Flatpack 2013 programme

Flatpack Festival d n a , m l i F e m o s n e th 21–31 March 2013 Birmingham, UK www.flatpackfestival.org

Contents Programme summary........................... 4 Birmingham Arts Lab revisited..............6 Film Bug.........................................8–11 The rest of the programme, in chronological order...............12–33

Welcome Hello, and welcome to the seventh edition of Flatpack, “the UK’s most creatively curated film festival.” Eleven (count ’em!) days of cinematic excitement in venues all over Birmingham.

A fair few of the 100+ events, screenings and exhibitions in this publication are free, so if you’ve never been to the festival before – dive in, and try something out.

Calendar......................................20–21 Colour Box...................................22–23 Venues and booking.....................36–37 Index.................................................38 Kickstarter credits..............................39

Supporters

Partners

Pictured: Birmingham Arts Lab brass band, in Newtown in the mid-70s.

See p.6 for more on our Lab focus.

2013 in summary

Features

Rediscoveries

Belfast punks, Filipino gangsters and Disney girls gone bad. Films from Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Sardinia and Preston. A captivating 16mm animation that took 15 years to make, and a freewheeling debut by a 19 year old from Shrewsbury.

Once again we connect up the most exciting new work with the pioneers of the past. Includes ground-breaking animation, super-rare archive TV and cult cinema digitally resurrected.

A Hijacking (dir. Tobias Lindholm).................p.33 Babeldom* (dir. Paul Bush)..........................p.13 Consuming Spirits (dir. Chris Sullivan)..........p.13 Flying Blind* (dir. Katarzyna Klimkiewicz).....p.12 Good Vibrations* (dir. Lisa Barros D’Sa, Glenn Leyburn).......................................p.12 Mondomanila [top right] (dir. Khavn de la Cruz)..p.26 Piercing Brightness* (dir. Shezad Dawood)...p.28 Spring Breakers (dir. Harmony Korine)...........p.14 Strings* (dir. Rob Savage)...........................p.14 The King (dir. Giovanni Columbu)..................p.29 Vanishing Waves* (dir. Kristina Buozyte).......p.28 Wadjda (dir. Haifaa al-Mansour)...................p.33

8mm Cine Club...........................................p.10 The Adventures of Prince Achmed (dir. Lotte Reiniger, 1927)........................p.13 After the Flood (dir. Various).........................p.24 Grey Gardens (dir. Maysles Brothers, 1975)..p.12 Lithuanian Animation (dir. Various)..............p.19 The Mad Magician (dir. John Brahm, 1954).....p.26 The Mind of Evil (dir. Timothy Combe, 1971.....p.27 The Passion of Joan of Arc (dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)...............p.10 The Phantom Tollbooth (dir. Chuck Jones)....p.23 Possession (dir. Andrzej Zulawski, 1981)....p.25 The Quiet Pioneer (dir. Jim Berrow, 1987).....p.28 Safety Last! (dir. Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor, 1923)....................................p.8 Son of Man (dir. Gareth Davies, 1969)..........p.14 Soviet Animation in 3D (dir. Various)............p.28 WR – Mysteries of the Organism [right] (dir. Dusan Makavejev, 1971)..................p.32

Documentaries Space cadets abound in this year’s non-fiction strand, most obviously in International Space Orchestra and Lebanese Rocket Society. Plus two portraits of bloody-minded visionaries, Bruce Lacey and Matsuo Ohno, and a skewed take on youth culture in Eastern Europe and California.

Closer to home, One Mile Away is an anatomy of Birmingham’s postcode wars.

Bicycle Dreams (dir. Stephen Auerbach).......p.27 The Bruce Lacey Experience* (dir. Nick Abrahams & Jeremy Deller)........p.25 The Echo of Astroboy’s Footsteps (dir. Masanori Tominaga).........................p.32 The Gatekeepers (dir. Dror Moreh)................p.13 International Space Orchestra* [left] (dir. Nelly Ben Hayoun)............................p.25 The Lebanese Rocket Society* (dir. Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige)...p.25 One Mile Away* (dir. Penny Woolcock).........p.14 Only The Young (dir. Elizabeth Mims & Jason Tippet).........................................p.29 The Posters Came From the Walls* (dir. Nick Abrahams & Jeremy Deller)........p.27 Urbanized (dir. Gary Hustwit).......................p.9

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* We hope the filmmakers will be present.

Live events and parties

Shorts There are literally hundreds of shorts to be found scattered through the eleven days of Flatpack, many of them screening for free. Also keep a look out for voting slips, as we’re doing an audience short film award for the first time this year.

Live scores in the programme this year range from Harold Lloyd in Great Western Arcade to forgotten B-movie The Mask, revived with effects pedals and theremin at the 3D Party. Also look out for pop-up Mussorgsky from Birmingham Opera, a celluloid party at Thinktank and mind-blowing AV sets by Demdike Stare and Lee Gamble.

Cityscapes..................................................p.9 Dissimilated Visions.......................................p.8 Eastern Lo-Fi...............................................p.33 Edgeless Shapes.........................................p.15 IdeasTap Films.............................................p.24 KINO 10: ROFLOL.........................................p.10 Musictube...................................................p.9 Natural Habitats..........................................p.25 Nightlife.....................................................p.10 Pick ‘n’ Mix 1 [top left].....................................p.24 Pick ‘n’ Mix 2...............................................p.27 Prometheus’ Garden.....................................p.19 Shynola: Collected Works.............................p.19 Short and Swede..........................................p.10 Soviet Animation in 3D.................................p.28 A Taste of Flatpack......................................p.8 Tilted Axis...................................................p.24

3D Party [right]............................................p.29 The Adventures of Prince Achmed................p.13 At the Table................................................p.29 Celluloid Nights...........................................p.15 Cyclomania................................................p.27 Demdike Stare + Lee Gamble.......................p.26 Eyes on the Prize.........................................p.33 Kopf Kino......................................................p.8 New British by Night....................................p.13 Out of the Inkwell........................................p.32 Palais Opening............................................p.18 The Passion of Joan of Arc...........................p.10 The Queen Ant Made Me Do It!.....................p.11 Renga........................................................p.19 Safety Last!..................................................p.8 Sol Cinema...................................................p.9 Songs and Dances of Death.........................p.9

Exhibitions Taking a lead from the Arts Lab tribute, not only are there Lab posters on display in the Palais but there’s also a choice selection of Polish poster art in Flatpack’s temporary cafe round the corner, and Vivid Projects will be hosting their own 70s time machine.

Arts Lab posters...........................................p.18 Basha.........................................................p.18 Birmingham Arts Lab Sessions......................p.18 Kjærsti Andvig & Lars Laumann, 999321.......p.18 Picture Houses............................................p.15 While it Lasts..............................................p.12

Animation Our soft spot for animation is an open secret, and we’re consistently knocked out by the quality of shorts that come through the door; so much so that we’ve doubled the number of animation programmes this year. Special guests include Shynola, Lee Hardcastle and the people behind A Liar’s Autobiography, and we urge you to catch Consuming Spirits if you can.

As ever, Colour Box (p.22) is also awash with animation including the amazing Ernest and Celestine, and do not miss the world’s oldest surviving animated feature — The Adventures of Prince Achmed — with live dulcimer (p.13).

Animation Forum Talk...................................p.11 Consuming Spirits (dir. Chris Sullivan)..........p.13 Edgeless Shapes [right] (dir. Various).............p.15 Lithuanian Animation (dir. Various).............p.19 Natural Habitats (dir. Various)....................p.25 Prometheus’ Garden (dir. Bruce Bickford).....p.19 Soviet Animation in 3D (dir. Various)............p.28 Shynola: Collected Works (dir. Shynola).......p.19

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Walks, talks and workshops Never the place for passive consumption, Flatpack is more active than ever this year.

Animation Forum Talk...................................p.11 Animation Station........................................p.22 Brummies, Boozers and Bruisers...................p.28 Back to the Lab............................................p.24 Celluloid Nights...........................................p.15 Gangs of Digbeth.........................................p.24 Kabaddi [right]..............................................p.32 Invisible Architecture...................................p.10 The Name’s not Bond...................................p.13 The Polish Poster and Film............................p.28 Screen-printing workshop............................p.27 Subterraneans.............................................p.9 Surreal Enigmas...........................................p.10 Unpacked...................................................p.17 Victorian Magic Lantern Show.......................p.12

Colour Box Features, shorts and free activities for younger viewers and doers.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed.................p.13 Animal Magic + Creature Features.................p.9 Animation Station........................................p.22 Cartoon Rock..............................................p.27 Colour Box 1 & 2 [left]............................p.22/23 Ernest & Celestine......................................p.23 Moomins and the Comet Chase....................p.22 The Phantom Tollbooth...............................p.23

Arts Lab revisited Spend a while watching footage of 1970s Birmingham, and you start to feel as if you’ve travelled to a different planet. As though mourning the demise of “the greatest decade in the history of mankind” weren’t enough, the city was also dealing with disappearing industries and the lingering effects of petrol-fuelled lunatics in the planning department. The food was rubbish too.

Yet at the same time it was a surprisingly creative period, fertile ground for all sorts of musicians, artists and thinkers as the counter-culture slowly made its way into the bloodstream. At the heart of this quiet revolution was the Birmingham Arts Lab. Arts Labs were everywhere in the late 60s.

The idea was that anyone could set one up and there were no hierarchies. Experimentation was everything, particularly across artforms. David Bowie started one in his local pub, and told the Melody Maker: “I never knew there were so many sitar players in Beckenham.” Meanwhile, the foundations had been laid in Birmingham by a series of hallucinatory gigs under the name Strange Days — in the arena at the Midlands Arts Centre, and later in the Moseley Institute — which became fundraising events for a proposed Lab. “The Birmingham Arts Lab fund goes about its wearying business of raising bread, in order to establish, what may loosely be termed, a creative crucible for the area,” wrote Mark Williams in the International Times, and by 1970 the group had moved into the first floor of a former youth club on Tower Street in Newtown.

Within a couple of years most of the country’s Labs had splintered or fizzled out, but from unpromising beginnings Birmingham’s survived and thrived, and by the end of the decade it was

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West Midlands Arts’ biggest client. How this happened is a strange and fascinating tale full of colourful characters and murky coffee, a story we’ve picked up in fragments from cuttings and café conversations, but one which has never really been properly archived or told. We won’t begin to achieve that during these few days, but by nominating Birmingham Arts Lab as our ‘patron saint’ for Flatpack 7 we hope to get people talking about the Lab’s legacy and what we’ve gained and lost since then.

So why did it last so long? One simplistic answer is film. One of the first things to be installed at Tower Street was a screening space pillaged from local fleapits and building sites, quickly dubbed “the world’s most uncomfortable cinema.” The programme for the Lab’s first Film Festival was a blend of arthouse and avant-garde cinema the likes of which Birmingham had never seen: Oshima, Emshwiller, Makavejev, Mekas and so on.

Not obvious box office, but over time the screening programme became an important part of the Lab’s finances, as with many other arts centres helping to subsidise the more expensive performance and visual arts programmes. The principals behind the film side were Tony Jones, involved from the outset in the Strange Days events, and Peter Walsh, an Irish student who had been showing Warhol films on campus.

Working alongside them were performers, artists, musicians, designers and writers, a loose affiliation of anarchists and enthusiasts all throwing things at the wall and seeing what would stick. Talking to these people now from the vantage point of 2013, the level of freedom they had is astonishing. “We were encouraged

Arts Lab Events Back to the Lab – discussion event Flatpack Palais, 29 March, 1.30pm.................p.24 After the Flood – archive screening Custard Factory Theatre, 29 March, 3.30pm....p.24 The Bruce Lacey Experience + Q&A Custard Factory Theatre, 29 March, 8.45pm....p.25 Screen Printing workshop Get a Grip, 30 March, 12.30pm.......................p.27 Birmingham Arts Lab Sessions VIVID Projects, 28–31 March..........................p.18 Arts Lab posters and pasteup show Flatpack Palais/Kavarna, 29-31 March.........p.18

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Bob Linney poster, 1974 Arts Lab ephemera, 1970 John Angus poster, 1975 Hunt Emerson cartoon, 1998

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to make mistakes,” says Stuart Rogers, who was given responsibility for the theatre programme as a 19 year old and remembers constructing the auditorium from pallets. A couple of others built a silk-screen press from scratch, and in the process of teaching themselves created a string of amazingly vibrant posters advertising Lab activities. For the first few years money was scarce and most of it was spent on the programme. A number of core members lived on the premises, and as Walsh recalled: “the sleeping quarters were above and below the coffee bar, and given the sort of lifestyle people were leading you would end up with punters coming in as a door or window opened above the serving area, with somebody just getting out of bed.”

Quite a contrast with the professionalised arts world of today with its business plans and risk assessments, and yet this ramshackle atmosphere launched some impressive careers. Rogers left in the mid 70s, but returned many years later to run Birmingham Rep. Jones went on to set up City Screen, the UK’s biggest chain of arthouse

cinemas, and after sticking with the Lab through its transition to the Triangle at Aston University Walsh eventually returned to Ireland to programme the Irish Film Institute in Dublin. Sadly he died last year, and this festival is partly an opportunity to remember the massive contribution he made to the city’s film culture over twenty five years.

People who were there talk with regret about the latter years of the Lab and the messy merger with Aston University. Nonetheless traces of its influence are everywhere to be seen, scattered across the city and embodied by the likes of Stan’s Cafe, BEAST, Capsule, Fierce, BE Festival, Birmingham Opera Company and many others.

Over the past couple of years Balsall Heath has seen the flourishing of Ort, a café and arts space run by volunteers with a mix of pragmatism and idealism that Lab folks would probably recognise and admire. Then as now, the challenge is to give people an alternative to working and shopping, a window on another world and something they can feel part of.

Film Bug

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= Venue key (map on p.11)

Thursday 21 – Saturday 23 March Colmore Business District Following the success of last year’s first Film Bug outing, we’ve teamed up with Colmore Business District once again, but this time we’re sticking around in the city centre for even longer. This year Film Bug runs over three days giving you even more opportunity to experience a host of shorts and feature film screenings, talks, walking tours, live scores, and various other bits and bobs in some of the district’s most interesting spaces and venues.

And most of it’s free.

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The Film Bug Hub is located on Colmore Row, just up from Snow Hill.

As well as some awesome experimental films showing in there, our trusty volunteers will be on hand to offer advice on the programme.

