Hollywood director comes to City of Culture

One of Hollywood’s most influential directors Paul Greengrass will be devoting an entire day of his busy schedule to attend three separate events on Thursday 14 November during the UK City of Culture’s Cinema City festival.
Hollywood director, Paul Greengrass (Photo: Evan Hurd Photography)Hollywood director, Paul Greengrass (Photo: Evan Hurd Photography)
Hollywood director, Paul Greengrass (Photo: Evan Hurd Photography)

He will be present for a question and answer session at a screening of his smash-hit Captain Phillips, starring Tom Hanks, at the Brunswick Omniplex at 10am.

He will also attend a free screening Bloody Sunday, his seminal documentary-style film about the momentous events of January 1972, is being screened at the Rath Mor Centre at 3.30pm.

And he will be in conversation with the University of Ulster’s Professor Martin McCloone at the Foyle Theatre at the North West Regional College from 7pm when he will discuss both Bloody Sunday and Captain Phillips as well as his other work including the hugely successful and influential Bourne films and his acclaimed United 93.

Greengrass began his career as a journalist on Granada Television’s World in Action programme which he put to good use on his early documentary style films such as Bloody Sunday in which he extensively used hand-held cameras which perfectly suited the subject matter.

He brought the same style to United 93, retelling the story in real-time of the doomed American Airlines flight hijacked on September 11 2001 which crashed when the passengers confronted the hijackers and which brought him to international acclaim.

The British director was, for some, an odd choice to take on hi-octane thrillers The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy, but they were smash hits around the world and with his latest film Captain Phillips, which tells the true story of a US cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates, he has brought both styles of film-making together.

“By the time I’d done Bloody Sunday I felt I had reached the end of a chapter,” he says. “I wanted to find something new, something different and then to my amazement Bloody Sunday won lots of theatrical prizes and to my even greater amazement I had the opportunity to make a film in Hollywood.”

Martin Melarkey, Cultural Programmer of Cinema City, said: “Paul Greengrass is perhaps one of the most exciting directors working in film today and it is a great coup for us to be able to welcome him to Derry. His work is always interesting and certainly thought-provoking. It will be a treat to hear what he has to say on films like Bloody Sunday in the city in which it had such a profound impact.”

Thursday, November 14: Captain Phillips and Q&A with director Paul Greengrass, Brunswick Omniplex, 10am, £4.50 and £2.50 school bookings; Bloody Sunday with director Paul Greengrass, The Hive, Rath Mor Centre, 3.30pm, free; In Conversation With Paul Greengrass, Foyle Theatre, North West Regional College, 7pm, £6.50.

Tickets can be booked online at www.cinema-city.co