Roscommon Arts Centre Premieres ‘His & Hers,' 6/18 & 19

The Roscommon Arts Centre (Cirular Road, Roscommon, Co Roscommon) premieres Ken Wardrop's award-winning documentary, His & Hers, on June 18th and 19th to coincide with its national release. The 80 minute film won the Galway Film Fleadh overall Best Irish Feature award last summer. More information about the screening can be found at http://www.hisandhers.ie/.

Interviewing 70 women from the Irish Midlands in their own homes, His & Hers is cut precisely in short, individual bursts, even if the overall effect is gentle. In effect, it's a cradle-to-grave look at women, from a red-haired baby in a cot to a 90-year-old lady staring out of the window of a nursing home. An enchanting portrait of Irish women as they share in a frank, funny and gracious story of their relationships with men from childhood to dating and marriage to old age.

From kitchens, living rooms, and hallways across the Irish midlands, His & Hers delightfully combines observation and charm to tell a 90-year-old love story through the voices of 70 women. This intimate gender and cultural snapshot explores a woman's relationships with the men in her life-father, boyfriend, husband, son. Following sequentially from little girl to old woman, each character portrait is woven with the others into one perfectly crafted cinematic quilt.

His & Hers is an enchanting and affectionate appreciation for woman in all her versatility. Award winning short film director Ken Wardrop (Undressing My Mother, The Herd) has applied his signature style, marking an accomplished feature debut.

Over 80 minutes, the short interviews come in waves: from the little girl who would like a dog but tells us ‘my daddy prefers fish because they don't make any noise', and on to the teenager whose father is teaching her to drive. ‘I haven't knocked no-one down yet', she says proudly. It's only after you've left their front rooms, their cosy pine kitchens, that you realise you have watched the whole of life fly by, with its biggest hopes and dreams there, naked to the eye. These capable women, the ladies of the Irish midlands, are an easy lot to be around. One elderly lady talks about what she'd do if she won the lottery, before admitting, ‘well, I can't win the lottery, because I don't do it'.

The film also won the "World Cinema Cinematography Award" at the Sundance Film Festival 2010, the "Audience Award" at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2010, the "Critics Choice Award" at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2010, and "Feature Documentary" at the Irish Film and Television Awards 2010.

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