Pedal-Powered Cinema Thursday 21 March, 12–4pm Great Western Arcade / Free If you’re seeking entertainment and exercise on your lunchbreak, here's both in one handy package. With help from Sustrans a pedal-powered cinema will be setting up in the arcade for the afternoon, screening a range of cycling films as a (literal) warm-up for Cyclomania next weekend (p.27). Keep pedalling though, or the show’s over.

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Dissimilated Visions Thursday 21 March, 12–6pm Friday 22 March, 12–7.30pm Saturday 23 March, 12–6pm Film Bug Hub / Free, 30 mins (loop) Located in the Film Bug Hub, Dissimilated Visions is a single screen installation of some of the finest contemporary short experimental works with work from the Netherlands, Japan and the US. Drop in, say hello, and discover more of what Film Bug has to offer.

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A Taste of Flatpack Thursday 21 March, 5.30pm Home Café Deli / Free Dir. Various, 75 mins If you’re dipping your toes into the Flatpack bath for the first time then this is the screening for you. Cramming the best of Flatpack into just over an hour is no easy feat so this mixtape of shorts may well leave you wanting more.

You can bring your own booze but note that there’ll be a corkage charge.

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kopf Kino Thursday 21 – Saturday 23 March, 6–10pm Roaming / Free Kopf Kino is a futuristic-looking device on wheels projecting images of whoever looks into it onto buildings. It’ll be meandering around the city centre for three nights, so seek it out, look inside it, and get dwarfed by a 2D version of yourself on the closest façade.

Safety Last!

Thursday 21 March, 8pm Great Western Arcade / £8 (£6) Dir. Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor USA 1923, 73 mins The opening night of Flatpack has seen us visiting various churches and concert halls across the city, but this is the first time we’ve launched proceedings in a shopping arcade.

Built in 1875 on top of a railway cutting between Snow Hill and Moor Street stations, the spectacular Great Western Arcade will be transforming itself into a cinema for one night only.

Our main feature includes one iconic moment which defined the film and its creator forever. Even if you’ve seen it a hundred times the clock-hanging sequence never fails to startle, but Harold Lloyd’s 1923 romantic comedy Safety Last! offers plenty of other unexpected pleasures and delights. This evening it will be accompanied by pianist John Sweeney, and before the lights go down there will be music and refreshments from some of the arcade’s wide variety of independent retailers.

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Saturday 23 March, 11am–4pm The Gas Hall, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery / Free

11am Colour Bugs: Animal Magic Dir. Various, 55 mins

A spin-off from our Colour Box programme, this selection of animated shorts delves deep into the animal kingdom where weird and wonderful creatures roam the lands. For children aged 4+.

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Sol Cinema Friday 22 & Saturday 23 March, 11am–4pm Birmingham Cathedral Sq & High St Free Those familiar with the festival will know of our fondness for mobile picturehouses, and this year we’re delighted to have the world’s smallest solar-powered cinema with us for a couple of days. Converted from a caravan, Sol Cinema is powered entirely by the sun and can only accommodate eight people per screening. But don’t worry, there’ll be plenty of opportunity to grab some popcorn, take a seat, sit back and enjoy as screenings are every fifteen minutes.

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Musictube Friday 22 March, 4pm Yorks Bakery Café / Free Dir. Various, 60 mins 2012 was a stellar year for promos and this crop of music videos highlights some of the best from all over the world. Featuring Dash Shaw’s Seraph from Sigur Ros’s hugely popular Valtari project, Tame Impala’s joyful animated video for Feels Like We Only Go Backwards by Becky Sloan and Joe Pelling, and Hazel O’Brien’s Lotte Reiniger-esque vid for recently signed Birmingham-based band Troumaca.

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Secret Screenings Friday 22 March, 4–8pm Secret Location / Free (with password) 40 mins Behind the hidden door you’ll find a delightful little cinema, but how to find it? Get over to the Film Bug Hub for clues. Admittance is only granted with the correct password.

Screenings are on the hour from 4pm, last entry at 7pm.

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SubterranEans Friday 22 March, 5.30pm Meet at Film Bug Hub / £7 (£5) 90 mins Beneath our feet, the city is riddled with miles of underground roads, abandoned subways, service tunnels, bomb shelters, lost rivers, cellars, crypts and catacombs. Most of it is sealed off, misremembered and ripe for the transition into legend. Uncover the truth about Birmingham’s secret history on this 90 min tour with local explorer Ben Waddington.

Please bring suitable footwear.

Songs AND Dances OF Death Friday 22 March, 12–4pm Great Western Arcade / Free Over the course of three weeks Birmingham Opera Company are presenting a series of pop-up performances around the city, taking Mussorgsky’s song cycle to all kinds of unexpected places. On this occasion the show will include a support act in the form of two short Mussorgsky films screened by Flatpack.

Places are stricly limited and allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. There will be a number of performances – see the website for timings. This event will be filmed.

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From playful pigeons to gormless goats, this shorts programme continues on the animal theme. For children aged 7+.

Chasing Ice Friday 22 March, 6pm B’ham Midland Institute / Free Dir. Jeff Orlowski, USA 2012, 80 mins The Birmingham Co-operative Film Society was established in early 2010 to provide public screenings of ‘films to make you think’.

With Chasing Ice they present a documentary which does just that. Featuring beautiful and scary time-lapse footage of melting ice mountains, it won awards at SXSW, Sundance, and was also Oscar-nominated for its music. A special guest speaker will be delivering a British perspective on issues of renewable energy straight after the film.

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12pm Colour Bugs: Creature Features Dir. Various, 55 mins

Keyhole Friday 22 March, 8.30pm B’ham Midland Institute / Free Dir. Guy Maddin, Canada 2011, 94 mins World cinema purveyors Birmingham International Film Society present Guy Maddin’s 1930s period piece Keyhole. Ulysses Pick is a gangster returning home, children and fellow criminals in tow, with the police hot on their tail. Somewhere in the house lives his wife, but finding her is another matter. Part Greek tragedy, part homage to film noir, it’s an exploration of the poetry and power of cinema by one of its most unique voices.

After 5 years, BIFS’ usual venue, the Central Library Theatre, is due to close. Join them as they celebrate their 5th birthday and bid the Library Theatre farewell on Tuesday 26 March.

1pm Cityscapes Dir. Various, 55 mins

Filmmakers explore the notion of the ‘city’ using animation, documentary, and abstract film in this programme of shorts. Highlights include Hannes Vartiainen and Pekka Veikkolainen’s Helsinki doc, Hanasaari A, and Katerina Athanasopoulou’s gorgeous experimental animation Apodemy, which could have been inspired by Spaghetti Junction.

2pm Six Men featuring John Madin 30 mins

A fascinating portrait of architect John Madin in 1964, with the city in the palm of his hand and Central Library just a glint in his eye.

2.30pm Urbanized Dir. Gary Hustwit USA/UK 2011, 90 mins The third and final instalment in Gary Hustwit’s design trilogy documents the design of cities, and features some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers.

See also: Metropolis, a major new exhibition which opens at Gas Hall on the same day.

Short and Swede Saturday 23 March, 12pm Six Eight Kafé / Free Dir. Various

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A selection of sweded films from around the world. A movement spawned by Be Kind Rewind, they’re short recreations of popular movies, made with no budget by regular people. The results are slap-dash, inspirational, and often very funny.

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A selection of short films and archive treats celebrating the joys of a night on the tiles. Programme includes Kings Heathborn animator, Joanna Quinn’s awardingwinning 1987 short Girls Night Out about a raucous evening on the town, Karel Reisz’s Momma Don’t Allow, a beautiful Free Cinema snapshot of a London jazz club in the 1950s, and the crowd-pleasing Las Palmas which features the director’s one year old daughter as a drunk middle-aged woman in a Spanish bar. Also featuring a wealth of Birmingham footage provided by the Media Archive for Central England, from jazz dances at the Town Hall to hip hop all-dayers at the Hummingbird.

Invisible Architecture Saturday 23 March, 12pm Meet at Film Bug Hub / £7 (£5) Birmingham is a city known for its stark public buildings, planning misadventures and fervent commercial revisionism. Yet it was once a nucleus of joyful architecture, rich ornamentation and inventive urbanism.

Surely none of this survives today?

In Invisible Architecture, local historian Ben Waddington reveals some of the city’s lesser noticed details on our buildings, down back streets and beneath our feet and asks how this magnificent world became lost.

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8mm Cine Club Saturday 23 March, 12.30–4pm The Old Royal / Free Set up last year at Wednesfield Community Centre, 8mm Cine Club is a place to screen old film reels amongst friends. Having unearthed such home-made Black Country gems as Amnesty (80s kung fu, shot in a bakery), the club is making its first foray into Birmingham for Film Bug, and you’re invited.

Drop in any time during the afternoon. And if you have reels of your own getting dusty in the attic and want to see them projected, even better.

NB: Please be advised we can’t take responsibility for any damage to films.

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Nightlife Saturday 23 March, 2pm Jekyll & Hyde / Free Dir. Various, 75 mins

The Passion of Joan of Arc Saturday 23 March, 6.30pm Birmingham Cathedral / £8 (£6) Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer Denmark 1928, 82 mins This film was made in the late silent period, just before the dawn of talkies, but it feels like, as Jean Cocteau put it, ‘an historical document from an era in which the cinema didn’t exist.’ Carl Theodor Dreyer takes a familiar story – the country girl who led an army against the English, and ended up on trial for blasphemy – and gives it a piercing, elemental quality. He had a huge, complex set built, based on Rouen Castle, but we see very little of it. Instead the focus is on faces: of the accusers, fierce, suspicious, looming over the camera; and of Joan, played by Marie Falconetti in a soaring performance that seems barely a performance at all.

The director’s approach was so strippeddown that he even preferred the film to be seen without music, but we’re confident that he would have approved of tonight’s accompaniment. Pianist Paul Shallcross (last seen in these parts at our Christmas Buster Keaton show) has written a score beautifully attuned to the agony and ecstasy of Dreyer’s vision, and we’re also delighted to be screening a newly spruced-up version of the film produced for the recent Masters of Cinema Blu-ray release. We hope you’ll agree that this is about as good as cinema gets.

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Conroy Maddox, Salpêtrière, 1976, oil on canvas

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KINO 10: ROFLOL Saturday 23 March, 3pm Six Eight Kafé / Free Dir. various, 105 mins Well, maybe not rolling on the floor, but there’s sure to be plenty of lolz in this selection of shorts curated by Birmingham short film aficionados, KINO 10. Includes NFTS graduate Louis Paxton’s brilliantly funny Dollface, and American directingduo Jillian Mayer & Lucas Leyva’s comedic, satirical, sci-fi pop musical, #PostModem.

Surreal Enigmas Saturday 23 March, 2pm BCU School of Art / Free Screening to mark his recent centenary, Surreal Enigmas features an interview with Conroy Maddox (1912–2005) and a score in the style of Erik Satie by Katherine Jones (BBC Philharmonic in Manchester). The film is a rare chance to see Maddox and his work on film. Conroy Maddox, born 27 December, 1912, was an internationally acclaimed artist, champion of the ‘Birmingham Surrealists’ from the late 1930s to the mid 1950s, and known as ‘the Bohemian of Balsall Heath’. The film will be introduced by Birmingham film producer, Professor Roger Shannon (Edge Hill University) and Dr Stephen Forcer (University of Birmingham). With thanks to Silvano Levy and Lee Saunders, daughter of Conroy Maddox.

The Queen Ant Made Me Do It! Saturday 23 March, 8.30pm Birmingham Midland Institute / £5 Dir. Bert I. Gordon Usa 1977, 80 mins

Film Bug Venues

Little Earthquake and Flatpack Festival present The Queen Ant Made Me Do It! as part of Film Bug’s “Night of the Joans”. Our extra-special guest Joan Collins* welcomes you to Dreamland Shores and introduces a screening of her cult insect horror classic, Empire of the Ants.

Dress up in your finest 1970s gear, sip a mocktail and nibble some canapés as you watch Joan battling polluted swamp water, small-town hicks and cut-price special effects! Step over the creepy crawlies swigging radioactive waste from a burst oil drum in the foyer! Scream for your lives as papier mâché monsters rear their ugly heads on screen (and in the theatre)! Strike back by eating some of our deluxe edible insects (not suitable for vegetarians…)! Sniff up the Queen Ant’s pheromone-filled smoke that makes you do her bidding to be in with a chance of winning a bottle of bubbly formic acid to take home!

“We just came for the free lunch! We didn’t want to BE the free lunch!”

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BCU School of Art Margaret Street, B3 3BX

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Birmingham Cathedral Colmore Row, B3 2QB

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Birmingham Cathedral Sq. Colmore Row, B3 2QB

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Birmingham Midland Institute 9 Margaret Street, B3 3BS

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Film Bug Hub (BSM Unit) 21 Colmore Row, B3 3BS

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The Gas Hall, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Chamberlain Square, B3 3DH

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Great Western Arcade Colmore Row, B2 5HU

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Home Café Deli 26 Church Street, B3 2NP

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Jekyll & Hyde Gin Parlour 28 Steelhouse Lane, B4 6BJ

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The Old Royal 53 Church St, B3 2DP

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Six Eight Kafé 6/8 Temple Row, B2 5HG

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Yorks Bakery Café 1–3 Newhall St, B3 3NH

*The management reserves the right to substitute a rubbish Joan Collins stand-in without prior notice, and that’s exactly what we will be doing.

Re-Animating a Dead Python: Animation Forum Talk Saturday 23 March, 4pm BCU School of Art / Free 90 mins W

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We’re joining forces with Animation Forum West Midlands again this year, and they’ve invited two distinguished guests to deliver a very special talk. Ben Timlett and George Sander-Jackson are part of the directing team behind the recentlyreleased feature film, A Liar’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman. With fourteen different animation companies working on the film, they’re sure to have some very interesting insights into collaboration and implementing multiple animation techniques.

Join the filmmakers at All Bar One (Newhall St) for a networking event straight after the talk.

This event is free but booking is essential. See website for details.

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Grey Gardens

Programme Magic Lantern Show Thursday 21 March, 12pm Winterbourne House / Free Join the University of Birmingham for this experience in time travel back to the 1890s, with exciting images of volcanoes, glaciers and earthquakes shown alongside coloured moving images from the period. Experience how university students studied in the Victorian age in this Magic Lantern show brought to you by Winterbourne House and Garden and The Lapworth Museum of Geology.

