Flatpack 6 brochure by Ian Francis

FLATPA�K FE�TIV�L contents incl ude

CULT ANIMATORS LIVE CINEMA BIKER MOVIES CARTOON ROCK FILM BOAT DIY ZOETROPES SLAPSTICK LEGENDS WALKING TOURS + new films from

herzog kaurismaki chan-wook panahi & many more

Flatpack Festival №6 birMingham, uk @flatpack FLatpackfestival.org

WED 25 & THU 26 APR

TUE 1 - SAT 5 MAY

FRI 11 & SAT 12 MAY

TUE 8 & WED 9 MAY

Music and Lyrics presents Curve theatre Leicester’s production of PUSH is produced by Sadler’s Wells London in collaboration with Russell Maliphant and Sylvie Guillem.

“The scale and splendour of this show will blow you away” Mail on Sunday

£ £3 18.5 8. 0 50

Photo: Johan Persson

-£ 27 £ £4 17.5 2. 0 50

-£ 20

£1 0

£9 £1 .50 5 O IN A

WED 20 - SAT 30 JUN

WED 13 - SAT 16 JUN

WED 6 - SAT 9 JUN

TUE 29 MAY - SAT 2 JUN

TUE 22 - SAT 26 MAY

£4 £15 0. 50

WED 16 - FRI 18 MAY

DV TH AN ED CE OO R

MON 14 & TUE 15 MAY

£1 2. 50

£1 5-

£ £3 14.5 4. 0 50 -

£3 2. 50

RODGER’S & HAMMERSTEIN’S

WED 4 JUL - SAT 25 AUG

Cape Town Opera present

La bohème PUCCINI

Tristan & Isolde

TUE 9 - SAT 20 OCT

-£ 55 £2 0

£4 6

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD 20-23 Jun SUMMER CELEBRATION 27-30 Jun

£1 5-

£1 5.5 0

£6 0

-£ 48

WAGNER (£20-£54)

SAT 15 DEC ‘12 – SUN 27 JAN ’13

MON 22 OCT - SAT 3 NOV

£ £3 13.5 6. 0 50 -

-£ 36 £1 6

£ £4 19.5 2. 0 50

BILL KENWRIGHT PRESENTS

The Flatpack sunbeams herald the coming of spring, and five days filled to bursting with cinematic wonders of all shapes and sizes. This is our sixth festival. Each year we worry about whether we’ll find enough good things to show, and each year we are amazed by the quality and variety of the work out there. We hope you are too.

contents 4 –6 in tro d u ctio n

A roughly chronological list of everything that’s happening, with enthusiastic descriptions. Including city centre takeover Film Bug (p.8-10) and family strand Colour Box (p.14-15).

16– 1 7 cale n dar

A strictly chronological list of everything that’s happening.

2 5

see als o & co min g attrac tio ns

Other things happening in Birmingham around Flatpack time, and some of our future plans beyond the festival.

2 8– 29 ve n ues & b o oking

Where to go, and how to get tickets. Plus a list of people who put the festival together, and people that helped us out.

3 0

i n de x

An alphabetical list of films, events and people in the programme.

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7 w h at' s o n ?

e n d o rseme n t s

In which we chop the festival up into digestible themed chunks.

“The country’s most creatively curated film festival” — The Independent

“Suggesting Londoners go to Brum for a weekend doesn’t come naturally, but Flatpack Festival might make us break the habit of a lifetime” — Time Out

“Flatpack has built a reputation for showcasing eccentric and unusual cinematic treats, alongside emerging talents” — Creative Review

“Flatpack’s awareness of its surroundings is one of the festival’s greatest attributes. It provides more than just a programme of disparate films; it seeks to explore its city history and present it in many different ways. It celebrates Birmingham’s alumni, it rejoices in its culture, it investigates its problems and it finds new ways of seeing the urban landscape through inventive screening settings and site-specific events” — Electric Sheep “A feast for the senses with a real sense of adventure” — Brumnotes “Something that Birmingham and the region should be so proud of: interesting, engaging, authentic and most definitely of the city but in an intelligent, outward looking, forward looking way.” – audience feedback “One of the best things about Birmingham.” — audience feedback

