IPBS MOVIE/WINE & CHEESE EVENING

WHAT:                 FAMINE AND SHIPWRECK, an Irish Odyssey

                 A film by Brian McKenna, Director and Writer

                 -          Question and Answer Period with Brian McKenna

                 -          Presentation by LYNN DOYLE, President of Cine Gael

Filmmaker, historian, author and journalist, Brian McKenna is best known for provocative, prize-winning films on Canada's history.  McKenna also directed the Gemini Award-winning television program Memoirs of Pierre Trudeau.  In 2003, McKenna was honoured with the prestigious Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism at the 18th Annual Gemini Awards.   Brian McKenna is also a founding producer of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Oscar-winning current affairs show, The Fifth Estate, a former parliamentary correspondent for The Montreal Star and co-author of the Penguin Books history of Montreal's legendary mayor, Jean Drapeau.  He is the founding chairman of the Canadian Committee to Protect Journalists, prompted by his experience with war, torture and terrorism.  Brian McKenna is a graduate of the Loyola College (then part of University of Montreal) with degrees in English Literature (1967) and Communication Arts (1968).

WHEN:                FEBRUARY 23, 2012, 7:00 p.m.

WHERE:               SCHOOL OF CANADIAN IRISH STUDIES, Concordia University

                           Hall Building, 1455 de Maisonneuve West, H 1001 (10th Floor)

COST:                  $20 per person - PLEASE SEND YOUR CHEQUE TO THE IPBS OFFICE IN ADVANCE. 

CANCELLATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED UP TO 48 HOURS PRIOR TO THE EVENT

For the millions of Canadians of Irish descent, there is a story of unspeakable sadness lying at the heart of Canada’s Irish experience. It is a story seldom mentioned, even today. Some call it the Irish potato famine. Others call it the Great Starvation. And others do not shrink from calling it a great crime. The saga has a million stories. In Famine and Shipwreck, an Irish Odyssey, we discover a story that’s one in a million.  As the descendants of those who survived the shipwreck and of those who stayed behind in Ireland discover their shared past, Canada and Ireland will discover through them how inextricably they are bound.