Following an impromptu visit to Victoria Square yesterday, this Rialto on wheels will be touching down in Handsworth today. The programme includes children’s shorts, archive footage of the local music scene and at 2pm a 60s film about green spaces in Birmingham introduced by writer Catherine O’Flynn. There’s also a range of crafty activities going on courtesy of Craftspace.
The mysterious Baron Mordant has left a concrete structure lurking in the basement of Zellig, beaming rescored transmissions from the Central Office of Information. This evening it’s your first chance totake a look at an installation which will run throughout the weekend.With thanks to Auchentoshan whisky.
Following that you might like to wander around the corner, for the first performance by a Birmingham three-piece employing heavy noise and slide projectors to maximum effect.
…Or you can check out the latest animation from around the regionat The Dirty End, including the first peek at new films from Louis Hudson and Steven Spencer.
In honour of our patron saint Iris Barry, a feast of silent film and live music, including Buster Keaton stepping through the screen in Sherlock Junior. Live accompaniment by Nigel Ogden and Alcyona Mick.
This documentary about the experimental music scene in Japan has taken on a very different resonance since the horrible events there a fortnight ago.
This event will finish with a performance by cellist Hiromichi Sakamoto.
…And that’s not forgetting a documentary on the Magnetic Fields, the new film from Kelly Reichardt, a lovely slice of life in the Italian countryside and a roundup of the latest world animation at the Electric which includes award-winners The External World, The Eagleman Stag and Tord and Tord. And this is one of our quieter days.
Food is also being served throughout the day at The Dirty End, and of course Fiercethings are happening across the city. We won’t be doing this every day, I promise! But if you want some more potted highlights here are a couple of Flatpack writeups from yesterday…
As well as all kinds of live stuff from maverick cellist Hiromichi Sakamoto to archive plunderers People Like Us, Flatpack welcomes a convoy of artists and filmmakers to Birmingham this week. Here are a few to look out for…
David Wilson - Very talented animator/illustrator, introducing Mind Bombs on Friday then VJing at Paper Party on Saturday.
Tony Garnett – Born in Birmingham and still devoted to Villa, the man who produced Cathy Come Home and Kes, and much later helped turn TV on its head with This Life and Cops. He’ll be talking about his directorial debut Prostitute, shot on the mean streets of Balsall Heath.
Duncan Campbell – Belfast-born artist who featured in this year’s British Art Show,talking about his approach to working with archive materials.
Thomas Arslan - This fascinating director from the ‘Berlin School’ is at mac to present his new film, taut thriller In The Shadows.
Laura Marcus – Goldsmiths Professor of English at New College Oxford, and a specialist in modernism who will be talking about our patron saint Iris Barry and her heady days in 20s London.
Plus many many others. It all starts tomorrow. See you soon…
Hello. Sam here. Programming Assistant. Right, time for some picks:
Firstly, Pixel Visions. Since I first saw this extract from Calculated Movements by Larry Cuba, I’ve been on somewhat of a research project into computer-generated animation. It’s been fascinating. Seeing numerous works by the likes of John Whitney and Lillian Schwartz has been great, but to watch them on 16mm will be an entirely different viewing experience. The performance from Scree afterwards should be pretty impressive too!
Flatpack always throws a good party, and although the Paper Party is shaping up to be the main shindig, I suspect Ra! Ra! Ra! at The Edge on Friday night is going to be quite an event.
Last, but by no means least, I thought it fitting to pick a feature film (seeing as though Flatpack is something of a film festival). In the Shadowsis a tautthriller from German director Thomas Arslan. It’s quite bleak at times, but utterly compelling. It’ll be really interesting to hear from the director who will be there to discuss the film after the screening.
Here’s the trailer (couldn’t find an English trailer – don’t worry though, the film has subtitles!)…
I’m Tegid, Festival Assistant. Over the last five months I have been doing everything from sourcing bed sheets to cover in concrete, finding places to park a Vintage Mobile Cinema to cycling round Brum distributing flyers! Here are a few things I’m most looking forward to:
Brent Green’s blend of stop-motion animation and live action is poetic, a little bit creepy and continually mesmerising. Based on the true story of Lag Wood, a man who builds a house in his back garden which he believes is a healing machine that can save the life of his girlfriend. Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then relies upon dream-logic to lull you through a complex story of loss and reconstruction.
Halfway between an animation and a film, a drama and a documentary Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then could come across as an exercise in filmic experimentation but at its heart is an attempt to understand a persons journey through grief, ‘I don’t understand how he saw how a lot of this stuff was gonna work. I think I do now, but when I was down there I couldn’t work out what the 23ft tower for a laundry room could possible do for someone’s life until you realise he was building up towards God.’ Dir. Brent Green.
It also features a beautiful soundtrack inspired by Lag Wood’s own recordings of ’crazy-people church music‘ and the Mid-West.
Celebrating the imminent departure of Pip, festival Co-Director for a career in midwifery, Busy Being Born is an array of films which look at how we come screaming, meowing and spinning into the world.
It’s also in this shorts segment that I’ll be taking an hour out of my assisting Flatpack to perform with MUTE - a jazz/folk/pop quartet who’ll be improvising to a silent 1940s documentary Private Life of a Cat. We improvise to silent films and add an extra element of risk by not watching the films we’re going to improvise to beforehand – expect strange harmonies and peculiar musical representations of cats. Not to be missed!
The Studio @ Fairbridge is a new creative space in the Digbeth area. Located at 79 Warwick Street, it is a renovated photography studio next to the Fairbridge Charity which works with young people to gain skills and confidence in order to change their lives. For their first show, the space will host Mothwasp at Flatpack, a stunning live audio-visual show; sci-fi ambience meets video nasty.
In readiness for its opening, last week artist Lucy McLauchlan and a volunteer from the charity worked to transform the exterior of the building with her beautifully constructed murals. You can see more photographs from the installation at EC-Arts.
If you like the sound of Mothwasp why don’t you check out Shadow Shows - surreal horror featuring live music from Pram, vintage footage mash-ups from The Keystone Cut Ups and re-scored public information films in the bunker installation Nesst 2.
© Flatpack Festival 2010