Irish filmmaker Joe Comerford brings his brand of sharp realist cinema to this 1988 drama about Reefer, an ex-IRA man who picks up hitch-hiker Teresa, a pregnant woman trying to overcome a drug addiction. Nicknaming her “the model,” Reefer takes Teresa back to the trawler where he lives with friends Spider and Badger. Shadowy connections to Irish Republican Army operations during “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland, and a general lawlessness come to the fore as the makeshift family are forced to turn to crime to make a living. Conflicts and challenges – from IRA hunger strikes to homosexuality – are touched upon as Comerford’s sharp-eyed awareness for political and social nuance remains keen throughout.

Joe Comerford has worked as an independent director in Ireland for over 50 years, producing work that is distinguished by its cinematic subversion and social commentary, with a trademark twinning of film narrative and visual-aural abstraction. His films focus on socially marginalized characters, often in the midst of crisis. Comerford is a member of Aosdana, an autonomous affiliation of artists, established by Irish government in 1981 to honor artists whose work had made an exceptional contribution to the creative arts in Ireland. In 2023, Comerford was presented with the Súil Eile at the Irish Embassy in London for his outstanding contribution to Irish film over his long career. He is presently working on a feature film script evolving and expanding his lifelong interest in abstraction and realism in the development of film language and storytelling.

The screening of “Reefer and the Model” (80 mins.) will be followed by discussion with Joe Comerford. It will be preceded at 6:00pm by a complimentary cold buffet supper and bar service, and before that, at 4:30pm, by a talk on Comerford’s remarkable aunt, Irish Republican revolutionary Máire Comerford and her 1924 fundraising mission to America, presented by Comerford’s wife and fellow filmmaker, Hilary Dully, editor of Máire Comerford’s previously unpublished memoir, On Dangerous Ground (Lilliput Press, 2021).

All are welcome. RSVPs not required but appreciated: https://bit.ly/comerford-events-BC

Presented by Boston College Libraries in collaboration with Boston College Irish Studies and support from the Eire Society of Boston and Tom and Trisha Carty.