Image above: l u m i n aris , 2 0 1 1 (see p.15 & 19)

suppo rters

partn er s

Born in Ward End in 1899, down the road from last year’s patron saint Iris Barry, Charlie Hall apprenticed as a carpenter but soon had his head turned by the music hall. One early co-conspirator was Stanley Jefferson, soon to be Stan Laurel, and when Stan headed west Charlie was not far behind. A small, wiry man with an excellent scowl, he managed to segue from propbuilding to gag-writing to regular roles as a comic foil at the Hal Roach Studios, where his boss christened him ‘The Little Menace’, and early highlights included throwing the first pie in the apocalyptic Battle of the Century (1927).

Elsewhere in the programme there’s an opportunity for some 1920s time-travel at the Piccadilly Arcade, which will be revisiting its previous incarnation as The Picture House Birmingham (p.12). There are free archive screenings in a cafe (p.8) and on a canal (p.12), and some 70s obscurities unearthed by BFI Flipside (p.11, p.13) and Kier-la Janisse (p.21). Then on Sunday 18 March there’s a chance to imagine what sort of material the new library’s Birmingham Mediatheque might include (p.21).

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Like Stan and Ollie he survived the transition to sound (although with the occasional giveaway Brummie twang), and ended up appearing in more Laurel and Hardy pictures than anyone else (barring the boys themselves). Don’t go looking for Chekhov or Shakespeare in his later work; through the '40s and '50s he continued to play roles like Sailor in Cantina Brawl and Man Hit by Tomato, as well as occasional TV appearances alongside Groucho Marx and Abbot & Costello.

Charlie died in Los Angeles in 1959. He may be buried in Glendale, but a flame continues to burn for him in his hometown; a pub in Erdington now bears his name, and every month he is toasted by the local ‘tent’ of Sons of the Desert. (This worldwide network of L&H devotees also has Birmingham provenance, having been conceived backstage at the Birmingham Hippodrome during a conversation between Stan Laurel and biographer John McCabe). You can pay homage to Charlie at our opening night (see p.7), where a selection of silent comedy will include a couple of his appearances, followed by more substantial programmes of Laurel and Hardy on offer at the Old Joint Stock (p.8) and the Bartons Arms (p.19).

D R A GO NS L A YE R , 2 0 1 1

Raise your glasses please, for the Flatpack Festival 2012 patron saint. Not a household name, we’ll grant you, but a vital cog in the comedy machine known as Laurel and Hardy.

DOC U m e n tA r Y One of the nice things about Flatpack’s jumbled-up programming policy is that when a particular kind of film has a good year we can make extra room for it, and non-fiction is definitely going through a purple patch at the moment.

bikerma n ia The ‘born to be wild’ mythology of biker culture was an American dream, and has always played strangely on this damp and relatively pokey island. It’s not stopped us dreaming though, and this little strand celebrates a very British love affair. The Bikermania programme of archive clips (p.22) includes a Black Country Hells Angels wedding and a youth club attempting to live out The Wild One in the Leicester suburbs, while No Limit gives us the two-wheeled frenzy of an earlier, more innocent time, as George Formby whizzes around the Isle of Man on his Shuttleworth Snap (p.22). BFI Flipside have compiled for us a Friday night special (p.13) which includes Hells Angels on Holiday, a 1965 documentary about Chelsea bikers, and the unforgettable concoction of leather, paganism and Beryl Reid that is Psychomania. To cap it all off, how could we leave out Birmingham’s own contribution to the biker B-movie genre? I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle (p.22) was a spin-off from 80s comedy-drama Boon, and one that span in some very strange directions (complete with talking turd). The people behind it will be reconvening to explain how the whole thing happened.

