As a festival-organiser, one of the nice things about this internet business is finding out what you missed. Skipping from event to event like the Scarlet Pimpernel with a bad head and an unfortunate takeaway habit, we only get a very limited sense of what’s actually going on. Then during the recuperation period we can browse souvenir photos (see below), wade through comment cards, and gorge ourselves on google in order to relive the whole thing. Here are a few writeups from 2011…
Shots discovered Rubber, Open Cinema and every minute, always;
Little White Lies particularly liked Marwencol, Self Made and Chris Needham;
i-D Online were also very taken with Mr Needham, and called the whole thing a ‘love-child’ and ‘a Brummy epic’;
Guest Frances Morgan reviewed Kinshasa Symphony for Sound and Music;
Electric Sheep celebrated the ‘Birmingham-ness’ of the festival, and delved into the work of Al Jarnow;
Rachel from Support Your Local Cinema spent one jam-packed day here, and left feeling ’stimulated and inspired’;
Anime UK News were knocked out by Redline at the Electric, while Screen Insight were more ambivalent;
And the Cultural Bible enjoyed The Cinema Exists to Please Women, although they were a little flummoxed by Digbeth.
[A brief aside here: just after the festival started we were ordered to take down all laminated signs from lamp-posts. Now we probably should have cleared signage in advance with the council, but this is a clear barrier which stops visitors engaging with Digbeth. I hope we'll be able to work out a more productive arrangement next year so that people don't get lost.]
Ian Ravenscroft reflected on the first screening of Man In A Cat at Shorts on Walls, which went down a storm by all accounts;
As well as being extremely talented, David Wilson was a dream guest and up for anything – so we’re glad he had a good time. He also posted some of Jack Adams’ photos from David and Sam Potter’s brilliant Paper Party set;
…and from the same event Jack also posted photos of a well-heeled man on his own Uber Brum blog;
…while high paper fashion was also much in evidence on Alex Mason’s flickr stream;
The E Film Blog reviewed Rubber and Marwencol (judging from general feedback, one of the most well-received films in the programme). and was particularly taken with our surprise showing of All Flowers in Time;
Nicky Getgood kindly hosted the screening of The Forgotten Irish, and reflected on her Fierce/Flatpack highlights;
One of our excellent legion of helpers, volunteer Krzystof Krzeminski blogged about ‘one of the best experiences in my life as a student’;
Katharine sent a postcard from the Vintage Mobile Cinema. She concludes it: ‘I only hope the cuts to arts funding don’t mean next spring won’t be as vibrant.’
Jaye Ho posted some photos from the installation of Mordant Music’s Nesst 2;
And the Unravel collective spent a manic weekend creating hand-made film at the mac along with hundreds of keen participants. Somehow they found time to take a couple of photos.
Also at the mac, Chris Plant from Colour Burst did amazing things with an X-Box Kinect and posted a little video;
Intriguing evidence of Mothwasp’s first performance;
A phone-cam film of Scree at Ikon Eastside;
A full recording of the Keystone Cut Ups;
And Phantom Circuit once again podcasted the festival, interviewing both Pram and Hiromichi Sakamoto.
If you were too busy Flatpacking to do Fierce as well, you can also whizz through the whole experience in a couple of minutes if you visit their blog.
And finally, a data-visualisation challenge. At the end of each day before passing out we were stunned by the variety of festival impressions and moments captured on Twitter. I remember 3 or 4 years ago saying: ‘if only we could bottle the festival atmosphere and then show it to people’ – and now Twitter allows you to get very close to doing that. The problem being there’s so bloody much of it! Our marketing dynamo Annabel diligently archived all the Flatpack-related tweets throughout; over 1300 in March alone. If you so desire you can scroll through the whole lot. And if you have any bright ideas on how we might make this digestible, let us know…
It’s a beautiful day for packing up a film festival. We’ll be back once all the empties are binned and the films returned, but in the meantime a thousand thank yous to all who helped out in so many ways – in particular our brilliant team of volunteers.
See you next year!
xxx
Image of Hiromochi Sakamoto performing at Ikon Eastside by Lee Basford.
The world keeps on turning, and 7 Inch Cinema is ready to try and fill that Flatpack-shaped hole in your life…
Wednesday 21 April, 7pm at Maison Mayci in Moseley
OFFSIDE
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been under arrest without charge in his home country since the start of March. From 15-21 April there are screenings of his work taking place around the world, including this showing of his 2006 comedy about a group of women attempting to sneak into a World Cup qualifier between Iran and Bahrain. Min. donation £3 – proceeds to Amnesty International. Food served on the night.
