Viva, Screening Thu 28th Jan

Refilmery’s monthly Refilmery Series showcases the best independent feature films in our intimate 24-seat theatre, including free beer and popcorn, networking, and an exclusive interview with the director.

Get Your Tickets:

Viva

Screening: 100-min | Drama
Interview: 25-min Skype with director Paddy Breathnach
Date: 6:30pm, Thursday 28th January 2016
Address: 69 Charlton St, New York, NY 10014

SYNOPSIS: VIVA stars Héctor Medina as Jesus, a young hairdresser working at a Havana nightclub that showcases drag performers, who dreams of being a performer himself. Encouraged by his mentor, Mama (Luis Alberto García), Jesus finally gets his chance to take the stage. But when his estranged father Angel (Jorge Perugorría) abruptly reenters his life, his world is quickly turned upside down. As father and son clash over their opposing expectations of each other, VIVA becomes a love story as the men struggle to understand one another and reconcile as a family.

VIVA was a hit at the 2015 Telluride Film Festival, and is Ireland’s entry for the Best Foreign Film Academy Award this year.

About the Director

PADDY BREATHNACH – Director Paddy Breathnach started his directing career making natural history documentaries. His first feature, Ailsa, won the Award for Best First / Second Film at the San Sebastian Film Festival. His second feature I Went Down (BBC films) starring Brendan Gleeson, also won the New Directors prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival in 1997. I Went Down screened at Sundance in 1998 and won the Best Director awards at Thessaloniki and Bogota Film Festivals.

He produced SouthPaw, a feature documentary that was selected for Sundance in 1999 and got a US and UK theatrical release.

Breathnach then went on to direct Blow Dry (Miramax), which was released in 2001. His next film was Man About Dog, produced by Robert Walpole and Simon Channing Williams (The Constant Gardner). It was released in 2003 and became one of the most successful independently produced Irish films.

He has also directed a number of horror films including Shrooms (2006). In 2012 he completed the feature length documentary An Oiche a Gineadh m’Athair for TG4.

He is a board member of The Dublin International Film Festival and is vice chair of The Screen Director’s Guild of Ireland. He is also on the board of the Irish Film Institute.