For a similar, more extended taste of the 2012 festival, this is worth a look. And while we’re here, there’s also a nice article in Architects’ Journal about the creation of this year’s Flatpack Palais.

Tim Wheatley ran a Cyclotrope workshop as part of Cyclomania…

…And the KopfKino boys battled heroically with the elements during the opening weekend.

Having been far too distracted to take it all in at the time, we are piecing together the festival experience from other people’s photos and blog posts. Here are a few things we’ve come across so far – if you’ve got anything to add please just post in the comments below. And don’t forget we are seeking your feedback via the Flatpack 7 survey.

One of the best all-round snapshots of Flatpack can be found in this audio report produced by Cinema Nation for Resonance FM. Includes interviews with various people including Ian from the festival and Alice Lowe at the Grey Gardens screening, as well as nice snippets on the Chinese event at Cherish House and the Passion of Joan of Arc;

Corrina Antrobus wrote a review of the opening weekend for Virgin Movies, including Grey Gardens, Musictube and the NBCQ film discussion;

There’s a detailed account of the final weekend from Virginie Selavy at Sight and Sound;

…And another one from Eleanor McKeown for Electric Sheep;

The mac team had a group outing to our opening night for Safety Last;

As well as heroically keeping the Sol Cinema caravan on the road despite the snow, Undercurrents also had time to check out Good Vibrations;

Kopfkino also struggled with the snow, but came away with a nice little video;

Jez Turner did a great job of documenting their 8mm Cine Club event, via Storify, a report on their tumblr, and by posting various telecines from the day on youtube.

Real Women Have Curves and Surf Boards enjoyed Shynola, Cyclomania and Joan of Arc;

Katie Steed visited for the weekend and her writeup includes the NBCQ party and The Adventures of Prince Achmed;

Lynsey at Thinktank did a roundup of their wonderful Celluloid Nights event;

Skwigly reviewed various animation events;

While Reeling the Real covered the documentary programme;

Dice Productions went to Shynola;

Studio 279 wrote an in-depth report on their experiences as part of Show Me The Money, and also caught Strings at mac;

Peter Sharples summarised his experiences as a volunteer;

Birmingham Cyclist went to Cyclomania;

…Where Tim Wheatley also made a nifty little video of the Cyclotrope animations;

While Dolly Clackett had a Doctor Who day out;

Wordshore did a flickr report on Brummies, Boozers and Bruisers;

…And 24Dash have done a report on one of our highlights, the Chinese film event at Cherish House.

Other photo roundups include bikefilm’s Cyclomania set, Craig Bush’s gifs, mommaskill’s snaps, and Colour Burst have posted a bundle of their stereoscopic portraits from the 3D Party. If you do upload any festival pics to flickr, feel free to add them to the Flatpack Festival group.

We’ll be uploading a bundle of festival images to flickr over the next few days, but in the meantime here are a few that stood out – kicking off with hardy punters at our opening event in Great Western Arcade.

Ben Waddington leads the Subterraneans tour; the One Mile Away Q&A at Odeon Broadway Plaza; and Kopf Kino take shelter under one of Digbeth’s arches.

Various Cyclomania moments.

…And the Palais progresses from construction, to opening, to the climactic 3D Party. Images courtesy of Mark Rhodes, Craig Bush and Alessandro Columbano. More highlights coming soon.

Flatpack’s first 11 day stint is over! So, how was it for you?

We’d love to hear feedback from all of you, whether you’re a first time flatpacker or a long time friend of the festival. Our feedback survey should only take a couple of minutes and all input is incredibly helpful to us. Thank you for your time.

At a glittering ceremony last night, the winners of the first ever Flatpack Awards were announced…

FLATPACK SHORT FILM AWARD
Judged by Ravi Amaratunga (Dazed and Confused) and Kier-La Janisse (Blue Sunshine Film Center).
Winner: Feels Like We Only Go Backwards (dir: Becky Sloan & Joseph Pelling)
Honourable Mentions:
Malody (dir: Phillip Barker)
The Pirate of Love (Sara Gunnarsdóttir)

FLATPACK WTF AWARD
Judged by Team Flatpack
Winner: Trespass (dir: Paul Wenninger)

FLATPACK AUDIENCE AWARD
Winner: Oh Willy… (dir: Emma de Swaef et Marc James Roels)
Runner up: Irish Folk Furniture (dir: Tony Donoghue)

COLOUR BOX AWARD
Judged by Team Flatpack.
Winner: Hedgehogs and the City (dir: Evalds Lacis)

COLOUR BOX AUDIENCE AWARD
Winner: Subway Train (dir: Garrett Davis)

Congratulations to all concerned!

For the first time tonight we’ll be giving out Flatpack prizes for the best short films in the festival. A spirit of competition may seem to sit oddly with the Flatpack ethos, but we felt it was about time we recognised some of the amazing work that makes its way into the programme every year. Five films will be receiving the soon-to-be prestigious and coveted Flatpack Allen Key, under the following categories…

BEST SHORT FILM
Chosen by our guest jurors, Kier-la Janisse (Blue Sunshine Film Center, Pop Montreal) and Ravi Amaratunga (Dazed and Confused).

FLATPACK WTF AWARD
The film which blew our mind.

COLOUR BOX AWARD
Selected from the Colour Box family programme by Team Flatpack.

FLATPACK AUDIENCE AWARD
The most popular short film in the whole programme, decided once we’ve sifted through all of the voting slips gathered during the festival.

COLOUR BOX AUDIENCE AWARD
As above, but for the Colour Box programme.

Thanks to our jurors, and to everyone who voted. All of the prize-winners will be screened at this evening’s closing event.

DAY 11

Highlights

Wadjda- The charming and quietly barbed story of a young Saudi girl who dreams of having her own bike. Wadjda arrives weighed down not just with festival plaudits but plenty of history too, as the first film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and the first by a female director. It’s also a joy to watch. 18:00-19:45, Electric, £7/£5

Out of the Inkwell-  Film, traditional Chinese music from The Jasmine Moon Ensemble, calligraphy, tai chi, and tasty, authentic food served throughout. 12:30-17:00, Cherish House, FREE

Ernest & Celestine- This funny animated tale – adapted from the picture books by Gabrielle Vincent – was made by the duo behind A Town Called Panic, and is perfect Sunday afternoon viewing for young and old. Ages 7+.  14:00-15:30, mac, £5/£3

Flatpack spilled into the Custard Factory yesterday for the last four days of the festival. Over the next days expect family friendly screenings, all things bicycle, shorts programme, Bike Polo demos, parties, tea and scrummy cakes.

