1. art and entertainment
2. music

All over Birmingham
19-29 March 2015
flatpackfestival.org.uk | @flatpack
2
Events
9th Annual
Contents
a place to relax, eat,
drink, shop and absorb
music & art
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This year we’ve broken with Flatpack brochure tradition, and split the
brochure into two. The first half takes you through the programme
section by section, and at the back is a day-by-day planner.
5
6
8
12
14
16
Welcome
Live Cinema Events
Including A-V performance,
film narrators and live
soundtracks
Film Bug
Two packed days of events
in the city centre, many of
them free
Tribute to Philip Donnellan
A remarkable series of
documentaries, made over
a twenty-year period at the
BBC in Birmingham
The Films of Roy Andersson
Deadpan tragicomedy from
Sweden, including the first
chance to see Andersson’s
‘Living’ trilogy in full
18
20
22
24
Features
Surveying some of the best
new cinema from around
the world, along with a
couple of eye-popping
restorations
25
26
Short Films
Featuring five competition
programmes of brilliant
new work from artists’ film
and animation to comedy
and non-fiction
Swipeside
Workshops, talks & live events
at Birmingham City University’s new Parkside campus,
exploring the full spectrum
of moving image practice
Festival Hub
Flatpack’s beating heart for
the closing weekend is a
cluster of spaces on Fazeley
Street in Digbeth
Culture Club
Fun with slime moulds
Documentaries
Excellent non-fiction
features about creativity
under pressure
Calendar
29
30
47
48
49
50
Colour Box
Screenings and activities
for younger viewers and
doers, in partnership with
Anorak magazine
Day-by-Day Planner
The whole programme, in
chronological order
Welcome to Birmingham
Places to eat and sleep,
and other things going on
during Flatpack
Tickets and Passes
Including the long-awaited
arrival of the Flatpass
Map & Venues
Index
Supporters
the
box
Spring 2015
will see the
opening of this new
and dynamic
music and
performance
space.
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@fargovillagecov
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venue Partners
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MUSEUM &
ART GALLERY
let’s
Grand
Union
23/01/2015 16:56
4
Events
9th Annual
This is the most exciting part of the year at Flatpack
HQ. After many months of fundraising, headscratching, film-watching, planning and pestering,
all is in place. Emerging dishevelled from our cave
with an armful of programmes, we finally get to
share the fruits of our labour with you lot.
With 120 events across 30 venues, summing up
the whole thing in a couple of paragraphs is pretty
much impossible. Take your choice from Finnish
animation sculptures, long-lost archives, a virtual
dinner-party, coffee demonstrations, slime moulds,
live soundtracks, camera obscuras, woollen puppets
and internet cats… along with some of the finest
films to be found in the world today. As ever, the
variety of the programme is also reflected in the
venues, from cafes and art spaces to a century-old
cinema and a 300 year-old cathedral. We kick off in
the Jewellery Quarter, occupy the city centre over
the first weekend, amble eastwards for the mid-week
Swipeside focus, and come to a rest at the Flatpack
hub in Digbeth. Everyone who visits the festival picks
their own path through this cultural undergrowth;
when you come out the other side, please let us
know what you made of it.
flatpackfestival.org.uk
Before we crack on, a few tearful acknowledgements
(for the unabridged list see www.flatpackfestival.org.
uk/credits). Thank you first of all to our funders and
partners for their trust and enthusiasm, in particular
to Arts Council England, the British Film Institute and
Birmingham City University. To all of the venues who
put up with our nonsense, with a special mention for
exciting new additions BOM Lab, Impact Hub and
Centrala. To our inventive, unflappable designers Dot
Dash, a pleasure to work with again. To Birmingham’s
fecund community of dreamers and doers, who
make this a great place to be. And finally and most
importantly, to the army of people who turn this
50-page blueprint into a living, breathing thing.
Ian Francis
Director
flatpackfilmfestival
flatpackfestival
Caravan of Film at Flatpack 2014. Image by Katja Ogrin
flatpack
6
Events
9th Annual
2015
Live Cinema
Events
7
Live soundtracks, a-v performance,
benshi narrators and cut-out magic.
All these events take the idea of film and
bend it into strange, wonderful shapes.
THE PAPER CINEMA’S ODYSSEY
WAY OF THE BENSHI
Featuring:
The Paper Cinema
& Chris Reed
—
Friday 20 March
19:45 - 21:15
Saturday 21 March
19:45 - 21:15
—
The REP Studio
£ 12.00 / £ 9.00
Since they last visited Flatpack in 2009 the basic
ingredients of Paper Cinema have remained pretty
much the same, with illustrations on cut-out cereal
boxes moved deftly in front of an onstage camera
to create a film live before your eyes. The canvas is
bigger now though; a wider palette of visual effects,
an expanded music ensemble led by Chris Reed, and
more ambitious story-telling (it doesn’t get much more
epic than Homer). The group arrive at the REP with
a typically playful take on Greek mythology, a show
which has been entrancing audiences globally.
Presented in association with the REP.
CITATION CITY
Featuring:
People Like Us
& Esther Leslie
—
Saturday 28 March
15:00 - 16:40
—
Flatpack Palais
@ the Bond
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Arcades Walk
—
Saturday 28 March
11:00 - 12:30
—
Great Western
Arcade
£ 7.00 / £ 5.00
advance booking
only
During the 1920s silent movies in Japan were
accompanied not just by live music but often by a
narrator, describing and commenting on the events
onscreen. Rooted in the traditions of kabuki and noh
theatre, the benshi became stars in their own right,
and it was their popularity that helped to prolong the
Japanese silent era well into the 1930s.
Flatpack pays homage to these forgotten performers,
with a series of events where talking back at the
screen is not just permitted but encouraged.
Homer’s island-hopping tales of gods and monsters
retold as you’ve never seen them before, with a joyful
combination of cut-out characters and live music.
A time-travelling voyage through one city, assembled
from hundreds of movie clips and inspired by the
wanderings of Walter Benjamin.
A patchwork of over 300 features either filmed
or set in London, Citation City combines multiple
narratives to create the story of one city in a period
of enormous change. Pieced together by audiovisual
artist Vicki Bennett (aka People Like Us), this beguiling,
labyrinthine work takes its cue from Benjamin’s
Arcades Project, an ambitious attempt to map out
Paris in fragments which was cut short by the author’s
death in 1940.
Before the performance Esther Leslie, Professor of
Political Aesthetics at Birkbeck and Benjamin specialist,
will talk about cities, montage, radio and noise.
Arcades Walk
“To lose one’s way in a city, as one loses one’s way in a
forest, requires some schooling.” – Walter Benjamin
To help you tune into Benjamin’s wavelength
before Citation City, join Esther Leslie and Ben
Waddington (Still Walking) on a wander through the
arcades of Birmingham.
Previous editions of Flatpack’s epochal Saturday night shindig
have taken Paper, Plasticine and 3D as their focus. This year
we celebrate the art of the cut-out and the cut-up, with a
free-ranging lineup of music, film, art and food in spaces
throughout Minerva Works.
—
Saturday 28 March
19.00 - late
—
Flatpack Kavarna
@ MW
£ 10.00 / £ 8.00
Contents include:
Eclectic Method
Pioneer of the audio-visual remix, still going strong in the
youtube age. “The best of both worlds: girls get to dance,
and guys get to watch TV!” – Paper Magazine
Giant Axe Field: Away From All Suns
Bass, guitar and drums trigger fragments of Czech sci-fi film
Ikarie XB-1, creating an unholy intergalactic experience.
Collabradors
Open-source collage project – help Mr Cobs (Collage
Obsessed) fill a wall in one night.
Eoin Shea and Ashtray Navigations: Supernumeraryhalo
The premiere performance of a psychedelic animated
film made with felt-tip on strips of cardboard. Musical
accompaniment by Ashtray Navigations.
Sam Redmore
Legendary local DJ, provider of bespoke mash-ups to the
Craig Charles Funk & Soul Show.
Plus street food, collage films, and plenty more besides.
BEATFREEKS WORKSHOP:
TALKING PICTURES
Saturday 28 March
12:00 - 16:00
Impact Hub
Free
If all this has given you an appetite for
film narration, here’s a chance to have a
go yourself. Fresh from their own Equinox
Festival (see p.47), Beatfreeks will lead
a session for writers and poets keen to
match their words to moving images. See
the Flatpack website for further details on
how to get involved.
The festival opens with this delicious Tokyo
spin on a classic gangster tale, following
small-time hood Kenji (aka Ken the Knife)
and his doomed attempts at going straight.
Although known for the minimalism of his
later work Ozu had grown up devouring
Hollywood movies, and you can see their
influence here in the cars, the guns, and
the femme fatale complete with Louise
Brooks bob.
Kenji’s underworld adventures will
tonight be accompanied not only by live
music, but also live narration courtesy
of actress Tomoko Komura. Walking
in the footsteps of the benshi, Komura
will not only comment on the action but
also voice the characters’ dialogue and
provide the occasional sound effect. The
specially composed score is by Japanese
music specialist Clive Bell and renowned
improviser Sylvia Hallett, who deploy
electronics alongside traditional instruments
including the shakuhachi bamboo flute and
the khene Asian mouth organ.
Presented in association with Jewellery
Quarter BID. Followed afterwards by short
films and music at the Rectory bar opposite.
Featuring:
Ross Sutherland
—
Wednesday
25 March
20:00 - 21:30
—
mac birmingham
£ 12.00 / £ 10.00
—
Recommended age
16+
Presented in
partnership with
mac.
opening film: WALK CHEERFULLY
Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
Japan 1930
96 mins
—
Thursday 19 March
19.00 - 21:00
—
St Paul’s Church
£ 10.00 / £ 7.50
STANDBY FOR TAPE BACKUP
WAY OF THE BENSHI:
OPEN MIC
Sunday 29 March
14:00 - 16:00
Flatpack Kavarna
@ MW
Free
As the festival draws to a close, the stage
is yours. Pick a film sequence, develop a
spoken word soundtrack for it, and then
perform it live with the film here at the
Kavarna. To kick off proceedings, we’re
delighted to welcome Lonesome Panther
with his own unique take on ‘haiku benshi’
as accompaniment to a classic Japanese
puppet animation. If you want to get
involved get in touch via:
[email protected]
“Two years ago, I found a videotape in my
loft. On it: one and a half films, one quiz show
and two sitcoms. Somehow it became the
story of my life.”
For many of us, the detritus of pop
culture helps to trace our progress through
the decades. In his mesmeric new one-man
show, Ross Sutherland uses a fuzzy recording of 80s television to commune with the
granddad who first introduced him to Ghostbusters. The title sequence of Fresh Prince of
Bel Air is restlessly looped until it becomes
a vision of the afterlife. The contestants in
the Crystal Maze seem trapped for eternity.
Even Natwest adverts take on metaphysical
weight in this haunted VCR, and somehow
Sutherland spins the whole thing into an
affecting meditation on lost connections.
MAKING SHADOWS
Featuring:
Stan’s Cafe
—
Friday 27 March
18:00 - 19:45
—
Flatpack Palais
@ the Bond
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
For their new theatre show, A Translation
of Shadows, Stan’s Cafe are reimagining
what it is to be a benshi. By way of a
warm-up (the show proper opens at
Warwick Arts Centre in April), they
will provide live narration tonight for a
screening of Yasujiro Ozu’s beautiful 1933
film Woman of Tokyo. They will then
wrestle with the challenge of narrating a
more recent movie sequence, and screen
a small section of their own film Shadows,
shot last year in and around Tokyo as raw
material for the new performance.
Afterwards, Stan’s Cafe Artistic
Director James Yarker and filmmaker
Oliver Clark will join Japanese film
specialist Alastair Philips (University of
Warwick) to discuss the art of benshi, how
to film in Japan on a micro budget, and why
we fall in love with movie stars.
8
Live Cinema
CELLULOID CITY
Events
9th Annual
2015
Events
Film Bug
Friday 20 & Saturday 21 March
EDWARDIAN HORROR SHOW
8Bit Lounge in 8Bits
Our partnership with Colmore Business District continues for
the fourth Film Bug, and the progr amme of screenings and
activities this year is as varied and a l lu ri ng as e ve r . across
the next few pages you’ll find everything from coffee cupping
(that’s ‘tasting’ to you and I) to oldskool computer-gaming,
From camera obscura creating to early silent fairy tales. there’s
even some internet cat videos thrown in too.
The World of Internet Cats
Sunday 22 March
12:00 - 16:00
Fri 20 March, 20:00 - 23:00
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery | £ 10.00 / £ 7.50
A rare chance to wander the halls of Birmingham Museum &
Art Gallery after hours, where distant noises and shapes in the
darkness can take on a supernatural tinge. To further fuel your
imaginations, the Edwardian Tea Rooms will play host to some of
early cinema’s spookiest short films: from the Edison Company’s
1910 take on the Frankenstein story, featuring a creation scene
to chill the blood, to Segundo de Chomon’s demonic Red Spectre.
Gothic ivory-tinkling and context will be provided by the
versatile Paul Shallcross, with haunted show-tunes courtesy of
the DJs from Sugarfoot Stomp.
MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA
The Barber Institute
Free
The birthplace of celluloid and the Odeon circuit,
Birmingham has always had a fondness for movie-going.
During the 1940s the city boasted over 100 cinemas,
from backstreet fleapits to glittering picture-palaces,
and later it was the launchpad for South Asian cinema
in the UK. As Flatpack prepares to embark on a journey
exploring this unique history, the Barber Institute
plays host to an afternoon of free screenings and
activities allowing you to whizz through a century of
cinema-going.
Ingredients will include:
—— A taste of silent cinema, with hard-working pianist
Paul Shallcross accompanying a selection of
classic comedy shorts;
—— Cultural historian Rajinder Dudrah (University
of Manchester) and guests revisit the birth of
the Eastern Film Society and the early impact of
Bollywood in Birmingham;
—— Free screenings throughout the afternoon including
The Last Projectionist (dir: Tom Lawes), detailing
the shape-shifting history of the Electric Cinema.
In partnership with the Arts & Science Festival.
For more
live cinema action see:
Time + Motion, with Japanese duo Usaginingen P.21
Oculus Rift experience The Doghouse P.23
Internet cats. Sometimes it feels like they’re taking over. YouTube is full to bursting with them, social media feeds are saturated with them, and there’s even an annual film jamboree in
Minnesota dedicated to them. Now for the first time, Birmingham gets its own taste of the Internet Cat Video Festival.
The films screening have been carefully programmed by
a team of under 5s who have been through some pretty rigorous curatorial training in order to select the cutest, funniest
and strangest videos, but we want your input too. If you’ve
come across a worthy cat video online then get in touch at
[email protected] and your suggestions may well make the
programme.
In conjunction with F A M A L A M: Exploring parenting and
play in the 21st century.
Aptly following on from the internet cat videos is Vice
Magazine’s doc about arguably the cutest of all the e-cats, Lil
Bub and Friendz which delves into the psychology of this slightly
strange, obsessive, fluffy world, whilst also following Lil Bub and
her owner as they find global fame.
NB: Lil Bub and Friendz is rated 12.
Internet Cat Videos
dir. Various
Saturday 21 March
14:00 - 15:00
Old Joint Stock Theatre
Free
—
Lil Bub and Friendz
dir. Andy Capper,
Juliette Eisner
USA 2013 - 65 mins
Saturday 21 March
15:10 - 16:15
Old Joint Stock Theatre
Free
Dir. Dziga Vertov
USSR 1929
68 mins
Sat 21 March, 19:30 - 21:15
Birmingham Cathedral
£ 10.00 / £ 7.50
Birmingham Cathedral is perhaps a fitting home for this hymn
to cinema and the city, getting on for ninety years old and
still startlingly fresh. We begin in an empty auditorium. Seats
magically lower themselves for the audience, light bursts
through the lens, the band launches into life, and we’re off –
through one day in the life of a city (part Kiev, part Odessa),
racing along behind a voracious, daredevil cameraman as
he attempts to capture all of humanity in his little box on
legs. Recently voted the best documentary of all time by
Sight and Sound, Man With a Movie Camera is like no other
documentary you’re likely to see.
The film will be accompanied by Paul Shallcross on piano.
Despite significant advancements in computer gaming
technology with the advent of Oculus Rift (see The
Doghouse, p.23) and the like, playing Pong on the Atari or
Duck Hunt on the NES is still undeniably satisfying. We’ll
be celebrating the oldskool with a whole day dedicated
to 8 Bit technologies, starting with 8 Bit Lounge. Drop
in for casual gaming on various consoles throughout the
day – perfect for a Friday lunch break, or a lazy afternoon.
Then, to kickstart the evening, Spanish filmmaker Javier
Polo takes us on a journey into the world of chip music
with his documentary Europe in 8 Bits* charting the
European movement of turning 8bit consoles into musical
instruments. And to wrap things up the lounge turns into
Club Two-Five-Six, where the music is strictly produced
via 8bit software.
*Screening presented by Vivid Projects as part of µChip3;
a 3 day festival focusing on Chiptune music, digital
art, hacking, modified hardware and unconventional
approaches to making music and visual art.
Curated by Antonio Roberts and Sam Wray.
19-21 March, Vivid Projects, 16 Minerva Works,
Fazeley St, B5 5RS. Part of Birmingham Digital Week.
8Bit Lounge
Friday 20 March
12:00 - 18:00
The Old Joint Stock Theatre
Free
—
Europe in 8 Bits
dir. Javier Polo
Spain 2013 - 76 mins
Friday 20 March
18:30 - 19:50
The Old Joint Stock Theatre
Free
—
Club Two-Five-Six
Friday 20 March
20:00 - 23:00
The Old Joint Stock Theatre
Free
9
10
Film Bug
Events
9th Annual
2015
Events
Film Bug
Short Films
More Feature Films…
Although only 37 when he died, the prolific German director
Rainer Werner Fassbinder had racked up an incredible 39
feature films. Few were as brilliantly crafted as The Bitter
Tears of Petra von Kant. An observation on loneliness and
power, and featuring an all female cast (notably Margit
Carstensen in the lead role), the film has recently been
restored, looking more dazzling than ever. Film scholar Alan
Fair will lead an informal discussion about the film after the
screening.
In partnership with Just Film Co-op, we present
the powerful South African documentary, Miners Shot
Down. Made by one of the country’s leading directors,
Rehad Desai, the film unfolds in real time over seven days,
documenting a group of mineworkers as they strike for
better wages. Six days into the strike the police move in,
killing 34 of the miners and injuring many more.
A modern silent, Sidewalk Stories is Charles Lane’s
1980s New York-set homage to Chaplin’s The Kid. A
humorous, moving, and poignant retelling of the classic, it’s
played out almost entirely without dialogue, featuring Lane
himself as the lead. But it’s Nicole Alysia as ‘the kid’ whose
charm and charisma steal the show. Presented in partnership
with Scalarama.
There weren’t too many directors who were equally
adept at making both silent and sound pictures, but Ernst
Lubitsch was certainly one, gliding into talkies with ease.
Trouble in Paradise (his first comedy of the sound era) is
a witty pre-Hays Code romp, full of quick-fire one-liners,
about a couple of con-artists who plot to rob a beautiful
perfume magnate. Things go slightly awry when one of the
thieves becomes romantically involved with his victim…
After the screening, take your seat at the dinner table and
enjoy two courses from Opus’s delectable market menu.
