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Life, loss, fame & family – the IFI Documentary Festival in focus

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Sunniva O’Flynn introduces the Irish programme at this year’s IFI Documentary Festival, its annual celebration of non-fiction filmmaking, bringing together bold voices, urgent topics, and inventive forms via a cutting edge mix of screenings, panel discussions, and public interviews.

We are looking forward to IFI Documentary Festival, the most provocative programme in the IFI calendar, where a broad swathe of Irish and international documentary provides new perspectives on contemporary experience and stimulates lively post-screening discussion among filmmakers, expert guests and audience.

This year’s slate of Irish films presents short and feature documentaries spanning a range of documentary forms from experimental essays, personal memoirs, and archive-based yarns to in-depth portraits of Ireland’s leading cultural and political figures.

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In Time: Donal Lunny

In a programme chock-full of highlights the following films should not be missed:

BEO FAOIN BHFÓD / BURIED ALIVE – this fascinating yarn from the 1960s tells of a Tipperary man in London who chose to distinguish himself by attempting to beat the world record for being buried alive to the delight of his fellow Irishmen and his proud family back home. The story is told with great good humour, warmth and terrific archive material.

Michael Higgin’s mesmeric A SHOOTING ON BRANDON: part documentary, part daydream, a playful multi-layered essay about a hill in Co Kilkenny and the people who visit it.

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The Art Of Loss

A WANT IN HER is Myrid Carten’s award-winning film about the fraught and dysfunctional relationship with her mother who has struggled with addiction throughout Myrid’s life. Harrowing, frank and immensely creative, their world is revealed through home videos from childhood, through present-day conversations with her mother and other relatives and through fictional elements drawn from her artistic practice. Raw and deeply unsettling it will chime with all who have been touched by addiction.

GERRY ADAMS: BALLYMURPHY MAN is a lifetime-spanning profile of Gerry Adams told through his uncensored recollections, made by one-time community activist, Englishwoman Trisha Ziff.

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Gerry Adams: Ballymurphy Man

Nuala O’Connor’s IN TIME: DONAL LUNNY, assembles personal and public moments to create an exquisite portrait of one of Ireland’s greatest musical geniuses.

ONCE WE WERE PUNKS is a film about a bunch of witty, self-effacing Cavan men who meet up after many years to reignite friendships and their musical youth.

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Once We Were Punks

THE ART OF LOSS: Carmel Winters’ remarkable short film is a meditation on bereavement, on love and loss. Carmel will continue to reflect on these profound, universal themes in an extended post-screening conversation with Oscar-nominated director Lenny Abrahamson.

We are also delighted to welcome two new partners in championing the work of up-and-coming documentary makers – Dublin City University who will showcase the work of the first wave of graduates from Ireland’s first dedicated Masters Degree in Documentary production and the Galway Film Fleadh who have selected a programme of excellent short documentaries from hundreds of short films submitted for their consideration.

The IFI Documentary Festival 2025 runs from Wednesday 10th to Sunday 14th September at the Irish Film Institute, Dublin – find out more here

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Giorgio Armani creations interplay with Italian masterpieces at new Milan exhibition

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“Giorgio Armani, Milano, for love’’ at the Brera Art Gallery opens today, mere weeks after the celebrated designer’s death at the age of 91.

Featuring 129 Armani looks from the 1980s through the present day, the exhibition places his creations among celebrated Italian masterpieces by such luminaries as Raphael and Caravaggio.

It is one of a series of Milan Fashion Week events that were planned before Armani’s death, to highlight his transformative influence on the world of fashion.

“From the start, Armani showed absolute rigor but also humility not common to great fashion figures,’’ said the gallery’s director Angelo Crespi. “He always said that he did not want to enter into close dialogue with great masterpieces, like Raphael, Mantegna, Caravaggio and Piero della Francesca.’’ 

Instead, the exhibition aims to create a symbiosis with the artworks, with the chosen looks reflecting the mood of each room without interrupting the flow of the museum experience – much the way Armani always intended his apparel to enhance and never overwhelm the individual.