While it Lasts Friday 22 March, 6pm Eastside Projects / Free This screening programme curated by Elinor Morgan shows a selection of moving image works by six UK-based artists. Each of them approaches the process of making film or video works in a different way but common threads run through the programme: the production of digital realms, film as a space in which sculptural forms can be presented and the impact that the internet has had on the way that we interact with information, imagery, one another. Many of the works presented use the internet as source material, a tool for production or as content and all have a relationship to developments in digital technology.

Grey Gardens Friday 22 March, 6pm The Electric / £7 (£5) Dir. Ellen Hovde, Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Muffie Meyer USA 1975, 100 mins The tale of ‘Big Edie’ and ‘Little Edie’ Bouvier Beale has passed into legend now: the Kennedy connections, the squalor, the crazy fashion, the cats. Their story has spawned a musical, a play and a pointless Drew Barrymore film, but it all began with this painfully intimate documentary shot over six weeks by the Maysles Brothers. Grey Gardens has been chosen for Flatpack by Alice Lowe, writer and star of Sightseers. Given the film’s mother-daughter dynamics, the way it zigzags between comedy and pathos, it’s not hard to see why. Last at the Electric in December to present her own movie, we’re very happy to welcome Alice back tonight and will be serving jam jar cocktails in her honour.

Flying Blind Saturday 23 March, 4pm The Electric / £7 (£5) Dir. Katarzyna Klimkiewicz UK 2012, 88 mins A post-9/11 take on the paranoid thrillers of the Cold War with a dash of sexual drama, Flying Blind is an admirable debut feature from young Polish director Katarzyna Klimkiewicz. With a keen focus on character, the film follows the initial infatuation and then growing doubt of Helen McCrory’s aerospace engineer Frankie as she struggles to meet the deadline for a government contract, all the while trying to establish whether her young Muslim lover’s motives for entering into their relationship are entirely honest.

Good Vibrations Friday 22 March, 9pm The Electric / £7 (£5) Dir. Lisa Barros D’Sa, Glenn Leyburn UK/Ireland 2012, 103 mins 70s fashion, oodles of charm and a brilliant soundtrack. What more could you ask for on the first Friday night of this year’s Flatpack? With Good Vibrations, directors Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn tackle the real-life tale of Terri Hooley’s efforts to run a record shop, and subsequently label, in one of the most turbulent areas of Belfast during the Troubles. The result is a marvellous production tinged with just the right amount of nostalgia and comic moments as we follow the difficult path Hooley walked to become a punk pioneer.

–12–

Thursday 21 – Friday 22 – Saturday 23 March

The Gatekeepers Saturday 23 March, 7.30pm mac birmingham / £7 (£5) Dir. Dror Moreh Israel 2012, 97 mins The Gatekeepers is a documentary like nothing else at this year’s festival. So often the Middle East is a subject that is either neglected or stereotyped on the big screen, particularly in fiction where it is forced to play the backdrop in stories about American heroes of either soldierly or peacekeeping stock. Here, however, director Dror Moreh presents interviews with not just one but six former heads of Israel’s security agency Shin Bet alongside archive footage and animated reconstructions, providing provocative insights into their operations of the last century.

The Name’s not Bond: The future of independent British films Saturday 23 March, 2pm The Electric / Free New British Cinema Quarterly is a distribution initiative with the aim of connecting British audiences with independent British films and filmmaking talent. NBCQ presents a panel celebrating a new era in our rich British film culture whilst asking – how do we sustain homegrown talent when British independent films contribute less than 5% of cinema going? Do innovations in other creative realms (music, design) gain more recognition than film? Join the debate! Hosted by Kate Taylor (Independent Cinema Office).

NBCQ hosts

New British by Night Saturday 23 March, 8pm Glenn Howells Architects / £5 Don your stiff upper lip and join us for a party to celebrate a smorgasbord of all things new, British and creative. Music, shorts and visuals in our favourite big city of Birmingham, a complimentary indie film themed cocktail and a brew or two. In the 90s there were Young British Artists on the rise (YBAs), but tonight we’re celebrating NBFs (New British Filmmakers). And if that’s not enough acronyms for one party, it’s NBCQ who are hosting thanks to the lovely folks at FP (that’s Flatpack to you!).

–13–

Saturday 23 – Sunday 24 March

The Adventures of Prince Achmed Sunday 24 March, 4pm Bramall Music Building / £12 (£9) Dir. Lotte Reiniger Germany 1926, 67 mins Created by Lotte Reiniger and a small team using scissors and card over the course of three years, The Adventures of Prince Achmed is the oldest surviving animated feature film and still captivates all ages today. Freely adapted from the Tales of 1001 Nights, the quest for a magic lamp takes us across oceans and down into volcanoes, battling with dragons, demons and witches along the way.

This very special event at the University of Birmingham’s new Bramall Music Building will include a live score composed and performed by Geoff Smith. A specialist in hammered dulcimers, Smith will be using a range of rare and wonderful instruments including one which he has developed himself, the ‘Fluid Dulcimer.’

This event is also part of the Arts and Science Festival, which takes over the University campus from 18–24 March.

Babeldom Sunday 24 March, 6pm The Electric / £7 (£5) Dir. Paul Bush UK 2012, 80 mins Maybe this is why the future scares us so.

People travel there, and don’t come back.

Best known for a string of award-winning shorts, artist-animator Paul Bush has spent five years accumulating the material for Babeldom from cities across the world, cutting his footage together with visual data gathered from research labs and the internet in order to construct a future city that isn’t so far removed from the ones we live in today. (Indeed, this film is the ideal sequel to the Subterraneans tour on Friday evening, p.9.) Paul Bush and one of the film’s leads, Youla Boudali, will be here to talk about Babeldom, and by way of a bonus we’re also showing Paul’s brilliant – and very different – short film Lay Bare (2012).

Consuming Spirits Sunday 24 March, 8.30pm The Electric / £7 (£5) Dir. Chris Sullivan USA 2012, 136 mins Every year there is a film that we pursue doggedly because we can’t imagine the festival without it, and this year Consuming Spirits is the one.

The making-of story (14 years of painstaking production, animating frame by frame on 16mm) is impressive enough, and thanks to all that work Chris Sullivan has built a small rust-belt town with such a level of detail and humour that you feel you know the place inside out by the end. But what’s really striking about the film is the melancholy grandeur it conjures up from apparently small, dead-end lives, the past creeping in like a fog as the three protagonists confront their secrets.

Son of Man Monday 25 March, 7pm Carrs Lane Church Centre / £5 Dir. Gareth Davies UK 1969, 90 mins

One Mile Away Tuesday 26 March, 6.30pm Odeon Broadway Plaza / £7 (£5) Dir. Penny Woolcock, UK 2012, 91 mins

Son of Man begins with Jesus (Colin Blakely) emerging from the wilderness, muttering and ragged. He accosts and recruits two fishermen (including a young Brian Blessed, already impressively swarthy), and sets out on a collision course with the Roman authorities. Written during the tumult of 1968, Dennis Potter’s brutal, compelling life of Christ strips out all the miracles and concentrates on the Messiah as a revolutionary who preached peace. This rare screening of the original television play is presented in association with the Church at Carrs Lane, and will also include a short introduction

by Helen Wheatley (University of Warwick) and a 1903 depiction of Jesus with live piano.

When people in normal society get murdered, there’s whole campaigns, there’s rewards put up. But when people in my community get murdered, it don’t even make it to the news; you’re just dead.

— Dylan Duffus After making hip hop musical One Day in Handsworth, filmmaker Penny Woolcock stayed in touch with her non-professional cast and was drawn back to make a documentary about the gang culture that blights north Birmingham. One Mile Away follows the efforts of two men, Dylan Duffus (the lead in One Day) and Shabba, to negotiate some kind of pause in the postcode wars between Johnson Crew (B6) and Burger Bar Boys (B21).

The size of this task is quickly made clear, as the film sketches out the way violence has become a part of the landscape: “this is the norm now, it’s not even a bad thing to us.” Comparisons are drawn with the Northern Irish peace process, as Shabba and Dylan visit former Blair advisor Jonathan Powell, and it’s interesting to see how the 2011 riots change the dynamic. The most powerful thing about One Mile Away, though, is the insight Woolcock gets from the young men (and occasionally women) that she interviews. A side of Birmingham that many never get to see.

Spring Breakers

Departure Lounge:

Monday 25 March, 6.30pm Odeon Broadway Plaza / £7 (£5) Dir. Harmony Korine USA 2012, 92 mins A quartet of restless college girls, short of funds and desperate to take part in America’s annual bacchanalian fixture Spring Break, decide to don Pussy Riot balaclavas, rob a restaurant and hit the road for Florida. Last time we showed a Harmony Korine film it was the surreal, narrative-free VHS oddity Trash Humpers, so it’s a surprise to see him return with a proper multiplex movie starring tween idols Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson. It could have been a car crash but the combination works a treat, a sun-kissed, slowmotion cocktail of sex, guns and consumerism with a show-stealing turn by James Franco as gangster rapper Alien, sporting cornrows, gold teeth and an obsession with Britney Spears.

–14–

Monday 25 – Tuesday 26 March

Strings Show Me the Money Monday 25 – Thursday 28 March in Birmingham Alongside this year’s festival, First Light are running an exciting residential course for young writers, directors and producers. As the name suggests, they will be developing the skills to finance their projects with expert help from a range of guest speakers. Applications for the programme are now closed, but keep an eye on the First Light website for other opportunities in the future. www.firstlightonline.co.uk

Tuesday 26 March, 8.30pm mac Birmingham / £7 (£5) Dir. Rob Savage, UK 2012, 85 mins Think back to what you were doing between the ages of 18 and 21; unless it was years of worthwhile charity work then you’re just going to feel lazy in comparison to Shrewsbury-born Rob Savage. While others were summoning up the energy to walk to the garage, Savage went out and made his first feature film. As if that weren’t enough, his debut about the love-stumblings of four young people has garnered much critical praise and won the Raindance Award at the BIFAs. It’s an amazingly assured piece of work and Rob, whose sci-fi short Sit in Silence screened here last year, will be at mac to talk about how it all came about.

Picture Houses Exhibition launch

Tuesday 26 March, 6pm mac birmingham / Free Photographer John Fallon has spent a number of years tracking down former cinemas in varying degrees of disrepair, and capturing medium-format images of them inside and out. From familiar icons like the Odeon Kingstanding (now a Mecca Bingo) to the Electric Palace in Bloxwich (youth club), Picture Houses is a roll call of relics haunted by film-going ghosts. A selection of these images will be on show at mac until May, and tonight’s launch includes archive footage of Birmingham cinemas doing what they were built for.

Celluloid Nights

Edgeless Shapes Wednesday 27 March, 6.30pm + Friday 29 March, 4pm The Electric / £7 (£5) Dir. Various, 75 mins The first of our animation programmes (see Natural Habitats, p.25 for the second) concentrates on the more hypnotic side of the art with an assortment of playful, surreal, and sometimes slightly deranged animated treasures. Blurring the boundaries between high-end art and lo-fi comedy, Breakfast on the Grass is an homage to Estonian animator Priit Parn’s 1987 film of the same name, Carlo Vogele’s Una Furtiva Lagrima shows what you can achieve with a fish, some transparent wire, and an operatic recording by Enrico Caruso, and Leah Shore’s stream-of-consciousness voyage into the mind of Charles Manson is as impressive as it is unnerving.

Contents will include: Light Music

Created by Lis Rhodes in 1975, this beautifully simple two-screen installation uses lines and squares on the film strip to synthesise light and sound. A chance to dance in the projector beam.

Unravel

This direct cinema workshop was so popular at Flatpack in 2011, we had to have them back. Grab some clear 16mm. Scratch/stencil/paint to your heart’s content. Then see the results onscreen.

Kino Club Wednesday 27 March, 7-11pm Thinktank / £5 As darkness falls over Birmingham, Thinktank resounds with the clack and whirr of projectors. In the laboratory strips of film are still dripping wet, while downstairs white-coated cocktail boffins cook up mysterious concoctions. Welcome to Celluloid Nights.

2013 is a landmark year for celluloid. By the end of it, most cinemas will be fully digital, and analogue film will be largely confined to archives, galleries and private collections. It’s also the bicentenary of Alexander Parkes, a Birmingham-born chemist who created Parkesine, the first celluloid prototype – and indeed the first man-made plastic – in a workshop in the Jewellery Quarter in 1856. The workshop was demolished to make way for the city’s first Science Museum, and so it’s fitting that we celebrate the enduring chemistry of film at Thinktank tonight.

Legendary 16mm cabaret hosted and curated by artist and film specialist David Leister.

OKO Lab

The Thinktank lab will be taken over by a Leeds outfit who will show you how to shoot, process and project film in one night.

Health and Efficency

Mesmerising Birmingham six-piece make lovely reverby noises, accompanied by freshly-scratched visuals.

We’ll also be welcoming Sue Mossman from the Science Museum London, to talk about Birmingham’s role in the birth of celluloid. Plus DJs, cocktails, popcorn and a selection of pioneering direct cinema shorts by the likes of Len Lye, Peter Kubelka and Stan Brakhage.

Unpacked Thursday 28 March 10am–4.30pm Custard Factory / £25 (£20) After a brief hiatus, Unpacked returns to the Flatpack lineup bigger and better than ever. Essentially the festival’s engine room, this is the place to find out how the stuff onscreen gets made, and explore fresh approaches to getting your work out into the world. Highlights include: Legendary collective Shynola talk to Anna Higgs (Film 4.0) about their new feature project, an adaptation of graphic novel The RedMen. They’ll also offer an exclusive glimpse of forthcoming short Dr. Easy, and Anna will give an insight into the kind of projects Film 4.0 are looking to develop.

One-man Leeds-based claymation studio Lee Hardcastle takes us on a journey through his warped and wonderful world, from early lo-fi efforts via brain-shredding Pingu remakes right up to more recent commissions like his condensed three-minute version of The Raid.

A peek under the bonnet of various crowd-funding campaigns, with contributions from experienced producers including Pip Piper (Last Shop Standing) and also a few words from Flatpack on our recent Kickstarter experience.

Plus:

Chris Randall and Marc Silk (www.randallandsilk.com) unveil ‘Globbert’ - the first ever interactive Stop-Motion cartoon, made in Birmingham.

Berlin-based videomusician Gabriel Shalom (www.gabrielshalom. com) offers an introduction to his amazing cut-up shorts and his theory of hyper-cubism.

As if that weren’t enough, lunch is also included. Your Unpacked ticket also gets you into tonight’s Renga gaming experience half price.