It has been fantastic seeing the Palais take shape thanks to Co.Lab, students from Birmingham City University’s School of Architecture and our generous Kickstarter funders. We could not have achieve such a stunning result without them.

Last night we thanked our Kickstarter funders with a exclusive party and preview of the Palais that they helped us fund. We were also very grateful to Birmingham’s own Aston Manor Cider who sponsored the event.

The Palais is now open as for screenings and events. There you will be able to kick back, sample a Kingstone Press or a Purity Ale or two and watch some films.

A few meters away, located next to the Custard Factory Theatre, we also have the Flatpack Kavarna. Open from 11am-8pm it has beautiful veggie and vegan food from Change Kitchen, cakes galore  and an exhibition about Birmingham Art Lab and Basha Baranowska‘s film posters.

Getting ready for the weekend? Flatpack is on hand to help out with two great events that are set to making the closing weekend of the Festival a memorable one:

On Friday night prepare yourself for an evening of  VHS horror, fuzzed-out beauty, mangled jungle and a bit of throbbing bass. Demdike Stare + Lee Gamble are taking over the Flatpack Palais, in the Custard Factory, with live AV sets followed by a DJ set from Nicholas Bullen.

Demdike Stare describe their modus operandi thus: “You get a load of ingredients, throw them all into a cauldron, set fire to it and see what happens.” Their music fits no obvious category, with cauldron ingredients including film scores, obscure jazz, Iranian folk and Nordic drone.

Lee Gamble has been reliving his youth in Birmingham clubs recently, unspooling old jungle tapes and pulverising them into new shapes, so it’s nice to have him back. Moving from the mangled speech and digital feedback of his Entr’acte releases, his latest stuff on Pan is getting dangerously close to dance music, albeit with the same skewed sense of space and time. Providing the images is Cyrk collaborator (and erstwhile Flatpack designer) Gas.

For more information and tickets click HERE

If you’re saving yourself for Saturday following from the long and dishonourable tradition of Flatpack Saturday nights (see Plasticine and Paper parties passim), then you’re in luck. The Palais becomes home to a stereoscopic shindig with a 3D Party.

Expect great music, visuals from the third dimension, red/blue beverages and plenty to occupy idle hands. Entry to the 3D party also gets you into the Custard Factory theatre, which tonight plays host to a unique performance…

Film Ficciones presents:

THE MASK 3D
(a.k.a. Eyes of Hell)
Special presentation of this cult classic psychological horror trip, featuring a newly created live music score by Film Ficciones & Nick Sales (Pram, BlissBody, Project DARK, Bow Gamelan Orchestra) for the film’s famously bizarre, Jungian 3D sequences.

The first 30 people through the door will be given a special 3D Mystic Mask Viewer, a facsimile of the original giveaway from the film’s initial release. The first 50 will receive a special commemorative booklet with original art, extensive programme notes and background material on the film.

“Put the mask on now…..”

For more information and tickets click HERE

We’re thrilled to announce that director Penny Woolcock and stars Shabba and Dylan Duffus will all be in attendance at our screening of One Mile Away. Following the film there will be a Q&A giving everyone the opportunitiy to find out more about Dylan and Shabba’s fascinating story. 

“When people in normal society get murdered, there’s whole campaigns, there’s rewards put up. But when people in my community get murdered, it don’t even make it to the news; you’re just dead.” ~ Dylan

After making hip hop musical One Day in Handsworth, filmmaker Penny Woolcock stayed in touch with her non-professional cast and was drawn back to make a documentary about the gang culture that blights north Birmingham. One Mile Away follows the efforts of two men, Dylan Duffus (the lead in One Day) and Shabba, to negotiate some kind of pause in the postcode wars between Johnson Crew (B6) and Burger Bar Boys (B21).

The size of this task is quickly made clear, as the film sketches out the way violence has become a part of the landscape: “this is the norm now, it’s not even a bad thing to us.” Comparisons are drawn with the Northern Irish peace process, as Shabba and Dylan visit former Blair advisor Jonathan Powell, and it’s interesting to see how the 2011 riots change the dynamic. The most powerful thing about One Mile Away, though, is the insight Woolcock gets from the young men (and occasionally women) that she interviews. A side of Birmingham that many of us never get to see.

The event is taking place on Tuesday 26 March at 18.30

Odeon Broadway Plaza

Tickets HERE

The festival is underway but the Flatpack team are still on hand to provide the inside scoop on this year’s event. Today’s Picks are from our Artist Liaison- Charlotte.

Departure Lounge: Strings

It’s great to see young filmmakers breaking through and getting acclaim for their work, so I’m really excited to see Rob Savage’s feature Strings. It’s received critical acclaim at Raindance and the BIFA’s – so it’s not going to disappoint. He’s also going to be at the mac to chat about his experience, so i’m going to stick around and pick his brain!

Only The Young

I’m really looking forward to watching ‘Only the Young’ – a beautiful coming of age tale, set in the romantic backdrop of California with an old soul soundtrack. Uniquely blending fiction with documentary i’m curious to see what new graduates from CalArts have to offer.

Vanishing Waves

So excited to see Vanishing Waves, it looks absolutely stunning, the cinematography alone is a reason to see this film. Telling the story of a neural transfer into the consciousness of a young coma victim, it looks like a surreal masterpiece. Plus director Kristina Buozyte will be at the screening!

International Space Orchestra

The idea- Gathering together a group of space scientists to develop and perform Ground Control: An Opera in Space – coolest thing ever? The director Nelly Ben Hayoun, who for her previous work built a volcano in her living room, will be attending the screening. Definitely not one to miss.

Our next installment of Staff Picks comes from the super woman of Flatpack Fest- Selina, our Operations Manager.

Celluloid Nights
I’m really looking forward to Celluloid Nights, especially the crazy scientist guy making cocktails . I have inside information that the machines will be running too, so you can check out the steam engines while having a drink, or have a little dance under the Spitfire that’s hanging from the ceiling.

Possession
Possession sounds great too – probably because I’m a child of the 80′s (FYI – I’m running an underground campaign to get Top Gun as next year’s headline film…..you heard it here first)

Like most internationally renowned British cartoonists, Hunt Emerson lives in relative obscurity at his home in Handsworth. A Birmingham resident since he moved here as an art school dropout in 1971, he was a long time member of the Arts Lab Press while he honed his cartooning skills. What follows is edited down from a 90 minute conversation between Pete Ashton and Hunt: about his time working at The Arts Lab, what it was like, what, if anything, it meant, and how it affected his work and ideas.

