Dir: Various

Total running time: 75 minutes approx.

Birmingham Film Society had its inaugural screening on 18^th January 1931 at the Hampton Cinema in Livery Street, offering Birmingham film-goers “the opportunity to see films of importance… which they ordinarily find difficult or impossible to see.” While the 21^st century version lives on at the Library Theatre (see Until The Light Takes Us) this is a chance to sample some of the films which BFS members would have enjoyed back in the 30s; an eclectic stew including animation by Len Lye and Oskar Fischinger, pioneering documentary Housing Problems and Joris Ivens’ lyrical Rain (1929) with accompaniment by Nicholas Bullen.

Tags: 1930s, film-going, animation, documentary, shorts, live score, Len Lye, Birmingham, silent cinema