–17–

Flatpack Palais Opening Thursday 28 March, 8.30pm Flatpack Palais / Free

If you’ve not been to Flatpack before, a glance at last year’s video postcard (vimeo.com/41970971) gives you some idea of the various uses our festival hub gets put to: talks, 16mm screenings, psychedelic gigs, OHP draw-offs and magic lantern shows. It’s also a place you can drop into for information or free screenings, and grab a drink. This year we’ve moved to a larger space: the former home of the Deritend Free Library, just across the road from last year’s Palais. As well as tea, coffee and the obligatory cake, the bar will include ales from Purity in Warwickshire and Kingstone Press Cider, product of Aston Manor, Birmingham. Around the corner you can also find lovely fresh food – see below.

The challenge with these pop-up cinema spaces is often ensuring a good view of the screen, and so we talked to students at Birmingham City University’s School of Architecture about creating a raked area of seating. Their solutions to this brief covered an amazing range of ideas from foam hills to concertina sheds, and we can’t wait to see their final design put into practice. We’d like to thank them all for their energy and imagination, and

particularly their lecturer Alessandro Columbano who has pulled the whole thing together.

Given that we’re paying tribute to Birmingham Arts Lab this year (see p.6), it’s fitting that the students ended up deciding to create an auditorium out of pallets just as the Lab did back in the 70s. A number of original Lab members will be reuniting in the Palais on Friday 29 March to talk about this fascinating period (p.24), and throughout the weekend you can also see a selection of the eye-popping posters they created on their silkscreen press. The whole place is officially unveiled on Thursday 28 March from 8.30pm, where you can sample a range of delights on offer over the following three days.

None of the above would have been possible without our brilliant Kickstarter backers: over 150 of them. Our first foray into crowd-funding was occasionally nerve-wracking, but it also helped remind us what the festival means to you lot. Thanks! All backers are listed at the back of this brochure, on the website, and occasionally onscreen in the Palais.

Flatpack Kavarna

Birmingham Arts Lab Sessions

Poster show

Exhibition opening:

Basha Baranowska

Kjærsti Andvig & Lars Laumann: 999321

Thursday 28 – Sunday 31 March, 12–5pm daily + performance, Saturday 30 March, 7pm Vivid Projects / Free Vivid Projects is delighted to be working with Flatpack to present some very special events focusing on the unsung story of the Birmingham Arts Lab, a sometimes itinerant and ferociously creative structure that is more relevant than ever for those in the arts today. Expect a bricolage of sounds, films and memories celebrating the anarchic spirit of the period; from post '68 revolutionary fervour to Rock Against Racism.

Interviews with key players from the scene will be channelled via Trevor Pitt and look out for an extraordinary performance from Sarah Angliss in the spirit of Bruce Lacey.

–18–

Thursday 28 March

29-31 March, 11am-8pm Flatpack Kavarna / Free Barbara ‘Basha’ Baranowska was part of the famed Polish Poster School that began in the late 1950s. Together with artists such as Jan Lenica and Roman Cieslewicz, Baranowska employed a striking graphic sensibility with limited means to create a procession of startling film posters.

However, perhaps her finest achievement in Poland are the book jackets and illustrations she created for the Polish-Jewish writer Adolf Rudnicki.

She relocated to Paris in 1968, and throughout the 1970s created numerous striking images employing a variety of techniques and styles. Best known for her poster for Andrzej Zulawski’s cult 1981 film Possession, screening on Friday 29 March (see p.25), Baranowska’s work is ripe for rediscovery. This exhibition presents a selection of Baranowska’s posters from Poland and France.

So that the sound of munching doesn’t interfere with your film viewing, we’re setting up a temporary café around the corner from the Palais, right next door to the Custard Factory theatre. This will be open from 11am–8pm, Friday 29 to Sunday 31 March, and each day Birmingham’s brilliant Change Kitchen will be serving fresh vegetarian and veganfriendly meals from 12–2pm and 5–7pm. While you’re in there check out Basha Baranowska’s incredible film posters (see below) and a paste-up display of Arts Lab ephemera.

Thursday 28 March, 6pm Grand Union / Free 999321 is the first collaborative exhibition in the UK by Kjærsti Andvig and Lars Laumann. The video installation narrates the true story of the relationship between Norwegian artist Kjærsti Andvig and Carlton Turner, a Texan Death Row inmate. Consisting of work made by Turner, Andvig and Laumann, including the documentary-style video Shut Up Child, This Ain’t Bingo which charts the development of their artistic and romantic relationship until Turner’s execution in 2008 and its ensuing implications. Exhibition continues until 4 May 2013: see www.grand-union.org.uk for details.

Shynola: Collected Works Thursday 28 March, 6.15pm The Electric / £7 (£5) Dir. Shynola Shynola occupy a very special place in our hearts.

Emerging from college in Kent in the late 90s and setting up a studio at home, they paved the way for so many other animators and small production companies: just get a couple of computers, and do it yourself. From touching graduation short The Littlest Robo to commissions for Radiohead, Lambchop and Blur, and onwards to title sequences for The IT Crowd and Scott Pilgrim vs The World, they’ve got that rare ability to produce great work for other people which is still unmistakeably them.

Now they’re doing their own thing: a breathlessly awaited feature adaptation of comic The RedMen. You can find out more about that at Unpacked (p.17), but tonight’s screening is a chance to take stock of Shynola’s terrific backcatalogue, peek inside their sketch-books, and get a live director’s commentary on fifteen years of music videos, movies and unreasonable deadlines.

Lithuanian Animation Retrospective Thursday 28 March, 6pm Custard Factory Theatre / £7 (£5) Dir. Various Lithuanian animation has a history dating back one hundred years, starting with one of the greatest pioneers of animation: Ladislas Starewitch, a natural historian who taught himself stop-frame filmmaking in order to make his insects specimens move. This retrospective, spanning the entire century and lovingly put together by animation historian Dasa Vanova, features puppet, handdrawn, cutout, shadow theatre techniques and computer generated films, and a very dark streak of humour that runs throughout.

–19–

Thursday 28 March

Renga Thursday 28 March, 8.30pm Custard Factory Theatre / £8 (£6) Now here’s a test for your collaborative skills. You need to rebuild a spaceship, face down your evil nemesis, and steer your craft home. A familiar gaming scenario perhaps, but in this case you are one of 100 players controlling the action onscreen with laser pointers. Unless you work as a team, you’re doomed.

This ingenious Midlands-born crowd game has been wowing participants in Austin and Toronto, and it’s tailor-made for Flatpack. If you’d like to know more about the story behind Renga, its makers will be talking at Unpacked – and ticketholders for Unpacked can get into Renga halfprice. Booking ahead is recommended.

Prometheus’ Garden & Other Twisted Tales Thursday 28 March, 9pm The Electric / £7 (£5) Dir. Bruce Bickford USA 1988, 80 mins Legendary underground animator Bruce Bickford is best known for his Frank Zappa collaborations, but in 1988 he took on a solo project with complete creative control. The resulting film is his 28-minute hallucinatory morphing claymation masterpiece which takes us on a trip into a unique world that only he could have depicted. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, we’ve put it alongside some more contemporary surreal fare, such as Allison Schulnik’s sumptuous Grizzly Bear promo, Forest, and Matt Greenwood’s disturbing, and slightly creepy house-party film, If This Ain’t Real.

Calendar

A 40 page newspaper too bulky for your backpack?

Pull out this page for all your need-to-know dates and venues, or download it as a pdf from www.flatpackfestival.org.uk/calendar.pdf

Event/Film

Venue

Time

Price

Page

Victorian Magic Lantern Show

Winterbourne House

12.00–13.30

Free

12

Pedal-Powered Cinema

Great Western Arcade

12.00–16.00

Free

8

A Taste of Flatpack

Home Café Deli

17.30–18.45

Free

8

Safety Last!

Great Western Arcade

20.00–22.00

£8 (£6)

8

Sol Cinema

B’ham Cathedral Square

11.00–16.00

Free

9

Songs and Dances of Death

Great Western Arcade

12.00–16.00

Free

9

Secret Screenings

Secret Location

16.00–20.00

Free (password required) 9

Musictube

Yorks Bakery Café

16.00–17.00

Free

9

Subterraneans

Meet at Film Bug Hub

17.30–19.00

£7 (£5)

9

Opening: While it Lasts

Eastside Projects

18.00-20.00

Free

12

Chasing Ice

Birmingham Midland Institute 18.00–20.00

Free

9

Grey Gardens

The Electric

£7 (£5)

12

Keyhole

Birmingham Midland Institute 20.30–22.00

Free

9

Good Vibrations

The Electric

21.00–23.00

£7 (£5)

12

Sol Cinema

High Street

11.00–16.00

Free

9

Colour Bugs: Animal Magic

The Gas Hall, BMAG

11.00–11.55

Free

9

Short and Swede

Six Eight Kafé

12.00–13.40

Free

10

Invisible Architecture

Meet at Film Bug Hub

12.00–13.30

£7 (£5)

10

Colour Bugs: Creature Features

The Gas Hall, BMAG

12.00–12.55

Free

9

8mm Cine Club

The Old Royal

12.30–16.00

Free

10

Cityscapes

The Gas Hall, BMAG

13.00–13.55

Free

9

Six Men: John Madin

The Gas Hall, BMAG

14.00–14.30

Free

9

Surreal Enigmas

BCU School of Art

14.00–15.00

Free

10

Nightlife

Jekyll & Hyde

14.00–15.15

Free

10

The name’s not Bond

The Electric

14.00–15.30

Free

13

Urbanized

The Gas Hall, BMAG

14.30–16.00

Free

9

Kino 10: ROFLOL

Six Eight Kafé

15.00–16.45

Free

10

Re-Animating a Dead Python: Animation Forum Talk

BCU School of Art

16.00–17.30

Free

11

Flying Blind

The Electric

16.00–18.00

£7 (£5)

12

The Passion of Joan of Arc

Birmingham Cathedral

18.30–20.00

£8 (£6)

10

NBCQ hosts: New British By Night

Glenn Howells Architects

20.00–23.30

£5

13

The Gatekeepers

mac birmingham

19.30–21.30

£7 (£5)

13

The Queen Ant Made Me Do It!

Birmingham Midland Institute 20.30–22.30

£5

11

The Adventures of Prince Achmed

Bramall Music Building

16.00–17.30

£12 (£9)

13

Babeldom

The Electric

18.00–20.15

£7 (£5)

13

Consuming Spirits

The Electric

20.30–22.50

£7 (£5)

13

Monday 25 March

Spring Breakers

Odeon Broadway Plaza

18.30–20.10

£7 (£5)

14

Son of Man

Carrs Lane Church Centre

19.00–21.00

£5

14

Tuesday 26 March

Picture Houses: exhibition opening

mac birmingham

18.00–20.00

Free

15

One Mile Away

Odeon Broadway Plaza

18.30–20.45

£7 (£5)

14

Departure Lounge: Strings

mac birmingham

20.30–22.30

£7 (£5)

14

Edgeless Shapes

The Electric

18.30–20.00

£7 (£5)

15

Celluloid Nights

Thinktank

19.00–23.00

£5

15

Thursday 21 March

Friday 22 March

Saturday 23 March

Sunday 24 March

Wednesday 27 March

Events over several days (all free entry):

Kopf Kino.................................p.8 Thursday 21 to Saturday 23 March 18.00–22.00, Roaming

Dissimilated Visions.................p.8 Thursday 21 to Saturday 23 March 12.00–18.00 (to 19.30 on Friday), BSM Unit

18.00–20.30

Birmingham Arts Lab Sessions.p.18 Thursday 28 to Sunday 31 March 12.00–17.00, Vivid Projects + Performance, Sat 30 March, 19.00

Basha Baranowska Poster Show... .............................................p.18 Friday 29 to Sunday 31 March 11.00–19.00, Flatpack Kavarna

Thursday 28 March

Friday 29 March

Saturday 30 March

Sunday 31 March

·

Remember: Clocks go forward at 1am on 31 March.

Don’t miss your screening!

Event/Film

Venue

Time

Price

Page

Unpacked

Flatpack Palais

10.00–16.30

£25 (£20)

17

Lithuanian Animation Retrospective

Custard Factory Theatre

18.00–19.45

£7 (£5)

19

Opening: Andvig & Laumann: 999321

Grand Union

18.00–20.00

Free

18

Shynola

The Electric

18.15–20.30

£7 (£5)

19

Renga

Custard Factory Theatre

20.30–22.00

£8 (£6)

19

Flatpack Palais Opening

Flatpack Palais

20.30–22.30

Free

18

Prometheus’ Garden

The Electric

21.00–22.45

£7 (£5)

19

Gangs of Digbeth

Meet at Flatpack Palais

11.00–12.45

£7 (£5)

24

Animation Station: Make Some Movies

mac birmingham

11.00–16.30

Free

22

Pick 'n' Mix 1

Flatpack Palais

11.30–13.00

Free

24

Tilted Axis

Custard Factory Theatre

13.30–15.00

£7 (£5)

24

Colour Box: Flying Colours (7+)

mac birmingham

13.00–14.15

£5 (£3)

22

Back to the Lab

Flatpack Palais

13.30–15.30

Free

24

Moomins and the Comet Chase

mac birmingham

15.00–16.30

£5 (£3)

22

After the Flood

Custard Factory Theatre

15.30–17.00

£7 (£5)

24

Lars Laumann Works

Flatpack Palais

16.00–17.00

Free

24

Edgeless Shapes

The Electric

16.00–17.20

£7 (£5)

15

IdeasTap Films

Flatpack Palais

17.30–18.30

Free

24

Possession

Custard Factory Theatre

17.30–20.30

£7 (£5)

25

The Lebanese Rocket Society

mac birmingham

17.45–20.00

£7 (£5)

25

Natural Habitats

The Electric

18.30–19.50

£7 (£5)

25

International Space Orchestra

The Electric

20.30–22.15

£7 (£5)

25

The Bruce Lacey Experience

Custard Factory Theatre

20.45–22.30

£7 (£5)

25

Demdike Stare + Lee Gamble

Custard Factory

21.00–02.00

£13 (£11)

26

Mondomanila

Custard Factory Theatre

22.45–00.10

£7 (£5)

26

The Mad Magician

The Electric

23.00–00.20

£7 (£5) + £1.50 glasses

26

Cyclomania

Custard Factory Theatre

11.00–16.00

Free

27

Cartoon Rock

Flatpack Palais

11.00–12.30

Free

27

Animation Station: Make Some Noise

mac birmingham

11.00–16.30

Free

23

The Posters Came From the Walls

Custard Factory Theatre

12.00–13.45

£7 (£5)