Everything you might want to know about Hunt Emerson can be found at LargeCow.com. Hunt also co-runs Spritely Records in Handsworth. His latest book, an irreverent adaptation of Dante’s Inferno, is on sale now and a retrospective iPad app of his comics was recently released.

Finding the Arts Lab

I came to Birmingham in 1971 to art college. I was there for a year before I fell out with the place and dropped out. I was a very young, young person. I was very stupid, I wasted my education. I mean. why the hell would you drop out of an art college? What I did know I wanted to do was get involved with avant-garde stuff. I read a bit about it and I was very interested in any kind of artistic stuff that was off the wall. I got to hear about this thing going on in Newtown, the Arts Lab.

They had a music workshop which I joined, which was basically a guy called Jolyon Laycock who’s still an avant-garde composer. His wife, me and two other people, we made a little group to perform his pieces, and they were really off the wall. Almost kind of theatre music, we did things like Anti-Symphony where we had a construction made of orange painted scaffolding poles with pieces of metal suspended in them and all contact miked-up and we’d be dashing out of painted doors in costume and whacking these pieces of metal and metal rods all through a big amplifier and a couple of big speakers. Unholy row. It was very complicated but it was weird stuff, funny and bizarre.

And that was where I was first involved there because I’d always been involved in music at home and I wanted to do some more of that, though I never really got into it in Birmingham though, until later. But I did find out more about the Arts Lab through that, the fact that there were painters and printers and that sort of thing.

At the same time I was doing all sorts of jobs. I worked as a library assistant, I was a postman, and I did clerical work in Winson Green Prison for a while. I was also learning about comics, which I didn’t really start doing until I left art college. So I was working during the day in order to spend the evenings becoming a comic artist. I realised that a way of joining together what I did for a living and what I wanted to do was through operating a printing machine.

First of all a friend told me there was a job going in the polytechnic operating a little desktop printing machine, basically a souped-up photocopier. I went and blagged my way into that job, saying I’d had some experience working at the Arts Lab on a printing machine, meanwhile I spent a few days nipping down to the Arts Lab in the evening and I’d stand by Ernie Hudson who was operating this printing machine and I picked up a few ideas about it and blagged my way into this job at the poly as a printer. Shortly after that Ernie moved his job to be a silkscreen printer so I came and took over his job at the Arts Lab first of all running the press, this A4 printing press. Quite quickly we got a bigger press, an A3 press, and we got somebody who was better able to run it, a friend of mine who was a motorbike mechanic. And I moved over to doing design work and dark room work, that sort of thing, preparation for the press, and I worked there for six or seven years after that.

The Arts Lab Press

The press was there to produce notes for the cinema and the theatre and to produce the Arts Lab’s programme and to produce posters, that sort of thing. But we hijacked it to print comics, first of all my own things and then we started doing anthologies of comics and formed what we called the Arts Lab Press. Street Comics was our main title but we did some other titles as well, which were anthologies of some British underground comics of the time, or alternative comics as we liked to call them.

We were publishing quite a few people from Birmingham but we didn’t say no to others as well. Steve Bell was one of the early ones, we published his first comics and he went on to work for Grapevine first and then Broadside, or was it the other way round? Which were more like Birmingham political magazines, much more his scene, but we published his first comics when he was still a teacher. Bryan Talbot we published a bit of, Graham Manley and various others.

We were supposed to run the Press as a business but we never made any money. I had no idea about how the whole thing was funded, there used to be regular meetings, you know, committee meetings basically, discussing the finances and things but I haven’t got a clue what they talked about. I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t just give us the money to do the comics.

But we kind of slipped under the radar with the comics. We managed to publish them kind of despite everything really until they stopped us doing it. We used up a lot of money that we shouldn’t have done really. But the smaller areas like poetry did get funded. There was money there in those days in the Arts Council so the poetry part of the Arts Lab would get money to put on four gigs a year or something like that and to publish a bit. And we being the Arts Lab Press found ourselves publishing a poetry magazine as well as the comics, which I hated.

I’m not a poetry person at all but we kind of had to do this, partly because it was part of remit but also because the guy running the poetry magazine was also a dope dealer so we wanted to keep in with him. But ah God when you get poets turning up who, because you’re printing their magazine, they believe you’re actually interested in their stuff so they turn up and want to read you all their poetry.

Mind you we used to get the same thing with cartoonists who would turn up on the doorstep with great bulging folders of work and expect to be made famous. We’d have to say “Very nice but we’re not interested, go away.”

It was very fertile, the whole thing was really lively. I look back at the comics now and I think they’re not very good. They’re of historical interest and people do collect them, though they’re not worth a lot of money. But the actual things themselves, they’re alright. There was some interesting stuff in there but they were just as amateur or as patchy as any other work like that. It’s always the case that 70-80% is crap.

Seeing your work in print, and beyond that having the chance to experiment with that print, to all of us and the artists we were working with, everybody found it stimulating. People would push the boundaries because they had the opportunity to do so. We would encourage them and they would push themselves a bit more than usual to produce experimental work. Some of it worked and some of it didn’t. We were printing from photographic negatives on to metal plates, and we used to work on the negatives, scratching out and painting black paint on them, creating stuff on the negatives that never existed on the paper. We’d be getting effects in the drawings, collaging things with feathers and bits of rubbish, stick them under the camera and see how that worked.

Publishing

In those days you couldn’t do self-publishing, you couldn’t do an edition of 30 of a magazine because the technology wasn’t there. To get something done you had to go to a commercial printer which meant you had to do X thousand of things in order to be commercially viable. Turn the machine on and you’ve got 500, you can’t just do thirty. So something like Oz and IT, the underground magazines, they were part of the magazine industry because they were printing 10,000 of these things which had to be sold and distributed.

We were kind of involved in the same thing in that we had the means of production and however amateur we were, we were kind of a step between commercial printing and self-publishing, where the artists got hold of the machinery, even though we weren’t competent to run this machinery, and produce 9,000 of a comic or whatever it was.

One problem was because we were artists ourselves, because we were part of the creation of it, people sort of felt they could argue with us about things. We’d find ourselves arguing about why a page looked the way it did. “Why couldn’t you do this?” “Because we can’t. It doesn’t work like that.” “Well why not? You can get it done like that here.” “Ok then take it there and get it done there, but we don’t do this.”

