For those fascinated with Irish culture, Friday may be the next best day to St. Patty’s Day.

Irish documentary filmmaker Desmond Bell will screen his newest film, “The Last Storyteller?,” at noon Friday at DuSable Hall, Room 270.

Bell is a world-renowned filmmaker, using the medium to express issues of identity and tradition in Ireland. Over the years, Bell’s films have been recognized at such festivals as the Venice International Film Festival and the Galway Film Festival.

His 1999 film, “Hard Road to Klondike,” won the Irish Film and Television Academy Award for Best Irish Documentary. The documentary takes a look at the life of Donegal-born Michael MacGowan and his tribulations as an exile in turn-of-the-century America.

Bell is famous for his amazing ability to use imagery. Much of his work is spliced together carefully from hours and hours worth of archival footage.

“Bell is an expert at finding visual ways to bring stories to life,” said communication professor Jeff Chown, co-sponsor of the event along with Phi Kappa Phi and Graduate Student Advisory Council. “That’s his genius.”

Bell’s newest 52-minute film, “The Last Storyteller?,” brings the folklore collected by Irishman Sean O hEochaidh to life. Through his stories of changelings, mischief caused by fairies and the “wee folk,” Bell taps into a culture few documentarians have been able to capture.

This world of Irish lore is a disappearing one, and Bell finds new ways to bring these old stories back to life.

As with “Hard Road to Klondike,” “Storyteller” is narrated by Irish actor Stephen Rea. Many will remember Rea’s notable voice from his lead performances in Neil Jordan’s “The Crying Game” and “The Butcher Boy.”

Aside from filmmaking, Bell is a professor at Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland. There he teaches courses on documentary film and on film project development. He also has taken various academic posts in the field of sociology and media studies in Oxford, Dublin and Coleraine.

For those interested in learning more about the film or Irish culture in general, Bell will be at DuSable Hall, Room 270, to answer questions from the audience after the film. The event is free and open to all.