The Bitter Tears of
Petra von Kant
dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Germany, 1972 - 124 mins
Friday 20 March
18:00 - 20:10
Birmingham & Midland Institute
Free
—
Miners Shot Down
dir. Rehad Desai
South Africa, 2014 - 86 mins
Friday 20 March
20:30 - 22:00
Birmingham & Midland Institute
Free
—
Sidewalk Stories
dir. Charles Lane
USA, 1989 – 101min
Friday 20 March
18:00 - 19:45
Hotel du Vin
Free
—
Trouble in Paradise
dir. Ernst Lubitsch
USA, 1932 – 83min
Saturday 21 March
Film at 15:30 -17:00,
Dinner from 17:30pm
Opus at Cornwell Street
£14 (book via Opus: 0121 200 2323)
LOLGBT Shorts + Lisa Gornick’s Live Drawing Show
LOLGBT Shorts
Saturday 21 March
19:00 - 20:15
Old Joint Stock Theatre
Free
—
Lisa Gornick’s
Live Drawing Show
Saturday 21 March
20:30 - 21:30
Old Joint Stock Theatre
Free
Illustrator and storyteller Lisa Gornick has a unique
style, mixing comedy, pathos, ink, and watercolour
to create a lo-fi multimedia experience. Her new
show about Grandma Ray, an East End cockney who
sometimes ‘went posh’ and lived her life holding onto
a secret, is a witty, personal odyssey which combines
live art and filmmaking.
Preceding Lisa’s show is LOLGBT Shorts, a
programme of films that’ll put a smile on your face.
The evening is presented in collaboration with Shout
Festival, promoting and showcasing the best in LGBT
arts and queer culture throughout Birmingham.
CAMERA OBSCURA
Miniature Camera
Obscura Installation
Friday 20 March
7:30 - 19:00
Saturday 21 March
10:30 - 16:30
Home Cafe Deli
Free
—
Camera Obscura
Workshops
Friday 20 March
15:00 - 16:00
Saturday 21 March
15:30 - 16:30
Home Cafe Deli
Free
A Taste of Flatpack
Friday 20 March
16:15 - 17:45pm
Home Cafe Deli
Free
—
Cartoon Rock
Saturday 21 March
11:00 - 12:00
Birmingham & Midland
Institute
Free
—
Fairy Tales
Saturday 21 March
13:00 - 14:00
BMI
Free
—
A Force to be
Reckoned With
Saturday 21 March
14:30 - 16:00
BMI
Free
—
Shizzles & Giggles
Saturday 21 March
12:00 - 13:30
Old Joint Stock Theatre
Free
—
The Magic Cinema
Saturday 21 March
16:30 - 19:00
6/8 Kafe
Free
Between Us: Birmingham Portraits
Between Us:
Birmingham Portraits
(25 mins on loop)
Friday 20 & Sat 21
11:00 - 18:00
Unit 13,
Great Western Arcade
Free
—
See also:
Man with a Movie
Camera, p.9
Towards the end of last year, artists Jenny Duffin and
Pete Ashton launched a successful crowd-funding
campaign to create the city’s very own camera
obscura. Development of the contraption is in full
swing but to tide us over until it’s completed, Jenny
and Pete will be setting up a temporary installation
of miniature hanging Camera Obscuras in the
window of Home Cafe Deli, with an opportunity to
create your own miniature hand-helds, giving you
the opportunity to explore Birmingham through a
different lens.
There’s shorts aplenty over the course of the first weekend,
beginning with A Taste of Flatpack on Friday afternoon
- a cherry-picked selection of films from our shorts
competition programme (see p.18-19). The Birmingham
& Midland Institute then hosts a full day of shorts on
Saturday, kicking off with the return of the family-friendly
Cartoon Rock, where we dust off the old 16mm projector
and serve up breakfast cereal alongside some classic
cartoons. After the screening there’s a cartoon-inspired
drop-in illustration workshop for children of all ages.
We’re teaming up with Birmingham Conservatoire’s
Frontiers Festival to present a selection of exquisite, early
twentieth century silent shorts from the Pathé archives.
Each of the films are based on Fairy Tales with every
frame hand-stencilled with colour, bringing a vibrancy and
magical quality to these forgotten gems. Providing the
live soundtracks will be a group of Conservatoire students
currently studying on the esteemed composition course.
As the Women’s Institute enters its centenary year,
Balsall Heath WI have helped us to put together A Force
to be Reckoned With, an eclectic, empowering selection
of shorts. They’ll be taking over the cafe afterwards, where
you can make cool stuff, meet members and find out more
about getting involved.
The Old Joint Stock Theatre is the place to be if you’re
looking for laughs - Shizzles & Giggles at midday is a mix
of funny shorts featuring the likes of British comedy talent
Sally Phillips and Tim Key. Later on that evening there’s
more entertainment to be had with LOLGBT and Lisa
Gornick (see opposite).
The Magic Cinema is an open-reel DIY film event,
showing any film submitted as long as it’s less than 10
minutes and the filmmaker (or a friend) comes along to
introduce it. Limited slots available. To submit please
email: [email protected]
See also: Observations (p.19), screening at the
Birmingham & Midland Institute on Saturday 21, 16:30.
Inspired by the street photography tradition,
moving image artist Geoff Broadway has created
a spellbinding portrait of Birmingham’s people. A
25- minute film, Between Us is shot entirely in slowmotion, giving viewers the opportunity to explore
what can be seen and felt in the faces of others as
they move through our public spaces. A tranquil,
oneiric experience, it will be running as an installation
throughout Friday and Saturday; a fitting antidote to
the hustle and bustle of the city-centre rat race.
Geoff will be discussing the work in the space at
16:00 on Saturday 21 March.
The Daily Grind: Coffee Cupping
Coffee Cupping
Saturday 21 March
10:30 - 12:15 and
13:30 - 15:15
6/8 Kafe
£7
—
CineCafe
Saturday 21 March
12:15 - 13:00 and
15:15 - 16:00
6/8 Kafe
Free
Café culture has been finding its way to the city over
the last few years with a whole host of independents
cropping up all over the city, but how well do we
know our coffees? Here’s a chance to find out more
from the experts. 6/8 Kafe’s head barista will guide
you through the scents and flavours of a number of
different coffees from all over the world, while also
performing demonstrations using various brewing
methods (Aeropress/Chemex/Syphon).
Very limited places available. Advance booking only.
After the cupping, all are welcome (regardless
of whether you attended the session) to join us at the
CineCafe and take in a few caffeine-inspired shorts.
11
12
Philip Donnellan
Events
9th Annual
2015
Peggy Seeger in conversation
20-22 March at mac birmingham
Made over the course of two tumultuous
decades at the BBC in Birmingham, the
films of Philip Donnellan are a raw, poetic
document of people who were rarely given a
voice on television at the time. This weekend
of screenings is a rare chance to revisit
Donnellan’s work, and to hear from some of
his contemporaries and collaborators.
Dir. Philip
Donnellan
UK 1958/1960
25 + mins
Friday 20 March
18:30 - 20:00
mac birmingham
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
More carefully staged than his later work,
Philip Donnellan’s directing debut captures
chainmaking community Cradley Heath
over the course of one weekend. We follow
local legend Joe Mallen from bashing links
to pub songs to whippet-racing on Sunday
afternoon, the wistful soundtrack and Phil
Drabble’s voice-over adding to the sense of
a vanishing world.
Made two years later, Coventry Kids
finds Donnellan taking a more experimental approach to actuality. Subtitled ‘People
of a Restless City’, it explores Coventry’s
precarious industrial boom and a cultural
mix which includes teddy-boys, nuclear
protestors, West Indian domino-players
and Scottish job-hunters. Listen out for
Peggy Seeger’s banjo.
LANDMARKS 1-3
Dir. Philip
Donnellan & others
UK 1964
90 mins approx
Saturday 21 March
11:00 - 12:30
mac birmingham
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Commissioned for the recently arrived
BBC 2, this six-part series mirrors the
seven ages of man by tracing a line from
birth to death, each episode visiting a
different Midlands institution. We begin
at the Maternity Wing of the QE hospital,
head north to a secondary modern in
Staffordshire, and then across to the
Raleigh factory in Nottingham.
These stark, lovely films stand as an
example of Donnellan’s skill as a producer
and enabler. The series provided an early
break for co-directors Charles Denton
(later BBC Head of Drama) and Richard
Marquand, whose zigzag career took him
from Birmingham to Return of the Jedi.
Ticket also covers admission to the
later screening of Landmarks 4-6.
JOE THE CHAINSMITH + HOUSE OF FRIENDS
Dir. Philip
Donnellan
UK 1958/1964
25 + 30 mins
—
Monday 23 March
19:00 - 21:30
—
Netherton Arts
Centre
£ 5.00 / £ 4.00
Philip Donnellan had a special relationship with the
Black Country, so it’s fitting that we bring two of his
films back where they were made. These snapshots of
Cradley Heath chain-making and Brierley Hill boozing
are accompanied by a more recent documentary,
Martin Parr’s 2011 portrait of Teddy Gray’s sweet factory
in Dudley, commissioned and produced by Multistory.
Liquid refreshment will be dragged across the road
from the Old Swan (aka Ma Pardoe’s) opposite.
Presented in partnership with Multistory.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? + THE pilgrimage of ti-jean
Dir. Philip
Donnellan
UK 1969/1978
45 + 46 mins
—
Sunday 22 March
13:00 - 14:40
—
mac birmingham
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Donnellan Pass: £40
see flatpackfestival.org.uk/shop for details
JOE THE CHAINSMITH
+ COVENTRY KIDS
Donnellan himself loved taking 16mm reels of his
films out to different audiences, and in that spirit the
programme will be ambling across Birmingham and
the Black Country throughout Flatpack.
A key influence on Philip Donnellan’s
approach to filmmaking, the Radio Ballads
were a series of ground-breaking and
acclaimed programmes produced in
Birmingham and broadcast between 1958 and
1964. Each ‘ballad’ took a different group as its
subject (from motorway-builders and travellers
to polio-sufferers and teenagers), and featured
a carefully-constructed sound tapestry made
up of interviews and original songs.
Along with producer Charles Parker
and singer-songwriter Ewan MacColl,
Peggy Seeger was a key creative force
behind the Radio Ballads. A young
musician recently arrived in the UK
from her native US, she embarked on a
demanding and exhilarating collaboration
that helped to redefine the potential of
radio. Long recognised as an outstanding
and influential folksinger and activist, it’s
a privilege to welcome Peggy as she looks
back on that uniquely fertile period with
writer Peter Cox, whose book Set Into
Song documents the making of the Ballads.
The Guardian
TRAVELLING FOR A LIVING +
Faces of harlow
Dir. Derrick Knight
UK 1964/1965
30 + 44 mins
Saturday 21 March
13:00 - 14:50
mac birmingham
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
One of Donnellan’s earliest collaborators
was fellow documentarist Derrick Knight,
who followed a different path in setting up
his own independent production company.
He joins us today with two contrasting
examples of his own work.
“This is the story of a town. A town
with many faces.”
Commissioned for promotional
purposes, Faces of Harlow (1964) is an
energetic slice of 60s optimism, extolling
the virtues of new towns.
Travelling for a Living (1965) is a
damp, smoky, lyrical picture of the singing
Waterson family on home territory in Hull,
with wonderful footage of Norma, Lal and
Mike holding the stage at their folk club in
the Old Blue Bell.
LANDMARKS 4-6
Dir. Philip
Donnellan & others
UK 1964
90 mins approx
Saturday 21 March
15:30 - 17:00
mac birmingham
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
This is one of the first times Landmarks has
screened in its entirety since broadcast. The
second half opens with The Fortress, a tour
of the then-brand-new brutalist Sheffield
housing estate Park Hill described variously
by its tenants as ‘heaven’ and ‘like a jail’.
In House of Friends we watch the world
go by at the Turk’s Head in Brierley Hill,
including a brief cameo from Joe Mallen of
Chainsmith fame, a spot of pigeon-racing,
and some hair-raising Black Country tales
(also showing in Netherton on Monday - see
opposite). The series closes with The Last
Refuge, Richard Marquand’s candid, heartbreaking portrait of a workhouse-turnedrest-home in Daventry.
Ticket also covers admission to the
earlier screening of Landmarks 1-3.
Where Do We Go From Here? follows a number of travelling
families across Kent, Shropshire and up to a Yorkshire horse fair,
and was made shortly after Donnellan and Parker helped to set up
the West Midands Gypsy Liaison Group.
Towards the end of his BBC career most of Donnellan’s
programme opportunities came through the Omnibus arts strand,
including today’s second film, a documentary about FrenchCanadian fiddler Jean Carignan. As a child Carignan had taught
himself the instrument by listening repeatedly to one fragile 78
record of Irish virtusoso Michael Coleman. Visiting Ireland for
the first time in his sixties, Carignan goes to Coleman’s Sligo
birthplace and mesmerises the local church hall with his playing.
THE COLONY
+ YEAR ZERO: BLACK COUNTRY
Dir. Philip
Donnellan
UK 1964
57 mins
Saturday 21 March
18:00 - 20:15
mac birmingham
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Working at a time when rhetoric on
immigration was becoming an increasingly
toxic ingredient in political campaigning,
Donnellan made no bones about his
project on The Colony: “Our aim was to
present as completely one-sided view
as possible of what it felt like to be a
West Indian in Birmingham.” The anger,
humour and insight on show stirred quite
a fuss on broadcast, and the programme’s
influence endured; it was the source for
much of the archive footage in Handsworth
Songs. The Colony will be accompanied by
another perspective on the same subject,
separated by half a century; Billy Dosanjh’s
archive collage Year Zero: Black Country,
which premiered at Flatpack last year.
13
Out and about
Sunday 22 March | 15:00 - 16:30
mac birmingham | £ 7.00 / £ 5.00
A tribute to Philip Donnellan
Philip Donnellan
Events
GONE FOR A SOLDIER
Dir. Philip
Donnellan
UK 1980
115 mins
Sunday 22 March
10:30 - 12:30
mac birmingham
£ 6.00 / £ 4.00
An ambitious two-part survey of the British
infantry from Waterloo to Belfast (‘how
they lived, and why they died’), Gone For a
Soldier does nothing to disguise its anger
towards the military top brass or the whole
business of war. Pieced together from
soldiers’ own diaries, letters and songs, the
programme attracted a barrage of criticism
on broadcast and it marked the beginning
of the end for Donnellan at the BBC.
THE COLONY
Dir. Philip
Donnellan
Country 1964
57 mins
—
Tuesday 24 March
19:00 - 20:30
—
The Drum
£ 7.00 / £ 5.00
This screening of The Colony will set the film in a
different light, with Birmingham-based jazz band From
Scratch providing live accompaniment as frame and
counter-point. The quartet have deep roots in the
communities that are depicted in The Colony, including
Andy Hamilton’s son Mark on sax, Ralf Decambre on
guitar and Ray “Pablo” Brown on bass. Their musical
backgrounds include the kind of music that the people
in the film would have been listening to in the 60s –
jazz, calypso, ska, reggae, soul and gospel. Presented in
partnership with The Drum and Birmingham Jazz.
THE IRISHMEN
Dir. Philip
Donnellan
UK 1965
50 mins
—
Sunday 29 March
13:00 - 14:30
—
The Spotted Dog
Free
Donnellan’s Irish heritage was hugely important to him,
and for the latter part of his life he settled in Cork.
Our series of screenings draws to a close in one of the
director’s favourite places, the pub, with a selection of
films exploring Irishness. Digbeth’s finest hostelry the
Spotted Dog will host this matinee, which includes a
‘lost’ film from 1965 – The Irishmen, an unflinching look
at the lives of migrant road-builders which never made
it to broadcast.
—
Throughout Flatpack, a group of artists will be imbibing
this season as preparation for a mac birmingham
micro-residency the following week. The deadline for
participants to apply is Friday 6 March – for more info,
write to [email protected].
14
Features
Events
9th Annual
2015
Rediscoveries
Events
15
THE TRIBE
Two one-of-a-kind movies, both of
which can be seen in a new light after
careful archive restoration work.
From Glaswegian mystics to Iranian
vampires, a roundup of the most distinctive
and brilliant new features hitting our
shores over the next few months.
GIRLHOOD
Dir. Celine
Sciamma
France 2014
112 mins
—
Friday 20 March
18:00 - 20:15
—
The Electric Cinema
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT
Taking a more positive slant on youth gangs than the
one offered by The Tribe (opposite), Girlhood lays
its scene in the world of black Parisian teenagers.
Struggling at school, Marieme (Karidja Toure) falls in a
with a group of girls and instantly begins to change her
hair and her hangouts, practicing dance moves in La
Defense and shoplifting at the mall. Director Sciamma
(Tomboy) is preoccupied with how young women find
a place for themselves in the world, how they build an
identity, and in Girlhood that process is played out in
all its bittersweet unpredictability.
This film is presented in partnership with the Arts &
Science Festival, and after the screening there will be a
discussion hosted by Kate Ince (Birmingham University).
Dir. Myroslav
Slaboshpytskiy
Ukraine 2014
130 mins
—
Sunday 22 March
18:15 - 20:30
—
The Electric Cinema
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
A stand-out entry in Cannes last year, this startling
debut has provoked strong reactions at every
screening since. The story of Sergey, a young man
working his way up the ranks of a brutal teenage
gang, The Tribe is given added potency by being
played out in a deaf boarding school, with all the
characters communicating in sign language. There are
no subtitles and so gradually we become much more
attuned to faces and gestures, while the filmmakers’
deft use of sound and Steadicam helps to make for a
compelling, discomfiting ride.
The COLOUR OF POMEGRANATES
TOMORROW IS ALWAYS TOO LONG
NUMBSKULL
Dir. John
Humphreys
UK 2015
75 mins
—
Friday 20 March
21:00 - 23:00
—
The Electric Cinema
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Mythology and folk-tales have circulated around the
whereabouts of Shakespeare’s skull for aeons, and
the Bard’s bonce provides the starting-point for this
off-kilter tale of two men with a painful secret, and a
talking bug.
Known for his videos for the likes of UB40 and Bentley
Rhythm Ace, director John Humphreys’ work has
always had a distinctive look which he brings to bear
on his first feature, using black and white to play up
the contrast between inner-city Birmingham and the
woods of Warwickshire.
We are delighted to host the world premiere of
Numbskull, and cast and crew will be present to talk
about the film after the screening.
Dir. Ana Lily
Amirpour
USA 2014
107 mins
—
Friday 27 March
20:15 - 22:00
—
The Electric Cinema
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
A black-clad figure is haunting the streets of Bad City late at night. Look a
bit closer. She appears to be wearing a hijab, and riding a skateboard.
With her debut feature Ana Lily Amirpour delights in confounding expectations at every turn, spinning her own Middle Eastern heritage and Californian upbringing into a languid Vampire Western with a surprising emotional
kick. Shot in black and white to die for, with a soundtrack that combines
Iranian indie with English post-punk and a series of tie-in comics to follow,
Amirpour has created a world to get lost in.
This screening is presented in partnership with Electric Sheep magazine,
and will be introduced by editor Virginie Selavy.
Dir. Phil Collins
UK 2014
82 mins
—
Sunday 29 March
15:30 - 17:00
—
The Electric Cinema
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
As an artist Phil Collins is known for his interest in
the voiceless, whether they be reality TV victims,
Palestinian teenagers or Kosovan refugees. In this
warm, generous new feature, the focus is on Glasgow
from the point of view of its citizens, amplified by
the songs of Cate Le Bon. ‘No Good’ is placed in the
mouth of a restless schoolgirl, ‘I Wish I Knew’ gets
the karaoke treatment, while ‘Are You With Me Now’
becomes an anthem for a young prisoner. Between
the big numbers we channel-hop through a weird TV
netherworld of psychics and home-shopping, and
silhouette animations depicting the city’s nightlife.