But on the other hand we were also always interested in stretching things as far as we could and doing things with the printing machines which were way beyond their capabilities. The engineers would come round every three months to service the machines and they were always amazed at what we were producing. “What you did this on a Rotaprint 3090? That’s amazing! You’re not supposed to be able to do that.” But of course we wasted a lot of paper while we were doing it, and a lot of ink and things. We were playing around and experimenting.

We always felt as though the machinery was part of the process for us, that when we were planning a comic as an editorial team we’d be planning it right from the initial concept, who we might want to include in it, right through the costing and how we were going to produce it, who was going to store the things and who was going to actually put all the pages together. If you’ve got a 48 page comic book it means you’ve got to have a long table with piles of paper and people walking round them picking up paper all night. So we had to arrange how to pay people, cash, and then to make sure they actually did it and didn’t just get drunk. Arguing with your friends because you were expecting them to work and they didn’t see why you should be telling them what to do even though you were paying them for it.

We never had proper machinery. Everything was cobbled together. The printing press was a proper printing press but we had to produce A3 sized negatives and to make these we had an old photographic enlarger, a big wooden thing with bellows that stood upright about 7 or 8 ft tall, laid on its back, and you taped you artwork to the wall with arc lamps onto it.

In the back end of this enlarger we would put the sheet of negative and a wooden frame to hold it in place. And then we would focus it with the enlarger wheels, all in the dark or under red light, and photograph the things that way. When you think of the way things operate digitally these days it’s just so primitive. It was never state of the art, never even approaching state of the art, but we used to get stuff out of it.

Had we ever been required for some reason to use proper professional equipment we wouldn’t have been able to cope because we didn’t know how it worked. We would have loved a proper process camera but we just never had one.

Who was the Arts Lab Press?

There was me. There was my friend Dave Hatton, who was operating the machinery. Before him there was a guy called Martin Reading who was a very dynamic guy and he operated the press but he also did a lot of other things as well and eventually went off to form a commune in Wales. There was originally a guy called Paul Fisher who was a writer and performer and he used to help us do editorial stuff. There was another cartoonist called Chris Welch who had been one of the Nasty Tales and Cosmic Comix crew who came to live in Birmingham for a while. Suzy Varty worked with the press doing basically the job I did after I left although we worked alongside each other a lot. And one or two others came and went as assistants working in the darkroom. Chris, Suzy and I were the only cartoonists involved but there was a group who were interested in what was going on in the Press. And they came from various creative disciplines. Martin Reading originally had been involved in theatre I think, and he was very much involved with the communes movement and magazines that they produced. David Hatton is a motorbike fan and just liked printing. It was just a little group.

Organising Spirit

I don’t know whether it’s because of working at the Arts Lab or whether I’m inclined that way anyway but I’m an organiser. And maybe it’s because my experience at the Lab was always like that. People would suggest something and you would get involved and find yourself knocking together a film set out of rubbish, scouring the streets looking for junk for what was supposed to be a wrecked spaceship for somebody to make a bit of film of. And I would find I’d spent four days doing that, because it was fun! Because somebody had to do it! Most people would say “oh, well, I don’t know about that” whereas I’m just prepared to roll my sleeves up and get stuck in.

Working at the Arts Lab, there was always something going on. Sometimes I was not involved or I was antagonistic towards what what was going on and sometimes I wasn’t, but there was always something. Sometimes it would be great and sometimes it would be rows all the time, mainly because of money.

Inside Tower Street

At Tower St we were in a building which was originally a gym. There were two big studios at the back which had gymnasium wall bars like you had at school. There was a big room upstairs which became the cinema and the ones downstairs tended to be used for dance and theatre. The front of the building was small offices where admin went on and where we had the printing presses. There was a coffee bar upstairs.

In was a right warren of a place. Where we had the darkrooms was what had been the showers, so it was all that kind of granite aggregate stone, and that was where we had the darkroom because it had water and there weren’t any windows so it was easily blacked out. There was an enlarger in a toilet cubicle.

There was about 4ft of space between the floors and people used to live in there. Visiting theatre companies or dance troupes, if they needed to be put up overnight, there’d be beds down there. There was a trapdoor under the coffee bar. You’d have an afternoon showing of something with people queuing for tickets and then the trapdoor would open and people would climb out.

It was a very eccentric place. We used to get strange theatre groups. The People Show was one, and Welfare State (pictured). This was avant garde performance art rather than theatre. Welfare State, for example, when they were building what is now the old library, when it was new library, Welfare State built a tower of about 10 cars on that building site.

There was a bunch called John Bull Printing Outfit from Hull, and they used to do a thing called the Cyclamen Cyclists – they all had bicycles and Victorian skin-tight cycling costumes all in purple with leather helmets and goggles. You’d be on a train pulling into a station and they’d be standing there with their bikes in formation. Or they’d come wheeling round the top of New St in formation. They did an ascent of New St once where they were all kitted out and lashed together like mountaineers and they climbed up New St.

There was a regular audience and it was reasonable. These things did get a reputation and people would come and see them. They would be able to just gauge exactly how long to have them there before the audience started disappearing, so any of the 500-odd people in Birmingham that might want to see it would get a chance. But with the avant garde music workshop that I was part of, we used to play to 3 or 4 people. The layabouts who used to hang around the Arts Lab Press, our mates, they would come in with their cider and watch it, then you’d get the art critic from the Post and Mail and other avant garde musicians, and that was it, that was all that would see it. I’m probably exaggerating the lack of audience a bit here, but that’s how it felt!

Moving to Gosta Green

Gosta Green was an entirely different thing. We knew that we had to move the Arts Lab for years and there was all sorts of possibilities with Birmingham being redeveloped. There were various places we could have gone to and nobody could agree. We might have wound up in Brindley Place, where the Ikon is now. And the least favourite option was Gosta Green, and of course nobody could make their mind up until there were no options left.

And we knew, some of us, that moving to Gosta Green was a step on the way to becoming the University’s art cinema, which was basically what happened. Gosta Green was cleaner and more organised and corporate. More really the way it should have been. It’s just a shame I didn’t like it there. But it was inevitable that it went in that direction. Tower street had run its time. It went on for a long time, considering everything, but the anarchic, haphazard nature of it couldn’t be sustained. It had to become more organised, and of course the Lab at Gosta Green hosted and promoted some fantastic shows and wonderful, inventive programming that would probably have been impossible in Newtown.