Wednesday 28 April, 6pm at Loughborough University
7 INCH CINEMA GOES TO WORK
A programme of archive clips, documentaries and shorts exploring the workplace. Includes Philip Donnellan’s debut film JOE THE CHAINSMITH (1958) and a memorable German spoof on instructional films, FORKLIFT DRIVER KLAUS (2000). Free event.
30/31 May at Aston Hall in Birmingham
YOUNG READERS BOOK BASH
As part of this annual kid-lit jamboree we’ll be screening an array of short films, including The Red Balloon.
2-4 July at mac, Cannon Hill Park in Birmingham
IT CAME FROM PEBBLE MILL
In association with Birmingham City University, a weekend devoted to the remarkable, risk-taking drama which emerged from BBC Pebble Mill in the 70s and early 80s under the watch of producer David Rose. More info soon.
20-22 August in mid-Wales
GREEN MAN FESTIVAL
Our fourth outing at this fine folk-ish festival, which last year added sunshine to its many attractions. We’ve already got some good films in store.
And plenty of other stuff in the pipeline too. To stay posted on all this stuff sign up for the 7 Inch Cinema email list in the box at the top.
In my experience the week following a festival tends to involve lots of sleeping, eating, clearing up, looking for things that have got lost, paying bills and gazing into space. There’s also a fair bit of googling for festival writeups. Although this is mainly narcissism, it’s also curiosity about what kind of festival experience people had while we were running around town shunting gear and barking into phones. Gathered here are some of the results of our self-googling…
A writeup of the Odeon bus tour from the Guardian, and an overview of Takashi Ito’s work by the same writer;
MarBelle reported from ‘the heart of the Black Country’ for Directors Notes;
Dazed Digital were there on Friday and Saturday;
Jotta jotted a nice summary of Unpacked, Synth Eastwood and Eastside;
Little White Lies were there on Friday;
Digbeth is Good had some Flatpack fun;
We think Shots liked it too, but unfortunately most of their review is hiding behind a pay-wall;
Film4 liked the shorts but weren’t feeling the jazz;
Über Brum was on the prowl at Synth Eastwood, Plasticine Party and Belbury Youth Club;
Birmingham Jazz were there on opening night;
Khen came down for Until The Light Takes Us and Down Terrace;
and Andy Maiden had a day out at the library.
Finally, a few of our favourite tweets:
“Sunrise was simply delightful, a lovely thing to remember for years to come. I left feeling all warm and charmed inside.” @tombelte
“Took me a while, but I’ve managed to convince my wife that @flatpack Festival is *not* an Ikea Expo…” @saeedmsadiq
“Cinematic dreams in Brum: trannies teetered downstairs, film projectors whirred, magic fingers mysteriously traced words on a page” @thederminator
“Recovering from 5 days of visual over stimulation @flatpack, amazing weekend, can’t wait for next year.” @gabba
There’s plenty of other festival coverage in the press section.
**Additions**
The Guardian have followed up with a more general piece about Digbeth;
Electric Sheep saw a lot of shorts;
the bright light! mogwai blog discovered Birmingham’s love of soul;
Phantom Circuit interviewed Moon Wiring Club;
Chris from Brumcast interviewed Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai);
Phantom Circuit also did a Ghost Box special;
Synth Eastwood posted a recording of their Friday night A/V set;
and Clare Heart has given her own comprehensive run-down.
Modulate set on Sound Cloud;
Two writeups from the Warwick Boar, and an interview.
Some good stories are trickling in as we clear out venues and get buried in invoices. The couple who met while Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan wailed in the background. The metal fan from Telford who went to Until The Light Takes Us and ended up returning to the festival every day. The gentleman at the same screening, reading Folk Tales of the North York Moors (see above). The Flatpacker who locked her keys in the car and had to smash her own window so she could pick up Stuart Braithwaite from the airport. And the woman with two bags of heavy shopping who mistook Julien Maire’s Digit performance for an information desk. She asked where the computers were. Julien paused for a moment and then swiped his finger across the paper in front of him, leaving a line of text in its wake. The woman’s bags plunged to the floor.
© Flatpack Festival 2010