Belfast Film Festival set to screen in a swimming pool near you….
A swimming pool and the dock that once housed the Titanic are among some of the unusual locations film lovers can watch classics in the coming weeks.
As part of Belfast Film Festival’s new summer programme, movie fans will be urged to don their bikinis or speedos and dive into the new Olympic sized pool in Bangor for a novel showing of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws while Stanley Kubrick’s cult sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey 2001 is showing in the historic dry dock in the city’s old shipyards.
Again living up to its reputation for quirky venues, the festival starts rolling tomorrow with a screening of two episodes of the US political drama the West Wing at Parliament Buildings, Stormont.
Other highlights of the programme include horror film Session 9 at Templemore Baths and Northern Ireland set slapstick comedy Oh Mr Porter! at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum at Cultra.
The festival’s first summer offering – titled Aurora – hopes to build on the achievements of 13 annual festivals.
“Join us for a series of site-specific screenings in venues throughout Belfast over the summer months,” Damian Connor from the Belfast Film Festival said.
“Expect big screen action in the most unusual locations.”
The screenings form the film strand of a wider culture initiative of arts, entertainment and cultural events to run alongside the ongoing World Police and Fire Games.
The movies are being presented in partnership with Stormont’s Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL).
DCAL Minister Caral Ni Chuilin said: “This programme will present the best of our culture to the thousands of competitors, from 60 countries, who will be visiting for the World Police and Fire Games. But it is also for the enjoyment of local people, of all ages and backgrounds.”
For more information visit www.belfastfilmfestival.org.
