Well, a week has passed since I was dashing between the Custard Factory and Floodgate Kino and, like a gap year student returning from six months in Thailand, I’ve been boring anyone who will listen about my Midlands adventures. Read more

Category : guest blog   |   Posted by : Eleanor   |   No Comments

Made it to the Floodgate Kino just in time to catch Knitflicks, a programme of films originally put together to accompany Compton Verney’s ‘Fabric of Myth’ exhibition. The shorts – a combination of live action and animation – all focused on wool and thread. The charming programme was given an extra special touch when the audience was encouraged to knit as they watched (wool and needles kindly donated by Stitches and Hos!). I particularly enjoyed Knitting Pretty – a psychedelic Yugoslavian cartoon about Professor Balthasar and his merry band knitting eight-sleeved jumpers for a bunch of octopuses. Read more

Category : guest blog   |   Posted by : Eleanor   |   1 Comment

I’ve just left my very first screening of ‘The Travelling Picture Show’ – a weekend of family matinees at the Electric. The cinema was packed with a sea of children (and a fair few adults!), squeezing into seats for illustrator Nic Rawling’s magnificent Paper Cinema. I, for one, had been waiting to see his show for some time now and, settling down in the auditorium to the strains of A-Ha with a box of chocolates, I wasn’t disappointed! Accompanied by live violin and guitar music, Paper Cinema provided an awe-inspiringly beautiful spectacle. Read more

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After Unpacked, I caught up with Kieran Evans, the filmmaker behind Vashti Bunyan: From Here to Before, before heading down to the Electric Cinema to host a screening of the film and Q&A session together. The cinema was full of Vashti fans and had a really nice, friendly atmosphere. Kieran’s film presented an intimate portrait of the folk singer, Vashti Bunyan, who had a brief dalliance with fame in the 60s. Despite being billed as the new Marianne Faithfull, she never gained the success she hoped for and retreated from society, taking to the road in a horse and cart with her boyfriend, Robert Lewis, and artist friend, John James. Kieran and Vashti re-traced her original steps up to Scotland, just as she was re-emerging into the limelight, championed by musicians such as Devendra Banhart and Adem after a 30 years’ break.

In our Q&A after the film, Kieran explored ideas of myth and memory surrounding the legendary journey and explained how he approached Vashti to make the film (apparently it took lots of tea and cake and a whole two years of cajoling!). Read more

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After recovering from the mania of Klaus Kinski (was slightly worried about him turning up in my dreams for a final bout of preaching), I woke up bright and early and headed down to the Fazeley Studios in Digbeth – grand converted factories. The studios were host to a day-long set of panels aiming to ‘unpack’ various Flatpack filmmakers. The event was brilliantly organised and really well attended with a mixture of artists, students and cinema-goers hoping to find out more about the creative process behind making films. Read more

Category : guest blog   |   Posted by : Eleanor   |   No Comments