Dir. Sergei
Parajanov
USSR 1968
77 mins
—
Sunday 29 March
17:30 - 19:10
—
The Electric Cinema
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Poetry so often gets mangled in translation to the
screen, but in recounting the life of 18th century
troubadour Sayat Nova through a series of living
tableaux, Sergei Parajanov created a series of exquisite
images that hit us like lines from a poem. The Soviet
authorities did not approve of the film’s sensuality, its
formal daring, or its celebration of Armenian culture,
and the director spent the majority of the 1970s in
prison. Pomegranates went unreleased in the west until
1982, when it was quickly recognised as one of the great
marvels and mysteries of world cinema. Now, thanks to
meticulous work by the Cineteca di Bologna, we have
an opportunity to feast on Parajanov’s blood-red fruit
as originally intended. Enrica Serrani from Bologna will
give a brief introduction on the restoration process.
Tokyo Tribe
force majeure
Dir. Ruben Östlund
Sweden 2014
118 mins
—
Saturday 21 March
18:00 - 20:00
—
The Electric Cinema
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Swedes have ample reason for a bit of cinematic
swagger at the moment, with Roy Andersson (see
over) recently joined by Ruben Östlund as a force on
the world stage. For Östlund, whose short Incident by
a Bank screened some Flatpacks ago, the aim is often
to provoke, to ask tricky ethical questions that get
under your skin. Perhaps not ideal first date material,
his work has a tendency to stir up animated postscreening arguments. Force Majeure is no exception.
Östlund started out directing ski films, and here he
returns to that territory. We join a smart, well-off
family in the Alps, where a domestic unravelling is
triggered by the father’s apparently selfish response
to an avalanche. This moment is spectacularly
rendered in one take, but it’s the subsequent emotional
fireworks that will leave the film lodged in your mind.
the strange case of DR JEKYLL & MISS OSBORNE
Dir. Sion Sono
Japan 2014
116 mins
—
Saturday 28 March
22:30 - 0:30
—
The Electric Cinema
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Oh no, we hear you cry, not another yakuza hip-hop
musical… Well, bear with us. Maturing wunderkind
Sion Sono (Love Exposure, Why Don’t You Go Play in
Hell?) shows the full extent of his talents – and the
limits of his maturity – with this delirious trip through
Tokyo’s underworld. Set somewhere in the near future,
in a city on the verge of all-out gang war, the film
boasts a multitude of offbeat characters and jawdropping moments, along with a smidgen of Satanism
and some literally lethal breakdancing.
Dir. Walerian
Borowczyk
France 1981
92 mins
—
Friday 27 March
22:30 - 0:10
—
The Electric Cinema
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
A forgotten footnote in Walerian Borowczyk’s career
thanks to legal battles with the producers, this lurid,
dreamlike take on the Stevenson story boasts an
appropriately woozy electronic score by Bernard
Parmegiani. Opening with a party to celebrate his
engagement to the virginal Miss Osbourne (Marina
Pierro), Dr Jekyll (Udo Kier) is soon wallowing
ecstatically in a bathtub of chemicals in order to
usher in Mr Hyde – a sepulchral figure whose idea of
hospitality is a long way from Victorian manners.
Having circulated in fragmentary form for some time,
the efforts of Borowczyk scholar (and Flatpack friend)
Daniel Bird have led to this astonishing new digital print,
supervised by Borowczyk’s cinematographer Noël Véry.
16
Roy Andersson
Events
9th Annual
Pigeon on a branch reflecting on existence
2015
Events
Roy Andersson
17
As his new feature lands in the UK toting a Golden
Lion from Venice, we finally have a chance to
stand back and appreciate one of the most singular
achievements in European cinema over the last
twenty years; Roy Andersson’s ‘living’ trilogy. This
is among the first opportunities to view all three
films in the same place, alongside a selection of the
director’s formative short work.
the films of
Roy andersson
ROY ANDERSSON:
SHORTS and COMMERCIALS
Dir. Roy Andersson
Sweden 1975 - 2002
75 mins total
Weds 25 March
18:00 - 19:20
—
The Electric Cinema
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Advertising provided the foundation for
Andersson’s development as a filmmaker,
not just financially but also creatively.
The deadpan sketches in these one-shot
commercials for insurance, saucepans
and yoghurt are often clear prototypes
for the tableaux in his later work, and the
money they brought in helped to establish
Andersson’s Studio 24 in Stockholm, where
the vast majority of his shooting is done.
In 1987 the director took on a more
ambitious commission, to produce a public
information film on the AIDS virus. The
result, Something Happened, was rejected
by the Swedish Health Authority and went
unseen for years afterwards. It was the
first flourishing of Andersson’s signature
style, with pasty-faced figures battling
absurdly under the gaze of a camera that
hardly ever moves, an approach next
used to devastating effect in World of
Glory (1991). Narrated by an impassive but
haunted salaryman, it employs incongruity
and surreal humour to probe at creeping
commercialisation and Sweden’s complicit
role in the Holocaust. It could well be the
best short film ever made..
You, the living
SONGS FROM
THE SECOND FLOOR
Dir. Roy Andersson
Sweden 2000
98 mins
Friday 27 March
18:00 - 19:45
—
The Electric Cinema
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
World of Glory was a warning shot, but no
one was really prepared for what emerged
from Studio 24 in 2000. Fully attuned
to millennial anxieties and the financial
shocks that would come much later,
Songs from the Second Floor is a portrait
of a society stumbling towards collapse
while still doggedly preoccupied with
house prices and golf. Like any Andersson
synopsis we’ve made it sound thoroughly
depressing, but if you’re in the right mood
this film can be a strangely joyous and
moving experience.
Why? Again, it’s often very funny: the
infinite departure desk where corpulent
men in suits struggle with overloaded
luggage trolleys; the sawing-in-half
trick gone terribly wrong; the skipful of
crucifixes. Every shot in the film (all 46 of
them) could be framed and hung on the
wall. (The way Andersson arranges space
is astonishing, his production team often
spending weeks constructing a set that
we may see for only a couple of minutes.)
Props should also go to Benny Andersson –
no relation, he of ABBA fame – for a score
that adds grandeur and humanity to the
tragicomic parade.
YOU, THE LIVING
Dir. Roy Andersson
Sweden 2007
94 mins
Saturday 28 March
13:00 - 14:40
—
The Electric Cinema
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
When grasping for forebears to help
describe Andersson’s work, people often
reach beyond cinema to art (Grosz, Dix,
Matisse) or literature (Kafka, Beckett). We’d
like to think of it as a quotation from the
Monster Mash, but the title of this middle
entry in the trilogy is drawn from Goethe:
“Be pleased, you living one, in your
delightfully warmed bed, before Lethe’s
ice-cold wave will lick your escaping foot.”
The cast is more varied this time and
there are more laughs to be had, particularly from the embattled sousaphonist
reduced to playing funerals. The players
are non-professionals, many of them
encountered by the director on the street
(“I call them characters instead of actors”),
and although they’re often depicted as
deluded or daft it’s difficult to hold them
at an amusing distance; they are clearly a
distorted version of ourselves.
A PIGEON ON A BRANCH
REFLECTING ON EXISTENCE
Dir. Roy Andersson
Sweden 2014
100 mins
Sunday 29 March
17:30 - 19:20
—
mac birmingham
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
After another seven-year gap the final
installment arrives, and in many ways this
is the most satisfying and accessible of the
three – even if, judging from the mockprofound title, we can assume that it’s not
targeted at the multiplex.
Opening with a trio of darkly slapstick
deaths, including one in a ferry canteen
where the staff maintain a strict policy of
no refunds, the interconnected vignettes
are threaded together by a Laurel-and-Hardy-ish pair of downtrodden joke salesmen.
One particularly memorable sequence sees
them cross paths in a bar with Sweden’s
King Charles XII, an entire 18th century
army following behind him, and the film’s
willingness to hop around in time brings
a new dimension. For the first time digital
effects have also been used to complement
the trompe l’oeil trickery of his sets, while
retaining the instantly recognisable feel of
Andersson’s world. Who knows what he’ll
do next, but it’s safe to say that we won’t
see the like of the ‘living’ trilogy again.
Andersson Pass: £25
See flatpackfestival.org.uk/shop for details
18
Shorts
Events
9th Annual
2015
With 7 competitive programmes vowing for 5 awards this year (Best
Short, WTF, Colour Box, and 2 Audience awards), here you’ll find
la crème de la crème of the short film. There’s also various noncompetitive shorts programmes scattered throughout (see right).
Jury members include Cathy Olmedillas (Anorak Magazine), and
Abigail Addison (Animate Projects).
Short Film Competition Pass: £25 - see flatpackfestival.org.uk/shop for details
Events
observations
riddles & recitals
Saturday 21 March | 16:30 - 18:00
Birmingham & Midland Institute | Free
Saturday 28 March | 17:00 - 18:30
Centrala @ MW | Free
Having an open call for submissions always throws
up plenty of surprises, and reassures us that
short filmmaking is as vibrant and dynamic as it’s
ever been (not that there was any doubt in the
first place). Visionary, wide-ranging, and full of
innovation, this programme of shorts showcases
the breadth of talent producing refined, poetic
stories, and artists’ documentaries. Featuring: one
of the contenders for the best titled short this year,
Little Block of Cement with Dishevelled Hair
Containing the Sea, a bewitching story featuring a
horse and a dog embarking on a journey together;
Dead Fish from Berlin, a not-for-the-squeamish
account of what happens to fish when they die;
and Haenyeoi, a beautiful film about the daily
routine of an elderly female diver in South Korea.
From multi-narrative inventions to playful
animated skits, with just about everything in
between, this smorgasbord of shorts is truly
an eclectic mix of styles and genres. Featuring
a strong animation contingent, including new
work by Edwin Rostron, Elizabeth Hobbs, Louis
Morton, Tess Martin, and Dutch trio Job, Joris and
Marieke - who are up for an Oscar with their short,
A Single Life. Representing live action drama is
Chris Lee and Paul Storrie’s The Hedgehog - an
intriguing work which follows a man to an old
house where he stumbles upon a peculiar truth to
his lonely existence. And Paul Tarragó’s The Riddle
(ghost chair) has experimental covered with its
phantoms, parakeets, Super 8 hi-jinks, and actors
in morph suits.
Shorts
19
See also
There are shorts on nearly every single page
of this brochure, so just in case you’ve missed
any, see also:
Family: Cartoon Rock (p.11), Shape Shifters,
and Strange Adventures (p.29)
Funny: LOLGBT Shorts (p.10), Internet Cat
Videos (p.8), Shizzles & Giggles (p.11), Roy
Andersson: Shorts and Commercials (p.17),
Heart Bypass (p.22)
Live scores: silent comedy shorts at Celluloid
City (p.8), the Edwardian Horror Show (p.9),
Fairy Tales (p.11)
Artists’ Film: Video Essays, Video Strolls,
Zbig Rybczynski: Media Pioneer (p.23),
Festival of (In)appropriation (p.20)
Misc: A Taste of Flatpack, A Force to
be Reckoned With, The Magic Cinema,
CineCafe (p.11), iShorts Showcase, The
Finnish Line (p.20), Outer Sight 16mm (p.23)
Competition Programme
A Life Less Ordinary
Cross Frequencies
Friday 27 March | 16:00 - 17:30
Flatpack Palais @ The Bond | £ 6.00 / £ 5.00
The Electric Cinema | £ 6.00 / £ 5.00
Thursday 26 March | 18:30 - 20:00
As well as being a nuanced artform, the short film
format has also often been a space for risk-taking
and experimentation. The artists behind these shorts
have strived to create something unique, something
previously unseen. We begin with filmmaking
collective Neozoon, who have taken the mashup and
mashed it even more with MY BBY 8L3W, a multisplit-screen homage to (or piss-take of) those who
post videos of themselves with their pets online.
Video artist Douwe Dijkstra’s short film Démontable,
a by-product of his exhibition ‘DoorDouwe’, is an
absorbing take on the absurd relationship between
daily life and global news, using green screen to great
effect. And Flatpack alumnus Ryan McKenna’s latest
quasi-documentary Controversies takes recordings
from Winnipeg’s popular Action Line radio show, and
reminds us of the magic of the wireless; a captivating
work, full of charm and humour.
The first of two international animation round-ups,
this batch concentrates on the art of storytelling,
with unusual people and curious circumstances as
the bedrock. The UK premiere of Tom Brown and
Daniel Gray’s brilliant if slightly unsettling Teeth,
chronicling the life of a misguided man through
his oral obsessions, is a bittersweet joy from start
to finish. There’s more obsessive behaviour in
Flatpack 2014 award-winner Leonid Shmelkov’s
perfectly-toned My Own Personal Moose, in
which young Misha’s elk-fixation (despite never
actually having seen a real one) provides the
catalyst for an unexpected encounter. And Kasia
Nalewajka’s quirky graduation film, Pineapple
Calamari, about a pair of inseparable women and
their race-horse is a pricelessly funny tale of love,
loss, and cross-dressing animals.
Beyond the Realm
Family Portraits
THE JOY OF FILM
Saturday 28 March | 21:30 - 23:00
Flatpack Palais @ The Bond | £ 6.00 / £ 5.00
Saturday 28 March | 15:00 - 16:30
The Electric Cinema | £ 6.00 / £ 5.00
Saturday 28 March | 13:00 - 14:30
Flatpack Palais @ The Bond | £ 6.00 / £ 5.00
Some familiar names crop up in the second
competitive animation programme including
Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Don Hertzfeldt,
whose latest short World of Tomorrow is a further
departure from his early hand-drawn minimalistic
work, delving into the sci-fi genre with his first
digitally-animated film. David O’Reilly continues
to rise to the top of the animator’s tree with The
Horse Raised by Spheres, a brilliantly funny short
about a lonely colt pondering his own existence,
and the prolific Mirai Mizue (a guest at last year’s
Flatpack) has produced another kaleidoscopic
explosion of motion and colour with Poker. If all
that’s not enough, there’s also multi-award winning
shorts from Hungary, China, and the UK.
Familial relationships have long been an abiding
concern for filmmakers, and this programme
of shorts shows us why. Directed By Tweedie,
Duncan Cowles’ brilliant documentary in which
he turns the camera on himself and his grandad,
is a comment on the filmmaking process, their
relationship, and intergenerational tensions. The
Bigger Picture’s unique style of life-size animation
(rather than miniature sets) gives the story of two
brothers coping with their dying mother a powerful
and affecting edge. And Jean-Julien Collette’s
extremely impressive fictional short Electric Indigo
explores what it is to be a ‘modern family’, and will
most likely make you feel that your family is far
more ‘ordinary’ than you suspected.
Illuminating the creative process, offering
reflections on the medium, and the material itself,
this programme of short experiments explores
film in every essence. Featuring a number of
works which reappropriate archive and found
footage, including: Canadian artist Aaron Zeghers’
Conspiracy about Bart Sibrel, a taxi driver from
Tennessee who spent his life trying to disprove
the moon landings; Silvestar Kolbas’s The Red
Star Cinema, comprised of damaged film strips
found in the debris of the directors’ local cinema
after it was bombed in the Homeland War; and the
UK premiere of Kogonada’s TEMPO // BASHO, a
triptych exploring the possibility of an alternative
modernity in the films of Yasujiro Ozu. There’s
also the world premiere of Sellotape Cinema’s
new short - part experimental, part documentary,
and part essay, FilmBites ruminates on how film
converses with philosophy.
20
Swipeside
Events
9th Annual
2015
23 - 27 March | Birmingham City University, Parkside | Free
Exhibition and Installations
THE AMUSEMENT PARK
16 - 28 March
—
9:00 - 18:00
(Closed on Sundays)
—
Birmingham City University
Parkside &
Millennium Point (2nd Floor)
—
Free
Exhibition Opening Event
—
24 March
18:00 - 20:00
—
Birmingham City University,
Parkside
—
Free
Exploring the relationship between animation and
interactivity, this exhibition focusses on a group of
contemporary Finnish animators whose practice has
come to transcend screen-based work. Showing in the
UK for the first time, The Amusement Park’s attractions
include: Joni Männistö and Lucas Pedersen’s Electric
Soul, in which viewers are able to create their own
electronic soundtrack to a short film; Garbage Whirl,
Kaisa Penttila’s immersive life-size zoetrope made from
a carousel ride; and Aiju Salminen’s Fortune Teller,
which monitors its audience and spits out prophecies.
Exhibition opening: Tuesday 24 March, 18:00 - 20:00
Showing during the opening for one night only is Will
Marler and Ben Adam Weatherill’s multi-projector
installation, Elemental.
Installations
23–27 March
10:00 - 22:00
—
Birmingham Conservatoire
—
Free
—
In partnership with
Frontiers Festival
Beethoven’s 5th (Emily Wright)
Reminiscent of Buster Keaton’s The Playhouse, Emily
Wright’s single-screen work sees her playing all of the
parts to the German composer’s masterwork.
The Cloud is more than Air and Water (Matt Parker)
Video piece investigating the mechanical nature
and acoustic ecology of Data Centres and internet
storage systems.
Ink & Pixels
Monday 23 March | 18:30 - 20:00
iShorts is Creative England’s entry-level
shorts initiative for new filmmakers outside
of London. With budgets of £5000,
filmmakers are offered not just financial
support but advice and guidance from
industry professionals. Here’s a chance
to see a selection of some of the first
completed films. After the screening
there’ll be a drinks reception and a
chance to find out more about the iShorts
initiative as well as Flatpack and Creative
England’s new talent modules for emerging
filmmakers starting in Birmingham in the
summer.
Immerse yourself in an evening of live animation
and performance, including the first ever UK show by
Japanese duo Usaginingen, whose home-made optomachinery produces real-time visuals through specially
made filters soundtracked by a live percussion score.
Artist/knitter Sam Meech will be sharing his special
brand of ‘knitted cinema’ with a show which combines
stop-motion, 7 inch singles, Eadweard Muybridge and
wool. Bringing proceedings to a close are Sculpture,
whose set will explore the realm of electronic music,
kinetic art, comic strips and audiovisual cut-ups by
using a mix of analogue and digital practices, and a
couple of turntables.
Between performances you’ll be able to meander
around the atrium and join Jim Le Fevre and his
spinning world of phonotropes, assist Sellotape
Cinema with their mobile projectors and sticky film
strips, create your own light paintings, turn your face
into an OHP-projected scanimation, submerge yourself
in a wall of psychedelic shadows, and take a ride on
a life-size zoetrope. If it’s all too much though, just sit
back in the bar and enjoy the unfolding visual display.
As a taster for Made You Look, a soon-tobe-released documentary about the UK
graphic arts scene, cast and crew from
Look & Yes production company will be
joining us for a screening and discussion.
As well as showing snippets from the
film and a couple of their recent shorts,
the filmmakers will discuss the themes
of Made You Look, such as the perils
and pitfalls of the analogue and digital
processes, and whether it’s possible to
have a creative career in the modern age
without the trappings of the internet.
The Finnish Line
Festival of (In)appropriation
Friday 27 March | 14:00 - 15:30
To coincide with The Amusement Park,
we present a selection of short animated
films made by the artists featured in
the exhibition. Featuring festival awardwinners including Joni Männistö’s creepycrawly-insect-engulfing Swarming, and
Niina Suominen’s Flatpack hit from a few
years ago, A Finnish Fable 2011.
Founded in 2009 in LA, the Festival of
(In)appropriation is a yearly showcase of
short contemporary audiovisual works that
appropriate existing film, video, or other
media and repurpose it in “inappropriate”
and inventive ways. Here’s the selection
from 2014, featuring work by Birmingham’s
own Sellotape Cinema.
