Film Helps Bring Joyce Conference to Buffalo

By Joyce Kryszak

Buffalo, NY – The much anticipated, National James Joyce Symposium kicks off Friday night with the annual Cinegael film festival at the Albright Knox Art Gallery. One of the films being featured, "Following James Joyce, Dublin to Buffalo" is actually credited with helping to bring the symposium to Buffalo.

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Really it's happenstance and fate. Joyce would, undoubtedly, agree that both were at work in bringing to Buffalo.

You see, it all began in Dublin in 2004 when a Joycian scholar from Buffalo, by chance, was asked to curate the centenary Bloomsday celebration. He was asked to come up with a film. He, of course, called upon a Buffalo film maker, Patrick Martin. And he just happened to already have a film crew assembled for a project they'd just wrapped up. Martin said they quickly seized fate and began rolling all over Europe, tracking Joyce from cities there to his archives at UB in Buffalo.

For sure, that's because Joyce brought his manuscripts to Buffalo, right? Martin says, no, Joyce never stepped foot in Buffalo.

It's a very curious story indeed - one that you will have to tune back in on Monday to hear. That's when we will tell of the labyrinth journey of the archives to Buffalo. It's a story filled with more happenstance and fate to be sure. But, for now, back to the film.

Martin says the 55 minute film captured the imagination of the Joyce scholars who were gathered in Dublin that year. And that got them thinking. A treasure trove of Joyce manuscripts and artifacts in Buffalo? Maybe Buffalo should be on their short list of sites worthy of the conference. Martin says, it makes perfect sense.

Or, as Joyce would say, "The longest way round is the shortest way home." You can see Following James Joyce, Dublin to Buffalo - and two other Irish films - at the Cinegael Film Festival tonight. The free event at the Albright Knox Art Gallery begins at five.