“WELL chosen, well organised,” was how film director Damien Harris summarised Limerick’s inaugural Richard Harris International Film Festival.
One of Richard’s three sons, he and daughter Ella had flown in for the weekend showcase that he had hoped to attend with his brothers, Jared, who featured in Steven Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’ and Jamie, who appeared in Jim Sheridan’s ‘In the Name of the Father’.
A letter of goodwill jointly written by the absent Harris brothers was read to the audience attending the festival opener, ‘Life’s a Breeze’ starring Pat Shortt, voicing what would have been “Dad’s enthusiasm” for such a festival to boost the industry here and the products of Irish artists working overseas. It read:
“Our hope is that in the coming years that this festival will come to symbolise all that is unique, individual and idiosyncratic about both my father and Limerick. It will be contentious, it will be passionate and it will stand apart because that is in both your natures”
Speaking to the Limerick Post, Damien Harris made the point that “The intention was that the three of us would attend but regretfully, with filming schedules, that was not possible at the last minute. I’ve just been on the phone to Jared, filming ‘Poltergeist’ in Toronto who is very interested in what is going on”
“Next year the aim is that we attend in triplicate. We are very much behind that the festival founders’ idea that it is to promote Irish film makers, at home and abroad”, said the screenwriter-director at the premier’s after-party in Curraghower Bar.
He had special commendation to make of the film shorts showcase scheduled for 69 O’Connell Street, venue for most functions.
Based in LA but a regular visitor to Ireland, Damien Harris began his directing/ screenwriting career in 1980s, making it big with Martin Amis’ ‘The Rachel Papers’. He has gone on to work with Lawrence Fishburne, Ellen Barkin, John Malkovich, Goldie Hawn, John Heard and more.
This Harris’ next project is a documentary exploration on the idea of marriage, inspired by his Welsh mother Elizabeth Rees-Williams who is years into her happy fourth – to Jonathan Aitken.
Richard’s grand-daughter Ella Harris, director of international estate company Petersham Properties with her mother Annabel Brook, had fond memories of her exposure to Limerick and her grandfather’s haunts such as the family home, rugby fields and Charlie St George’s bar.
“Every Christmas he used to take us to Dromoland Castle and we got to know our cousins – the Harris’ are really big family. My last visit here was to Kilkee. Papa (Richard) was the first person to across swim Kilkee Bay competitively and hence the annual cup is named after him. I hope to swim it myself next year”.
Festival directors Rob Gill, Eleanor McSherry, Zeb Moore and his business partner spouse Sylvia hosted the launch reception for the festival.
Showbiz journalist Joe Jackson was another face at the weekend events. Asked by Richard Harris back in 1990 to write his autobiography, Jackson has at least 30 hours on tape with the Oscar nominee who asked that the work be called ‘Excuse Me While I Disappear’, taken from the Frank Sinatra song that he loved, ‘Angel Eyes’.