Thanks to Hunt Emerson for his generous time. Please buy all his books. More info on FLatpack’s Arts Lab events can be found here. The 1998 Lab cartoon pictured at the top will be available as a signed, limited edition A3 print at the Flatpack Palais over the festival’s final weekend.

The second of this year’s Flatpicks, in which Mark Alex Preston (Ideal Skates) extols the virtues of Oh Willy… (dir: Emma de Swaef & Marc James Roels), screening as part of Natural Habitats next week:

What with your computers and your internet, the creation, dissemination and consumption of media has never been easier. This situation is marvellous. And shit. Sound and image bombard us via myriad seductive gadgets, eroding the senses, dulling the wonder. However, if you’re fortunate enough to live in this city then enthusiasts exist to sort high fibre cultural wheat from the terabytes of chaff. Oh Willy… is fibre, dislodging this plaque of mediocrity we unconsciously accrue.

A FRIEND PROFFERS CYNICAL PLOT SYNOPSIS: ‘Sad fat man made of wool goes into the woods to find a monster to replace dead mother (NOTE: there’s no talking)’. Job done.

There’s nothing tricksy or superfluous here, just a rare level of craft in both direction and execution that lifts this gentle hallucination into the sublime. The viewer is both confidante and voyeur as grieving Willy retreats into formative place and memory, cosseting bosom juxtaposed with whipping stick, the elemental wald, berg and fabeltier of folklore feared then embraced. I’m not here to ponder the mommy issues, I’m here to gush..

Whether you are schooled or have merely idled away an hour crudely animating a stick man’s traverse of a paperback you cannot fail to be agog at the sheer analogue intricacy and detail. The sets are immaculate, the sound design is sparse and highly effective, the lighting is on par with the finest cinema. Night envelopes, warm sun streams through diaphanous curtains, slices through the canopy, blinds on the mountaintop. The illusion is utterly beautiful. Deftly rendered details abound, locks barely agitated by the breeze, animals scattering for cover, a consoling final meeting of hands.

Hey! I love simplicity as much as the next child of the late 20th C. but sometimes you just need to viddy some sheer artistic graft up on the screen and by christ ‘Oh Willy..’ delivers. Fittingly, the film’s coda is soundtracked by a prelude and as Willy (apron strings scythed yet still infantilised) ascends a sheer peak and surveys his new existence in the embrace of his anthropoid surrogate mum I double dare your grubby soul not to shed a little tear of brilliance.

@markalexpreston

DAY 10

Highlights:

3D Party- Expect great music, visuals from the third dimension, red/blue beverages and plenty to occupy idle hands. 20:00-01:00, Flatpack Palais- Custard Factory, £5

Colour Box: Bugs and Beasts- Cunning birds, wriggly insects, and singing monsters all feature in this selection of animated shorts. Age 4+. 13:00-14:15, mac birmingham, £5/£3

Brummies, Boozers and Bruisers- Join Friction Arts and local resident Ray O’Donnell for a kebab and a scuffle. There will be a short screening of archive footage and a discussion about gangs and underground Birmingham in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. 14:00-15:30, The Edge (Friction Arts), FREE

Sold Out:

Unfortunately The Mind of Evil has sold out, as has our Screen Printing Workshop 

DAY 9

Highlights:

Demdike Stare + Lee Gamble- A chance to witness live AV sets by Demdike Stare and Lee Gamble, two of the best electronic acts around. Expect VHS horror, fuzzed-out beauty, mangled jungle and a bit of throbbing bass. The night will also feature a DJ set from Nicholas Bullen. 21:00-02:00, Flatpack Palais- Custard Factory, £13/£11

The Bruce Lacey Experience- A film about “professor” Bruce Lacey, the sculptor, performer, filmmaker and generally “silly buggar”. With co-director Nick Abrahams on hand to share his own Bruce Lacey experiences. 20:45-22:30, Custard Factory Theatre, £7/£5

Internation Space Orchestra- The idea behind the International Space Orchestra is simple, if implausible: to gather a group of space scientists with musical abilities to develop and perform Ground Control: An Opera in Space, reenacting the difficulties of mission control during Apollo 11. 20:30-22:15, The Electric, £7/£5

Sold Out:

Unfortunately Gangs of Digbeth has sold out, however you can head down to The Edge tomorrow to check out Brummies, Boozers and Bruisers. A free screening of archive footage and a discussion about gangs and underground Birmingham in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

DAY 3

Despite the snow today Flatpack events are still going ahead, and we have a lot to offer you! NBCQ’s New British by Night event is now FREE so that’s a chance to forget the snow, thaw out and warm up with a dance. See you there!

Highlights:

The Passion of Joan of Arc- Dreyer’s intense silent film with live accompaniment from Paul Shallcross. 18:30-20:00, Birmingham Cathedral, £8/£6

NBCQ hosts: New British By Night- Don your stiff upper lip and join us for a party to celebrate a smorgasbord of all things new, British and creative. In the main room tunes come courtesy of This Is Tmrw, one of Birmingham’s finest leftfield promoters. 20:00-midnight, Nest @ Glenn Howells Architects, now FREE

The Gatekeepers- A film featuring interviews with not just one but six former heads of Israel’s security agency, Shin Bet, alongside archive footage and animated reconstructions, providing provocative insights into their operations of the last century. 19:30-21:00, mac birmingham, £7/£5

Sold Out:

Unfortunately, our Invisible Architecture  tour has sold out. However, there will be an Invisible Architecture walk taking place on 20 April as part of Metropolis: Reflections on the Modern City at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. (Our other walking tours Subterraneans and Gangs of Digbeth have been similarly popular and have sold out too).

Through the cold, wet and windy weather we had a fantastic turn out for Safety Last! last night at the Great Western Arcade.

Wrapped up warm and with a fresh spring in our step we are ready for day two of the festival…

One slight change to the advertised programme – Sol Cinema, the marvelous solar powered cinema will now be located on the High Street from 12-4pm.

Today’s Highlights:

Over the course of three weeks Birmingham Opera Company are presenting a series of pop-up performances around the city, taking Mussorgsky’s song cycle to all kinds of unexpected places. 12:00-16:00, Great Western Arcade, FREE

Grey Gardens- Chosen for Flatpack, and introduced by Alice Lowe, writer and star of Sightseers. Grey Gardens is the infamous story of ‘Big Edie’ and ‘Little Edie’ Bouvier Beale. 18:00- 20:30, The Electric, £7/£5

Good Vibrations- 70s fashion, oodles of charm and a brilliant soundtrack. 21:00-23:00, The Electric, £7/£5

Sold Out:

Unfortunately, after overwhelming demand, our Subterraneans tour has sold out. We are looking into the possibility of organising a sequel later in the year. (Our other walking tours Invisible Architecture and Gangs of Digbeth have been similarly popular and have sold out too). However, there will be an Invisible Architecture walk taking place on 20 April as part of Metropolis: Reflections on the Modern City at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

And we’re off!

