wardrop and Jack Gold, who will be on scene in Schull for the duration of the Festival.

Also taking the stage will be Lenny Abrahamson who is known for his feature film ‘ Adam & Paul’ as well as his collaboration with writer Mark O'Halloran on the film 'Garage' starring Pat Shortt. Abrahamson will be on set during the Film Festival to provide an informative insight into the ‘Craft of Direction’.

EU Raps Dublin Airport Security

A failure  to track food, equipment and supplies going into Dublin Airport is at the centre of a new security regime imposed by the EU.

The EU concerns relate to goods being brought into the airport for sale in shops and restaurants.

Because of the new restriction passengers flying out of Dublin with an onward connection will have to go through another set of security checks at the airport where they change flights.

Up to 7pc of all passengers using the airport, which carried more than 18 million passengers last year, change flights after their initial departure from Dublin, and will therefore be affected by the new measures.

Dublin was the first airport tested for compliance by European security chiefs under the rules. Passengers leaving Cork and Shannon are not affected.

And in a further  development, Transport Minister Leo Varadkar yesterday admitted that his department would have to recruit staff because it did not have enough people in place to ensure that anti-terrorist security measures were being properly enforced.