19:00
Doors open
—
19:30
Sam Meech (20 mins)
—
20:30
Usaginingen (40 mins)
—
21:30
Sculpture (90 mins)
—
23:00
Close
Animation and
Beyond
This event is presented in partnership
with Inkygoodness.
Tuesday 24 March | 17:00 - 18:00
21
Wednesday 25 March | Millennium Point | 19:00 - 23:00 | £ 5.00
Building on the success of last year’s Swipeside strand,
once again we’re teaming up with Birmingham City
University. Throughout the week the Parkside campus
will be a hub for filmic ingenuity and innovation.
iShorts Showcase
Swipeside
Time + Motion
Screenings
Wednesday 25 March | 17:30 - 18:30
Events
An industry day exploring the ever-growing
parameters of animation through screenings,
demonstrations, panel discussions, and a keynote
talk, for professionals and those looking to make
their way into the sector.
Thursday 26 March | Birmingham City University, Parkside | Registration from 9:45 | £ 15.00 / £ 10.00 (Keynote: free entry)
Workshops
24 – 25 March | Birmingham City University, Parkside | Free, but deposit required
COMMUNICATING
WITH PUPPETS:
stop-motion animation
workshop
Tue 24 & Wed 25 March | 10:00 – 17:30
Cartoon d’Or winners Emma de Swaef
and Marc Roels lead a two day workshop
in which participants explore the intricacy
of micro-acting with puppets. Very limited
places. Advance booking only.
TA-CO WORKSHOP
Wednesday 25 March | 13:00– 15:30
Prior to their first UK show later in the
evening (see Time + Motion, opposite),
Japanese audio-visual performance duo
Usaginingen will be helping participants to
produce their own miniature Ta-cos (the
contraption that creates the visuals in their
incomparable show). Very limited places.
Advance booking only.
Adverts vs Short Films
10:15 - 11:30
First Contact... The Digital Guerrillas
14:00 - 14:30
David Kamp: The Art of Sound Design
16:00 - 17:00
Drinks & Networking
17:00 -19:00
In this panel we’ll be exploring how
advertisers are increasingly turning to
animators to sell their products, but also
looking at the importance of dedicating
time to producing one’s own work.
Panellists: Emma De Swaef & Mark James
Roels, Conor Finnegan, & Jim Le Fevre
In March last year, the BBC announced
they’d be setting up a new digital
innovation unit in Birmingham with a remit
to “explore the next-generation of BBC
content and services, finding new and
creative ways to tell our stories to future
audiences.” Stefan Shaw, Creative Lead,
and Joe Bell, Digital Producer for the unit,
will be here to outline what they have in
store for the coming months.
Founder of Studiokamp, a Berlin-based
outfit specialising in sound design, David
Kamp has a formidable client list of
production companies, design studios,
agencies and myriad visual artists. For
this talk he’ll offer insight into his works,
the unique creative challenges in sound
for animation, and some of his recent
collaborations in related fields.
Taking in a full day of informative and
entertaining panels is thirsty work, so all
delegates are invited to join us afterwards
for a drink and a chance to chat.
Animation in Theatre & Performance
11:45 - 13:00
Focusing on the fertile ground where
animation meets live performance, this
discussion will investigate how animators
can get a foothold in the area of animation
within theatre, performance, and VJing,
and the difficulties and benefits that arise
from this specialised field.
Panellists: Paul Barritt (1927), Dan
Hayhurst & Reuben Sutherland
(Sculpture), Ed Jobling (Forkbeard)
YouTube, MeTube, We AllTube
14:30 - 15:45
The final panel of the day examines the use
of YouTube as a distribution and marketing
tool, and the potential pitfalls of putting
your work online.
Panellists: Lee Hardcastle, Anthony
Blades (Bird Box), Greg McLeod (Brothers
McLeod), Louis Hudson (Dice Prods)
Green Screen Studios Cinema, Parkside
Mediahouse
11:30 - 17:00
Inspired by one of the speakers and want
to see more of their work? Then drop
in to the Green Screen Studio where a
curated programme of short films will play
throughout the day. Film listings will be
available on the day.
Keynote Lecture: Richard Slaney & Zsolt
Balogh – 59 Productions
19:00 - 20:15
Creators of everything from museum
installations (David Bowie is, V&A), to
large scale events (video designers for
London Olympics opening ceremony), 59
Productions’ portfolio is one of the most
impressive and varied around. We’re thrilled
to be joined by Richard (Creative Director)
and Zsolt (Animation Director), who will
discuss the various projects 59 Productions
undertake and the vital role that animation
plays within their work. This keynote is
presented in partnership with Creative Networks.
22
Festival Hub
Events
During our final weekend, the Flatpack hub
becomes the pulsating heart of the festival –
a basecamp in Digbeth where you can pick
up info, meet nice people and catch a range
of films and events. This year we’re setting
up home at Minerva Works on Fazeley St, a
canalside cluster of art spaces which includes
Vivid Projects, Stryx, Centrala, the Home for
Waifs & Strays and Grand Union. Just up the
road at The Bond, the Flatpack Palais will host
all manner of screenings and performances on
the Friday and Saturday.
9th Annual
2015
The Doghouse
Flatpack Kavarna
The Kavarna walls will be adorned with a selection of works
from the Collabradors, a collaborative collage project run by Ed
Wakefield. Throughout the weekend you can also find a series of
talks and activities in the space, including a Sellotape Cinema
drop-in workshop (‘Flicker Skitter Stumble’) and a unique combination of bread-making and story-telling courtesy of Albert Smith
(both 12-4, Sat and Sun). If you’ve experienced The Doghouse (see
opposite) and want to know more, the artists behind it will be doing
a Q&A at 2pm on Saturday.
FLATPACK SHORT FILM AWARDS + UNLIKELY FILM QUIZ
Sunday 29 March, 18:45 - 22:30 | £ 5.00
Over the past four days Flatpack has been graced with some of the
world’s finest shorts, and tonight they get whittled down to five
winners. See p.18 for more details on the contenders.
After the allen-keys have been handed out, the Unlikely folks
return for another warped cabaret quiz, complete with carefully
constructed cardboard props and dubious special guests. Last
year’s star turn from ‘Barry Norman’ will be hard to top.
Maximum of 6 per quiz team - see the Flatpack website for further info.
See also
Centrala
One of Minerva Works’ more recent arrivals, Centrala
is a gallery, café and training space with a particular
focus on Central and Eastern European culture. Over
the weekend they’re hosting a series of free Flatpack
screenings, and the inevitable air guitar competition.
Make your way to Unit 9 Minerva Works for the
festival’s café-bar, with good tunes, artist talks and top
veggie scran provided by The Warehouse Cafe. On
Thursday (6-11pm) the space opens with an evening
of shorts and DJs, while Oil Jelly Collective paint the
walls with psychotropic projections.
SUN! ZOOM! SPARK!
Friday 27 March, 22:00 - 01:00 | Free
A submersive night of oscillations soundtracked from the deep end
of kosmische, radiophone electro and punitive psychedelia. With
optikinetics, alpha waves and DJ’s Delia (Outer Sight), Daphne
(Sugarfoot Stomp) and guest Grandmaster Gareth (Misty’s).
23
27 - 29 March | Free
Thursday 18:00 - 23:00, Friday 13:00 - 01:00
Saturday 12:00 - late, Sunday 12:00 - 23:00
—
Food served from opening
till 19:00, Friday to Sunday
WFMU LIVE BROADCAST: STATION MANAGER KEN
Friday 27 March, 19:00 - 22:00 | Free
On the eve of the UK premiere of Sex and Broadcasting, a new flyon-the-wall portrait of listener-funded radio renegades WFMU (p.25),
the station itself has upped sticks and moved from Jersey City to
Digbeth for the night. Station Manager Ken will be DJing and VJing
the drivetime show from Flatpack to a global audience. Come down
and witness the show in person, or tune in via www.wfmu.org.
Festival Hub
Events
Thursday 26 March
18:00 - 22:00
Friday 27 March
15:00 - 22:00
Saturday 28 March
12:00 - 20:30
Sunday 29 March
12:00 - 19:00
—
Stryx @ MW
—
£ 4.00
A dinner with a difference. You are seated at the table with four
other diners. You don the goggles, and find yourself plunged into
the kind of fraught family situation that Dogme movies used to
specialise in. The food is virtual, but the sense of mounting tension
is all too real.
Oculus Rift technology is still emerging, and some of its uses
are admittedly on the gimmicky side. With this immersive new
work, presented in the UK for the first time, Danish artists Mads
Damsbo and Johan Knattrup Jensen demonstrate the medium’s
potential as an entirely new form of cinema. The Doghouse runs
every half an hour throughout the weekend, and you can also hear
from Mads and Johan in the Kavarna at 2pm on Saturday.
RICHARD DAWSON
Saturday 28 March
19:00 - 21:00
—
Flatpack Palais
@ The Bond
—
£ 10.00 / £ 8.00
—
In partnership with
Supersonic Festival
The Wigout
Friday, 19:00 - 21:00
Video Strolls
Sunday, 16:00 - 17:30
Don your gauntlets, strap on your
double neck and lift the goblet of
rock, as HFWAS prepare for all-out
air guitar war. See the Flatpack site
for more info on taking part.
Wander on down for an afternoon of
ambulatory entertainment. Featuring
films and installations that explore, at
a leisurely pace, the curious relationship between psyche and place. We
hope to make a meanderthal out of
you. www.video-strolls.com
When You Wore a Tulip
Saturday, 13:00 & Sunday, 12.30
Charming 1983 documentary about
the shooting of a silent movie in
Wausau, Wisconsin. (63 mins)
Riddles & Recitals
Saturday, 17:00 - 18:30
Outer Sight 16mm Speakeasy
Sunday, 18:00 - 21:00
As we near the inevitable fade-out,
Outer Sight delve into their vaults for
some celluloid oddities.
See p.19 for more details.
Cross City Walks
Friday-Sunday, 15:00 - 20:00
Video Essays
Sunday, 14:00 - 15:00
Upstairs from Centrala you can find
this treadmill installation by Pete
Ashton, which allows you to retrace
his journeys across Birmingham in
timelapse. Start running and the
images will speed up. Run too fast
and something weird will happen.
A growing online phenomenon, these
short, witty deconstructions of cinema offer a free crash course in film
studies. Includes a selection from one
of the genre’s poets, kogonada.
Zbigniew Rybczynski: Media Pioneer
Touring on the back of his rapturously received album Nothing
Important, Richard Dawson is one of those performers who makes
an entirely different kind of sense live. Ragged guitar, discursive
banter and songwriting that skips between tenderness and
brutality – most memorably in his school-trip epic ‘The Vile Stuff’.
Tonight’s gig will begin with a short film picked by Richard himself.
Collage Party, Saturday 28 March – more info on p.6
Scalarama presents VIDEO PALACE with DVD Bang and Viva VHS
Vivid Projects | Thursday 26 - Sunday 29 March
HEART BYPASS
Saturday 28 March, 17:00 - 18:30 | Flatpack Palais @ The Bond | £ 8.00 / £ 6.00
A recent addition to the Media Archive for Central England’s collection, the
evocatively titled Ringway: The Birmingham Inner Ring Road Stage 1 (1963) is
a public information film that records the construction of this concrete marvel.
From its auspicious launch, where various civic dignitaries get showered with
rubble, all the omens pointed towards a positive outcome.
Some people are very fond of the city’s road network, among them Jonathan
Meades. Heart Bypass (1998) is his love-letter to the city, a typically erudite
and contrarian half-hour video essay made for BBC2. Completing this wonky
triple-bill is an episode of Aardman series Rex the Runt (also 1998) in which
Rex wins the city of Birmingham as a lottery prize, and then shrinks it.
Be kind and rewind as the Scalarama
collective recreates a vintage video
store for four nights only, complete with
cafe, screening rooms and meeting area.
Peruse the back catalogue of Viva VHS’
exhaustive ex-rental tapes, book your
own private screening room with DVD
Bang whilst taking in their East Asian
delicacies, or start your own cinema
revolution with Scalarama and their Vote
Cinema campaign. Join local film clubs
over the weekend to discover how to put
on your own screenings and start planning
September 2015’s Scalarama season in
Birmingham. Check online for the full
schedule at scalarama.com.
DVD Bang are open for bookings:
Thursday 26, 12:00 - 18:00
Friday 27, 13:00 - 23:00
Saturday 28, 9:00 - 18:00
Sunday 29, 9:00 - 00:00
Free events include:
Thursday 26th March, 19:00 - 22:00
— Free shorts in the DVD Bang
Friday 27th March, 23:00 - 1:00
— John Waters’ Polyester in Odorama
Saturday 28th March, 14:00 - 15:00
— I Want to Be a Cinema workshop
Sunday 29th March, 14:00 - 17:00
— Scalarama 2015: Campaign Launch
Friday 27 March
22:00 - 23:30
—
Saturday 28 March
15:00 - 16:30
—
Free
Like a Méliès of the information age, Polish filmmaker
Zbigniew Rybczyński employed specially constructed
rigs and cutting-edge (for its time) technology to
create a kind of visual sorcery leaving you asking
‘how on earth did he do that?’ This retrospective
explores Zbig’s oeuvre from his early experiments with
computer animation and split screens, right through
to his 80s MTV days when he was making promos for
the likes of Grandmaster Flash and Lou Reed. It also
features the film he’s most noted for, Tango (winner of
the Oscar for Best Animated Short in 1983) in which 36
different characters slowly emerge one by one into a
single room without ever interacting with each other.
Experimental short filmmaking at its most sublime.
This programme has been supported by the
Polish Cultural Institute
24
Festival Hub
Events
9th Annual
2015
ALTERED YESTERDAYS:
An afternoon of people talking
about archives
Culture Club
Saturday 28 March | 14:00 - 17:30 | Grand Union | Free
Fun with slime moulds | Saturday 21 March
To complement Grand Union’s current
Mat Jenner exhibition (see p.47), this series
of talks and discussions explores archival
projects from photography and film to music
and sound art.
Events
Docs
25
Creativity under pressure is the thread
that unites these fascinating and very
different non-fiction films.
Presented in partnership with BOM Lab and the Arts & Science Festival
I’M LICHEN IT: Field Lens Photography Walkshop
11:00 - 12:30
—
Start:
The Woodman
New Canal St
—
£8 / £6 – advance
booking only
To prepare the ground for The Creeping Garden (below), Ben Waddington
leads this field trip through Eastside’s wild meadows, quags, fens and wetlands.
A hidden world of lichen plains, mushroom groves and moss forests is revealed
through the use of the botanist’s field lens, similar to a jeweller’s loupe, which
will be supplied on the trip. In conjunction with your smartphone camera, these
hidden vistas can be captured, shared and compared.
I’m Lichen It can be enjoyed using the supplied field lenses but is at its best
with a camera phone. No real photographic ability is needed.
THE CREEPING GARDEN
SEX AND BROADCASTING
Dir. Tim K. Smith
USA 2014
76 mins
—
Saturday 28 March
17:30 - 19:30
Sunday 29 March
13:00 - 15:00
—
The Electric Cinema
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Given that we own three WFMU T-shirts, you’d
expect us to be excited about a documentary which
peeks behind the scenes of this improbable listenersupported radio station. What’s more exciting is that
Tim K Smith has crafted a film which should resonate
well beyond the fans, one which raises sharp questions
about what independent culture really means.
Named after a how-to guide to community radio
that informed WFMU in its early years, Sex and Broadcasting jumps between the station’s genesis at Upsala
College and its current home in Jersey City, where a
regular stream of bizarre and brilliant bands drop in
to play sessions. Famous fans like Matt Groening and
Ad-Rock pay homage, and at the centre of the film is
Station Manager Ken Freedman, phlegmatically battling
with the recession, the regulators and his leaky building.
Flatpack is honoured to welcome both Ken Freedman
and director Tim K. Smith for a Q&A after the film. The
night before this UK premiere, Ken will also be hosting a
live broadcast from the Flatpack hub (see p.22).
The Photography of
Janet Mendelsohn
14:00
Richard Dawson:
The Glass Trunk
15:30
In the process of researching
Birmingham’s Centre for
Contemporary Cultural Studies
last year, Kieran Connell
(Queens University, Belfast)
discovered a large collection
of Birmingham photographs
taken by CCCS student Janet
Mendelsohn in the late 60s,
principally taken around
Balsall Heath and Highgate
(see above). Kieran will show
a selection of these amazing
images, and talk about a
new AHRC project that will
culminate in an exhibition at
Ikon Gallery in 2016.
Rejecting the folk label in
favour of ‘ritual community
music’, Richard Dawson’s
songwriting forges personal
memory, mythology and
other people’s stories into
exhilarating new shapes.
Album-before-last The Glass
Trunk was written after a
period immersed in the Tyne
and Wear archives, and before
his performance tonight (p.23)
Dawson will be talking about
how the past finds its way into
his songs.
Mat Jenner
14:45
Mat Jenner will talk about his
exhibition Dreams Time Free,
currently showing at Grand
Union. The exhibition includes
Foam, a mass collection of oneoff 12” dub plate records by 115
contemporary artists, which
visitors are invited to listen to
in the gallery. Mat will discuss
some of the ideas behind this
archive and how it links with
other works in the show.
A New Lease of Life
16:30
Digital technology is bringing
to light a wealth of films that
were previously hidden away,
and offering new ways to
share them with people. At the
same time, it’s posing difficult
questions around fidelity of
restoration and sustainability of
data. Archivists from some of
Europe’s most significant film
collections will join us to talk
about this brave new world and
describe some of the ways in
which archives are becoming
more accessible.
13:00 - 15:00
—
The Electric
—
£ 8.00 /£ 6.00
Once considered part of the fungi family, the slime mould’s multi-coloured
diversity and its ability to move towards food sources both capture the
imagination and provoke debate. The Creeping Garden gathers a number
of devotees including amateur mycologist Mark Pragnell and artist Heather
Barnett (who cheerfully admits to taking slime moulds on holiday with her),
underscoring their passion with gorgeous timelapse photography and music
by Jim O’Rourke. A delightfully unexpected documentary.
Directors Jasper Sharp and Tim Grabham will take part in a discussion
after the film along with Heather Barnett.
THE INTERNET’S OWN BOY
Dir. Brian
Knappenberger
USA 2014
104 mins
—
Friday 27 March
18:00 - 20:00
—
Impact Hub
£ 4.00
THE PHYSARUM EXPERIMENTS
15:30 - 17:00
—
BOM
—
Free entry with a
Creeping Garden
ticket
Heather Barnett, with Physarum polycephalum
“[In] trying to understand systems that use relatively simple components to
build higher-level intelligence, the slime mould may someday be seen as the
equivalent of the finches and tortoises that Darwin observed on the Galápagos
Islands” — Steven Johnson, Emergence, 2001
You’ve seen the movie – now here’s a chance to meet the stars up close. Join
Heather Barnett to discover the fascinating role the slime mould plays in the
cultures of science and art, and participate in a practical experiment to test
the abilities of this single-celled organism.
media/culture
12:00 - 16:00
—
BOM
—
Free
Photographer Dan Burwood will introduce the work he’s developing
during his BOM fellowship: an exploration of bacteria and fungal cultures
in traditional wet photographic media and process. You will be invited
to document the organic disruption of part of a silver gelatine print, to
contribute to a composite timelapse dispersed fungi photo film. A range of
edible ferments and cultures will also be available to take away...
Aaron Swartz co-founded Reddit, helped develop the
RSS feed and Creative Commons, and campaigned
energetically for open data. In 2013 he committed
suicide, facing 35 years in prison for illegally sharing
academic papers. This illuminating and enraging
documentary provides the lowdown on Swartz’s short
but hugely productive life, while also dissecting the
legal and technological issues thrown up by his trial.
