ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)br br STORY: Cannes regular Ken Loach said on Thursday (May 22) that his new period drama 'Jimmy's Hall' offers a platform for the 'alternative voice' that's as much a question for today's society as it was in 1930's Ireland where his film is set.br br 'Jimmy's Hall' stars Barry Ward as political activist James Gralton, a man who challenged the Catholic Church's view on free speech by setting up a hall for evening dance nights and daytime music, dance, boxing and literature lessons.br br The film opens with Jimmy returning to his home village in County Leitrim after a ten year break in New York, to find the social club he built a decade earlier abandoned and derelict.br br With the help of his neighbors and love interest Oonagh (Simone Kirby) he gets the hall re-opened, but despite it's popularity with the local community the catholic church were unhappy.