The first friday film club started as an initiative of the South East Area Arts Council Office, Jim Doyle in partnership with a local resident Susan Finn in the Rathmines suburb area of Dublin City, Ireland as part of the ongoing services of Dublin City Council to neighbourhood Arts development. The club has been running since the summer of 2008 supported by Dublin City Council Arts Office. We are hugely grateful to the Arts Office for their many years of financial funding and we are now financially self funding.  We organised our first season of film screenings in Sept 2008. Rathmines Library hosted the club for the first year and a quarter. We are now permanently located in The Fletcher Room in Christchurch, Rathgar in a designated screening room and from this base have periodically screened locally in adult education centres and a local primary school. The Fletcher Room is wheelchair accessible with a lift.
The film club is a voluntary organization and our aim is that of promoting non commercial film in the local area of Dublin 6 and of continuously identifying a core group of people who desire to promote Community Cinema and associated arts events at local level. We include in our programme, screenings that involve the membership`s interest, showing films that reflect the diverse taste of the local community: Irish language and Irish Cultural films, films of local interest, art and spiritually related films and International cinema. Alongside the film programme we hold film introductions with Q&As with Directors wherever possible and regularly have discussions after the screenings. We also have included art and photographic exhibitions, cultural talks and tours, workshops and music events. We cater for a wide audience of all age categories including young people and school groups. The “first friday film club” is held on the first Friday afternoon of every month with the exception of August with additional screenings and events as occasions arise. We serve Refreshments free of charge at each event and this is an opportunity to get to know other members and discuss the film and get involved further. Full membership is €30 for the year and guest membership is a donation of €4 - €5 for daily membership.

In addition to our monthly screenings we have additional screenings in May as part of Dublin City Council`s Arts Office contribution to the Bealtaine Festival, a festival for celebrating creativity in older age and have screened in the Indian Film Festival. In 2011 we screened “Life goes on” in the Indian film festival and the film “Julie and Julia” in the Bealtaine festival with a French food lunch served after the film by one of our members international chef Katherina Psimolpoulos.
 
We endeavour to show films produced by local directors and one example was the screening of Dan, Dan Dad and me in Rathmines Library, a film by film Director Louise Mulcahy who was brought up in the local area of Rathmines Dublin). This event was a great success with an attendance of 120 people. This film was then subsequently shown by the local Rathmines Historical Society as word had got around and many people and missed it. 

We have also held volunteer members` cultural evenings Our first one was an evening where we screened have a number of Irish shorts and had a meal and discussed the films. The follow up to this was on the 30^th of August 2010 when we screened a Greek film and discussed Greek Cinema and had a traditional Greek meal cooked by our International Greek Chef Katherina. This event consolidated relationships between people and in conjunction with other organizing members we started the process of envisionaging the future development of the film club. We also had a French film evening with French food. The last members evening was in February 2011 and we screened a Korean film with accompanying drinks and food. The aim behind these evenings was to develop strong relationships between the core members and to expand our knowledge and perspective with regard to film and traditions of different culture. To advance the intercultural aspect of the club we have formed regional partnership with East Cork Cinema Club and international partnership with the Granollers Cine Club in Catalonia and Colinsburgh Community Cinema in Fife, Scotland. To view their activities see the links page and click on the titles  
We  hosted a special event with our Catalan partner in The Fletcher Room in Christchurch, Rathgar on the 4th November 2011 at 4.00pm showing Catalan films by Lambert Botey (Manager of the Filmmakers of Granollers and member of Granollers Cine Club) and all members and guest members were invited to attend. The Granollers Cine Club provides a good model of a long standing Cine Club that is run on a co-operative basis with its first cinematic screening in 1950.

To achieve long term sustainability of our own film club, we have now develope the film club into a co-operative with various members performing different roles on a rota basis. If you are interested in being involved with us as a volunteeer member contact fffcupdate@gmail.com  for more information on this. We look forward to seeing you there at some stage.

Welcome

Hi and welcome to the website of the first friday film club. The first friday film club is an initiative of Dublin City Council Arts Office and is supported by access>CINEMA.

The Arts office of Dublin City Council has been keen to realise and support the potential for local arts and cultural initiatives. Film has been identified by the Arts Council of Ireland (2006 report: “The public and the arts”) as one of the significant growth areas within the arts and Ireland has one of the highest ratios of audience attendance for film throughout Europe. The first friday film club is part of the ongoing services of Dublin City Council Arts Office to neighbourhood Arts development.

Susan Finn coordinates the film club and works closely with Dublin City Council, access>CINEMA and the IFI to prepare and plan the monthly screenings. Susan is a keen film enthusiast and a Rathmines local with a professional background in the arts. At Susan’s suggestion we called the club the “first friday film club” as it is held on the first Friday of every month (or as near as possible). Currently Rathmines Library hosts the club and we are very grateful to Hugh Comerford, the Head Librarian, and Mark Burke for all their technical support and all the staff members in the library who have generously supported this venture.

The club has been running since the summer of 2008 and we organised our first season of film screenings in September of that year. This year will see a programme of films with associated arts and cultural events and whenever possible will have associated speakers to introduce the films. We  promote the literary connection between a film and the book it is based on when possible. Refreshments are served free of charge after each screening and this a chance to get to know other members and discuss the film. The Club currently runs on a donation basis as it is currently sponsored by Dublin City Arts Council office. This donation helps with running costs and donations are appreciated but not obligatory.

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