The film has been selected for Flatpack by Impact
Hub Birmingham, a new co-working and events space
which launches in Digbeth this month. Following
the screening, Impact Hub Birmingham will host a
discussion on the challenges and opportunities the
open source economy creates over food and drinks.
BEATS OF THE ANTONOV
Dir. Hajooj Kuka
Sudan-South Africa
2014
65 mins
—
Friday 27 March
20:30 - 22:30
—
Flatpack Palais
@ The Bond
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
UNCLE TONY, THE THREE FOOLS AND THE SECRET SERVICE
Dir. Mina Mileva &
Vesela Kazakova
Bulgaria 2014
86 mins
—
Saturday 28 March
20:00 - 22:00
—
The Electric
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
During the 1970s Bulgarian animation was the toast
of international festivals and director Donyo Donev
travelled the world collecting awards and plaudits.
This debut documentary posits an alternative version
of film history, arguing that a major force behind those
films was never given due credit. We meet Antony
Trayanov – aka Uncle Tony – in Sofia, his small flat
piled high with mementos of his animation career. He
talks warmly and without bitterness, but as the story
unfolds we return to the paranoia and power-plays of
Soviet-era Bulgaria.
This fascinating tale of authorship and survival has
caused huge controversy in its home country. The film’s
directors, Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova, will join us
to talk about their experiences making the film.
“War is good and bad… it can connect kids to their culture.”
— refugee Insaf Awad
Opening with vivid footage of a bombing raid which ends in nervous laughter,
this thoughtful, moving film explores the role that music plays as a survival
strategy and safety valve for people in the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains,
caught up in Sudan’s devastating and ongoing civil war. The film features
some electric performances, including a sassy teenage choir and a DIY
electric instrument using brake cables for strings.
This screening is presented in partnership with Celebrating Sanctuary,
and before the film there will be a short live set from Sudanese singer and
instrumentalist Salih Hassan Nour.
26
Calendar
Event name
Walk Cheerfully
Timeline
Yay!*
9th Annual
2015
Calendar
Calendar
thursday 19 th of March
thursday 26 th of March
Venue
St Paul’s Church
Start
End
Price
Page
Event name
19:00
21:00
£10 / £7.50
07
Friday 20 of March
th
Yay!*
Calendar
Timeline
27
Venue
Start
End
Price
Page
Animation and Beyond
Birmingham City University, Parkside
09:45
19:00
£15 / £10
21
Interactive Filmmaking Workshop
The Bond
10:00
16:00
£25 + VAT
28
Flatpack hub launch
Flatpack Kavarna @ MW
18:00
23:00
Free
22
Between Us: Birmingham Portraits
Great Western Arcade
11:00
18:00
Free
11
Cross Frequencies
The Electric Cinema
18:30
20:00
£6 / £5
19
8Bit Lounge
Old Joint Stock Theatre
12:00
18:00
Free
09
Animation and Beyond keynote
Birmingham City University, Parkside
19:00
20:15
Free
21
Camera Obscura Workshop
Home Cafe Deli
15:00
16:00
Free
10
A Taste of Flatpack
Home Café Deli
16:15
17:45
Free
11
Girlhood
The Electric Cinema
18:00
20:15
£8 / £6
14
Festival of (In)appropriation
Birmingham City University, Parkside
14:00
15:30
Free
20
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
Birmingham and Midland Institute
18:00
20:10
Free
10
A Life Less Ordinary
Flatpack Palais @ The Bond
16:00
17:30
£6 / £5
18
Sidewalk Stories
Hotel du Vin
18:00
19:45
Free
10
I’m a Filmmaker, But I Want To Eat
The Mockingbird
18:00
20:00
Free
28
AVA exhibition opening
Ort Cafe
18:00
20:00
Free
28
Making Shadows
Flatpack Palais @ The Bond
18:00
19:45
£8 / £6
07
Joe the Chainsmith + Coventry Kids
mac birmingham
18:30
20:00
£8 / £6
12
Songs From the Second Floor
The Electric Cinema
18:00
19:45
£8 / £6
17
Europe in 8Bits
Old Joint Stock Theatre
18:30
19:50
Free
09
The Internet’s Own Boy
Impact Hub
18:00
20:00
£4
25
The Paper Cinema’s Odyssey
The REP Studio
19:45
21:15
£12 / £9
06
The Wigout
Centrala @ MW
19:00
21:00
Free
23
Edwardian Horror Show
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Edwardian Tea Rooms
20:00
23:00
£10 / £7.50
09
WFMU Live Broadcast: Station Manager Ken
Flatpack Kavarna @ MW
19:00
22:00
Free
22
Club Two-Five-Six
Old Joint Stock Theatre
20:00
23:00
Free
09
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
The Electric Cinema
20:15
22:00
£8 / £6
14
Miners Shot Down
Birmingham and Midland Institute
20:30
22:00
Free
10
Beats of the Antonov
Flatpack Palais at the Bond
20:30
22:30
£8 / £6
25
Numbskull
The Electric Cinema
21:00
23:00
£8 / £6
14
Sun! Zoom! Spark!
Flatpack Kavarna @ MW
22:00
01:00
Free
22
Zbigniew Rybczynski: Media Pioneer
Centrala @ MW
22:00
23:30
Free
23
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osborne
The Electric Cinema
22:30
00:10
£8 / £6
15
Polyester in Odorama
Vivid Projects @ MW
23:00
00:30
Free
23
Saturday 21 st of March
FRIDAY 27 TH of March
Coffee Cupping
6/8 Kafé
10:30
12:15
£7
11
Between Us: Birmingham Portraits
Great Western Arcade
11:00
18:00
Free
11
Cartoon Rock
Birmingham and Midland Institute
11:00
12:00
Free
11
Landmarks 1-3
mac birmingham
11:00
12:30
£8 / £6
12
Drawn To Be Wild
mac birmingham
11:00
16:00
Free
29
I’m Lichen It
The Woodman
11:00
12:30
£8 / £6
24
Arcades Walk
Great Western Arcade
11:00
12:30
£7 / £5
06
Shizzles and Giggles
Old Joint Stock Theatre
12:00
13:30
Free
11
Shape Shifters
mac birmingham
11:00
12:15
£5 / £3
29
Media/Culture
BOM
12:00
16:00
Free
24
Beatfreeks Workshop: Talking Pictures
Impact Hub
12:00
16:00
Free
07
CineCafe
6/8 Kafé
12:15
13:00
Free
11
Strange Adventures
mac birmingham
13:00
14:15
£5 / £3
29
The Creeping Garden
The Electric Cinema
13:00
15:00
£8 / £6
24
The Joy of Film
Flatpack Palais @ The Bond
13:00
14:30
£6 / £5
19
Fairy Tales
Birmingham and Midland Institute
13:00
14:00
Free
11
When You Wore a Tulip
Centrala @ MW
13:00
14:05
Free
23
Travelling for a Living + Faces of Harlow
mac birmingham
13:00
14:50
£8 / £6
12
You, The Living
The Electric Cinema
13:00
14:40
£8 / £6
17
Coffee Cupping
6/8 Kafé
13:30
15:15
£7
11
Altered Yesterdays
Grand Union @ MW
14:00
17:30
Free
24
Internet Cat Videos
Old Joint Stock Theatre
14:00
15:00
Free
08
Behind the Doghouse
Flatpack Kavarna @ MW
14:00
15:00
Free
22
A Force to be Reckoned With
Birmingham and Midland Institute
14:30
16:00
Free
11
I Want to be a Cinema
Vivid Projects @ MW
14:00
17:00
Free
42
Lil Bub and Friendz
Old Joint Stock Theatre
15:10
16:15
Free
08
Citation City
Flatpack Palais @ The Bond
15:00
16:40
£8 / £6
06
CineCafe
6/8 Kafé
15:15
16:00
Free
11
Family Portraits
The Electric Cinema
15:00
16:30
£6 / £5
19
Camera Obscura Workshop
Home Café Deli
15:30
16:30
Free
10
Zarafa
mac birmingham
15:00
16:30
£5 / £3
29
Trouble in Paradise
Opus
15:30
18:30
£14
10
Zbigniew Rybczynski: Media Pioneer
Centrala @ MW
15:00
16:30
Free
23
Landmarks 4-6
mac birmingham
15:30
17:00
£8 / £6
12
Heart Bypass
Flatpack Palais @ The Bond
17:00
18:30
£8 / £6
22
The Physarum Experiments
BOM
15:30
17:00
Free (w Creeping Garden ticket) 24
Riddles & Recitals
Centrala @ MW
17:00
18:30
Free
19
The Magic Cinema
6/8 Kafé
16:30
19:00
Free
11
Sex and Broadcasting
The Electric Cinema
17:30
19:30
£8 / £6
25
Observations
Birmingham and Midland Institute
16:30
18:00
Free
19
Richard Dawson
Flatpack Palais @ The Bond
19:00
21:00
£10 / £8
23
The Colony + Year Zero: Black Country
mac birmingham
18:00
20:15
£8 / £6
13
Collage Party
Flatpack Kavarna @ MW
19:00
02:00
£10 / £8
06
Turist
The Electric Cinema
18:00
20:00
£8 / £6
14
Uncle Tony, the Three Fools and the Secret Service
The Electric Cinema - Screen 2
20:00
22:00
£8 / £6
25
LOLGBT Shorts
Old Joint Stock Theatre
19:00
20:15
Free
10
Beyond the Realm
Flatpack Palais @ The Bond
21:30
23:00
£6 / £5
18
Man With a Movie Camera
Birmingham Cathedral
19:30
21:15
£10 / £7.50
09
Tokyo Tribe
The Electric Cinema
22:30
00:30
£8 / £6
15
The Paper Cinema’s Odyssey
The REP Studio
19:45
21:15
£12 / £9
06
When You Wore a Tulip
Centrala @ MW
Lisa Gornick’s Live Drawing Show
Old Joint Stock Theatre
20:30
21:30
Free
10
Chris Paul Daniels in Conversation
A3 Project Space
Sex and Broadcasting
The Electric Cinema
13:00
15:00
£8 / £6
25
The Irishmen
Spotted Dog
13:00
14:30
Free
13
Sunday 22 nd of March
Saturday 28 TH of March
SUNDAY 29 of March
th
00
Free
13:30
12:30
Don't forget! The clocks go forward on Sunday 29 March
00
Free
14:30
13:00
Gone For A Soldier
mac birmingham
10:30
12:30
£6 / £4
13
Scalarama 2015: Campaign Launch
Vivid Projects @ MW
14:00
17:00
Free
45
Celluloid City
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts
12:00
16:00
Free
08
Video Essays
Centrala @ MW
14:00
15:00
Free
23
Where Do We Go From Here?
mac birmingham
13:00
14:40
£8 / £6
13
Way of the Benshi: Open Mic
Flatpack Kavarna @ MW
14:00
16:00
Free
07
Peggy Seeger in Conversation
mac birmingham
15:00
16:30
£7 / £5
13
Tomorrow Is Always Too Long
The Electric Cinema
15:30
17:00
£8 / £6
15
Sirens
mac birmingham
16:00
17:00
£6 / £4.50
28
Video Strolls
Centrala @ MW
16:00
17:30
Free
23
The Tribe
The Electric Cinema
18:15
20:30
£8 / £6
15
A Pigeon on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
mac birmingham
17:30
19:20
£8 / £6
17
Live cinema performances
mac birmingham
19:00
20:00
£6 / £4.50
28
The Colour of Pomegranates
The Electric Cinema
17:30
19:10
£8 / £6
15
Outer Sight 16mm Speakeasy
Centrala @ MW
18:00
21:00
Free
23
Flatpack Short Film Awards + Unlikely Film Quiz
Flatpack Kavarna @ MW
18:45
22:30
£5
22
MONDAY 23 Rd of March
Ink & Pixels
Birmingham City University, Parkside
18:30
20:00
Free
20
Joe the Chainsmith + House of Friends
Netherton Arts Centre
19:00
21:30
£5 / £4
13
TUESDAY 24 TH of March
ONGOING EVENTS
The Amusement Park
BCU, Parkside & Millennium Point
16/03/15 – 28/03/15
09:00
18:00
Free
20
AVA Exhibition: Seeing Sound
Ort Cafe
21/03/15 – 22/03/15
11:00
17:00
Free
28
Communicating with Puppets
Birmingham City University, Parkside
10:00
17:30
Free (deposit required)
20
The Cloud is More Than Air and Water
Conservatoire
23/03/15 – 27/03/15
10:00
22:00
Free
20
The Finnish Line
Birmingham City University, Parkside
17:00
18:00
Free
20
Beethoven’s 5th
Conservatoire
23/03/15 – 27/03/15
10:00
22:00
Free
20
The Amusement Park Opening
Birmingham City University, Parkside
18:00
20:00
Free
20
The Doghouse
Stryx @ MW
26/03/15 – 29/03/15
TIMES
VARY
£4
23
Elemental
Birmingham City University, Parkside
18:30
20:00
Free
20
Cross City Walks
Upstairs @ Centrala
27/03/15 – 29/03/15
15:00
20:00
Free
23
The Colony
The Drum
19:00
20:30
£7 / £5
13
Sellotape Cinema: Flicker Skitter Stumble
Flatpack Kavarna @ MW
28/03/15 – 29/03/15
12:00
16:00
Free
42
DIY Sci-Fi
Custard Factory
28/03/15 – 29/03/15
11:00
16:00
Free
28
WEDNESDAY 25 TH of March
Ta-Co Workshop
Birmingham City University, Parkside
13:00
15:30
Free (deposit required)
20
iShorts
Birmingham City University, Parkside
17:30
18:30
Free
20
Roy Andersson: Shorts & Commercials
The Electric Cinema
18:00
19:20
£8 / £6
17
Time + Motion
Millennium Point
19:00
23:00
£5
21
Standby for Tape Backup
mac birmingham
20:00
21:30
£12 / £10
07
* Tick off your favourite events here
28
Assorted Items
Events
9th Annual
AVA EXHIBITION: SEEING SOUND
INTERACTIVE FILMMAKING WORKSHOP
Thursday 26 March
10:00 - 16:00
The Bond
£25 + VAT
Crossover Labs and Sheffield Doc/Fest are running a
series of six workshops across the country, offering
a chance to explore different aspects of interactive
storytelling. This day-long session focusses on
Interlude’s Treehouse, an authoring app that gives
you the tools to create your own interactive projects.
Places are limited – for more information and to sign
up, visit sheffdocfest.com/workshops.
I’M A FILMMAKER, BUT I WANT TO EAT
Friday 27 March
18:00 - 20:00
The Mockingbird
Free
A lighthearted but informative look at the realities of
the diverse ways we all have to sustain ourselves, as
we pursue the passion to make films. Come along and
find some inspiration from our guests, and then join us
for drinks in the bar.
This is a Producers Forum event, with support
from Creative Skillset. For further details go to
producersforum.org.uk.
To complement his new video piece at A3 Project
Space (see p.47), Chris Paul Daniels will be present
to screen and discuss his experimental approach to
portraiture, formed through a series of projects in
Nairobi, Newcastle, China and Birmingham.
Events
An exhibition of audio visual arts, with a focus
on the history of Visual Music and Live Cinema,
placing the current practice of real time audio visual
performance within an historical context. Includes
a timeline created by Finnish artist Mia Makela, and
a Harmonograph built by young people at the Old
PrintWorks. Alongside the show there’s a Sound Bath
(Ort, Sat 21) and live AV software workshop (Ort, Mon
23) – see avacurate.wordpress.com for booking info.
On Sunday 22 March, the Hexagon theatre at mac
hosts two ‘Seeing Sound’ events:
16:00 - 17:00
Screening of Sirens, an audio visual work by Japanese
artist Ryoichi Kurokawa in collaboration with Novi_
sad. (£ 6.00 / £ 4.50)
Zarafa
19:00 - 20:00:
3 x Live Cinema performances by Modulate / Mark
Harris / Mia Makela + James Andean. (£ 6.00 / £ 4.50)
DIY SCI-FI
Saturday 28 and
Sunday 29 March
11:00 - 16:00
Custard Factory
Free
29
Colour Box
Saturday 28 March at mac birmingham
Flatpack’s ever-popular family programme
returns to mac for a day of screenings and
activities for younger viewers and doers. This
time around we’re delighted to be working in
partnership with Anorak Magazine.
Opening: Friday 20 March, Ort Café, 18:00-20:00
Exhibition: Sat 21 and Sun 22 March, 11:00-17:00
CHRIS PAUL DANIELS IN CONVERSATION
Sunday 29 March
13:00 - 14:30
A3 Project Space
Free
2015
SHAPE SHIFTERS
Digbeth-based model-makers Trevor Boddington and Steven Woodhouse
(aka ‘2 Art Toy Guys’) have been using recycled materials to create amazing
miniature worlds for years, and now they’ve branched out into filmmaking.
Throughout the weekend they’ll be taking over a shop at the Custard Factory
to show some of their recent work (including sci-fi short The Mist From
Planet X), alongside a selection of DIY props and models.
11:00 – 12:15 | £5 / £3
Recommended age 4+
A peek into an alternative dimension,
where life isn’t quite as we know it. Cakes
transform into living people (Decorations),
elephants work as street cleaners (The
Elephant and the Bicycle), and parents
are jumbo jets (My Mom is an Airplane).
This colourful and inventive collection of
kids’ shorts also includes British animator
Andy Martin’s luminous 12-part illustrated
alien saga, The Planets, in which funnylooking creatures get up to weird and
wonderful things, and Mari Miyazawa’s
mouthwatering animated-food films will
have you leaving the cinema headed for
the nearest patisserie. A delectable treat
for anyone age 4 to 104.
STRANGE ADVENTURES
13:00 – 14:15 | £5 / £3
Recommended age 7+
Our second programme of family shorts
includes Vincent Patar and Stéphane
Aubier’s eccentrically funny A Town
Called Panic – The Christmas Log; a
half hour romp about the exploits of
three housemates: Indian, Cowboy, and
Horse, made by the Belgian directors
of those inimitable Cravendale adverts.
Also included is French filmmaker Nicolas
Deveaux’s 5m 80 in which a highly
organised herd of giraffes take a trip to
the swimming pool and pull off a series of
dives that Tom Daley would be proud of.
And Pixar animator Erick Oh’s exquisite
short Gunther, about an unlikely group of
hungry accomplices including a bee, a pig,
a dandelion and a turtle, is a total delight.
Dir. Rémi Bezançon &
Jean-Christophe Lie
France 2012,
78 mins
15:00 – 16:30
£5 / £3
Recommended
age 6+
A young boy called Maki manages to
escape from the clutches of a slave-trader,
and finds himself on the road with a baby
giraffe. What follows is a larger-than-life
voyage from Sudan to Paris, complete
with a pirate queen, a hot-air balloon and
two flying cows, all beautifully rendered
in 2-D animation that often resembles
traditional Disney.
Zarafa is suitable for all ages, but please
note that the film will be screening in
French with English subtitles. We also
hope to offer live English translation via
headphones – see website for details.
DRAWN TO BE WILD
11:00 – 16:00 | Free
See also:
Cartoon Rock and Fairy Tales, as
part of Film Bug P.11
NAWM_Flatpack_Ad_NewArtWM.indd 4
16/01/2015 12:15
As well as screenings throughout the
day, the public spaces at mac will once
again be abuzz with drop-in activities for
all ages. Have a go at creating your own
cartoon character, make a contribution to
the Wall of Scrawl, read a book, or pick
up a free Anorak activity pack.
