Buffalo's Eighth Annual Joyce Celebration to be Enhanced by Film Festival

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo Humanities Institute will serve as principal sponsor of the First Annual Bloomsday Buffalo Film Festival, June 14-16 in the Market Arcade Theatre, 639 Main St.

Additional sponsors are the Irish Classical Theatre Company; The Constance Stafford Trust; Market Arcade Film and Arts Centre; Kennedy, Stoeckl and Martin P.C., and Patrick Martin Productions. Details concerning Bloomsday Buffalo and the film festival can be found at http://www.bloomsdaybuffalo.com/.

The three-day festival will comprise six films including "Following James Joyce, Dublin to Buffalo," which features the internationally recognized James Joyce Collection of the UB Libraries and Special Collections, and includes an interview with UB President John B. Simpson and UB Council Member Victor Rice.

It also will feature three Buffalo premiers, "Silence, Exile and Cunning;" "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," a 1979 adaptation of Joyce's novel starring John Gielgud, and "Joyce to the World," a 2003 exploration of the world-wide celebration of Bloomsday, June 16, the date upon which Joyce set his masterpiece, "Ulysses."

The festival will be presented in conjunction with the eighth annual Bloomsday Buffalo Celebration, a five-hour marathon event to be held on June 16 from 5-10 p.m. by Buffalo's Irish Classical Theatre Company (ICTC) and the UB Poetry Collection. During the presentation, dozens of readers -- including several members of the UB faculty and staff -- will present readings or performances of excerpts Joyce's "Ulysses"

The Bloomsday Buffalo celebration is held annually at the ICTC's Andrews Theatre, 625 Main St., Buffalo, but this year, to accommodate the anticipated crowds, some events will take place at The Sphere Entertainment Complex next door at 681 Main St. The IRC's founding director is Vincent O'Neill, associate professor of theatre and dance at UB, and a distinguished regional director, producer and actor.