JOHN FORD

The Symposium welcomed leading French director Bertrand Tavernier who actively participated in many of the Symposium events over the four days, and was himself the focus of a public interview which was facilitated by Tara Brady of The Irish Times, who insightfully discussed key elements of the French Master’s life’s work and career for the attending audience, referencing the French new wave movement, Cahiers du Cinema along with his love and admiration for John Ford and his influence from the outset.

Miriam O’Callaghan’s interview on Friday evening in the Savoy Cinema with John Wayne’s son Patrick and daughter Marisa Wayne proved to be a most popular event for film fans with the queue stretched down O’Connell Street in the sunshine. The interview was an enlightening and nostalgic discussion about their father’s and Patrick’s experiences in collaborating with John Ford. This preceded a screening of ‘The Searchers’ re-mastered, in which Patrick himself appeared as a young Yankee cadet - eliciting cheers and rounds of applause from the audience.

Celebrated writer/director Peter Bogdanovich's appearance at the John Ford Ireland Symposium proved one of the true highlights of the weekend as the great director regaled a packed audience with stories of his encounters with Ford during their friendship.

Ford's influence on modern day filmmaking was among the topics discussed by some Irish-based leading Irish filmmakers.

Directors John Boorman, Jim Sheridan, Thaddeus O'Sullivan and Brian Kirk discussed and debated their appreciation for Ford's craft whilst swapping anecdotes on stories of the great director, as well as touching on their own work, as they each selected and analyzed scenes from Ford's work.

Award-winning Cinematographer Sean Bobbitt gave a riveting and insightful Masterclass for over three hours at the Symposium to a sold-out audience of budding industry professionals & students. Bobbitt spoke in detail about his relationship with director Steve McQueen on his three films (‘Hunger’, ‘Shame’ and ‘Twelve Years A Slave’) and pointed out that he felt it was “the greatest time to be a cinematographer, both with the opportunities and tools available”.

Led by US composer Christopher Caliendo, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra lent their hand to a spectacular film and musical event to mark the opening night of the John Ford Ireland Film Symposium with the Irish Premiere of John Ford's masterpiece The Iron Horse. John Ford's 1924 epic The Iron Horse charts a major touchstone in US history - the building of the first transcontinental railroad that would join Eastern and Western Coasts of America.

Joseph McBride, renowned film historian, biographer, screenwriter and professor, delivered a keynote academic paper on the figure of Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s work, “John Ford, His Old Friend Abraham Lincoln, and the Better Angels of Our Nature.” Joseph McBride is President of the John Ford Ireland Committee, and the author of Searching for John Ford, the celebrated Ford biography that Martin Scorsese described as a “treasure” and the New York Times Book Review considers “Definitive... The most comprehensive book to date on the filmmaker”.

The John Ford Ireland Film Symposium presented an Editing Masterclass with  Academy award-winning editor Joel Cox (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River) who gave an insight into his own career and expertise and how his collaboration with director Clint Eastwood has worked over 30 years.

Stephen Frears (High Fidelity, The Queen, The Hi-Lo Country and Dangerous Liaisons) was the focus of an In Conversation With...event at the inaugural John Ford Ireland Film Symposium in 2012.

Stephen Frears' rich and varied career was the focus of the conversation as an audience of fans and filmmakers gathered to hear the two-time Oscar-nominated director offer an insight to his winning approach to