27

Screen-printing Workshop

Get a Grip

12.30–16.00

£15

27

The Mind of Evil

The Electric

13.00–16.00

£7 (£5)

27

Colour Box: Bugs and Beasts (4+)

mac birmingham

13.00–14.15

£5 (£3)

23

Piercing Brightness

The Electric

13.00–14.30

£7 (£5)

28

Bicycle Dreams

Custard Factory Theatre

14.30–16.15

£7 (£5)

27

Brummies, Boozers and Bruisers

The Edge

14.00–15.30

Free

28

The Phantom Tollbooth

mac birmingham

15.00–16.30

£5 (£3)

23

Soviet Animation in 3D

The Electric

15.30–16.45

£7 (£5) + £1.50 glasses

28

The Quiet Pioneer

The Old Rep

16.00–17.00

Free

28

Pick ‘n’ Mix 2

Flatpack Palais

17.00–18.30

Free

27

The Polish Poster and Film

Custard Factory Theatre

17.15–18.45

£5

28

Vanishing Waves

The Electric

18.00–20.30

£7 (£5)

28

At the Table

The Edge

18.30–19.30

£4

29

Only the Young

Custard Factory Theatre

19.00–20.20

£7 (£5)

29

3D Party

Flatpack Palais

20.00–01.00

£5

29

The King

mac birmingham

20.30–22.10

£7 (£5)

29

Kabaddi

Flatpack Palais

11.30–12.45

Free

32

Out of the Inkwell

Cherish House

12.30–16.30

Free

32

Natural Habitats

Custard Factory Theatre

13.00–14.20

£7 (£5)

25

Ernest and Celestine

mac birmingham

14.00–15.30

£5 (£3)

23

Bring Out Your Dead Easter Special

Flatpack Palais

14.00–17.30

Free

32

Tilted Axis

Custard Factory Theatre

16.00–17.30

£7 (£5)

24

The Echo of Astroboy’s Footsteps

Custard Factory Theatre

18.00–19.30

£7 (£5)

32

Wadjda

The Electric

18.00–19.45

£7 (£5)

33

Eyes on the Prize

Flatpack Palais

19.00–23.00

Free

33

WR–Mysteries of the Organism

Custard Factory Theatre

20.00–21.45

£7 (£5)

32

A Hijacking

mac birmingham

20.30–22.20

£7 (£5)

33

Eastern Lo-Fi

Custard Factory Theatre

22.00–23.30

£7 (£5)

33

Friday 29 March Animation Station: Make Some Movies

Colour Box: Flying Colours (7+)

Friday 29 March, 11am mac birmingham / Free

Friday 29 March, 1pm mac birmingham / £5 (£3) Dir. Various, 60 mins

1. Hand-Drawn Animation Workshops Workshop 1: 11am–12.45pm Workshop 2: 12.45–2.30pm Workshop 3: 2.30–4.15pm

A chance to make your very own animated film with Peter Millard and Ben Cady who will be delivering workshops in the art of hand-drawn animation. Workshops last just under a couple of hours and those involved will need to produce at least 20 drawings. Workshops are free, but advanced booking is advised. Recommended ages 6+, all abilities welcome. There’ll be a sound effects workshop at 11am the following day for budding filmmakers who want to complete their masterpieces.

2. Green Screen Workshops 11am–4pm

For those who are after something a little more immediate, Reel Access will be running green screen workshops throughout the day (11am– 4pm) where you'll have a chance to get in front of the camera and find yourself in some very exotic and unusual environments. Fun for all ages and no need to book, simply turn up on the day.

Moomins and the Comet Chase Friday 29 March, 3pm mac birmingham / £5 (£3) Dir. Maria Lindberg Finland 2010, 75 mins Those delightful little hippo-like creatures are back. The Comet Chase sees Moomin Valley fall under grey skies as the earth faces an awful fate, with a shooting star heading straight for it. Trying to prevent Armageddon, Moomintroll, Sniff and Snufkin go on a journey to find the wise professors who will help them save the world. On their adventure they bump into various weird and wonderful animals, and some familiar faces. Will they get everybody safe before the comet hits?

Featuring a theme song by Björk.

–22–

Taking the aerial route, these shorts lift us on a trip high up into the clouds with animals, people, and even books taking to the air. Conor Finnegan’s Fear of Flying tells the tale of a lonely bird struggling to find the courage to follow the rest of the flock in their migration south, and the short and sweet Nest features a clumsy feathered creature who chooses precisely the wrong place to set up home. Winner of the short animation Oscar last year, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore will have you running for the nearest library as it celebrates the magic and wonder of a good book. For children aged 7+.

Saturday 30 March

Animation Station: Make Some Noise

Colour Box: Bugs and Beasts (4+)

The Phantom Tollbooth

Saturday 30 March, 11am mac birmingham / Free

Saturday 30 March, 1pm mac birmingham / £5 (£3) Dir. Various, 65 mins

Saturday 30 March, 3pm mac birmingham / £5 (£3) Dir. Chuck Jones, USA 1971, 90 mins

Cunning birds, wriggly insects, and singing monsters all feature in this selection of animated shorts. The Fox and the Chickadee sees a hungry fox eyeing up a vulnerable little bird for his tea, but the clever bird has other ideas. Corrida tells the funny story of a bull who does everything he possibly can to avoid being killed by a toreador, and to cap things off The Spinto Band will have your feet tapping with their music video The Living Things, in which the band wear matching onesies and run around causing havoc.

Bored at home one day, young boy Milo receives a mysterious package and is suddenly transported from live-action San Francisco to the animated Kingdom of Wisdom, where a battle is underway between words and numbers. Based on the popular children’s book by Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth is the only full-length movie directed by the late, great Chuck Jones, and among many vocal talents it features the unmistakeable Mel ‘Bugs Bunny’ Blanc. A charming oddity, full of great songs and psychedelic touches.

1. Sound Effects Workshops Laura Kloss and Adam Mendez (Foley sound recordist on Fantastic Mr Fox) present Make Some Noise. Opening up the world of silent film, this noisy workshop gives families the chance to compose new soundtracks to the hilarious and magical short films of RW Paul. Children will get the chance to make their own percussion instrument and together with our props; coconut shells, flip-flops, cabbages and more, they can play along to the films and learn all the tricks of the foley artist.

Workshops are free, and although some places will be available on the day, booking is advised as places are limited. Recommended ages 6+.

All abilities welcome.

Workshop 1: 11am - 12 midday (this workshop is intended for those who made short animations the previous day) Workshop 2: 12.30–1.30pm Workshop 3: 2–3pm Workshop 4: 3.30–4.30pm

2. Music Workshops Continuing with the sound theme, Birminghambased artist-musicians Juneau Projects will be heading up drop-in music workshops in which participants can create tracks by sampling a variety of percussion, instruments and vocal sounds. Fun for all ages and no need to book, simply turn up on the day.

–23–

Sunday 31 March

Ernest & Celestine

Sunday 31 March, 2pm mac birmingham / £5 (£3) Dir. Benjamin Renner, Vincent Patar, Stéphane Aubier France/Belgium 2012, 80 mins Ernest and Celestine live in a world where bears have houses and drive cars, while mice live hidden away in an underground village, creeping out at night to find scraps and to take the teeth from under bear cub’s pillows. Unfortunately Ernest is a bear and Celestine is a mouse, so when they become best friends trouble is not far behind. This charming, funny animated tale – adapted from the picture books by Gabrielle Vincent – was made by the duo behind A Town Called Panic, and is perfect Sunday afternoon viewing whatever your age.

Tilted Axis

Gangs of Digbeth

Friday 29 March, 1.30pm + Sunday 31 March, 4pm Custard Factory Theatre / £7 (£5) Dir. Various

Gangs of Digbeth

Pick ‘n’ Mix 1

Friday 29 March, 11am Meet at Flatpack Palais / £7 (£5)

Friday 29 March, 11.30am Flatpack Palais / Free Dir. Various, 90 mins

Later this year the BBC screen a new five-part drama by Steven Knight called Peaky Blinders, about the violent netherworld of turn-of-thecentury Birmingham. Local historian Chris Upton – leader of our Odeon bus-tour back in 2010 – worked as a consultant on the series, and this walking tour is an opportunity to join him as he sketches out the battle-lines of some of the city’s most notorious gangs.

From the heartfelt tales of ending life in Halfway at Sea to the vibrant colours on display in the experimental Dawn of the Rainbow, this year’s submissions have offered everything from sombre reflection on loss to the joyous recapturing of cinematic history, not to mention a charming visit to some local allotments. Pick ‘n’ Mix 1 is a chance to catch some of these highlights and remind you why you fell in love with the moving image in the first place.

Exploring their subjects with somewhat of a shifted perspective, things aren’t always as they seem in this selection of works from some of the world’s most innovative filmmakers. Includes Harald Hund & Paul Horn’s Apnoe, a snapshot of a regular family life; the only unusual thing being, they live underwater. Japanese animation duo Kawai & Okamura’s tribute to Peter Falk is an enigmatic whodunnit with an interesting twist, and Austrian Paul Wenninger’s spell-bindingly brilliant piece of pixilation filmmaking, Trespass, is worth the price of admission alone.

Lars Laumann Works Friday 29 March, 4pm Flatpack Palais / Free Grand Union and Flatpack present a brief introduction to Lars Laumann’s moving image work.

Morrissey Foretelling the Death of Diana (2005) is a track-by-track analysis of The Queen is Dead, detailing the clues the LP provides regarding Princess Diana’s demise, while Berlinmuren (2008) is a portrait of a woman who got married to the Berlin Wall in 1979. Followed by a short Q&A with the artist exploring the ambiguous nature of these films, conspiracy theory and documentary style filmmaking.

Back to the Lab

After the Flood

IdeasTap Films

Friday 29 March, 1.30pm Flatpack Palais / Free

Friday 29 March, 3.30pm Custard Factory Theatre / £7 (£5) Dir. Various

Friday 29 March, 5.30pm Flatpack Palais / Free Dir. Various

Terry Grimley has described the Lab as functioning like a ‘Noah's Ark’ amidst the concrete nightmare of 70s Birmingham. For those of us who weren't around in those halcyon days, here’s a quick primer on the period. Alongside the industrial unrest, fragrant underpasses and spectacular trousers, there’s a clip of cartoonist Hunt Emerson in action at the Arts Lab printing press in 1977. This is also a rare chance to see Tony Palmer’s half-hour documentary on the city from 1971, a polemic on culture’s role in regeneration which whizzes around the Bull Ring to the tune of ‘Working Class Hero.’

Following the success of last year’s IdeasTap shorts screening we’re collaborating again, but this time we’ve asked one of their members to curate the programme. National Film and Television School graduate Jessica Loveland has hand-picked a selection of absolute gems all made by Ideastap members. Includes The Fisherman’s Daughter, an adaptation of a Scottish folk tale about a young girl who falls in love with a seal, and her parents’ reaction when they discover their daughter’s unusual attraction to the sea-creature.

Barring a Wikipedia entry, you can barely find a trace of Birmingham Arts Lab online, but its influence on the city’s cultural landscape can still be felt today. As the value of the arts is increasingly measured in terms of economic or social impact, carving out a space for experimentation and creative chaos becomes more challenging. Gathering many of the Arts Lab’s original participants, and hosted by one of its early members Terry Grimley, this free event is an opportunity to talk about how the Lab worked (and didn’t), and what lessons it might offer us thirty years on.

–24–

Friday 29 March

Possession Friday 29 March, 5.30pm Custard Factory Theatre / £7 (£5) Dir. Andrzej Zulawski France/West Germany 1981 118 mins + 50 mins As far as psycho-sexual break-up melt-down movies go, Possession makes Lars von Trier’s Antichrist look like a romantic romp. Famously pitched by Zulawski to Paramount as “a film about a woman who f***s an octopus”, it was strangely passed over by Hollywood and ended up being shot in early 80s Berlin: the perfect setting for this fractured tale, which mingles horror, tragedy and humour in an unforgettable way. Newly spruced up for a Blu-ray release and with Andrzej Korzynski’s haunting score now reissued on vinyl by Finders Keepers, this is a perfect opportunity to rediscover the relationship drama which somehow found itself labelled as a video nasty. The screening will be followed

by Daniel Bird’s illuminating 50minute documentary, The Other Side of the Wall.

Natural Habitats Friday 29 March, 6.30pm The Electric / £7 (£5) + Sunday 31 March, 1pm Custard Factory Theatre / £7 (£5) Dir. Various, 80 mins We’ve seen too much exceptional animation over the past year to fit into just one programme so here’s the second installment (see Edgeless Shapes, p.15, for the first). The sublime, multi-award winning Oh Willy…, sees a man go on a journey of grief unlike any other and is forced to come to terms with the unexpected, including the sight of a nudist community doing yoga. Tony Donoghue's Irish Folk Furniture promises to do for ScS what Pixar did for your toybox, and while you may never look at your wardrobe in the same way you’re sure to be charmed by the tales of family heritage and heirlooms. Finally, Big House throws light on a tower block community with a mix of styles accompanied by a cacophony of joyful sounds.

The Lebanese Rocket Society Friday 29 March, 5.45pm mac birmingham / £7 (£5) Dir. Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige Lebanon/France/Qatar 2012, 93 mins In 1960 the science department of an Armenian university in Beirut started building small missiles propelled by homebrewed rocket-fuel, just to see how far they could launch them. As their ambitions grew the government got interested, and before long the Lebanese Rocket Society had become a source of enormous national pride, celebrated on stamps and in parades. However, some of Lebanon’s neighbours were starting to get suspicious about the true aims of the programme.

It’s a fascinating, barely-told tale that resonates with today in all sorts of ways, raising questions about the stories that history leaves behind.

Hadjithomas and Joreige let us draw our own connections, concentrating on the personalities behind the programme; in particular head of department Manoug Manougian, now based in Florida and excited to see light finally being shed on his achievements. We are pleased to confirm that Joana Hadjithomas will be present at Flatpack for the UK premiere of her film.