Anorak Magazine, the ‘happy mag for
kids’, is aimed at boys and girls aged
between 6 and 12 years old and comes
out every three months. For more info
and subscription details, go to
anorakmagazine.com.
30
Thursday 19th of March
Timeline
9th Annual
2015
FLATPACK DAY BY DAY
Friday 20th of March
Timeline
31
Friday 20 th of March
120 events, screenings and exhibitions. 30 venues. 11 days.
Between Us: Birmingham Portraits
A spellbinding street-level view of the
city’s people, created by artist Geoff
Broadway. — Read more on P.11
Friday 20 March
Great Western
Arcade
—
Free
Today’s Ongoing events
The Amusement Park - BCU, Parkside - 09.00 - 18:00 - see p.20
11:00
8Bit Lounge
Man With a Movie Camera
Girlhood
Saturday 21, 19:30 at Birmingham Cathedral
Friday 20, 18:00 at The Electric Cinema
Try your hand at Pong, Duck Hunt,
Space Invaders and many other
classics at this gaming drop-in.
— Read more on P.9
Camera Obscura workshop
Friday 20 March
Old Joint Stock
Theatre
—
Free
12:00
15:00
Friday 20 March
Home Café Deli
—
Free
Build your own hand-held camera
obscura. — Read more on P.10
A Taste of Flatpack
girlhood
Uncle Tony, the Three Fools and the Secret Service
Saturday 28, 20:30 at The Electric Cinema
Parisian coming-of-age tale about
Marieme, who discovers a whole new
world when she joins an all-girl gang.
— Read more on P.14
16:15
Friday 20 March
The Electric
Cinema
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
18:00
Friday 20 March
Home Café Deli
—
Free
A chance to sample selections
from across the Flatpack shorts
lineup, spanning comedy and
non-fiction, animation and
experimental.
— Read more on P.11
the bitter tears of petra von kant
sidewalk stories
The Colony
Celluloid CIty
Sculpture at Time + Motion
Sat 21 at mac, and Tuesday 24 at The Drum
Sunday 22, 12:00 - 16:00 at The Barber
Wednesday 25, 19:00 at Millennium Point
18:00
Friday 20 March
Hotel du Vin
—
Free
18:00
Friday 20 March
Birmingham &
Midland Institute
—
Free
Fassbinder’s 1972 adaptation
of his own play, concerning a
claustrophobic love triangle between
three women. — Read more on P.10
Ava exhibition opening
Thursday 19 of March
th
18:00
Charles Lane’s 1980s New York homage to
Chaplin’s The Kid. — Read more on P.10
Friday 20 March
Ort Cafe
—
Free
Launch of an exhibition exploring
the history of visual music and live
cinema.— Read more on P.28
The Amusement Park
Monday 16 March
ongoing until
Saturday 28 March
BCU, Parkside
—
Free
09:00
Walk Cheerfully
19:00
Thursday 19 March
St Paul’s Church
—
£ 10.00 / £ 7.50
joe the chainsmith + coventry kids
Philip Donnellan’s first film, a 50s
snapshot of chain-making community
Cradley Heath.— Read more on P.12
Friday 20 March
mac birmingham
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
europe in 8Bits
18:30
18:30
Friday 20 March
Old Joint Stock
Theatre
—
Free
the paper cinema’s odyssey
Exploring the relationship between animation and
interactivity, this exhibition makes its way to the UK
for the first time from Finland and focuses on a group
of contemporary Finnish animators whose practice
transcends screen-based work. — Read more on P.20
Ozu’s delicious, Tokyo spin on a classic gangster tale,
with live benshi narration and musical accompaniment.
— Read more on P.7
Homer’s island-hopping tales
of gods and monsters retold as
you’ve never seen them before,
with a joyful combination of
cut-out characters and live
music. — Read more on P.6
Friday 20 March
The REP Studio
—
£ 12.00 / £ 9.00
19:45
Documentary about Europe’s
burgeoning chiptune scene.
— Read more on P.9
club two-five-six
20:00
Friday 20 March
Old Joint Stock
Theatre
—
Free
Our 8bit day draws to a close
with an evening of DJs and live
performances.— Read more on P.9
32
20 – 21st of March
Timeline
9th Annual
2015
edwardian horror show
A rare chance to wander the halls of
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
after hours, for an evening of spooky
shorts and haunted show-tunes.
— Read more on P.9
Friday 20 March
Birmingham
Museum & Art
Gallery
—
£ 10.00 / £ 7.50
Saturday 21st of March
Timeline
fairy tales
20:00
miners shot down
20:30
Friday 20 March
Birmingham &
Midland Institute
—
Free
Acclaimed documentary about a
massacre of 34 mineworkers in South
Africa.
— Read more on P.10
Amazing collection of stencil colour
films from the 1900s, with new scores
by composition students from the
Conservatoire.
— Read more on P.11
Saturday 21 March
Birmingham and
Midland Institute
—
Free
33
the creeping garden
13:00
13:00
Saturday 21 March
The Electric
Cinema
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Mesmerising voyage into the hidden
world of slime moulds, with music by
Jim O’Rourke. — Read more on P.24
travelling for a living + faces of harlow
numbskull
Two men find themselves
touched by the curse of
Shakespeare’s skull, in John
Humphreys’ debut feature.
— Read more on P.14
internet cat videos
Friday 20 March
The Electric
Cinema
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
21:00
Saturday 21 March
Old Joint Stock
Theatre
—
Free
saturday 21 of March
coffee cupping
The Amusement Park - BCU, Parkside - 09.00 - 18:00 - see p.20
AVA Exhibition: Seeing Sound - 11:00 -17:00 - see p.28
10:30
13.30
11:00
Saturday 21 March
Birmingham &
Midland Institute
—
Free
11:00
Saturday 21 March
The Woodman
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
11:00
11:00
As the Women’s Institute enters its
centenary year, Balsall Heath WI
have helped us to put together this
eclectic, empowering selection of
shorts. — Read more on P.11
media/culture
Saturday 21 March
BOM
—
Free
Saturday 21 March
Great Western
Arcade
—
Free
A spellbinding street-level view of the
city’s people, created by artist Geoff
Broadway.— Read more on P.11
Saturday 21 March
mac birmingham
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Covers admission to
Landmarks 1-4 too
The first three episodes of
Donnellan’s six-part series,
mirroring the seven ages of
man by tracing a line from birth
to death.
— Read more on P.12
Shizzles & giggles
12:00
Help Dan Burwood to investigate
the effect of bacterial cultures on
photographic prints.
— Read more on P.24
Some of YouTube’s finest feline moments, carefully
curated by a group of small children.
— Read more on P.8
Saturday 21 March
Birmingham &
Midland Institute
—
Free
Landmarks 1-3
I’m Lichen It
Walking tour through Eastside’s wild
meadows, quags, fens and wetlands.
— Read more on P.24
Derrick Knight’s 1965 portrait of the
Watersons on their home patch of
Hull, and a promotional film for the
new town of Harlow.
— Read more on P.12
between us: birmingham portraits
cartoon rock
Saturday morning family show, with
day-glo cartoons and free cereal.
— Read more on P.11
14:30
Today’s Ongoing events
Saturday 21 March
6/8 Kafé
—
£ 7.00
14:00
Saturday 21 March
mac birmingham
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
a force to be reckoned with
st
Follow the coffee journey all the way
from farm to cup, with a chance to
taste a range of varieties and see
different processes in action.
— Read more on P.11
13:00
12:00
Saturday 21 March
Old Joint Stock
Theatre
—
Free
Funny shorts featuring a number of
British comedy luminaries including
Sally Philips and Tim Key.
— Read more on P.11
CineCafe
12:15
15:15
Saturday 21 March
6/8 Kafé
—
Free
To complement the cupping, a
selection of coffee-scented short
films. — Read more on P.11
NAWM_Flatpack_Ad_NewArtWM.indd 3
16/01/2015 12:15
34
Saturday 21st of March
Timeline
9th Annual
2015
lil bub and friendz
15:10
camera obscura workshop
15:30
Saturday 21 March
Home Café Deli
—
Free
Vice doc taking a backstage peek at one of the
internet’s biggest cat stars. Read more on p.8
Build your own hand-held
camera obscura.
— Read more on P.10
the physarum experiments
Saturday 21 March
BOM
—
Free (with
Creeping Garden
ticket)
16:30
Saturday 21 March
mac birmingham
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Covers admission to
Landmarks 1-3 too
Final three episodes of Donnellan’s
six-parter, mirroring the seven ages
of man by tracing a line from birth to
death. — Read more on P.12
the magic cinema
16:30
force majeure
Saturday 21 March
The Electric
Cinema
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Lubitsch’s sublime quickfire romantic
comedy about two con-artists in love,
followed by a two-course meal.
— Read more on P.10
landmarks 4-6
observations
Saturday 21 March
Birmingham &
Midland Institute
—
Free
Saturday 21 March
Opus at Cornwell
Street
—
£14.00 (book via
Opus: 0121 200 2323)
15:30
15:30
Saturday 21 March
6/8 Kafé
—
Free
Open-reel DIY film event, accepting any film up to 10
minutes long providing you come and introduce it. —
Read more on P.11
18:00
Saturday 21 March
The REP Studio
—
£ 12.00 / £ 9.00
19:45
Lisa Gornick’s Live Drawing Show
20:30
Saturday 21 March
Old Joint Stock
Theatre
—
Free
Live drawing and daft anecdotes
courtesy of illustrator and story-teller
Lisa Gornick. — Read more on P.10
sunday 22 nd of March
Gone For A Soldier
Donnellan’s ambitious (and at the time
controversial) two-parter exploring
the history of the British military.
— Read more on P.13
Today’s Ongoing events
Sunday 22 March
mac birmingham
—
£ 6.00 / £ 4.00
AVA Exhibition: Seeing Sound - Ort Cafe - 11:00 -17:00 - see p.28
10:30
Celluloid City
12:00
Where Do We Go From Here?
Two of Donnellan’s later works, a
portrait of different travelling families
across the UK and an Irish music
documentary.
— Read more on P.13
Saturday 22 March
mac birmingham
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
13:00
18:00
Saturday 21 March
mac birmingham
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
15:00
Sirens
Audio visual work by Japanese artist
Ryoichi Kurokawa, which attempts to
find a visual analogue for economic
collapse. — Read more on P.28
Sunday 22 March
The Barber
Institute
—
Free
A celebration of Birmingham’s rich
cinema-going history, through films
and discussions. — Read more on P.8
Peggy Seeger in Conversation
The Colony + Year Zero: Black Country
An avalanche disrupts a Swedish family’s skiing holiday
in Ruben Ostlund’s latest feature. — Read more on P.14
Sunday 22 March
mac birmingham
—
£ 6.00 / £ 4.50
16:00
Sunday 22 March
The Electric
Cinema
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
18:15
Sunday 22 March
mac birmingham
—
£ 7.00 / £ 5.00
The Tribe
lolgbt shorts
Surreal, reflective, and occasionally
downright crude - a lucky dip of new
shorts presented in association with
Shout Festival.
— Read more on P.10
Homer’s island-hopping tales of
gods and monsters retold as you’ve
never seen them before, with a joyful
combination of cut-out characters
and live music. — Read more on P.6
trouble in paradise
15:30
Shorts programme showing some of
the best of this year’s submissions.
— Read more on P.19
35
The Paper Cinema’s Odyssey
Saturday 21 March
Old Joint Stock
Theatre
—
Free
Artist Heather Barnett explores the
role the slime mould plays in the
cultures of science and art.
— Read more on P.24
21 – 22nd of March
Timeline
Saturday 21 March
Old Joint Stock
Theatre
—
Free
A double-bill of films from the point of view of recent
arrivals in Birmingham and Smethwick, made fifty
years apart. — Read more on P.13
19:00
Folk singer Peggy Seeger looks back on the making of
the Radio Ballads, a series of broadcasts that helped to
redefine radio. — Read more on P.13
man with a movie camera
19:30
Saturday 21 March
Birmingham
Cathedral
—
£ 10.00 / £ 7.50
Dziga Vertov’s hymn to cinema and
the city, getting on for ninety years
old and still startlingly fresh.
— Read more on P.9
Live cinema performances
19:00
Ukrainian feature about a deaf mute teenager who
struggles to fit in at a boarding school. Told through
sign-language. — Read more on P.15
Sunday 22 March
mac birmingham
—
£ 6.00 / £ 4.50
Three audio-visual sets by Modulate,
Mark Harris, and Mia Makela + James
Andean. — Read more on P.28
36
23 – 24th of March
Timeline
9th Annual
2015
monday 23 rd of March
The Cloud is More Than Air and Water
Monday 23 March
ongoing until
Friday 27 March
Conservatoire
—
Free
Video installation by Matt Parker, investigating the
mechanical nature and acoustic ecology of Data
Centres and internet storage systems.
— Read more on P.20
The Amusement Park - BCU, Parkside - 09.00 - 18:00 - see p.20
Ink & Pixels
Monday 23 March
BCU, Parkside
—
Free
Ta-Co Workshop
Today’s Ongoing events
In advance of Usaginingen’s performance tonight at
Time + Motion, a chance to work with them to create
your own ingenious optomechanical device.
— Read more on P.20
Wednesday 25
March
BCU, Parkside
—
Free (deposit req.)
The Amusement Park - BCU, Parkside - 09.00 - 18:00
The Cloud is more than Air and Water - Conservatoire - 10.00 - 22:00
Beethoven’s 5th - Conservatoire - 10:00 - 22:00 - see p.20 for all
13:00
Beethoven’s 5th
10:00
18:30
Monday 23 March
ongoing until
Friday 27 March
Conservatoire
—
Free
Reminiscent of Buster Keaton’s The Playhouse, in
which old Stoneface plays every instrument in the
band, Emily Wright’s single screen installation sees
herself playing all the parts to the German composer’s
masterwork. — Read more on P.20
iShorts
17:30
Roy Andersson: Shorts & Commercials
Wednesday 25
March
The Electric
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Before you embark on Andersson’s Living trilogy,
see how he developed his unique approach through
a series of blackly comic adverts. Also includes the
startling World of Glory.
— Read more on P.17
18:00
Wednesday 25
March
BCU, Parkside
—
Free
A selection from the first crop of
Creative England’s iShorts initiative,
followed by a drinks reception.
— Read more on P.20
Joe the Chainsmith + House of Friends
19:00
A sneak peek at Made You Look, a new documentary
about the UK’s graphic arts scene, followed by a
discussion with the makers about analogue/digital
mixups. — Read more on P.20
Monday 23 March
Netherton Arts
Centre
—
£ 5.00 / £ 4.00
A rare Flatpack sortie to the Black
Country, to screen two Philip
Donnellan films about Cradley Heath
and Brierley Hill.
— Read more on P.13
tuesday 24 th of March
Communicating with Puppets
Tuesday 24 March
BCU, Parkside
—
Free (deposit
required)
37
wednesday 25 th of March
Today’s Ongoing events
10:00
25 – 26 of March
Timeline
Time + Motion
Standby for Tape Backup
“Two years ago, I found a videotape
in my loft. On it: one and a half films,
one quiz show and two sitcoms.
Somehow it became the story of my
life.” - Ross Sutherland — See P.7
19:00
Wednesday 25
March
mac birmingham
—
£ 12.00 / £ 10.00
20:00
Wednesday 25
March
Millennium Point
—
£ 5.00
Immersive evening of live animation
and performance, featuring Japanese
duo Usaginingen and zoetrope
turntablists Sculpture.
— Read more on P.21
thursday 26 th of March
Today’s Ongoing events
The Amusement Park - BCU, Parkside - 09.00 - 20:00
The Cloud is more than Air and Water - Conservatoire - 10.00 - 22:00
Beethoven’s 5th - Conservatoire - 10:00 - 22:00 - see p.20 for all
10:00
Animation and Beyond
Exploring the ever-growing parameters of animation
through a day of screenings, demonstrations and panel
discussions. — Read more on P.21
Today’s Ongoing events
Thursday 26 March
BCU, Parkside
—
£ 15.00 / £ 10.00
The Amusement Park - BCU, Parkside - 09.00 - 18:00
The Cloud is more than Air and Water - Conservatoire - 10.00 - 22:00
Beethoven’s 5th - Conservatoire - 10:00 - 22:00 - see p.20 for all
09:45
The Finnish Line
17:00
Two-day workshop on the challenges of micro-acting,
led by the award-winning directors of Oh Willy...!
— Read more on P.20
Tuesday 24 March
BCU, Parkside
—
Free
Enjoyably interactive survey of Finnish animators
working beyond film. Includes an opportunity to make
your own short film soundtrack, a digital fortune-teller,
and a zoetrope carousel. Showing alongside for one
night is Elemental, a multi-projector installation by
BIAD student Will Marler. — Read more on P.20
Interactive Filmmaking Workshop
Flatpack hub launch
10:00
Thursday 26 March
Flatpack Kavarna
@ MW
—
Free
18:00
Thursday 26 March
The Bond
—
£ 25.00 + VAT
Day-long session exploring Interlude’s Treehouse, an
authoring app that gives you the tools to create your
own interactive projects.
— Read more on P.28
the doghouse
The Amusement Park opening
Tuesday 24 March
BCU, Parkside
—
Free
To complement new exhibition The
Amusement Park, a selection of films
by some of the animators whose work
features in the show.
— Read more on P.20
The Colony
18:00
19:00
Tuesday 24 March
The Drum
—
£ 7.00 / £ 5.00
Donnellan’s 1964 film on Caribbeans
in north Birmingham, seen in a
different light thanks to a rescore by
Birmingham Jazz.
— Read more on P.13
18:00
The doors open on this year’s gloriously multi-faceted
festival hub, created in partnership with the arts
spaces at Minerva Works. Includes DJs, visuals, food,
the launch of The Doghouse (see opposite) and free
shorts in DVDBang from 7-10pm.
— Read more on P.22
Thursday 26 March
ongoing until
Sunday 29 March
Stryx @ MW
—
£ 4.00
First UK appearance of an immersive
piece from two Danish artists which
plunges you into a family meal.
— Read more on P.23
TAKE A FRESH LOOK
private dining // kitchen table // dinner series // daily market menu
‘Top quality seasonal British produce anchors the whole operation’ AA Restaurant Guide 2015
‘The most sustainable restaurant in the Midlands’ Sustainable Restaurant Association 2015
‘Enjoy the modern British approach of the kitchen’ The Good Food Guide 2015
54 Cornwall Street,
Birmingham B3 2DE
0121 200 2323
@OpusCornwallSt
opusrestaurant.co.uk
40
26 – 27th of March
Timeline
9th Annual
2015
Cross Frequencies
Eclectic shorts programme made up
of innovative works by video artists
from all over the world.
— Read more on P.19
Thursday 26 March
The Electric
Cinema
—
£ 6.00 / £ 5.00
18:30
Animation and Beyond keynote
19:00
Thursday 26 March
BCU, Parkside
—
Free
Keynote lecture by Richard Slaney (Creative
Director) & Zsolt Balogh (Animation Director) from 59
Productions focussing on animation within large scale
live events.
— Read more on P.21
Wonderfully atmospheric vampire
tale, with the streets of Bakersfield
reimagined as underworld Iran.
— Read more on P.14
Monochromatic psych with sharp
edges, featuring optikinetics, alpha
waves and various DJ’s.