Today’s Highlights:

-  A Taste of Flatpack- For any first timers or someone looking to dip their toes into Flatpack this is the event for you! Does exactly what it says on the tin. 17:30-18:45, Home Deli Cafe, FREE

- Pedal-powered Cinema- Entertainment and (light) exercise! From 11:00-16:00 Great Western Arcade, FREE

Sold Out:

Unfortunately, our opening night launch, Safety Last, at the Great Western Arcade has sold out. However there are other silent films with live accompaniment on during the festival- we’re screening The Passion of Joan of Arc on Saturday 23rd and The Adventures of Prince Achmed on Sunday 24th

Our Victorian Lantern Show has also sold out. However, The Adventures of Prince Achmed is also part of the Arts and Science Festival, and is sure to be equally as charming!

Tame Impala – Feels Like We Only Go Backwards – Screening in Edgeless Shapes

Malody – Screening in Tilted Axis

The Event – Screening in Natural Habitats

Prometheus’ Garden – Screening in Prometheus’ Garden

Division – Screening in Dissimilated Visions

Encounters – Screening in Eastern Lo-Fi

Mondomanila (Fri 29th March)

Consuming Spirits (Sun 24th March)

Babeldom (Sun 24th March)

One Mile Away (Tue 26th March)

Ernest & Celestine (Sun 31st March)

Tickets are now FREE for this event! 

Round 2 of Staff Picks! This time from Clare, our marketing assistant.

Spring Breakers

This film sounds crazy, trashy and a little bizarre… and those are all good things in my book! It’s sure to be a big talking point when it comes out later this Spring, due to tween sensations Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens taking the somewhat controversial (or maybe predictable) move from Disney good girls to gun toting robbers in this 18 rated film. (Plus, I’m a big fan of James Franco- even with cornrows and gold teeth).

Strings

I’m really excited to see Rob Savage’s debut feature film Strings. Although a bit concerned it may make me feel like a massive underachiever; Savage made it when he was 18 and it was awarded the Raindance Award at BIFA. By the sounds of things we’re going to be hearing a lot more about Rob Savage in the future so I’m keen to find out what he’s got to offer.

The 3D Party

Lastly, I like a party and I like cult horror films, and this is an event that manages to combine both!

The challenge with film festival idents is making something that won’t annoy the hell out of you if you see it eight times before screenings. This little thirty-second number pulls it off, if we do say so ourselves, complete with a cut-and-fold Electric Cinema and slightly wibbly vertigo moment.

Huge thanks to Steven Spencer, Hazel O’Brien and Chris Keenan for all their work putting this together.

Sometime during the early 1980s, the BBC broadcast a series of television plays in a retrospective of the work of Dennis Potter. Along with well-known productions such as Blue Remembered Hills, a number of Potter’s contributions to ‘The Wednesday Play’ from the 1960s were shown. One of these was Son of Man.

I had been too young to see the original broadcast in 1969, but as a teenager watching the BBC’s tribute to Dennis Potter I was taken aback by the portrayal of Jesus in this play. Here was no “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild” but a man to be contended with, who showed his frustration when people misunderstood his message. Colin Blakely is an earthy Jesus, a leader of ordinary people with an urgent Gospel to tell. This portrayal made me reassess a figure which I had been taught about throughout my upbringing, and it put me onto a journey of new discovery.

Over the years I have talked to others about Son of Man and its impact on me, but was unable to share the play with them because it has not been screened in public for many years. So I was delighted when the opportunity arose to show it as part of the Flatpack Festival in partnership with The Church at Carrs Lane.

Since last September, each month The Church at Carrs Lane has been showing films depicting the life of Jesus from different times and cultures. The screening of Son of Man on 25th March will be a highlight in that series.

Son of Man: a drama to be contended with.

The first of our 2013 Staff Picks comes from Morten, our Programme Assistant.

Sol Cinema:

Any film lovers familiar with holiday camps will no doubt share my memories of the moments of nervous anticipation when you first step into the caravan to see the tiny television in the corner and a stack of questionable videos underneath. What would we be subjected to when the inevitable rainy day reared its ugly head? Would my family suffer as I forced them to endure another viewing of Space Jam or would I be confused by yet more vague reasons as to why I was not allowed to watch Con Air at my age? Sol Cinema, however, promises to be a much more enjoyable mash-up of cinema and mobile accommodation, with archive gems and joyous shorts screening in the world’s smallest solar-powered cinema.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed:

Le Voyage dans la Lune. Cupid Angling. The Jazz Singer. All of these are recognised as significant moments in the history of cinema and The Adventures of Prince Achmed deserves it place among them. Widely considered as the first animated feature length film, its influence has been both broad and long-lasting, look no further than 2011’s Tales of the Night for proof of that. This is no mere screening though, the vibrant colours and deep blacks on screen will be accompanied by a live score including the intriguingly named instrument ‘Fluid Dulcimer’, finding out what this mysterious invention is secretly forms a major part of why I’m so looking forward to this event.

Bicycle Dreams:

I can’t actually ride a bike, so don’t expect to see me attempting Bike Polo as part of Cyclomania, but even I realise that the Race Across America is the kind of event that would send Lance Armstrong scurrying away to the nearest medicine cabinet. Stephen Auerbach’s Bicycle Dreams documents the epic 3000 mile race providing a visually charming glimpse at every possible landscape the US can offer and an in-depth insight into the riders as they are forced to confront the entire range of human emotion as they strive to reach the finish line. While it would of course be ridiculous for me to even think of attempting this race, Auerbach’s film might at least persuade me to ditch the stabilisers.

Vanishing Waves:

A twisted tale of love acted out as a scientist explores the labyrinthine mind of a comatose woman? Vanishing Waves had me at hello. With a plot that is set to make Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind feel like Coronation Street and the kind of mind-melting visuals that the word “trippy” was invented for, this low-budget Lithuanian sci-fi really punches above its weight to deliver a spectacular oddity that I expect to be one of the highlights of this year’s festival.