The Bruce Lacey Experience International Space Orchestra Friday 29 March, 8.30pm The Electric / £7 (£5) Dir. Nelly Ben Hayoun The idea behind the International Space Orchestra is simple, if implausible: to gather a group of space scientists with musical abilities (from NASA Ames Research Center, SETI, and so on) to develop and perform Ground Control: An Opera in Space, reenacting the difficulties of mission control during Apollo 11. London-based French experience designer Nelly Ben Hayoun, whose previous work includes a volcano built in her living room, somehow pulls it off, her enthusiasm and charm winning over astrophysicists and drawing in musical favours from the likes of Bobby Womack,

–25–

Friday 29 March

Friday 29 March, 8.45pm Custard Factory Theatre / £7 (£5) Dir. Nick Abrahams, Jeremy Deller UK 2012, 73 mins It’s true no one here understands now, but maybe someday they’ll catch up with you.

Damon Albarn and Penguin Café. International Space Orchestra is a film about the way space fires the imagination, and it’s our pleasure to welcome Nelly for this special preview screening.

The screening will open with A Year Along The Abandoned Road (dir. Morten Skallerud, 1991), an incredible 12-minute 70mm timelapse short from Norway. Peter Walsh was a cinema programmer in Birmingham for 25 years, first at the Arts Lab and then the Triangle. Sadly he died last year and we’re showing this film, one of his favourites, in memoriam.

These were the prescient closing words of Fairport Convention’s ‘Mr Lacey’, a hymn to an irrepressible spirit who has been doing his own thing as sculptor, performer, filmmaker and so on for over sixty years.

Last year Camden Arts Centre hosted a major retrospective of his work, and this affectionate, off-beat portrait is a chance to delve deeper into his world. Co-director Nick Abrahams will be on hand to share some of his own Bruce Lacey experiences, and we’ll also screen excerpts from some of the man’s performances that you might have witnessed if you were loitering at Birmingham Arts Lab back in the early 70s.

MondoManila aka:

How I Fixed My Hair After a Rather Long Journey

Friday 29 March, 10.45pm Custard Factory Theatre / £7 (£5) Dir. Khavn de la Cruz Phillipines 2012, 75 mins + 15 mins Khavn’s free-wheeling slum voyage has emerged from a wave of fresh, street-level filmmaking coming out of the Philippines at the moment, and it’s not hard to see why it has been grabbing attention internationally. Packed into its 75 minutes you’ll find hip hop musical numbers, animated titles, an advert for sewer water, an unfortunate interlude with a goose, Youtube disaster footage and a carnival of misfits and freaks from the seamier side of Manila. Shot through with the same kind of liberated filth you find in early John Waters or Almodovar, with an undercurrent of righteous anger, MondoManila promises great things from its prolific, multi-tasking creator.

Presented in association with Electric Sheep and preceded by Animals I Killed Last Summer (dir.

Gustav Danielsson), a dark little short from Sweden.

The Mad Magician Friday 29 March, 11pm The Electric / £7 (£5) + £1.50 glasses Dir. John Brahm USA 1954, 72 mins Produced at Columbia towards the end of the 50s 3D boom – and a clear attempt to cash in on the previous year’s House of Wax – this delirious B-movie stars Vincent Price as the crazed conjuror of the title, employing every trick up his sleeve to wage war on the world. Brace yourself, as this new digital restoration gives us another chance to submit to flames, whirring buzzsaws and pointy fingers in all their stereoscopic glory.

Demdike Stare + Lee Gamble Friday 29 March, 9pm Flatpack Palais / £13 (£11) A bit of a dream bill for us this one: live AV sets by two of the best electronic acts around, both of them with a taste for crate-digging and unexpected sound combinations.

Demdike Stare describe their modus operandi thus: “You get a load of ingredients, throw them all into a cauldron, set fire to it and see what happens.” Miles Whittaker, a DJ and one half of techno duo Pendle Coven, teamed up with Sean Canty from Manchester label Finders Keepers.

Their music fits no obvious category, with cauldron ingredients including film scores, obscure jazz, Iranian folk and Nordic drone. In live shows they really take flight, aided by what-the-heck visuals stitched together from an extensive collection of VHS horror.

Lee Gamble has been reliving his youth in Birmingham clubs recently, unspooling old jungle tapes and pulverising them into new shapes, so it’s nice to have him back. Moving from the mangled speech and digital feedback of his Entr’acte releases, his latest stuff on Pan is getting dangerously close to dance music, albeit with the same skewed sense of space and time. Providing the images is Cyrk collaborator (and erstwhile Flatpack designer) Gas. Also featuring a DJ set by Nicholas Bullen (Napalm Death, Black Galaxy).

–26–

Friday 29 March

Cyclomania Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia.

Screen-printing workshop

H.G. Wells

Saturday 30 March, 12.30pm Get a Grip / £15 In the thirty years since the Arts Lab press closed down we’ve seen the rise of digital printing, and yet the art of silkscreen is still very much alive. This intensive workshop, led by Digbeth print studio Get a Grip, will give you the skills to make your own hand-pulled two-colour print. Ernie Hudson, one of the Lab’s original printers, will also be on hand to talk about how luck, judgement and many late nights produced the amazing posters which you can see on display in the Flatpack Palais.

Strictly limited places – advance booking essential.

Saturday 30 March, 11am Custard Factory / Free Dir. Various Picking up from last year’s Bikermania strand, here’s a hymn to the joys of the two-wheeled velocipede. Spilling out of the Palais and taking over the Custard Factory will be a host of free screenings, entertainments and activities, including:

Bicycle Basket Bazaar

The Ministry of Cycles and Pod Projects present a unique array of retailers, all cramming their wares into bike baskets and pannier racks. Kind of like a car boot sale, but more compact and kinder to the environment. (If you’d like to book a ‘stall’ write to BBB@7inch.org.uk before 22 March.)

Cyclotrope

Cornwall-based artist Tim Wheatley has developed this brilliant device, a converted wheel that functions as a zoetrope. Includes a chance to make your own short looping Cyclotrope film.

Cyclomania Films

From 12.30pm the Flatpack Palais will be devoted to free-wheeling films of every shape and size, from brilliant Canadian short The Man Who Lived on His Bike to a crisp 1964 documentary about Nottingham’s Raleigh factory.

Plus: Bike polo demo by Birmingham Bike Foundry, a pedal-powered cinema courtesy of Sustrans, and plenty more.

Bicycle Dreams Saturday 30 March, 2.30pm Custard Factory Theatre / £7 (£5) If the various treats of Cyclomania don’t leave you all pedalled out, then head over to the Custard Factory Theatre where alongside our bicycle bonanza we’ll be showing Stephen Auerbach’s magnificent documentary Bicycle Dreams, in association with local emporium Provide. Many people dream of driving from coast to coast in the USA, but can you imagine doing that on a bike?

In twelve days? This film charts such a journey, providing a compelling and emotional insight into the minds of the world’s ultimate athletes as they tackle the Race Across America, a 3000-mile endurance event that has our thighs burning just at the thought of it.

The Posters Came From the Walls Cartoon Rock Saturday 30 March, 11am Flatpack Palais / Free Get Saturday started off on the right track, with free films and free cereal. Following the success of last year’s Cartoon Rock show, we’ll be compiling more family-friendly oddities and as far as possible trying to turn the Palais into one big living room. Features actual films showing on an actual film projector.

–27–

Saturday 30 March

Saturday 30 March, 12pm Custard Factory Theatre / £7 (£5) Dir. Nick Abrahams, Jeremy Deller UK 2008, 72 mins Before Nick Abrahams runs off to catch his train (see also The Bruce Lacey Experience, p.25), we thought we’d squeeze one more screening out of him. From being a symbol of hope in Soviet-era Eastern Europe to acting as a form of rebellion for youths in Iran, Depeche Mode have exerted a powerful influence on their fans in some unexpected corners of the earth. The film’s choice to overlook the group themselves maintains the air of mystique constructed by their devotees, resulting in an enjoyable oddity which sidesteps the usual talking-heads formula.

The Mind of Evil Saturday 30 March, 1pm The Electric / £7 (£5) The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and his companion Jo Grant (Katy Manning) visit Stangmoor prison to see the Keller Machine, a device designed to suck the evil from criminals’ brains. However, Doctor Keller is not all he seems… One of the most memorable and complex Who stories, The Mind of Evil (1971) has only been available in black and white since it was first broadcast. Now, thanks to incredibly painstaking work by the Doctor Who restoration team, we can see it as it was orginally filmed.

This special event in association with Shock and Gore Festival not only includes the full serial but also a chance to hear from two of the restorers themselves, Peter Crocker and Steven Roberts, in conversation with Who archivist Paul Vanezis.

Pick ‘n’ Mix 2 Saturday 30 March, 5pm Flatpack Palais / Free Dir. Various, 90 mins Offering new films from Flatpack favourites the Brothers McLeod and Let Me Feel Your Finger First, alongside surprising discoveries from this year’s crop of submissions, Pick ‘n’ Mix 2 promises to be a shorts programme not to miss. Highlights include a comedic exploration of the inner workings of animals in both The Horsemen and They Both Explode, an experimental look at space as you've never seen it before in Eyes of the Moon, and the most bizarrely unintentional reference to 50 Shades of Grey ever.

The Quiet Pioneer Saturday 30 March, 4pm The Old Rep / Free The Quiet Pioneer is a 1987 documentary about Sir Barry Jackson, the founder of Birmingham Repertory Theatre, giving an insight into his life and work in Birmingham, Stratford and Malvern.

The film’s director, Jim Berrow, will be present to introduce the screening. This event is part of the REP100 programme. For more information and to book tickets go to birmingham-rep.co.uk/whats-on.

Piercing Brightness Saturday 30 March, 1pm The Electric / £7 (£5) Dir. Shezad Dawood UK 2012, 76 mins Preston is a hot spot for UFO sightings, and also has the UK’s fastest-growing Chinese population.

Such local trivia provided the starting point for artist Shezad Dawood when he was developing a project in the town, and the end result is this woozy, socially-conscious science fiction movie.

Avoiding Northern cliches, the film gives us a tale of alien emissaries and interracial love that has a real sense of place, with wig-out moments provided by Acid Mothers Temple and a climax on the roof of the brutalist Preston Bus Station.

Shezad Dawood will be here after the screening to talk about Piercing Brightness with Gavin Wade (Eastside Projects).

Brummies, Boozers and Bruisers Saturday 30 March, 2pm The Edge / Free Join Friction Arts and local resident Ray O’Donnell for a kebab and a scuffle. As part of Friction’s ongoing Echoes heritage project, we’ll be hosting a short screening of archive footage and a discussion about gangs and underground Birmingham in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

The Polish Poster and Film Saturday 30 March, 5.15pm Custard Factory Theatre / £5 In recent years there has been a renewed interest in graphic, non-photographic film poster art.

The Polish school of poster art is a key influence on this trend. This presentation by Daniel Bird outlines the emergence of the Polish poster school of the late 1950s. It discusses the historical, cultural and political contexts out of which these groundbreaking poster artists emerged. As well as introducing some of the key figures of this movement – Henryk Tomaszewski, Jan Lenica and Roman Cieslewicz – it focuses on the relationship between Polish posters and film.

Soviet Animation in 3D Saturday 30 March, 3.30pm The Electric / £7 (£5) + £1.50 glasses Dir. Various USSR, 66 mins During the Cold War, Soviet inventors developed pioneering technology for stereoscopic projection which was used to make several animated films.

But due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and its cinematic infrastructure in 1991, these films have been sitting in archives gathering dust as the equipment needed disappeared when the old movie theatres were turned into multiplexes.

Thankfully, some of these films have been digitally restored and we’re privileged to be screening a selection of them, including the majestic When Men Sing which features a male choir performing on top of a sleeping brachiosaurus. Animation gold.

Courtesy of Nuku-Film, Tallinn and Gosfilmofond State FIlm Archive, Russia, curated by Birgit Beumers and first shown internationally at Encounters, Watershed Media Centre in September 2012.

–28–

Saturday 30 March

Vanishing Waves Saturday 30 March, 6pm The Electric / £7 (£5) Dir. Kristina Buozyte Lithuania 2012, 124 mins This distinctive Lithuanian sci-fi follows a scientist through neural transfer into the consciousness of a young coma victim, a world of groovy production design and sensual oddness. As he becomes increasingly obsessed with her, his colleagues start to wonder what he’s holding back. Clear traces of 2001 and Solaris can be found in the visuals – impressive in itself given the limited budget – but Vanishing Waves weaves its own spell and has won over audiences at genre festivals across the world. Kristina Buozyte will be present at tonight’s screening.

At the Table Saturday 30 March, 6.30pm The Edge / £4 At the Table is a live multidisciplinary event fuelled by a love of food and feasting.

Based on the idea of meals acting as natural forums of communication and inclusive hospitality, it’s a celebration of mealtime as an activity close to our hearts. A meal held in 2012 provided raw material, and since then the project has taken a group of students at Birmingham Conservatoire on an exploration of surreal topics, subtle gestures and notated chatting – culminating in a performance of live string quartet, film projection, set design and, of course, food! Join us in an outlandish re-telling of the meal: filling your ears, eyes and belly.

Only The Young Saturday 30 March, 7pm Custard Factory Theatre / £7 (£5) Dir. Elizabeth Mims, Jason Tippet USA 2012, 72 mins When you watch the trailer for Only The Young, it’s not immediately obvious whether it’s fiction or documentary. This is a fuzzy area that CalArts graduates Mims and Tippet enjoy exploring in their debut feature, a beautifully composed snapshot of two teenage Christian skaters in suburban California played out to old soul tunes. The frank, funny interviews with Kevin and Garrison plug you straight into adolescence, and it’s clear that many hours were spent winning their trust and getting them comfortable on camera. The film’s real star, though, is their friend Skye, facing possible homelessness and wise beyond her years.

3D Party Saturday 30 March, 8pm Flatpack Palais / £5

In the long and dishonourable tradition of Flatpack Saturday nights (see Plasticine and Paper parties passim), the Palais becomes home to a stereoscopic shindig tonight. Expect great music, visuals from the third dimension, red/blue beverages and plenty to occupy idle hands. Entry to the 3D party also gets you into the Custard Factory theatre, which tonight plays host to a unique performance…

The King (Su Re) Saturday 30 March, 8.30pm mac birmingham / £7 (£5) Dir. Giovanni Columbu Italy 2012, 87 mins Filmed in Sardinia in the local dialect, this is a retelling of Jesus’ last days which shuttles back and forth in time taking elements from all four Gospels to give a fractured take on a familiar story.

Bug-eyed and barrel-chested, Fiorenzu Mattu is no conventional Christ, and as with Pasolini’s Passion it is the faces of Columbu’s non-professional cast which stay etched on the memory. As beautifully austere as its fog-shrouded setting, The King makes for an ideal companion with Son of Man (p. 14).

