film

OUTPOST Open: Film at Grand Union 6.30pm Thursday 8 September

Grand Union is pleased to present OUTPOST’s touring film programme, selected by Benjamin Cook, director of LUX. Includes films by Charles CC Audsley, Mark Barker, Dave Charlesworth, Jenna Collins, Karen Cunningham and Kate Murphey.

6.30 – 8pm, Thursday 8 September 2011 at Grand Union, 19 Minerva Works, Fazeley Street, Birmingham, B5 5RS.

This is a FREE event, all welcome.

Apexa Patel review of Los Angeles Plays Itself

In collaboration with Self Service, Birmingham, thisistomorrow has been running a pilot writers mentoring scheme. Today they have published the first text from the programme by Apexa Patel, an examination of the film Los Angeles Plays Itself.

Post-apocalyptic pics

Last Thursday we put on a little ‘walk-in movie‘ at The Edge as part of the Diesel Island programme. The general theme was surviving the apocalypse, and we found that this is the ideal neighbourhood when searching for oil-drums, timber and rubble. Tom Baker from Loaf gave useful advice on foraging, and then the car park filled up for an outdoor showing of cult end-of-the-world drama Miracle Mile.

The following night I caught American Werewolf in London in the back-yard of the Spotted Dog, and I’m hoping that this is the start of a global-warming-inspired trend for al fresco movies around Digbeth. Watch this space for more in the future. In the meantime, the Diesel series climaxes with a free disco at the Custard Factory’s Old Library tomorrow night (Friday 20 May). See Area for the full programme.

Indie bigwigs hit Eastside

In one of those unexpected speaker/venue combinations (see also Crispin Glover at the Light House), American producers Ted Hope and Christine Vachon are guests of honour at a special networking evening at the Spotted Dog on Warwick St in Digbeth this Thursday 7th April, from 6pm. Between them they’ve been responsible for a big chunk of interesting American cinema over the past couple of decades, including the likes of American Splendor, Kids, Boys Don’t Cry and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (pictured) as well as assorted movies by Ang Lee, Todd Haynes, Todd Solondz and many others. The evening is supported by Staffordshire University and Swish Productions, and costs £10 or £7 concessions. [via Film Birmingham]

At the Edge…

This Saturday, West Midlands Film Makers for Haiti are holding a fundraiser at the Edge in aid of our brothers and sisters in Haiti:
The night will feature award winning short films, promos, art films and will be followed by a disco to raise money for the DEC Haiti Appeal. There will be a screening of  Oscar short-listed multi award winning short Gone Fishing, Shooting People Short of the Year 2009 A Supermarket Love Story,  BAFTA winning short Brown Paper Bag, Bouncer starring Ray Winstone and Paddy Consodine, animation from The Brothers McLeod, as well as great shorts from local film makers.  There will also be a series of promos by dub-punk multi-media threesome Jackdaw with Crowbar who will be playing/performing on Saturday 27 at A Plasticine Party for Flatpack Festival.

so that’s all nicely joined up, then – see you there and give something back!

And next week the absolutelynottobemissedunderanycircumstancesyouwillkickyourself residency begins by Jonathan Kay and the Nomadic Academy of Fools, continuing to include Flatpack Weekend.  So if you fancy being amazed, surprised, highly amused, engaged, excited and seeing something for once that you will struggle to forget, get yourself along to the Edge:

Flatpack Festival at Ikon Eastside

Ikon has teamed up with organisers 7 Inch Cinema to present a series of events at Ikon Eastside as part of this year’s Flatpack Festival, which takes place between 23-28 March 2010.

Festival highlights at Ikon Eastside include the UK premier of Redmond Entwistle’s film Monument, showing as part of Build Them in the Mind on Friday 26 March. The film, currently showing in New York, tells the story of post-minimalist artists Dan Graham, Robert Smithson and Gordon Matta-Clark, who wander the New Jersey suburbs revisiting the places where they made site-specific works in the late sixties and early seventies. The film’s themes – abandoned buildings, architecture, urban planning – reflect some of the wider concerns of this year’s festival.

Look out also for David Lodge’s As I Was Walking Down Bristol Street (1983), an insight into Birmingham’s cultural scene in the 1930s, Whatever! a doublebill of filth and fantasy including Cody Critcheloe’s first feature-length movie Boy (2009) and a rare screening of John Water’s legendary Pink Flamingos (1972), and Burning (2009), an intense monochrome record of Scottish post-rockers Mogwai in action. The screening will be introduced by Stuart Braithwaite from Mogwai.

Full listings for Flatpack Festival at Ikon Eastside can be found here.

Tickets cost £6 each or £20 for four screenings

23–28 March 2010
Ikon Eastside, 183 Fazeley Street
Digbeth, Birmingham B5 5SE

We Are Eastside

Welcome to We Are Eastside; your guide to the organisations that host and produce bold new work across film, digital media, crafts, music, visual arts, literature and photography all based in Eastside, Birmingham, UK.

We are:
7 INCH CINEMA / FLATPACK FESTIVAL – BIRMINGHAM JAZZ – CAPSULE –CRAFTSPACE – THE CUSTARD FACTORY – EASTSIDE PROJECTS – GRAND UNION – IKON EASTSIDE – PROJECT PIGEON – PUNCH – RHUBARB RHUBARB – THE EDGE – TINDAL STREET PRESS – THE LOMBARD METHOD – VIVID – VRU