Gráinne Humphreyswould skip school to go to the cinema. Her passion paid off. She tells Donald Clarke about organising her first Dublin International Film Festival.
The tireless Gráinne Humphreys, though still in the sunny uplands of her 30s, has long been well known to Irish film fanatics. Once a stalwart of UCD Film Society and later a creative mandarin at the Irish Film Institute, she is a pillar of our cinematic establishment. She has, however, generally not figured too prominently in the mainstream press. That began to change last year, with her appointment as director of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. The sixth festival begins next Friday, and Humphreys, who took over the directorship from Michael Dwyer, this newspaper's film correspondent, suddenly finds herself the subject of interviews, profiles and news stories.
"Well, that only started in the past few weeks," Humphreys says with a laugh. "Now, suddenly, I am being treated like I have an opinion-forming role. I am not entirely committed to having a public profile. I'm not saying that because I am embarrassed, but I really think that what's important is the work. It's the films that matter. Still, if I can bring my own dynamism to the job and build on the work of the past five years, that would be great."
She has taken on a substantial responsibility. Stretching over 10 days and utilising five Dublin cinemas, plus a handful of satellite venues, the festival is now the busiest in the country.
This year's event opens with a screening of Martin McDonagh's In Bruges, a twisty comic thriller starring Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell, and goes on to feature such delights as Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will be Blood, the new film from Mike Leigh and a screening of the silent classic Pandora's Box with live musical accompaniment. Gleeson, Farrell and Leigh will join Daniel Day-Lewis and an army of other celebrities at screenings and special events. As ever, the last night will feature the screening of a surprise film, the identity of which is never even hinted at.
"I'm trusting nothing will go wrong," Humphreys says. "My fears are the usual ones. Maybe a film won't turn up. I suppose there's always a chance a guest won't turn up. That doesn't happen too often, thank God. But then, even if it does, somebody who is currently on our 'maybe' list will pop up. I am working on the assumption that there is something here to appeal to everybody."
Humphreys's involvement with the festival goes back an implausibly long way. Dwyer co-founded Dublin Film Festival in 1985; then, following its cancellation in 2002, he stepped back into the action and revived it as the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.
Humphreys, who grew up in Dublin and Wicklow, remembers the early years with affection. "It came along first in my early teens," she says. "I remember spending hours in the old Carlton, the Metropole and the Adelphi. It's a wonderful moment when you discover those film-makers you come to love and would never see anywhere else. It was life-changing. I was always around the festival after that. I volunteered and became involved in various semi-official ways. Ever since then I've gotten used to taking those few weeks off."
The daughter of a prominent barrister and "the sort of inspiring mother who believes you can do whatever you set your mind to", Humphreys fast became addicted to celluloid, and she has never made a serious attempt to kick the habit. Contacts made in the early years of Dublin Film Festival proved vital in helping her pursue her interests. "Way back, at the first festival, I got to know some of the great film critics of the time, people like Ferdia Mac Anna, Nicholas O'Neill and Ciaran Carty. They told me what films to watch and helped get me on to the list for press shows. So I then started skipping school to go to the movies. Oh God: the teachers will read this now, and they'll know the truth. I'd say I had a dentist's appointment and make my way to the Savoy or wherever for the 10.30am press show."
The gaps in Humphrey's schooling did not appear to impede her career. Fired with the desire to become a film critic, she took an arts degree at University College Dublin, but she admits that she devoted much of her attention to arranging screenings and events at the film society. Following graduation, she enrolled in the MA course in film studies at UCD. After securing that qualification she was lured towards the Irish Film Institute, where, in the days when that body's home was still called the Irish Film Centre, she became involved in the education department and took responsibility for events such as the French Film Festival. Eventually she rose to become assistant director of the IFI.
She says there were probably only two months in her life when she was at a loose end. "And even then I could go and see films. So they weren't wasted." Still, it's not an obvious career path. Did her eminently respectable parents never wish she had become a doctor or a lawyer? "Oh no. As a kid I would go off to Paris in the summer months, which is the best place in the world to watch films," she says. "There was never a sense from them that I had to get a proper job. They are the sort of people who think staying in and watching a decent film is a good way to behave. They've already booked the list of films they want to go and see in the festival. The sad thing is I can't even tell my mother what the surprise film will be."
Surely she can tell us, though. Is it the latest Rambo film? Humphrey's face gives little away, but Stallone fans should not, I suspect, get too excited.
The Dublin International Film Festival starts next Friday and runs until February 24th. See www.dubliniff.com