— Read more on P.22
Friday 27 th of March
Festival of (In)appropriation
Friday 27 March
The Electric
Cinema
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
20:15
Friday 27 March
Flatpack Kavarna
@ MW
—
Free
22:00
Beats of the Antonov
20:30
Friday 27 March
Flatpack Palais @
The Bond
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Friday 27 March
BCU, Parkside
—
Free
The Amusement Park - BCU, Parkside - 09.00 - 18:00
The Cloud is more than Air and Water - Conservatoire - 10.00 - 22:00
Beethoven’s 5th - Conservatoire - 10:00 - 22:00 - see p.20 for all above
The Doghouse - Stryx @ MW - 15:00 - 22:00 - see p.23
14:00
Cross City Walks
Friday 27 March
Flatpack Palais @
The Bond
—
£ 6.00 / £ 5.00
16:00
15:00
Friday 27 March
ongoing until
Sunday 29 March
Centrala @ MW
—
Free
I’m a Filmmaker, But I Want To Eat
The Producer’s Forum present a lighthearted but
informative look at the the various ways in which we
sustain ourselves, as we pursue the passion to make
films. — Read more on P.28
Friday 27 March
The Mockingbird
—
Free
18:00
Pete Ashton present a treadmill
installation which enables you to
retrace his steps across the city. —
Read more on P.23
Friday 27 March
Centrala @ MW
—
Free
18:00
Friday 27 March
Flatpack Palais @
The Bond
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Friday 27 March
The Electric
Cinema
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
22:30
Polyester in Odorama
23:00
An insight into the development of the new show from
Stan’s Cafe, partly filmed in Tokyo, and a chance to see their
unique spin on benshi narration. — Read more on P.7
A morning of Benjamin-inspired
flânerie through Birmingham’s
shopping arcades, in the company of
Esther Leslie and Ben Waddington.
— Read more on P.6
Saturday 28 March
Great Western
Arcade
—
£ 7.00 / £ 5.00
The Amusement Park - BCU, Parkside - 09.00 - 18:00 - see p.20
The Doghouse - Stryx @ MW - 12:00 - 20:30 - see p.23
Cross City Walks - Centrala @ MW - 15.00 - 20:00 - see p.23
11:00
Shape Shifters
11:00
The Internet’s Own Boy
18:00
Friday 27 March
Impact Hub
—
£ 4.00
Scalarama present a special scratch
n sniff screening of John Waters’
sublime trashfest, with Divine as a
frustrated housewife.
— Read more on P.23
Today’s Ongoing events
DIY Sci-Fi
The first film in the ‘Living’ trilogy is a pre-millennial
classic, with an entire city in meltdown to the
strangely uplifting melodies of Benny Andersson.
— Read more on P.17
Friday 27 March
Vivid Projects @
MW
—
Free
Arcades Walk
18:00
A dizzying range of shorts and music
videos from the Polish filmmaker,
including the Oscar-winning Tango.
— Read more on P.23
saturday 28 th of March
Making Shadows
Songs From the Second Floor
Friday 27 March
The Electric
Cinema
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
22:00
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osborne
Borowczyk’s last great film is a
polymorphously perverse take on
the Stevenson tale, now carefully
restored after years in the darkness.
— Read more on P.15
Thoughtful, toe-tapping new
documentary about the vital role
of music in the Nuba Mountains of
Sudan. — Read more on P.25
Zbigniew Rybczynski: Media Pioneer
Today’s Ongoing events
A Life Less Ordinary
Our first competitive animation programme includes
a number of off-kilter character studies, exploring oral
fixation, cross-dressing animals and elk-fetishism. —
Read more on P.18
41
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Sun! Zoom! Spark!
The latest touring programme from this annual Los
Angeles event, celebrating shortform work that
samples or repurposes in inventive ways.
— Read more on P.20
27 – 28th of March
Timeline
Saturday 28 March
ongoing until
Sunday 29 March
Custard Factory
—
Free
Account of the short but ridiculously productive life
of open-source activist Aaron Swartz, followed by a
discussion of some of the issues that the film throws
up. — Read more on P.29
Saturday 28 March
mac birmingham
—
£ 5.00 / £ 3.00
11:00
Short film programme for all ages,
with magical transformations
including a mum who turns into an
aeroplane and cakes that come to life.
— Read more on P.29
Drawn to be Wild
The Wigout
“My guitar is not a thing. It is an extension of myself. It
is who I am.” - Joan Jett
Full-throttle air-guitar tournament.
— Read more on P.23
11:00
WFMU Live Broadcast: Station Manager Ken
Friday 27 March
Centrala @ MW
—
Free
19:00
19:00
Friday 27 March
Flatpack Kavarna
@ MW
—
Free
One of the world’s finest radio stations is transplanted
from Jersey City to Digbeth for the night.
— Read more on P.22
Model-builders and filmmakers Trevor and Steven
invite you into a hand-made universe created out of
recycled junk. — Read more on P.28
Saturday 28 March
mac birmingham
—
Free
Alongside today’s Colour Box
screenings, we’re teaming up with the
brilliant Anorak magazine to put on
a range of drawing activities through
the day. — Read more on P.29
42
Saturday 28th of March
Timeline
9th Annual
2015
Beatfreeks Workshop: Talking Pictures
Session for writers and poets
interested in talking back to the
screen. — Read more on P.7
Saturday 28 March
Impact Hub
—
Free
12:00
Saturday 28 March
Flatpack Palais @
The Bond
—
£ 6.00 / £ 5.00
13:00
sellotape cinema: Flicker Skitter Stumble
12:00
You, The Living
The middle installment in Andersson’s
trilogy features an even wider,
stranger cast of characters, including
an embattled sausaphonist.
— Read more on P.17
Saturday 28 March
ongoing until
Sunday 29 March
Flatpack Kavarna
@ MW
—
Free
See it...Stick it...Show it… hands-on
workshop creating collisions of
image, light and movement.
— Read more on P.22
Saturday 28 March
mac birmingham
—
£ 5.00 / £ 3.00
When You Wore a Tulip
Saturday 28 March
Centrala @ MW
—
Free
Residents of Wausau, Wisconsin
reminisce about the day a filmcrew came to town in this 1983
documentary. — Read more on P.23
I Want to be a Cinema
An ideal opportunity to share
ideas and compare notes if you’re
interested in setting up your own
venue or filmnight.
— Read more on P.23
Saturday 28 March
Vivid Projects @
MW
—
Free
14:00
Altered Yesterdays
14:00
Both tender and brutal, apparently ramshackle but
completely on it, Richard Dawson’s performances are
an experience not be missed. — Read more on P.23
Saturday 28 March
Centrala @ MW
—
Free
17:00
Saturday 28 March
Flatpack Palais @
The Bond
—
£ 10.00 / £ 8.00
19:00
Saturday 28 March
The Electric
Cinema
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Documentary that has attracted outrage in its home
country for revealing the power-play and intrigue
underlying Bulgaria’s animation history.
— Read more on P.23
Heart Bypass
17:00
17:30
Brilliantly Birmingham triple-bill. Features a 1963
public information film about the ringroad, an episode
of Rex the Runt, and Jonathan Meades’ wry love-letter
to the city.
— Read more on P.22
Saturday 28 March
The Electric
Cinema
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Fly-on-the-wall portrait of incomparable listenerfunded freeform radio station WFMU, as it navigates
the rough seas of the recession.
— Read more on P.25
collage party
19:00
Saturday 28 March
Flatpack Kavarna
@ MW
—
£ 10.00 / £ 8.00
Beyond the Realm
Tokyo Tribe
Saturday 28 March
The Electric
Cinema
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Celebrating the art of the cut-out and
the cut-up, with a free-ranging lineup
of music, film, art and food in spaces
throughout Minerva Works.
— Read more on P.6
20:00
Saturday 28 March
Flatpack Palais @
The Bond
—
£ 6.00 / £ 5.00
22:30
The outer reaches of animation,
including brilliant new shorts from
David O’Reilly, Mirai Mizue and Don
Hertzfeldt (going digital for the first
time). — Read more on P.18
An afternoon of people talking about archives, ranging
from photography and film to sound art and music.
— Read more on P.24
Citation City
15:00
15:00
Saturday 28 March
Flatpack Palais @
The Bond
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
A time-travelling voyage through one
city, assembled from hundreds of
movie clips and inspired by the
wanderings of Walter Benjamin.
— Read more on P.6
Sunday 29 th of March
Don't forget!
The clocks go forward
on Sunday 29 March
When You Wore a Tulip
Residents of Wausau, Wisconsin
reminisce about the day a filmcrew came to town in this 1983
documentary. — Read more on P.23
Today’s Ongoing events
Sunday 29 March
Centrala @ MW
—
Free
The Doghouse - Stryx @ MW - 12:00 - 19:00 - see p.23
Cross City Walks - Centrala @ MW - 15.00 - 20:00 - see p.23
Sellotape Cinema - Flatpack Kavarna @ MW 12.00 - 16:00 - see p.22
DIY Sci-Fi - Custard Factory - 11.00 - 16:00 - see p.28
12:30
Chris Paul Daniels in Conversation
Family Portraits
Our Colour Box day draws to a close with this beautiful
animated feature from France, the tale of a boy who
escapes from slave traders with a baby giraffe as his
companion. — Read more on P.29
Saturday 28 March
Flatpack Palais @
The Bond
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Sex and Broadcasting
21:30
14:00
Zarafa
Saturday 28 March
mac birmingham
—
£ 5.00 / £ 3.00
15:00
Uncle Tony, the Three Fools and the Secret Service
Mind-blowing yakuza hip hop musical set in a nearfuture Tokyo on the verge of all-out gang war.
— Read more on P.15
Saturday 28 March
Flatpack Kavarna
@ MW
—
Free
Saturday 28 March
Centrala @ MW
—
Free
Richard Dawson
Saturday 28 March
Grand Union @
MW
—
Free
Behind the Doghouse
With their discomfiting installation now well underway
at the Flatpack hub, artists Johan Knattrup Jensen and
Mads Damsbo will be talking about the shift from film
to Oculus Rift. — Read more on P.22
An eclectic mix of short films with everything
from Oscar-nominated animations to locally made
documentaries. — Read more on P.19
The second Colour Box shorts programme is for
slightly older viewers (recommended 7+) and includes
a Town Called Panic Christmas special.
— Read more on P.29
13:00
13:00
A dizzying range of shorts and music
videos from the Polish filmmaker,
including the Oscar-winning Tango.
— Read more on P.23
riddles & recitals
Strange Adventures
13:00
Saturday 28 March
The Electric
Cinema
—
£8.00 / £6.00
43
Zbigniew Rybczynski: Media Pioneer
The Joy of Film
Exploring ‘film’ in every essence, this shorts
programme features works by those who use celluloid
for experimentation, to those making comments on
the philosophy of the medium. — Read more on P.19
28 – 29th of March
Timeline
15:00
Saturday 28 March
The Electric
Cinema
—
£ 6.00 / £ 5.00
Selection of documentary, animation
and drama, with each film offering a
distinctive take on the modern family.
— Read more on P.19
13:00
The Irishmen
One of Philip Donnellan’s ‘lost’ films, a vivid impression
of life in the UK for a generation of Irish road-builders.
— Read more on P.13
Sunday 29 March
Spotted Dog
—
Free
13:00
Sunday 29 March
A3 Project Space
—
Free
Alongside his new installation at
A3, Daniels discusses his experimental approach to portraiture
and the importance of place in
his work. — Read more on P.28
2015
Sunday 29th of March
Timeline
45
Sex and Broadcasting
Sunday 29 March
The Electric
Cinema
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
13:00
Video Essays
14:00
Sunday 29 March
Centrala @ MW
—
Free
Fly-on-the-wall portrait of incomparable listener-funded
freeform radio station WFMU, as it navigates the rough
seas of the recession. — Read more on P.25
Way of the Benshi: Open Mic
14:00
viennoiserie
Scalarama 2015: Campaign Launch
HANDMADE
Setting the wheels in motion for a
mammoth film season that will fill the
land with cinemas in September.
Sunday 29 March
Vivid Projects @
MW
—
Free
Your chance to try your hand at the
film-narration game. Pick a sequence
or a short, and bring it along.
— Read more on P.7
Tomorrow Is Always Too Long
Video Strolls
Sunday 29 March
Centrala @ MW
—
Free
Sunday 29 March
Flatpack Kavarna
@ MW
—
Free
14:00
15:30
A collective straddling Edinburgh,
Birmingham and London, the Video
Strollers create and curate short films
of an exploratory, ambulatory nature.
— Read more on P.23
A sample of this burgeoning online
form, which dissects everything from
Bresson and Kubrick to Seinfeld and
Transformers. — Read more on P.23
Sunday 29 March
The Electric
Cinema
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
16:00
This new feature by Phil Collins (the artist not the
drummer) is a kaleidoscopic vision of Glasgow starring
its citizens and the songs of Cate Le Bon.
— Read more on P.15
The Colour of Pomegranates
Sunday 29 March
The Electric
Cinema
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
17:30
A Pigeon on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
17:30
Sunday 29 March
mac birmingham
—
£ 8.00 / £ 6.00
Parajanov’s inimitable rhapsody on the life of Armenian
poet and musican Sayat-Nova, restored to its original
eye-popping glory by Bologna Cinematheque.
— Read more on P.15
The trilogy draws to a close, this time with Andersson’s
tragicomic vision making room for a marauding 18th
century army and two joke salesman. Winner of the
Golden Lion at Venice. — Read more on P.17
Outer Sight 16mm Speakeasy
FLATPACK FESTIVAL PASS EXCLUSIVE OFFER
20% DISCOUNT ON FOOD
2 FOR 1 ON LARGE PIZZAS
THE CUSTARD FACTORY - DIGBETH - BIRMINGHAM
Helping Flatpack to fade out with a medley of obscure
celluoid treats from the Outer Sight vaults.
— Read more on P.23
Sunday 29 March
Centrala @ MW
—
Free
18:00
Flatpack Short Film Awards + Unlikely Film Quiz
18:45
Sunday 29 March
Flatpack Kavarna
@ MW
—
£ 5.00
We climax with distribution of the
famed allen-keys, followed by a
warped cabaret quiz.
— Read more on P.22
46
Events
9th Annual
2015
47
Events
THE WORLD’S FIRST GREENFIELD FILM FESTIVAL
welcome to birmingham
Flatpack’s recommendations on where to eat, drink and be merry in the second city
Eat and Drink
Around Digbeth
Places to stay
City Centre
The Warehouse Café
Here you can tuck into delicious vegan and
vegetarian fare, lovingly prepared.
—
54-57 Allison Street, Birmingham. B5 5TH
www.thewarehousecafe.com The Karczma
Critically acclaimed, The Karczma is the
place to go for hearty traditional Polish
cuisine in a totally unique setting. One for
the carnivores, with some veggie options.
Also serves delicious Mead.
—
Polish Millennium House, Bordesley Street,
Digbeth. B5 5PH
www.thekarczma.co.uk
Rico Libre
Birmingham’s newest tapas joint, the
family run Rico has been causing quite a
stir recently, and building a well-deserved
reputation for serving up delicious,
traditional tapas dishes in its quirky
Digbeth venue. (BYOB, booking advised).
—
1 Barn Street, Digbeth. B5 5QD
www.rico-libre.co.uk
Alfie Birds
A chilled out eatery by day and a lively
bar and venue by night. Serves up a good
range of pizzas, burgers and salads.
—
The Custard Factory, Digbeth,
Birmingham. B9 4AA
www.alfiebirds.co.uk
The Spotted Dog
An Irish boozer with excellent beer garden.
Good ales and the occasional bit of ceilidh
music to boot.
—
Warwick Street, Digbeth. B12 0NH
www.spotteddog.co.uk
Old Crown & Old Crown Coffee Club
The oldest Inn in the city (established in
1368), it serves good food and ales. They
also have a little cafe where you can order
everything from a full English or pastries to
deli sandwiches.
—
188 High Street, Digbeth, B12 0LD
www.theoldcrown.com
Sushi Passion
A traditional sushi and sashimi restaurant,
Sushi Passion recently moved to a serene
new home in the Great Western Arcade
and continues to build on its reputation for
some of the best sushi in the city. (Booking
advised).
—
Great Western Arcade,
Colmore Row, B2 5HU
www.facebook.com/pages/
Sushi-Passion/212584485422108
Cherry Reds
Good value homely food, snacks and a
wide selection of ales and ciders.
—
88-90 John Bright Street. B1 1BN
www.cherryreds.com
Topokki
A relaxed canteen-style Korean restaurant.
If you don’t know your Bibimbap from
your Dubap, staff are happy to guide you
through the menu.
—
Unit 1C, South Side, Hurst Street. B5 4TD
www.yelp.co.uk/biz/topokki-birmingham
Flatpack not enough?
Here are our picks of what else is on…
WATCH THE LATEST FILMS • CLASSICS • LIVE MUSIC • CHILDREN’S CINEMA
DIRECTOR Q&AS • INDUSTRY WORKSHOPS • MEMORABILIA
HUGE OUTDOOR SCREEN • GLAMPING • INDOOR MARQUEES WITH SEATING
COCKTAILS • REAL ALE BARS • STREET FOOD STALLS
EARLY BIRD TICKETS NOW ON SALE FOR £99 PLUS BOOKING FEE
WWW. FLICKERAMA.CO.UK
Equinox
New mixed media festival from youth arts
outfit Beatfreeks, popping up in a different
location each day and culminating with
an awards event in the city centre on
Friday 20 March.
—
16-20 March. Across Birmingham
www.equinoxfestival.tumblr.com
Birmingham Digital Week
Five days of skills development and
networking events for the city’s digital
sector.
—
16-20 March. Across Birmingham
Arts & Science Festival
A week-long programme of talks,
exhibitions and screenings showcasing
culture and research on the University
campus and beyond. This year’s theme is
‘Sight and Sound.’
—
16-22 March, University of Birmingham
and other venues
www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/
arts-and-science
Frontiers Festival
Celebration of contemporary music, with
a particular focus on the intersection
between electronic and acoustic sounds.
Includes Jonathan Harvey’s From Silence
and an evening devoted to the music of
Philippe Hurel.
—
16-23 March. The Conservatoire
and other venues
www.frontiersmusic.org
Mat Jenner: Dreams Time Free
Grand Union will be transformed into a social
and gallery space for ephemeral material as
well as an interactive audio archive.
—
Till 3 April. Grand Union
www.grand-union.org.uk
Birmingham Show
An exhibition as history and not history,
connecting gaps, distances and potentials
of artists who have lived, worked or
studied within the city.
—
Till 11 April. Eastside Projects
www.eastsideprojects.org
Open Social – Film Night
A chance for young people aged 15-19 to
visit the exhibitions at Ikon and enjoy film
screenings and workshops, organised in
collaboration with Reel Access.
—
Friday 27 March. Ikon Gallery,
6.30–9pm - FREE
www.ikon-gallery.co.uk
Chris Paul Daniels: You Are Here
Chris Paul Daniels has made a series of
newly commissioned audio and video
portraits of residents and workers from
Digbeth and Bordesley Village.
—
27-29 March. A3 Project Space, 12-5pm
www.a3projectspace.org
Birmingham Opera Company:
The Ice Break
Michael Tippett’s opera about identity, race
and rebellion in a modern world. Preceded
by #breakingtheice, a series of events
exploring art and social responsiblity.
—
Early April, Birmingham
www.birminghamopera.org.uk
Hotel du Vin
Housed in a former Victorian eye hospital,
a luxurious option in the city centre.
—
Church Street, Birmingham, B3 2NR
www.hotelduvin.com/locations/birmingham
Malmaison Birmingham
Upmarket canalside hotel in old post
office building, with sleek bedrooms and a
brasserie/bar.
