Flatpack Festival

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.

Controversial Guardian piece on Eastside

A similar scent of frustrated optimism pervaded Birmingham during the excellent Flatpack film festival. Flatpack is a six-day event that aims to spill out across Digbeth, the abandoned factory and warehouse district now being occupied by the so-called culture industry. The city of 1,001 trades wants to reinvent itself as the city of 1,001 media firms, fashion labels and organic coffee shops. A loose collective of arts groups called We Are Eastside is trying to turn Digbeth into Birmingham’s “cultural playground”, the same method that has been employed across England’s old manufacturing bases. With new high-speed rail lines reducing the journey time from Euston to 46 minutes, the city even has one eye on persuading bored London hipsters to take a weekend trip to Brum.

Read the full article HERE

Saturday @ VIVID

Saturday 27 March at VIVID

3pm – 5pm | admission FREE
TREVOR PITT with Shelli Graham
MATT STOKES
 
9pm til late | admission £4
A Plasticine Party

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The WE ARE EASTSIDE open weekend is at last upon us! Drop into VIVID between 3pm and 5pm to see The Gainsborough Packet by Becks Futures prize-winning artist Matt Stokes. Also at VIVID Trevor Pitt and Shelli Graham reveal LP covers, badges, and projections made in response to Pitt’s Sleeve Notes sessions at VIVID in 2009.

From 9pm, VIVID will host A Plasticine Party, an Eastside knees up celebrating the launch of We Are Eastside and marking the beginning of the end of Flatpack Festival. For more information and tickets visit the Flatpack website here.

TREVOR PITT with Shelli Graham | Sleeve Notes Go Viral

During the summer of 2009, Trevor Pitt looked back at his formative years in Birmingham, tracing his flirtations with pop, punk, film, art and cultural theory. Joining Trevor on this journey have been individuals who played a significant, often underground role in shaping the music, fashion, and club scenes during this period. Through intimate 1-1 chats, they mapped the scenes and wrote the Sleeve Notes to their own lives.

Sleeve Notes session with John Lupton (2009). Cover art by Shelli Graham.

Fast forward to spring 2010 and Pitt is back at VIVID to launch the second phase of Sleeve Notes, supported by Hello Digital. Starting with a tweet, Pitt looks at how social media can proliferate information and widen participation in events which would otherwise stay ‘underground’.              

Follow Sleeve Notes on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sleeve_notes

Also at VIVID…

MATT STOKES | The Gainsborough Packet
2008/9 | super 16mm film and audio transferred to hard-drive | 8:56 mins

VIVID presents Matt Stokes’s song and film, The Gainsborough Packet, the acclaimed new work shown in Baltic and 176, London in 2009. 

The Gainsborough Packet, production still. Photograph: 2tone Photography. Courtesy: The Artist, Workplace Gallery and ZieherSmith.

The work is the culmination of a year’s research and development which began with Stokes’ discovery in the Tyne & Wear archives of a letter written in 1828 by an ordinary man named John Burdikin. The letter was the inspiration for the lyrics, music and film created by Stokes and his collaborators on the project, which trace Burdikin’s life and adventures. Stokes has collaborated with musician Jon Boden from acclaimed folk band Bellowhead, composer Alistair Anderson, and Tim Kerr, an iconic figure of the US punk and early hardcore scene.

The Gainsborough Packet is exhibited courtesy the artist, Workplace Gallery, and ZieherSmith. 

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VIVID | 140 HEATH MILL LANE | BIRMINGHAM | B9 4AR
T: 0121 766 7876 | E: info@vivid.org.uk
www.vivid.org.uk

Stuart from Mogwai at Flatpack Festival

Capsule are delighted to co-host an evening with our good friend Stuart Braithwaite from MOGWAI as part of FLATPACK FESTIVAL on Sat 27th of March. We’ll be starting off with a Q & A followed by a screening of BURNING dir. Vincent Moon, a documentary of the band, filmed during their residency at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn.

This event starts at 20:30pm at Ikon Eastside, 183 Fazeley Street, Digbeth
Birmingham, B5 5SE  Advance Tickets can be purchased from HERE

We’ll be DJing alongside Stuart at the Plasticine Party held at VIVID following the screening – more details HERE

There are loads of amazing screenings on during the festival, highlights include Palace Of The Winds (Sublime Frequencies), Until The Light Takes Us (feat Birminghams own Black Metallers Frost) and No One Knows About Persian Cats.

Check out the Flatpack website for full programme.

Flatpack Festival 2010

Flatpack Festival, the eclectic film festival organised by 7 inch Cinema is nearly upon us! From 23-28 March, the festival will be taking over venues across Birmingham including Eastside.  Flatpack will be taking film to an array of unexpected places, from re-scored silent cinema masterpieces to plasticine parties, cult horror to fantasy musicals.

Highlights include a screening of F.W. Murnau’s 1927 marvel Sunrise with a new score by acclaimed jazz musician Alcyona Mick at St. Martin’s Church in the Bullring. French artist Julien Maire will also be performing at Birmingham Central Library and Vivid, playing with technology to create bewitching optical illusions.

Dublin collective Synth Eastwood will have a mini-residency at the Rainbow Warehouse, building up to a warehouse event blurring the boundaries between gallery and club on Friday 26 March. Expect an eye-opening stew of graphics, installations, music and performance. Live guests include Clark (Warp), AV duo Gangpol and Mit and YouTube provocateur Hugh Cooney.

The full programme line-up and tickets are available now at www.flatpackfestival.org.uk