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.