In this Film Ireland podcast, recorded live on location in Washington, D.C. at the Capital Irish Film Festival, Gemma Creagh speaks with filmmaker Dennis Harvey about his exciting documentary Útóipe Cheilteach / Celtic Utopia.
Útóipe Cheilteach / Celtic Utopia screens this Saturday, 20th June, at the Oh Yeah Music Centre as part of Docs Ireland.
Presented annually by Solas Nua, the 20th edition of the Capital Irish Film Festival takes place in March each year, showcasing one of the largest programmes of Irish cinema in North America.
Docs Ireland runs until the 21st, celebrating the best of new international documentary filmmaking, showcasing the work of Ireland’s indigenous non-fiction culture and creatives.
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Dennis Harvey
Dennis is a filmmaker from Ireland. He is best known for his short documentary The Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp (2024), which won the Swedish Academy Award for Best Short Film, was selected by the French Academy of Cinema as one of the Best Short Films of 2024, and received many other awards. Dennis mainly writes and directs documentaries, but has also produced and edited his own films. His first feature, I Must Away (2023), was a kaleidoscopic essay about movement filmed over seven years in six countries. His latest short, The New Policy Regarding Homeless Asylum Seekers (2025), is an uncompromising interrogation of Ireland’s inhuman asylum system and a dedication to those resisting it. His second feature, Útóipe Cheilteach (2025), a ballad tour through postcolonial Ireland, premiered at Locarno. With a cinema vérité approach and a particular sensitivity to the human, Dennis’ work interrogates the political through the personal. He is a member of the European Film Academy. He is a member of Noncitizen, a film collective which works to hand over the means of making films to migrants.
Útóipe Cheilteach / Celtic Utopia
What do we do with the violent history we’ve inherited? Do we accept a repressive culture as is, or do we reshape it in our own image? In a world where oppression, occupation and war have become ambient, Útóipe Cheilteach plays at a different frequency, where hope is possible and a brighter future may be realised.
Featuring music from artists including The Mary Wallopers, Poor Creature and Lankum, Celtic Utopia tells the story of a new Ireland and its vibrant music scene, but also that of a post-colonial society wrestling with its heritage. A society where folk music carries both the oppression of the past and the dream of a bright future. The Irish folk music renaissance sees artists coming from punk, hip-hop, and beyond, rediscovering an ancient tradition and taking it in unexpected directions.
Winner of the Grand Prix Semaine de la Critique at Locarno Film Festival and the Audience Award at Leeds International Film Festival 2025.
Capital Irish Film Festival
Solas Nua’s annual Capital Irish Film Festival in Washington, D.C., presents one of the largest programmes of Irish cinema in North America, showcasing the latest Irish dramatic and documentary features, shorts, art films and animation releases by Irish and Ireland-based filmmakers. The 20th edition of the four-day festival takes place 26 February – 1 March 2026 in partnership with the prestigious American Film Institute’s Silver Theatre & Cultural Center.
The festival provides a US platform that amplifies the work of independent filmmakers working in Ireland and beyond, and celebrates the strength of Ireland’s contemporary cinematic culture. The programme highlights the country’s rich cultural heritage while fostering an inclusive and diverse community of Irish filmmakers. Capital Irish Film Festival champions emerging voices on Irish screens, showcases the exceptional talent and craft within Irish filmmaking, and reflects the robust and vibrant screen industry that has grown in Ireland in recent years.
The festival also presents the annual Norman Houston Short Film Award, dedicated to the memory of Norman Houston, the former Director of the Northern Ireland Bureau (NIB) in the United States. The award honours the best new short film created by a filmmaker based in or from Northern Ireland, made within the previous two years. The 2026 Norman Houston Short Film Award goes to writer-director Oliver McGoldrick for his film Three Keenings.
Read more on SolasNua.org, follow Capital Irish Film Festival on FilmFreeway here.
Docs Ireland
Docs Ireland is Ireland’s international documentary film festival. It celebrates the best of new international documentary filmmaking and showcases the work of Ireland’s indigenous non-fiction culture and creatives. It is highly regarded internationally for its cutting-edge film programming and distinctive industry initiatives. Established in 2019 as the sister festival of the long-standing Belfast Film Festival, Docs Ireland takes place each June in Belfast. The festival grew out of the 2018 pilot programme Pull Focus, which premiered titles such as Camino Voyage, The Image You Missed, and Wonderful Losers, alongside a selection of new Irish documentaries that helped signal a broader surge in documentary filmmaking across the island.
Celebration of homegrown talent remains central to the festival’s identity. Winners of the Pull Focus Competition for Best Irish Documentary have included Castro’s Spies, An Buachaill Geal Gáireach / The Laughing Boy, and Notes From Sheepland. The Maysles Brothers Award for Best Observational Documentary, first established in 2008 as part of Belfast Film Festival, now forms a key highlight of the Docs Ireland programme. Alongside contemporary work, the festival also places strong emphasis on Irish film culture and heritage, with a substantial archive programme featured each year.