Ernest & Celestine:

This is increasingly becoming a way for me to indulge my increasing need to recapture my childhood and for that I apologise, however, when I was younger every breakfast would be brought to me via a spoon emblazoned with a certain bear from darkest Peru. While this animation, from the people who brought us A Town Called Panic, might not feature my beloved Paddington there is another bear in a long blue coat and Ernest & Celestine is just as charming. Set in a world populated by bears and mice that do not get along, Ernest, a bear, and Celestine, a mouse, strike up an unlikely friendship. Whether it’s a Sunday afternoon outing with the family or simply a way to occupy your inner child while your adult head deals with the hangover from the previous night’s 3D party, this is the perfect way to spend an hour or so on the last day of this year’s festival.

If you’ve got any 8mm reels getting dusty in the attic and want to see them projected, then we have just the event for you!

Set up last year at Wednesfield Community Centre, 8mm Cine Club is a place to screen old film reels amongst friends. Having unearthed such home-made Black Country gems as Amnesty (80s kung fu, shot in a bakery), the club is making its first foray into Birmingham for Film Bug, and you’re invited.

This is a community event that relies on people coming with their cine reels for us to watch, so we’d love you to start digging around those old boxes in the garage, the chest in the attic, or anywhere else you think will be a likely hiding place for your old family cine films. Then head down to the Old Royal Pub on the afternoon of Saturday 23rd March, and we’ll screen them and try and film them for you. 8mm Cine Club can also put them on Youtube if you like.

NB: Please be advised we can’t take responsibility for any damage to films.

Looking for a Flatpack brochure to peruse? This is where you can find them, in Birmingham and beyond:

Birmingham and the West Midlands

• All festival venues
• Birmingham Central Library
• Tourist Information Centre (bottom of New Street)
• Ikon Gallery
• Warwick Arts Centre
• Light House , Wolverhampton
• The Herbert, Coventry

Across the UK

• Hackney Picturehouse- London
• ICA- London
• The Watershed- Bristol
• Chapter- Cardiff
• Broadway- Nottingham
• Showroom- Sheffield
• Cornerhouse- Manchester
• National Media Museum- Bradford
• Star and Shadow- Newcastle
• Glasgow Film Theatre- Glasgow

However, if you’re not near to any of these places you can simply check out the PDF version.

Enjoy!

Plans for our Flatpack Palais are now being made a reality and BCU architecture students and the Flatpack team are busy at work.

We’re looking for people to help us out, and to put their personal and creative touch on the Palais this year- by supplying as with cushion covers!

Details of how to put this together can be found here: fabric cover manual

We’re also looking for any spare fabric/off cuts/old curtains etc. you may have.  The fabric has to be at least 56x56cm square though if it’s an off cut (the size of the covers), but it doesn’t matter what colour/pattern the fabric is.

Please post/drop any fabric or completed patterns by 20th March to:

Alessandro Columbano,
Birmingham School of Architecture,
BIAD Birmingham City University,
Corporation Street,
Gosta Green,
Birmingham
B4 7DX

(alternatively if you have a vast amount of fabric that you can’t get to us we could arrange a pick up)

If you have any questions then get in touch at chris[at]7inch.org.uk

We’re looking forward to seeing your designs, or helping take some unwanted fabric off your hands!

Thank you!

In time-honoured David Bowie/MBV fashion, the 2013 Flatpack programme slipped quietly online last night. Feast yourself here. We’re now sat in the Custard Factory awaiting a Saturday delivery of a palletload of lovely new festival newspapers, which will then start making their way out across Birmingham and the UK. In the meantime, the whole thing is online at Issuu. Tickets are on sale early next week.

It’s often at this point where we reassure ourselves that, compared to finishing off the brochure and the website, putting on the festival itself is a breeze. We’ll see about that! If you find a typo or a missing link while browsing, go gentle on us – there’s plenty of opportunity for mistakes when you launch 100 events at once, and we’ll be polishing and embellishing things over the next few days.

Before we go and marshal the trollies, a few thank yous. To Morten, our Programme Assistant, who has been an image-resizing and event-uploading machine for the last couple of weeks. To An Endless Supply, for doing a great job on the brochure design once again. To Jacob Masters at Gabba for patient stewardship and rebuilding of the website. And to the lovely Sharmans in Peterborough, who received our artwork about 3pm yesterday and are already delivering 12,000 newspapers to our door. Now onwards!

Birmingham sunrise photo by Ian Yates.

In 2013 Flatpack is exploring the gangs of Birmingham, old and new, through screenings, walking tours and discussions. Providing a chance to peak into the grim underworld of Victorian Brum, and an insight into the friction between North Birmingham’s Johnson Crew and Burger Bar Boys.

One Mile Away
“When people in normal society get murdered, there’s whole campaigns, there’s rewards put up. But when people in my community get murdered, it don’t even make it to the news; you’re just dead.” ~ Dylan

After making hip hop musical One Day in Handsworth, filmmaker Penny Woolcock stayed in touch with her non-professional cast and was drawn back to make a documentary about the gang culture that blights north Birmingham. One Mile Away follows the efforts of two men, Dylan Duffus (the lead in One Day) and Shabba, to negotiate some kind of pause in the postcode wars between Johnson Crew (B6) and Burger Bar Boys (B21).

The size of this task is quickly made clear, as the film sketches out the way violence has become a part of the landscape: “this is the norm now, it’s not even a bad thing to us.” Comparisons are drawn with the Northern Irish peace process, as Shabba and Dylan visit former Blair advisor Jonathan Powell, and it’s interesting to see how the 2011 riots change the dynamic. The most powerful thing about One Mile Away, though, is the insight Woolcock gets from the young men (and occasionally women) that she interviews. A side of Birmingham that many of us never get to see.

Gangs of Digbeth
Later this year the BBC screen a new six-part drama by Steven Knight called Peaky Blinders, about the violent netherworld of turn-of-the-century Birmingham. Local historian Chris Upton – leader of our Odeon bus-tour back in 2010 – worked as a consultant on the series, and this walking tour is an opportunity to join him as he sketches out the battle-lines of some of the city’s most notorious gangs.
 
Brummies, Boozers and Bruisers
Join Friction Arts and local resident Ray O’Donnell for a kebab and a scuffle. As part of Friction’s ongoing Echoes heritage project, we’ll be hosting a short screening of archive footage and a discussion about gangs and underground Birmingham in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

Full programme of events available on our main page

“Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia.” ~ H.G. Wells

Picking up from last year’s Bikermania strand, here’s a hymn to the joys of the two-wheeled velocipede. Spilling out of the Palais and taking over the Custard Factory will be a host of FREE screenings, entertainments and activities, including:

Cyclotrope
Cornwall-based artist Tim Wheatley has developed this brilliant device, a converted wheel that functions as a zoetrope. Includes a chance to make your own short looping Cyclotrope film.

