IRISH AMERICAN MOVIE HOOLEY
RETURNS FOR 2023

When a party gets rowdy, the Irish call it a “hooley.”

Hibernian Media announces final film selections for their 9th Annual “Irish American Movie Hooley”, scheduled this year at The Wilmette Theatre in Wilmette Sept. 22-23-24, 2023. It’s the only Irish American film festival in the world and this year we are proud to present the exclusive Chicago premiere of each film.

Opening the Movie Hooley on Friday September 22nd at 8PM will be OUT AND ABOUT. Raw, brutally honest, poignant, and very funny; the film explores the conflict between old dreams and new realities; one man’s search through his old neighborhood, as he wrestles with aging, success, failure, and his ultimate place in the world. Peter Callahan, the Irish American writer-director-star of this exceptional film, will join us to meet the audience and discuss his home in Hastings on Hudson, New York, where the film was shot, and analogies to our own Wilmette suburb. Critics have called this film, “A must-see gem!”

Saturday night, September 23RD, will feature the 8PM Chicago premiere of LAKELANDS, written and directed by Patrick McGivney. They build them tough in Cavan, and they don’t come much tougher than Cian Reilly, the star of his local GAA football team and the life and soul of every party. But when Cian suffers a severe concussion in a beating behind the local nightclub, he is forced to reassess what toughness really means. With LAKELANDS, McGivney has delivered an authentically modern Irish film, a penetrating exploration of what it means to rebuild your perception of yourself. Writer-director McGivney will join us for this poetic but unsentimental look at midlands masculinity as Cian learns to accept life after football. Don’t miss this film, it’s bravura filmmaking at its Irish best!

Finally on Sunday at 5PM, Sept. 24th, the Hooley will present the Chicago premiere of the celebrated Irish film YOUNG PLATO, an inspiring documentary that charts the dreams of Elvis-loving school headmaster Kevin McArevey—a maverick who is determined to change the fortunes of an inner-city community plagued by urban decay, sectarian aggression, poverty, and drugs. The all-boys Catholic primary school in post conflict Belfast, Northern Ireland becomes a hot house for questioning violence, as the headmaster sends his young wards home each day armed with the wisdom of the ancient Greek philosophers. Our special guest for this screening is that headmaster himself, Mr. Kevin McArevey who will discuss with the audience this ground-breaking Irish documentary.

Now in its’ ninth year, the Movie Hooley has introduced audiences to the very best in Irish and Irish American filmmaking, with opportunities to meet each individual writer, director, or producer who have brought their films to Chicago for the weekend, this year re-locating directly with our audiences at The Wilmette Théâtre in Wilmette.