The San Francisco Irish Film Festival opened with Sinéad O’Connor and closed with Olivia Colman, with James Joyce Jr. in the middle.
Established in 2003, this is the festival’s 20th show and is once again based in the Delancey Street Screening Room.
“Nothing Compares to U,” which focuses on O’Connor’s rise to fame as a pop star and her eventual exile, opens Thursday, September 20 at 7pm. On the 29th, producer Michael Marley will be present in person, followed by a reception.
The festival ends on Saturday, October. 1. There are two fascinating films: Ulysses (6:30pm) is a feature-length documentary by Adam Low that attempts to unravel Joyce’s most famous masterpiece, Salman Ra Rushdie (Salman Rushdie) is an expert in helping; in “Journey to Joy” (8 p.m.), Coleman plays a lawyer who, on the way to abandoning her newborn, accidentally falls out with a 12-year-old divorced. Runaway Boys team up to travel across Ireland in this most unusual road movie.
— G. Alan Johnson