Bicycle Basket Bazaar

The Ministry of Cycles and Pod Projects  present a unique array of retailers, all cramming their wares into bike-baskets and pannier-racks. Kind of like a car boot sale, but more compact and kinder to the environment. (If you’d like to book a ‘stall’ write to BBB[at]7inch.org.uk before 22 March.)

25 bike stands available. Bring your own bike – £5. Six bikes to hire at £10 each (inc. stand).

Cyclomania Films
From 12.30pm the Palais will be devoted to free-wheeling films of every shape and size, from brilliant Canadian short The Man Who Lived on His Bike to a crisp 1964 documentary about Nottingham’s Raleigh factory.

Plus: Bike polo demo by Birmingham Bike Foundry, a pedal-powered cinema courtesy of Sustrans, and plenty more.

30/03/2013 11am-4pm

The Custard Factory, Digbeth

FREE

A day of demos and discussions for artists and filmmakers
Thursday 28 March 2013 10am-4pm

Designed for artists, curators and filmmakers, Unpacked is the place to find out how the stuff onscreen gets made, and explore fresh approaches to getting your work out into the world. Panel discussions and practitioners will discuss the changing face of the industry.

Highlights include:

Shynola – Legendary collective Shynola talk to Anna Higgs (Film 4.0) about their new feature project, an adaptation of graphic novel The Red Men. They’ll also offer an exclusive glimpse of forthcoming short Dr. Easy. Anna will give an insight into the kind of projects Film 4.0 are looking to develop. www.shynola.com

Anna Higgs – Anna, head of Film 4.0 will give an insight into the kind of projects they are looking to develop. www.film4.com/film4-productions/film4-0

Lee Hardcastle – One-man Leeds-based claymation studio Lee Hardcastle takes us on a journey through his warped and wonderful world, from early lo-fi efforts via brain-shredding Pingu remakes right up to more recent commissions like his condensed three-minute version of The Raid. http://leehardcastle.com

Globbert - Chris Randall & Marc Silk (www.randallandsilk.com) unveil ‘Globbert’ – the first ever interactive Stop-Motion cartoon, made in Birmingham. www.globbert.com

Crowd-funding – We weigh up the pros and cons.

The full Unpacked line-up to be announced.

Flatpack Palais, The Old Library, Custard Factory, Digbeth, Birmingham. B4 9AA
£25/£20 concessions (Lunch & refreshments included)

Tickets are on sale now HERE 

and www.flatpackfestival.org.uk

For questions and group bookings please email info@7inch.org.uk Places are limited.

With Flatpack Festival’s Opening Night just over 5 weeks away excitement and anticipation is mounting. From 21- 31 March we will be taking over venues across Birmingham, with an eclectic line-up exploring the full spectrum of cinema old and new.

This year’s festival will run over 11 days with a solar powered cinema, silent film re-scored, workshops, shorts, premieres, installations, parties, music and more taking place all over the city.

But, for one night only on the 24^th February, “the UK’s most creatively curated film festival” heads to the capital giving Londoners a chance to taste what’s coming up in the second city. The event will be taking place at the Hackney Picturehouse, welcoming one and all, and with free entry!

Join us for a drink or two and a night of offbeat shorts, weird and wonderful promos, and a 16mm animation workshop.

**FREE ENTRY**

What: Flatpack Taster Screening

When: 24^th February, from 7.30pm

Where: Hackney Picturehouse Attic, London

“The only organisation I have ever enjoyed being a part of was the Northampton Arts Lab, when I was seventeen. Arts Labs are a phenomenon that no longer exist. They only existed for the late sixties, early seventies. I can’t even begin to describe the effect they had upon me, and I suspect it would be difficult to measure the effect they had on British culture. It was basically the idea that in any town, anywhere, there was nothing to stop like-minded people who were interested in any form of art, getting together and forming completely anarchic experimental arts workshops – magazines, live events, whatever they could imagine doing. And it was completely nonhierarchical, and it worked fine. There would be other artists you respect, and you would talk about possible collaborations… That sort of organisation, where it is arranged in a natural, neurological pattern – I mean it was the Arts Lab that gave us David Bowie, from Beckenham Arts Lab-, and I can see that kind of consciousness that he was bringing to it, the mixed media. To me, that is the only organisation that works… We haven’t got a king neuron that tells all the other neurons what to do. It seems to me to be a more emotionally natural way of working with other people.”

From Alan Moore: Conversations (2011) by Alan Moore, Eric L. Berlatsky.

After a tense 60 days our Flatpack Palais Kickstarter campaign is over. We’re delighted to have reached a grand total of £7,734- 110% of our target!

We want to say a huge thank you to all of our 158 backers and also to everyone who helped us to spread the word. The support we’ve received throughout has been fantastic.

Now comes the really exciting part of the project though as we can begin to bring the plans for the Flatpack Palais to life, in collaboration with BCU architecture students. We will also be getting in touch with our amazing backers to get them their well deserved rewards.

The Flatpack Palais, in Digbeth’s Old Deritend Library, will have its grand opening on Thursday 28^th March for our Kickstarter backers. It will then remain open as the festival hub until the end of Flatpack, on the 31^st. During this time we will have live music, shorts, installations and art displays- come along and check it out for yourself!

In the course of researching the Birmingham Arts Lab, the International Times’ web archive has been an invaluable source. This counter-cultural journal still exists in online form, and back in the 60s and 70s it documented the flowering of Arts Labs across the UK. The cutting below is from a 1970 hitch-hiker’s guide to the UK.

Dark, hypnotic live AV set by Demdike Stare, with a barrage of VHS horror as visuals;

Legendary filmmaking collective Shynola present a selection of their mould-breaking music videos, and talk about their long-awaited feature film The Red Men;

The return of free city-centre programme Film Bug, including solar-powered caravan-turned-picturehouse Sol Cinema;

Cut-out classic The Adventures of Prince Achmed with a live score, presented at the University of Birmingham’s new Bramall Music Building;

Cult 3D obscurities including Soviet animation and Vincent Price chiller The Mad Magician;

One Mile Away, Penny Woolcock’s candid new documentary on Birmingham’s gang culture.

…And of course, the whole thing lasts ten days this year! More to come soon.

ps: Remember, there’s 3 days left to submit your shorts…