–29–

Saturday 30 March

Film Ficciones presents: The Mask 3D (a.k.a. Eyes of Hell) 1961 Canada, Dir. Julian Roffman Special presentation of this cult classic psychological horror trip, featuring a newly created live music score by Film Ficciones & Nick Sales (Pram, BlissBody, Project DARK, Bow Gamelan Orchestra) for the film’s famously bizarre, Jungian 3D sequences.

After a young archaeologist, haunted by weird nightmares and believing he may have committed murder, kills himself, his psychiatrist receives a strange Aztec mask from his former patient – and a letter warning him of its power to reveal a person’s deepest, darkest desires.

The first 30 people through the door will be given a special 3D Mystic Mask Viewer, a facsimile of the original giveaway from the film’s initial release. The first 50 will receive a special commemorative booklet with original art, extensive programme notes and background material on the film. On display will be various publicity materials including posters, lobby cards and rare storyboards (by none other than Len Lye!).

·

Remember: Clocks go forward at 1am on 31 March.

Don’t miss your screening!

Out of the Inkwell Sunday 31 March, 12.30pm (screenings at 1pm, 2.30pm and 4pm) Cherish House / Free Dir. Te Wei, 60 mins

Kabaddi Sunday 31 March, 11.30am Flatpack Palais / Free Before Shipwrecked and Popworld, back even before Football Italia, Channel 4’s Sunday morning ‘hangover slot’ was graced by Kabaddi. A frenetic game popular in South Asia, the aim is to raid opposition territory while holding your breath; to untutored eyes, it looks a bit like British Bulldog.

One of Krishnan Guru-Murthy’s first TV gigs, the show is still fondly remembered by many. It was also made in Bearwood, and today Sunandan and Yugesh Walia (Endboard Productions) will be reliving Kabaddi’s golden years.

The Echo of Astroboy’s Footsteps Sunday 31 March, 6pm Custard Factory Theatre / £7 (£5) Dir. Masanori Tominaga Japan 2011, 82 mins The Radiophonic Workshop were not the only ones experimenting with tape-loops in the 1960s. Under the influence of Karlheinz Stockhausen, independentminded young sound designer Matsuo Ohno made his mark with the unearthly sound effects for popular 60s series Astro Boy, and together with creator Osamu Tezuka helped set the template for much of the anime that followed. This affectionate documentary tracks down many of Ohno’s collaborators, as well as more recent disciples like the Open Reel Ensemble, and tries to find out why he walked away at the height of his powers.

–32–

Sunday 31 March

Hailed as the master of Chinese animation, Te Wei (1915–2010) was a pioneering animator and cartoonist. He developed a brushstroke style which was influenced by the great painter Qi Baishi. In an afternoon celebrating Chinese culture, we’ll be screening three of Wei’s gorgeous animations, which include the multi-award winning 1960 short film Where is Mamma? about the adventures and misadventures of a group of tadpoles in search of their mother. As well as films, there will be traditional Chinese music from The Jasmine Moon Ensemble, calligraphy, tai chi, and tasty, authentic food served throughout.

Our venue for the day is Cherish House, the country’s only Chinese sheltered housing complex and we’re very grateful to Trident for supporting this event. Due to limited capacity, the programme will be screened three times. Screenings are at 1pm, 2.30pm, and 4pm, and entry is on a firstcome, first-served basis.

Bring Out Your Dead Easter Special Sunday 31 March, 2pm Flatpack Palais / Free A subsidiary of Birmingham independent record label First Fold, Bring Out Your Dead (BOYD) is an AV collective specialising in eclectic and immersive live performance events. With a focus on electronic and experimental music, BOYD will be taking over the Palais for Easter Sunday afternoon.

Expect mesmerising visuals and multi-textured soundscapes, with egg-decorating and chocolates into the bargain.

WR-Mysteries of the Organism Sunday 31 March, 8pm Custard Factory Theatre / £7 (£5) Dir. Dusan Makavejev Yugoslavia 1971, 85 mins “Politics is for those whose orgasm is incomplete!”

If you were looking to mainline the spirit of the late 60s counter-culture you could do a lot worse than this bizarre, bracing melange of documentary, fiction and found-footage. The non-fiction element (and the WR of the title) concerns psychoanlayst Wilhelm Reich, whose radical theories on sexual repression and orgone therapy saw his books burned by both the Nazis and the US authorities.

Around this story Makavejev weaves a fascinating web of material that draws in Stalinist propaganda, Cynthia the Plastercaster and a surreal romance with an ice-skater. An emblematic film from the early programming of Birmingham Arts Lab.

Wadjda

Eyes on the Prize

Eastern Lo-Fi

Sunday 31 March, 6pm The Electric / £7 (£5) Dir. Haifaa al-Mansour Saudi Arabia, 98 mins

Sunday 31 March, 7pm Flatpack Palais / Free

Sunday 31 March, 10pm Custard Factory Theatre / £7 (£5) Dir. Various, 80 mins

According to nineteenth century activist Susan B. Anthony, “the bicycle has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.” Here we see pedal power working its magic again, in the charming and quietly barbed story of a young Saudi girl who dreams of having her own bike. Wadjda arrives weighed down not just with festival plaudits but plenty of history too, as the first film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and the first by a female director. It’s also a joy to watch.

A Hijacking Sunday 31 March, 8.30pm mac birmingham / £7 (£5) Dir. Tobias Lindholm Denmark 2012, 99 mins A high quality Scandinavian drama with a woolly jumper nowhere to be seen? Surely not! Then again, when you see that the action has been transferred from the police procedurals that make up Saturday nights on BBC4 to the masculine, close confines of a trawler under Somali Pirate control, you’ll understand why. Switching back and forth between the Indian Ocean and a Copenhagen boardroom, A Hijacking traces a hostage negotiation in compelling detail and confirms that Tobias Lindholm (best known for his writing on Borgen and features including Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt) is no slouch as a director either.

–33–

Sunday 31 March

As Flatpack 7 slips through our fingers, we gather in the Palais once more to bid farewell to the whole shooting-match. This time there’s an extra edge to proceedings, because for the first time we’re giving out awards. Now don’t get the wrong idea.

We’re not talking cringey speeches, or close-ups of grinning losers, or lounge covers of familiar theme tunes (well, maybe that). We felt that recognition was due for some of the amazing short films that pass through our projectors each year, and so tonight five prizes will be presented. Two of them will be chosen by you, the viewing public, so look out for voting slips at screenings.

If we’re honest, for us weary festival-organisers the real prize is reaching the finishing line.

We hope that you’ll join us to relive some of this year’s highlights, as we all start adjusting to Life After Flatpack.

There are some trailers you see which make viewing the complete film a new life-priority. When we saw the trailer for Japanese short, Encounters, our priorities were re-jigged, and after viewing the full 20 minute film, we weren’t disappointed.

Takashi Iitsuka’s labour of love, using toy puppets and maneuvering them by hand and fishing wire has shades of Thunderbirds, but on drugs.

Screening with Encounters are three other low budget romps, including Lisa Takeba’s Wandering Alien Detective Robin about a lonely detective on a complex case in Tokyo, Devi Kobayashi’s AkibaField featuring two women, two swords, and a man in a box, all set for the apocalypse. And everybody’s favourite Japanese UFO-like space monster, Ultraman, features in a classic episodes from the iconic series.

Team

Thank you

Director Ian Francis

Lizz Lunney (Birmingham Zine Festival); Birgit Kehrer (Change Kitchen); Clare Knapton (Premier Apartments); Katie Miller (BPN Architects); Richard Trueman (Yorks Bakery Café); Sarah Stevenson & Lois Greenidge (Aston Manor Cider); Sarah Chorley (Shooting People); Jill Martin (Purity Brewing); Rev. Neil Johnson (Carrs Lane Church Centre); Alessandro Columbano (BCU); James Thomson (GCA); Chris Hufford (Willmott Dixon); Kirsten Henly and Tahreen Kutub (Colmore BID); Chris Keenan; Andy Goodman; Birgit Beumers; Dawn Prentice; David Luke Allen (Animation Forum WM); John Cooper (Just Film Co-Op); Jerome Leavey and all at Birmingham International Film Society; Sal (6/8 Kafé); Kate (Lost and Found); Dave Peebles, Tara Newman and Danny Smith (Custard Factory); Sandra and Lee (Friction Arts); Laura MacFarlane (IdeasTap); Ruth Harvey and Carol Currier (Birmingham Cathedral); Peta MurphyBurke (Arts Council England); Steve Tommy and Eleanor Hopkins (Hortons); Mo White, Kerry Newell and all at Ticketsellers; Roger Shannon (swish); Tony Bloor; Terry Grimley; Hunt Emerson; Barry Matthews; Ernie Hudson; Trevor Pitt (Pod Projects); Ed Fletcher, Eve Gabereau and Fiona Fletcher (Soda Pictures); David Sin, Tilly Walnes and Kate Taylor (ICO); Laura Coxson (Maysles Films); Michael Wailes (Vertigo Films); Andrew Woodyatt (Metrodome); Chris Sullivan; Steve Bestwick (The Works); Adam Hotchkiss (Studio Canal); Andrew Youdell (BFI); Laura McDermott and Harun Morrison (Fierce Festival); Phil Leach (MACE); Nick Bradshaw (Sight and Sound); David Luke Allen (Animation Forum WM); Pete Ashton; Gil Leung (Lux); James Sharman (Sharman & Co.); Lisa Beauchamp, David Rowan, Kate Andrews, and Katie Hall (Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery); Lynsey Fairweather and Kenny Webster (Thinktank); Jean Nicholson and Richard Willacy (Birmingham Opera Company); James Yarker and Charlotte Martin (Stan’s

Operations Manager Selina Hewlett Programme Coordinator Sam Groves Marketing Coordinator Annabel Clarke Festival Assistant Robyn Lawrence Programme Asistant Morten Wright Marketing Assistant Clare Morris Production Assistant Doug Brennan Volunteer Coordinator Anna McCaskie Exhibition Coordinator Maya Darrell Hewins Student Ambassador Coordinator Sally Richardson Artist Liaison Charlotte Hunt Flatpack Palais Chris Swann (Operations Coordinator), Matthew Higginbottom (Build Coordinator) Front of House & Stage Managers Jill Arbuckle, Pete Ashton, Danielle Blackburn, Holly Cooper, Laura Coult, Olivia James, Alex King, Greg Milner, Jane Morrow, Joe Pallett; Esther Rush, Pete Stevens, Andy Swann, Hannah Wood Artist Liaison Support Pip McKnight, Elena Voce Siriani Design An Endless Supply Web Developer Jacob Masters / gabba.net Press and PR John Dunning & Hilary Cornwell / margaretlondon.com Technical Co-ordination Phil Slocombe and James Islip / lumen.org.uk Board of Directors Jake Grimley (Chair) (MADE Media); Paul Drury (Premier Comms); Sarah Gee (Indigo Ltd); Bob Ghosh (K4 Architects); Ruth Harvery (Birmingham Cathedral); Sally Hodgson (Pipoca Pictures); Jenny Moore; Kate Taylor (Independent Cinema Office)

Contact Flatpack Palais The Old Library, The Custard Factory, Gibb Street, Birmingham B9 4AA Web www.flatpackfestival.org.uk Email info@flatpackfestival.org.uk Twitter @flatpack

–36–

Cafe); Jerome Turner (8mm Cine Club); Gareth and Philip (Little Earthquake); Jade (Home Café Deli); Ross McCall and Gay Faulkner (Cushman and Wakefield); Ian Grosvenor, Claire Mullett, Lee Hale and Laura Coult (University of Birmingham); all at Cherish House; Sarah Mosses (Britdoc); Neil Johnson (Carrs Lane Church Centre); Alessandra Thiele (Sacher Film); Alex Agran (Arrow Films); Yen Yau (First Light); Debbie Aston; Anna Higgs (Film 4.0); Jeremy Boxer (Vimeo); Kier-la Janisse; Leon and Phil (Short and Swede); Martin, Andrew and all at the BMI; Louis Hudson; John Sear (WallFour); Paul Vanezis; Rita Valiukonyte (Lithuanian Ministry of Culture); Jenine McGaughran and Cheryl Jones (Grand Union); Jessica Loveland; Nick Abrahams; Virginie Selavy (Electric Sheep); Mark Truesdale (Park Circus); Chloe and Paul (Surefire); Stuart Rogers, Ruth Morgan and Jenny Smith (Birmingham Rep); Beth Bellis; Daniel Fardon; Yugesh and Sunandan Walia (Endboard); Matt Nation (Provide); Nicholas Bullen; Nelly Ben Hayoun; Navtej Johal (BBC); our postman; Gerv Havill (Mission Print); Scott Johnston; Nick Sales; Neil Rami, Ellie Rance and Tim Manson (Marketing Birmingham); Yasmeen and Laura at VIVID; Gavin Wade and Ruth Claxton at Eastside Projects; Jay Arnold, Carol Clarke and Sarah-Jane Meredith (Creative England); Ben Waddington (Still Walking); Tom, Sam, David and all at the Electric; Amy, Alex, Dan, Rachel and all at mac; Carl Hawkins (Jekyll & Hyde); Chris Hurst (Retail Birmingham); Peter Maxwell Dixon; Lisa and Sarah at Capsule; Dave Gaskarth (Cyrk); Daniel Bird; Tony Jones; Jenny Moore; Pip McKnight; all the guests, artists, filmmakers, distributors, venues and technicians; and all our tolerant, supportive friends and family.

And as always, an enormous thank you to our brilliant volunteers, without whom none of this would happen.

Booking Advance Tickets Tickets can be purchased through our ticketing partner, The TicketSellers in three ways: 1. Online at www.flatpackfestival.org.uk or www.theticketsellers.co.uk.

2. The TicketSellers 24 hour booking phone line 0844 870 0000.

3. In person at The TicketSellers Shop, 594 Bristol Rd, Birmingham, B29 6BQ. Opening times Monday–Friday, 9am–7pm and Saturdays, 11am–5.30pm (closed Sundays).

Ticket prices include the booking fee but tickets are subject to a transaction fee of 50p per order for tickets up to £7, and £1 per order for tickets over £7. The transaction fee is payable once per order, so it’s best to buy all of your tickets at the same time to keep charges down.

Please be aware that advance sales for all events close at midnight, the night before the event takes place.

Tickets for all mac birmingham screenings and events are also available in advance from mac birmingham box office.