A long blue asymmetrical skirt and bodysuit ensemble worn by Juliette Binoche at Cannes in 2016 neatly reflects the blue in Giovanni Bellini’s 1510 portrait “Madonna and Child”; a trio of underlit dresses glow on a wall opposite Raphael’s “The Marriage of the Virgin”; the famed soft-shouldered suit worn by Richard Gere in American Gigolo, arguably the garment that launched Armani to global fame, is set among detached frescoes by Donato Bramante. Every choice in the exhibition underscores the timelessness of Armani’s fashion. 

Armani himself makes a cameo, on a t-shirt in the final room, opposite the Brera’s emblematic painting “Il Bacio” by Francesco Hayez. 

“When I walk around, I think he would be super proud,’’ said Anoushka Borghesi, Armani’s global communications director. 

Armani’s fashion house confirmed a series of events this week that Armani himself had planned to celebrate his 50th anniversary. They include the announcement of an initiative to support education for children in six Southeast Asian, African and South American countries. The project, in conjunction with the Catholic charity Caritas, is named “Mariu’,’’ an affectionate nickname for Armani’s mother.

In a final farewell, the last Giorgio Armani collection signed by the designer will be shown in the Brera Gallery on Sunday, among looks he personally chose to represent his 50-year legacy.

“Giorgio Armani – 50 Years” opened to the public today at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, Italy. The exhibition lasts until 11 January 2026.

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The last day of doomsday: What is the viral ‘RaptureTok’ trend?

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If you’re reading this today, Wednesday 24 September 2025 could be the last day before the end of the world as you know it.

If you’re reading this tomorrow, you weren’t blipped out of existence and good luck with all the rebuilding. Please do better.

Confused? We’ve got you covered.

According to the more holy corners of TikTok, it has been prophesized that yesterday – or today, they couldn’t make their minds up on which one, so just go with it – is the day of the Rapture.

For the filthy heathens among you, that’s the long-awaited end-time event when Jesus Christ returns to Earth, resurrects all dead Christian disciples and brings all believers “to meet the Lord in the air.”

It wasn’t yesterday, clearly, so today’s the day… And turn off that R.E.M. song, this is serious.

This all stems from South African pastor Joshua Mhlakela, who claimed that the Rapture will occur on 23 or 24 September 2025. Mhlakela said that this knowledge came directly from a dream he had in 2018, in which Jesus appeared to him. Mhlakela reiterated all of this on 9 September in an interview with CettwinzTV and since then, the prophecy has become a viral sensation on TikTok.

Many individuals on the social media platform have taken this literally and very seriously, with more than 350,000 videos appearing under the hashtag #rapturenow – leading to the trend / popular subsection dubbed ‘RaptureTok’. 

Some videos mock the prophecy, but you don’t have to scroll for too long to find those who are completely convinced that it’s happening today.

There’s advice on how to prepare; tips on what to remove from your house should certain objects contain “demonic energy”; and testimonies of people selling their possessions. One man, who goes by the name Tilahun on TikTok, shared a video last month, in which he said he was selling his car in preparation for the big day. “Car is gone just like the Brides of Christ will be in September,” he said.

One woman in North Carolina was live recording yesterday from the Blue Ridge Mountains, fervently keeping an eye on any holy activity in the sky. Another claimed that her 3-year-old started speaking in Hebrew, thereby confirming that it’s all legit. 

Some more distressing videos include American evangelicals saying goodbye to their children for the last time… We won’t share those, as they’re actually quite depressing.

It’s hard to completely blame TikTok users for wanting the final curtain to drop, as things aren’t going too great down here on Earth. That being said, it’s worth noting that the Bible never actually mentions the Rapture; it’s a relatively recent doctrine that originates from the early 1800s, one which has gained traction among fundamentalist theologians – specifically in the US, where everything is fine, civil conversation is alive and well, no one’s worried, and they’re all enjoying their “God-given freedoms”.

So, if the Rapture does come to pass, we here at Euronews Culture will be eating a whole concrete mixer full of humble pie. If it doesn’t, see you tomorrow, and do spare a thought for those who are going to be very disappointed on Thursday 25 September. 

And if extra-terrestrial beings followed Tara Rule’s advice (see below), thank you alien visitors for joining in on the fun. And if you could provide some much-needed guidance on how to do better, that would be grand.

Only a few more hours left to find out…

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‘Dawson’s Creek’ reunion sees James Van Der Beek make surprise appearance amid cancer battle

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