—
The Mailbox, 1 Wharfside Street, B1 2JR
www.malmaison.com
Travelodge Birmingham
Central Moor Street
With Digbeth and the city centre on
your doorstep, this hotel is in the perfect
location to explore the city.
—
Carrs Lane, Birmingham. B4 7SS
www.travelodge.co.uk
Premiere Apartments
Serviced apartments suitable for both short
and longer stays. Located conveniently
between Digbeth and the city centre.
—
Dean House, 38 Upper Dean Street. B5 4SG
www.premierapartmentsbirmingham.com
Hatters
Friendly and comfortable hostel in the
heart of the Jewellery Quarter.
—
92–95 Livery Street Jewellery Quarter,
Birmingham B3 1RJ.
www.hattersgroup.com
Birmingham Central Backpackers
Former pub made homely hostel with
brightly painted walls. As well as a cinema
room, some rooms are equipped with
pods.
—
58 Coventry Street, Digbeth. B5 5NH
www.birminghambackpackers.com
Paragon
No-frills hotel housed in a Victorian Gothic
revival building in the heart of Digbeth.
—
145 Alcester Street, Birmingham, B12 0PJ
www.theparagonhotel.co.uk
For more options you can search via the
accommodation directory at
www.visitbirmingham.com
2015
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flatpackfestival.org.uk/credits
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M I N ERVA WO RKS
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For more details on the Flatpass see:
flatpackfestival.org.uk/shop
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Flatpass Partners
Flatpass holders also get discounts at a
number of Birmingham cafés and eateries:
More than just a
festival
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21. mac birmingham
Cannon Hill Park, Edgbaston, B12 9QH
2. A3 Project Space
Unit A3, 2 Bowyer Street B10 0SA
12. The Drum
144 Potters Lane, Newtown,
B6 4UU
22. Millennium Point
Curzon Street, B4 7XG
3. Barber Institute of Fine Arts
University of Birmingham,
Edgbaston, B15 2TS
13. The Electric Cinema
47-49 Station St, B5 4DX
23. The Mockingbird
Custard Factory, Gibb St,
Digbeth, B9 4AA
4. BCU, Parkside
6 Cardigan St, Birmingham
B4 7BD
14. Flatpack Kavarna @ MW
Unit 9 Minerva Works, 158
Fazeley St, Digbeth, B5 5RT
24. Netherton Arts Centre (nac)
Northfield Road, Netherton,
Dudley, DY2 9ER
5. Birmingham & Midland
Institute
9 Margaret St, B3 3BS
15. Flatpack Palais @ The Bond
180-182 Fazeley St, Digbeth,
B5 5SE
25. Old Joint Stock Theatre
4 Temple Row West, B2 5NY
6. Birmingham Cathedral
Colmore Row, B3 2QB
16. Grand Union @ MW
19 Minerva Works, 158 Fazeley
St, Digbeth, B5 5RT
7. Birmingham Conservatoire
Paradise Place, Fletchers Walk,
B3 3HG
Spring 2016, Birmingham
www.flatpackfestival.org.uk
17. Great Western Arcade
Colmore Row, Birmingham B2 SHU
26. Opus
54 Cornwall St, B3 2DE
27. Ort Cafe
500-504 Moseley Rd, Balsall
Heath. B12 9AH
31. The REP
Centenary Square,
Broad St, B1 2EP
32. Vivid Projects @ MW
16 Minerva Works. 16 Fazeley
Street. B5 5RS
33. The Woodman
New Canal St, Digbeth, B5 5LG
Flatpass Partners
34. Alfie Birds
The Custard Factory,
Gibb Street, B9 4AA
35. Rico Libre Tapas
11 Barn Street, B5 5QD
1. 6/8 Kafé
6/8/ Temple Row, B2 5HG
36. Sushi Passion
Great Western Arcade, B2 5HU
19. Hotel Du Vin
25 Church St, B3 2NR
29. St Paul’s Church
St Paul’s Square, Jewellery
Quarter, B3 1QZ
37. The Karczma
Polish Millennium House,
Bordesley Street, B5 5PH
20. Impact Hub
Walker Building, 58 Oxford
Street, Digbeth, B5 5NY
30. Stryx @ MW
13 Minerva Works, 158 Fazeley
Street, Digbeth B5 5RS
38. The Warehouse Café
54-57 Allison Street, B5 5TH
18. Home Café Deli
24-26 Church Street, B3 2NP
9. BOM
1 Dudley Street, B5 4EG
10. Centrala @ MW
Unit 4 Minerva Works, 158
Fazeley Street, Digbeth, B5 5RT
7
St Peter’s Rd
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Travel information
28. Spotted Dog
104 Warwick St, Digbeth B12 0NH
8. BM&AG, Edwardian Tea Rooms
Chamberlain Square, B3 3DH
21
Hil
Church Rd
Venues
11. Custard Factory
Gibb St, Birmingham B9 4AA
Rd
A 459
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1. 6/8 Kafé
6-8 Temple Row, B2 5HG
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Birmingham Talent Centre
Launching Summer 2015
In partnership with Creative England, this
series of events for emerging filmmakers
within the region kicks off in June. Get more
info at the iShorts screening (p.20).
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St Andrews St
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ST AN D RE WS
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Celluloid City
Summer/Autumn 2015
Our cinema heritage day at the Barber (p.8)
is just the beginning, as we plunge into the
story of Birmingham at the movies.
To keep informed of all this, sign up for our
occasional mailouts at the Flatpack website.
CAN N O N H I L L
PA RK
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U N I V ERS I T Y
Ghost Streets of Balsall Heath
Summer 2015
As part of a new project around the
photography of Janet Mendelsohn (see
Altered Yesterdays, p.24), an attempt to
map out the changing geography of Balsall
Heath over the past fifty years.
Lightfest
September 2015
Led by Aston University’s Photonics
Institute, a range of installations, talks and
demonstrations exploring the cutting-edge
of light technology.
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Before the city-straddling behemoth known
as Flatpack, there was a regular night at the
Rainbow in Digbeth called 7 Inch Cinema.
We continue to produce all sorts of projects
year-round, and 2015 already looks busy...
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er A
Board of Directors
Jake Grimley (Chair) (MADE Media)
Paul Drury (Unity)
Sarah Gee (Indigo Ltd)
Ruth Harvey
Sally Hodgson (Pipoca Pictures)
Dan Lawson (Creative Skillset)
Karen Newman (Birmingham Open Media)
St
Qu
l ey
est
Technical Co-ordination
Phil Slocombe and James Islip
lumen.org.uk
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Press and PR
Sarah Bemand
margaretlondon.com
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Bor
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Web Developer
Jacob Masters
gabba.net
St M
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Design
Laura Walpole & Justin Hallström
Dot Dash: thisisdotdash.com
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N E W STREET
eS
Venue Coordinators / Guest support
Jill Arbuckle
Tudor Ghetu
Esther Rush
Pip McKnight
Lily Wales
Milly Walker
Morten Wright
Rebekah Bainbridge
Susan Wareham
1 0, 1 4, 16, 3 0, 3 2
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Festival Interns
Izzie Archer & Stella Kourmoulaki
FESTIVAL HU B @
MINERVA WORKS. SEE P.22
St
s
Per
Ticketing Coordinator
Jenny Duffin
New Street
ley
MOOR STREET
Web: flatpackfestival.org.uk
Email: [email protected]
Ticketing enquires:
[email protected]
Telephone: 0121 771 1509
Festival office: Flatpack Festival,
118 Scott House, the Custard Factory
Gibb St, Birmingham B9 4AA
37
St
Swipeside / Hospitality Coordinator
Sarah McNally
Faz
e
St
Stephenson St
All of the above are available online only.
See the website for further details.
flatpackfestival.org.uk/shop
contact
information
ion
rst
Volunteer Coordinator
Sarah Hamilton Baker
7
Un
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Guest Liaison
Adriana Minu
V I C TO R I A S Q UARE
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Programme Assistant
Lucile Bourliaud
CENTENA RY
SQUA RE
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Festival Assistant
Meghan Finn
PAR A D I S E
FORU M
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Marketing Assistant
Oli McCall
8
31
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Production Coordinator
Chris Swann
LI B R A RY OF
BIRMINGHAM
ay
Marketing Coordinator
Annabel Clarke
Buy 4, Get 1 Free (£32)
(Standard-priced screenings only)
Philip Donnellan Pass (£40)
Roy Andersson Pass (£25)
Short Film Competition Pass (£25)
Brace yourselves….the Flatpass has landed.
A bargain at £80, the Flatpass gets you
into just about everything in the festival
programme. A limited number of these
babies are available, so bag one quick!
id
Programmer
Sam Groves
There are a few money-saving packages to
choose from this year, including:
ol
Operations & Finance Director
Selina Hewlett
Advance tickets can be purchased online
at flatpackfestival.org.uk
Tickets purchased through the Flatpack
website are subject to a £1 booking fee per
order, so it’s best to buy all of your tickets
at the same time to keep charges down.
Advance sales for all events close at
midnight, the night before the event.
Concessionary rate tickets are available for
students with a valid student card, under
16s and over 60s with proof of age, and
registered unemployed with a valid DSS
Form.
Ticket prices remain the same for disabled
guests, but each disabled guest can bring
one carer/signer with them free of charge.
To reserve a ticket, call the festival office
on 0121 771 1509.
Customers with access requirements
should refer to the venue pages on the
Flatpack website for details.
Film certificates are also listed on the
Flatpack website.
We regret that latecomers will not be
admitted once the event has begun.
Full terms and conditions can be found
on the ticketing pages of the Flatpack
website: flatpackfestival.org.uk/shop
H
Director
Ian Francis
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Discount deals
Jam
Booking
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Festival
team
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Tickets & Booking, Flatpass & General
SNOW H I LL
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Events
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9th Annual
en
Events
ue
48
Barber Institute of Fine Arts
Take the A38 (Bristol Road), turn onto
Edgbaston Park Road then left onto
Pritchatts Road. Parking available in the
North-East Car Park. Buses include 61 and
63. University Station is a 10 minute walk
away. Trains leave New Street Station
regularly.
The Drum
Take the A38 towards Aston. Go over the
Aston Expressway and onto the ringroad
towards Dartmouth Circus roundabout.
Straight over the roundabout, up Thomas
Street and left at the top of the road on to
Park Lane. Take the slip road on the left
before the traffic lights. Alternatively, take
the 33 or 51 bus from the city centre.
mac birmingham
Located in Cannon Hill Park, opposite
Edgbaston Cricket Ground (off A441
Pershore Road and A38 Bristol Road).
Buses from the centre include: 1, 35, 45, 47,
62 and 63.
Netherton Arts Centre (nac)
A 30 minute drive from Birmingham.
Exit at Junction 2 of the M5 then take
A4034 towards Black Heath then A4100
to Netherton. For info on public transport
links, see the Flatpack site.
Ort
The 50 bus from the centre goes past Ort.
Bus information: http://nxbus.co.uk/
Timeline
9th Annual
SUMMER HIGHLIGHTS
Index
THIS IS FOR YOU
A—D
Page
D—M
Page
M—T
Page
T—X
Page
8Bit Lounge
9
DVD Bang
23
Making Shadows
7
Taste of Flatpack, A
11
Altered Yesterdays
24
Eclectic Method
6
Man With a Movie Camera
9
Tickets
48
Amusement Park, The 20
Edwardian Horror Show
9
Map
49
Time + Motion
21
Elemental
20
Media/Culture
24
Tokyo Tribe
15
Europe in 8Bits
9
Miners Shot Down
10
Tomorrow Is Always Too Long
15
exhibitions & installations
Nour, Salih Hassan
25
Travelling for a Living
12
Numbskull
14
Tribe, The
15
10
Animation and Beyond
21
10-11, 20, 22-23, 28
Arcades Walk
6
Fairy Tales
11
Observations
19
Trouble in Paradise
AVA Exhibition
28
Family Portraits
19
Outer Sight 16mm Speakeasy
23
Uncle Tony, the Three Fools
Beatfreeks Workshop
7
Festival of (In)appropriation
20
Ozu, Yasujiro
7, 19
Beats of the Antonov
25
Film Bug
8
Paper Cinema’s Odyssey, The
Benshi
7
Finnish Line, The
20
parties
Between Us: Birmingham Portraits
11
Flatpack Day by Day
30-45
6
6, 9, 21, 22
Peggy Seeger in Conversation
13
Wed 29 Apr – Sat 20 Jun
and the Secret Service
25
Unlikely Film Quiz
22
Venues
49
Video Essays
23
Beyond the Realm
18
Flatpack Hub
22
People Like Us
6
Video Strolls
Birmingham guide
47
Flatpack Map
49
Physarum Experiments, The
24
Waddington, Ben
Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, The
10
Flatpack Short Film Awards
22
Pilgrimage of Ti-Jean, The
13
Walk Cheerfully
Flatpass
48
Pigeon on a Branch
Calendar
26-27
Camera Obscura Workshops
10
Cartoon Rock
Celluloid City
11
8, 48
food and drink
10, 11, 22, 47
Force Majeure
Force to be Reckoned With, A
14
11
walks
Reflecting on Existence, A
17
Polyester in Odorama
23
Rex the Runt
Centrala
23
Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, A
14
Riddles and Recitals
Chris Paul Daniels in Conversation
28
Girlhood
14
CineCafe
11
Gone For A Soldier
Citation City
6
city symphonies
6, 8, 11
23
Wigout, The
23
Heart Bypass
22
Seeger, Peggy
13
workshops
House of Friends
13
Sellotape Cinema
11
I’m a Filmmaker, But I Want To Eat
28
Shallcross, Paul
6, 22
I’m Lichen It
24
Shape Shifters
25
8
Year Zero: Black Country, The
13
29
You, The Living
17
11
Zarafa
29
8-11, 17-20, 22-23, 29
Zbigniew Rybczynski: Media Pioneer
23
8, 9
6
Ink & Pixels
20
Shizzles and Giggles
Colony, The 13
Interactive Filmmaking Workshop
28
shorts
11, 29
Internet Cat Videos 8
Sidewalk Stories
15
Internet’s Own Boy, The 25
silent cinema
Communicating with Puppets
20
Irishmen, The
13
Sirens
35
Coventry Kids
12
iShorts Showcase
20
Smith, Albert
22
Creeping Garden, The
24
Joe the Chainsmith
12
Songs From the Second Floor
17
Cross City Walks
23
Joy of Film, The
19
Standby for Tape Backup
7
Cross Frequencies
19
Landmarks 1-3
12
Strange Adventures
29
Culture Club
24
Landmarks 4-6
12
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll
Life Less Ordinary, A
18
Lil Bub and Friendz
8
Sun! Zoom! Spark!
22
Lisa Gornick’s Live Drawing Show
10
Swipeside
20
Ta-Co Workshop
20
Doghouse, The
22-23
Donnellan, Philip
12-13
Drawn To Be Wild
29
live cinema
6, 7, 10, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28
LOLGBT Shorts
10
Magic Cinema, The
11
A vibrant and accomplished
college professor (Julianne
Moore) disappears in front
of her friends, family and
herself as Alzheimer’s
disease slowly destroys
her mind.
New to Warwick Arts Centre?
We’re the biggest arts
centre in the Midlands,
showcasing the best in
theatre, films, dance,
music, classical music,
visual art and comedy.
See warwickartscentre.
co.uk/your-visit for details
on how to get here.
A recently married gay
couple (John Lithgow,
Alfred Molina) are forced
to move into separate
households after they lose
their home, an arrangement
which causes many
unforeseen challenges.
A Translation
of Shadows
Wed 22 – Fri 24 Apr
A world premiere from
local heroes Stan’s Cafe. A
Japanese film, a besotted
narrator and trouble ahead.
CHRIS BRETT BAILEY
This is How
We Die
Tue 19 & Wed 20 May
A prime slice of surrealist
trash, an Americana death
trip and a dizzying exorcism
for a world convinced it
is dying…
LIVE LIVE CINEMA
The Little Shop
of Horrors
Wed 10 – Sat 13 Jun
Roger Corman’s cult 1960
film is screened whilst the
live soundtrack is created by
four performers working at
break-neck speed.
Family Day
Sun 31 May
Celebrate the start of
summer with the whole
family with a glorious day of
theatre, games, food, sports,
films, crafts and much more.
Dinosaur Zoo
Fri 3 - Sun 5 Apr
The perfect Easter treat.
See these awesome
prehistoric creatures on the
stage as you’ve never seen
them before!
Aliens Love
Underpants
Fri 29 - Sun 31 May
This zany and hilarious
tale based on the bestselling children’s book is
wonderfully brought to life on
stage for the very first time.
Mexrrissey Mexico Goes
Morrissey
Milton Jones
Thu 30 Apr
A band made in Mexico
City reinventing Morrissey’s
songs south of the border.
Together they sound like
a brass and accordion led
combo from the smallest
village with the biggest
bleeding heart.
Stornoway
Sat 9 May
Stornoway will be
performing songs from their
new album which has been
produced by Gil Norton
(Pixies, Foo Fighters).
Django Django
Fri 22 May 7.30pm
Part of the Warwick Music
Festival, celebrating 50 years
of the University of Warwick.
and the Temple of Daft
Fri 24 Apr 8pm
Yes, him with the loud shirts
and messed up hair from
Mock the Week, Live at the
Apollo, Michael McIntyre’s
Roadshow and multiple
series on BBC Radio 4. An
evening in the company of
an idiot.
Rich Hall
3:10 to Humour
Sun 26 Apr 7.30pm
The award-winning Montana
native renowned for his
expertly crafted tirades
and quick fire banter with
audiences and delightful
musical sequences tours the
British Isles once again.
Dylan Moran
Wed 13 May 8pm
Dylan Moran, star of Black
Books, Shaun of the Dead
and Calvary is back with his
new stand up show.
7-9, 11, 15
and Miss Osborne, The
tableaux vivants
Still Alice
STAN’S CAFE
10
Colour of Pomegranates, The
8-10, 12-13, 19-20, 23-24, 25
7, 10, 11, 20, 22, 24, 28, 29
World of Internet Cats, The
Collage Party
documentaries
22
Scalarama 2015: Campaign Launch
Coffee Cupping
28
WFMU Live Broadcast 13
Sex and Broadcasting
DIY Sci-Fi
22, 25
13
22
23, 24
WFMU
7
Where Do We Go From Here?
I Want to be a Cinema
Dawson, Richard
6, 23, 24
Way of the Benshi: Open Mic
This Oscar-nominated
Argentinian film is a
collection of horribly
delicious shorts based
around the theme of
vengeance.
Love is
Strange
7
Roy Andersson: Commercials & Shorts 17
19, 21, 22
This FREE exhibition
examines how the forces that
shaped the University also
influenced the development
of the collection and includes
the work of over 60 artists
such as Yoko Ono, Terry
Frost, and Andy Warhol.
6, 24
23
9
Colour Box, family film
19
23
When You Wore a Tulip
Club Two-Five-Six
Collabradors
22
The First 50 Years
of The University of
Warwick Art Collection
Wild Tales
COMEDY
Simon Patterson, Cosmic Wallpaper, 2002, digital wallpaper
6, 10-11, 15, 18-21, 23, 25, 29
Imagining a
University
MUSIC
Dinosaur Zoo
animation
THEATRE
& DANCE FAMILY
Dylan Moran
16-17
See website for film times.
This is How We Die
Andersson, Roy
MEAD
GALLERY FILM
Still Alice
50
15
15, 17
talks + Q&As
7, 8, 11, 13, 14, 21-22, 24-25, 28
Warwick Arts Centre
@warwickarts
Box Office 024 7652 4524 / warwickartscentre.co.uk
Warwick Arts Centre,
The University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL
52
Events
9th Annual