Ticket prices remain the same for disabled guests, but each disabled guest can bring one carer/ signer with them free of charge.

On the Door Tickets are available to buy on the door at individual venues. Please be aware that all venues accept cash sales only with the exception of The Electric and mac birmingham.

Door sales will open 30 minutes before each event.

Please bear in mind that capacity is quite limited at many venues. A certain allocation of tickets will be held back for door sales but for guaranteed entry we recommend booking in advance.

£24 special screening package Maximise your Flatpack experience by seeing any four screenings for only £24 (full price tickets only). Simply click ‘Buy Tickets’ for the four screenings you would like to see and the package will automatically appear during the checkout process.

The screening package can only be used to purchase one full price adult ticket for four separate screenings. Events are not included in the package.

This offer is only available online or by calling The TicketSellers booking line.

General Information

We regret that latecomers will not be admitted once the event has begun.

All tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable.

Free events cannot be booked in advance.

Concessionary rate tickets are available for students with a valid NUS or student card, registered unemployed with a valid DSS form, under 16s and over 60s with proof of age. Advance tickets and walk up purchases must be validated on the door with the correct ID. Please refer to the website for a full list of venues offering disabled access www.flatpackfestival.org

Map & Venues W Sn

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4

Custard Factory Theatre Gibb St, B9 4AA

5

Eastside Projects 86 Heath Mill Lane, B9 4AR The Edge Friction Arts, 79–81 Cheapside, B12 0QH

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B

Birmingham Cathedral Sq. Colmore Row, B3 2QB Birmingham Midland Institute 9 Margaret Street, B3 3BS

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Odeon Broadway Plaza 220 Ladywood Middleway, B16 8LP

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Film Bug Hub (BSM Unit) 21 Colmore Row, B3 3BS

12

The Old Rep Station St, B5 4DY

E

Thinktank Millennium Point, Curzon St, B4 7XG Vivid Projects 16 Minerva Works, 158 Fazeley St, B5 5RS Winterbourne House University of Birmingham, 58 Edgbaston Park Rd, B15 2RT

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The Gas Hall, BMAG Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Chamberlain Square, B3 3DH

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Great Western Arcade Colmore Row, B2 5HU

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Home Café Deli 26 Church Street, B3 2NP

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Jekyll & Hyde Gin Parlour 28 Steelhouse Lane, B4 6BJ

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The Old Royal 53 Church St, B3 2DP

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Six Eight Kafé 6/8 Temple Row, B2 5HG

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Yorks Bakery Café 1–3 Newhall St, B3 3NH

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BCU School of Art Margaret Street, B3 3BX

mac birmingham Cannon Hill Park, Edgbaston, B12 9QH

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Flatpack Palais & Kavarna Custard Factory, Gibb St, B9 4AA

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Temple Row

Grand Union 19 Minerva Works, 158 Fazeley St, B5 5RS

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The Electric 47 Station Street, B5 4DY

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Glenn Howells Architects 321 Bradford Street, B5 6ET

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Near The Custard Factory

Near the city centre

Yumm Deli – sandwiches, hot food and coffee throughout the day.

The Custard Factory, Gibb St, B9 4AA → www.yummdeli.co.uk

Café Soya – Chinese and Vietnamese food with a good vegetarian selection.

We recommend the steamed pancake rolls, Papaya salad vermicelli and spicy fresh pineapple fried rice. Yum. Unit 2 Upper Dean St, B5 4SL → www.cafesoya.co.uk

Greenhouse – New kid on the food block at the Custard Factory. Hearty breakfasts and lunches.

The Custard Factory, Gibb St, B9 4AA The Spotted Dog – A good solid Irish boozer with excellent beer garden.

Good ales and the occasional bit of traditional ceilidh music to boot.

Meriden St, Digbeth, B5 5LZ → www.spotteddog.co.uk The Big Bull’s Head – Another great local establishment. Their home made beef and Guinness pie is heartily recommended.

75 Digbeth High St, B5 6DY → www.bigbullshead.co.uk

–37– –37–

Le Truc – Good, reasonably priced French. Beware of the decadent cocktails…

21 Ladywell Walk, B5 4ST → www.letruc.co.uk Caffe Chino – Kawaii café in the heart of China Town. Gateaux, French macaroons and green tea cakes galore.

Why not try one with a Bubble Tea? The Arcadian, Hurst St, B5 4TD → www.caffechino.com Telion Foods – Greek deli serving sumptuous salads and delectable pastries in the city centre.

84 Bull St, Temple Point, B4 6AB → www.telionfoods.co.uk

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Canalside Café – This 18th Century lock keeper’s cottage is now a snug pubcum-eatery. Located by the edge of the canal just past Broad Street, you can watch the world (or at least the canal boat people) coast by just outside the window. Wave, and they will wave back, my friend.

Worcester Bar, Gas Street. B1 2JU

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Soul-full – Tucked away in deepest Balsall Heath, it’s worth seeking out this gem. The bakery specialises in Lebanese flatbreads (khobez), pizza and mezze bits and pieces to eat in or takeaway.

167 Mary St, Balsall Heath, B12 9RN

The Victoria – Boasting a 360 degree central bar and a menu stuffed with yummy Soul Food. The Victoria also manages to squeeze in DJs, bands and a weekly Sound and Vision pub quiz.

48 John Bright Street. B1 1BN → www.thevictoriabirmingham.com

The Prince of Wales – A front bar, back bar, a wine bar and er…Tiki Bar. And a Cocktail Lounge if you don’t fancy a room in a pub with ‘bar’ in the title. Neck ‘er neck with The Spotted Dog over what could possibly be Birmingham’s Best Beer Garden.

118 Alcester Rd, Moseley, B13 8EE → www.theprincemoseley.co.uk

Near mac birmingham

Places to stay

Ort. – An art and community café and bar space in Balsall Heath. Functioning as a café in the day and bar at night, it is also hosts events, screenings and performances.

500 Moseley Rd, Balsall Heath, B12 9AH → www.ortcafe.co.uk

Birmingham Backpackers – Former pub made homely hostel with brightly painted walls. They have a cinema room and some bedrooms are equipped with pods.

Eastside Tavern, 58 Coventry St, B5 5NH → birminghamcentralbackpackers.com

Thursday 21 – Friday 22 – Saturday 23 March

Premier Apartments – Spacious modern apartments located in the city centre for short stays with all mod cons. Book online and get 10% off your booking. → premierapartmentsbirmingham.com BLOC – Not a stone has been unturned in kitting out this hotel. The spec features Japanese-style pod rooms, wet rooms, engineered mattresses, and they even called in a Scandinavian sleep expert to make sure their thermostats were set to the right temperature for a perfect night’s sleep.

It feels like a Star Trek set in there.

Caroline St, Jewellery Quarter, B3 1UG → www.blochotels.com Paragon - Hotel in the heart of Digbeth housed in an impressive Grade II listed gothic red brick building.

45 Alcester Street, B12 0PJ → www.dhillonhotels.co.uk For more options you can search via the accommodation directory at www.visitbirmingham.com

Index A–F

Page

F–O

Page

O–Z

Page

3D

26, 28, 29

Flatpack Palais Opening

18

Out of the Inkwell

32

3D Party

29

Flatpack Team

36

Passion of Joan of Arc, The

10

8mm Cine Club

10

Flying Blind

12

Pedal-powered cinema

8

Abrahams, Nick and Jeremy Deller

25, 27

Flying Colours

22

Phantom Tollbooth, The

23

Animals I Killed Last Summer

26

Gamble, Lee

26

Pick ‘n’ Mix 1

24

Adventures of Prince Achmed, The

13

Gangs of Digbeth

24

Pick ‘n’ Mix 2

27

After the Flood

24

Gatekeepers, The

13

Picture Houses

15

Animation 1

15

Girls Night Out

10

Piercing Brightness

28

Animation 2

25

Globbert

17

Piper, Pip

17

Animation Station

22-23

Good Vibrations

12

Polish Poster and Film, The

28

At the Table

29

Grey Gardens

12

Possession

25

Babeldom

13

Hanasaari A

9

Posters Came From the Walls, The

27

Back to the Lab

24

Hardcastle, Lee

17

Prometheus’ Garden

19

Basha

18

Health and Efficiency

15

Queen Ant Made Me Do It!, The

11

Bicycle Basket Bazaar

27

Higgs, Anna

17

Quiet Pioneer, The

28

Bicycle Dreams

27

Hijacking, A

33

Randall, Chris and Marc Silk

17

Birmingham Arts Lab

6, 7, 18, 24, 25, 32

Hudson, Ernie

27

Re-Animating a Dead Python

11

Birmingham Arts Lab Sessions

18

IdeasTap Films

24

Renga

19

Birmingham Guide

37

Index

38

Safety Last!

8

Booking Info

36

International Space Orchestra

25

Savage, Rob

14

Bruce Lacey Experience, The

25

Invisible Architecture

10

Screen-printing Workshop

27

Brummies, Boozers and Bruisers

28

Kabaddi

32

Secret Screenings

9

Bullen. Nicholas

26

Keyhole

9

Shalom, Gabriel

17

Buozyte, Kristina

29

Kickstarter Credits

39

Short and Swede

10

Bring out Your Dead Easter Special

32

King, The

29

Show me the Money

14

Bugs and Beasts

23

KINO 10: ROFLOL

10

Shynola

17, 19

Bush, Paul

13

Kino Club

15

Shynola: Collected Works

19

Calendar

20-21

Kopf Kino

8

Six Men featuring John Madin

9

Cartoon Rock

27

Lars Laumann Works

24

Smith, Geoff

13

Celluloid Nights

15

Laumann, Lars

18, 24

Sol Cinema

9

Chasing Ice

9

Lebanese Rocket Society, The

25

Son of Man

14

Chinese Film Event

32

Liar’s Autobiography, A

11

Songs and Dances of Death

9

Cityscapes

9

Light Music

15

Sound Kitchen event

32

Closing / awards do

33

Lithuanian Animation Retrospective

19

Soviet Animation in 3D

28

Contact Details

36

Live Accompaniments

8,10,13,14

Spring Breakers

14

Lowe, Alice

12

Strings

14

Colour Box

9, 13, 22–24

Mad Magician, The

26

Subterraneans

9

Colour Bugs: Animal Magic

9

Man Who Lived on His Bike, The

27

Surreal Enigmas

10

Colour Bugs: Creature Features

9

Magic Lantern Show

12

Consuming Spirits

13

Mask 3D, The

29

Talks

Cycling

8, 27, 33

Map

37

10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 24, 28 8

27

27

Taste of Flatpack, A

Cyclomania

Mind of Evil, The

36

26

26

Tickets

Demdike Stare

Mondomanila

24

14

22

Tilted Axis

Departure Lounge

Moomins and the Comet Chase

17

8

15

Unpacked

Dissimilated Visions

Mossman, Sue

9

15

11

Musictube

Unravel

Empire of the Ants

33

25

9

Eastern Lo-Fi

Natural Habitats

Urbanized Vanishing Waves

28

Echo of Astroboy’s Footsteps, The

33

13

Venues

37

Edgeless Shapes

15

Name’s Not Bond: The Future of Independent Film, The

12

23

13

Victorian Magic Lantern Show

Ernest & Celestine

NBCQ hosts New British by Night

33

33

10

Wadjda

Eyes on the Prize

Nightlife

9,10,24,32

32

15

Walks

Experimental Shorts

OKO Lab

12

8–11

14

While it Lasts

Film Bug

One Mile Away

29

32

18

Only The Young

WR: Mysteries of the Organism

Flatpack Kavarna

Year Along the Abandoned Road, A

25

–38–

Opening of Andvig & Laumann: 999321 18

Roll credits Here follows a list of all the lovely people who backed our Kickstarter campaign earlier in the year. Thanks everyone!

Neil Allden Jane Anderson Katie Andrews Jose Arroyo Pete Ashton Rajinder Bains Jenny the DBs Barton Harry Blackett Maria Brewster Ben Brooks & Sue Atkins James Brown Paul Burns Thomas Cahill-Jones Natasha Carlish Cathy & Barbara Ceri & Laurence Mike Colledge Alessandro Columbano Matt Common Katy Connor Laura Coult Johnny Craike Rachel of Cuffufle Preserves Nicki Darrell Cressida Darwin Andrew Day

Rachael Dobbie Richard Dowsett Mike Dring Will Evans Kione Farish Simon Fox Hilary Francis & Eoghan Clarkson Paul Francis www.gnut.co.uk Andy Goodman Paul Grant & Kate Grundy Great White Ark Jake Groves Joshua Groves Kate Groves Marian Hall Sandra Harrison Steve Harrison Tom Harrison Dave Harte Ruth Harvey Lauren Haycox Helen Stallard Communications Maya Darrell Hewins Roger Hewins Anna Higgs Sally Hodgson (Pipoca Pictures) Matt Hogan

Neil Chue Hong Louis Hudson Emily J. Ingle Becky Innes Celia Jalil Peter James Phoebe Jeebe Aman Johl Cheryl Jones Patrick & Joy Jones Phillippa Treharne Jones Katie & Ed Chris Keenan Debbie Kermode Sophie Kernthaler Jo Klaces Russ L Sarah Lafford Jim Le Fevre Kerry Leslie Esther Lisk-Carew Nick Lockey Jim Lucas Ben Lynch C. Maher Giacomo Malandrino Amy Martin Rachel Massey Jo McAndie Laura McDermott Matt McKenzie

Dougal McScotland Sam Meech Jack Merriott Lisa Meyer Midven Jenny Moore Tony Morel Nick Morgan (Big Cat Group) Jane Morrow Tracey Moss Robert Murray Sadie Newman Karen Newman Catherine O'Flynn Genevieve Pearson Charlie Phillips (Sheffield Doc/Fest) Richard Phipps Tara Powell & Daniel Rooney Abbey Rahman Juliet Rayment Maria Serrano Revuelta Simon Riley Antonio Roberts Phil Robinson Tom Rogers Ella Rowberry Roxie Sarah Taylor Silverwood Theresa Simkin Hannah Skolnick

Carla Smith Pete Stevens Eddie Stupple Peter & Marian Swann Dusty Swanson @tania_nexust Neil Tansley Alison Tarry Gemma Thomas Leigh Thomas Nicola Toms Polly Tuckett Judy Tweddle Vermillion Films Vintage Mobile Cinema Ben Waddington Tilly Walnes Laura Walton Richard Whillock Gill Whitting & Alan Murie Lee Wildsmith Paul Wood Dr. David T. Wright