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Dragonslayer is a languid-but-sharp snapshot of the Orange County skate scene, mingling phone footage with gorgeous HD photography (p.19). Also partly shot on a phone, This Is Not a Film (p.19) captures Jafar Panahi prowling his flat under house arrest and incapable of sticking to the filmmaking ban handed him by the Iranian authorities. The increasingly prolific Werner Herzog goes poking in the Texan undergrowth for teen killers in Into The Abyss (p.10). And for the walkers out there, Patience (After Sebald) (p.18) retraces the steps of enigmatic memory-mining author WG Sebald, while Made in Wolverhampton (p.11) takes a quizzical ramble around the margins of a misunderstood ‘place of desire’. As always there’s plenty of music films too, from the eccentric moves and chunky grooves of Jamaican dancehall (p.19) to the homemade electronica of Danish pensioner Sigríður Níelsdóttir, aka Grandma Lo-Fi (p.23). We’re also delighted to be screening Lawrence of Belgravia (p.12), a portrait of neglected pop genius Lawrence (Felt, Denim) which does a brilliant job of avoiding the talking-headarchive-jukebox formula that afflicts so many music docs.

BELLY, 2011

S HO R T S

If you schedule your day carefully you’ll probably be able to see about 80 short films on Thursday alone. Film Bug (p.7–10) will be taking over a host of venues around Colmore Row in Birmingham city centre, with a lineup that includes music videos, student films, guest compilations from other festivals, comedy shorts curated by KINO 10 and a selection of work created and selected by members of the IdeasTap community.

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Elsewhere there’s a programme of twisted folk tales from East Asia (p.20) – including Park Chan-Wook’s phone-shot Night Fishing – and in Alterations (p.13) a number of filmmakers and artists manhandling cinema in very different ways. From Friday the festival hub at the Custard Factory will host a shedload of free shorts screenings including the return of Suitcase Cinema, films about people making things in A Life’s Work, a lucky dip of some of the submissions we couldn’t find homes for, and Salon des RefusÉs have also curated a programme from those we said ‘no’ to (p.11, 18 & 22).

A little while ago we fell in love with Asparagus (1978), a sumptuous dream of a film that accompanied Eraserhead on the midnight movie circuit. When we found out that the person who made it was touring Europe, we jumped at the chance to invite her over to the UK; hence Exploring the Attic with Suzan Pitt (p.22). Pitt’s travels have informed her work in fascinating ways – she’s gone as far as painting animation cels in the middle of a rainforest – and this is a rare opportunity to hear from her in person. Other animated guests this year include Robert Morgan, and a screening of his collected works – amongst them visionary new claymation Bobby Yeah – will provide a climax to the Outer Sight strand (p.23). This Is It collective’s Joseph Pelling and Becky Sloan are in town with Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, one of a bulging bundle of great films in the Puppetology programme (p.12) which follows on neatly from the latest Shorts on Walls gathering of West Mids animation (p.11). On a more family-friendly tip, Colour Box is full of all sorts of animation as usual, and Canadian curator Kier-la Janisse offers a rare chance to see some cult '70s cartoons (p.21), while our only animated feature is the award-winning Wrinkles, based on Paco Rocas' graphic novel (p.20). This year’s round-up of world animation (p.19) includes Julia Pott’s brilliant Belly (pictured) as well as heartmelting Argentine short Luminaris, and to make your own mini-film just pop into Pieterjan Grandry’s Gif Shop (p.11) over the weekend.

feat u res

With all this other stuff going on, it’s sometimes easy to forget that there are actual movies at Flatpack too. Le Havre (p.10) sees Aki Kaurismaki venturing into French while retaining his deadpan humour and gorgeous colour palette. Shot in the same nondescript harbour, The Fairy (p.11) is the third feature from performers and co-directors Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon; chockful of slapstick romance and flights of fancy, it’s an ideal complement to the Charlie Hall tribute. For late-night antics, check out Juan of the Dead (p.20) – a satirical Cuban take on the zombie movie – and for something a little more contemplative we heartily recommend the debut feature by Ben Rivers, Two Years at Sea (p.19).

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We’ve also asked a range of people to nominate formative movies for a strand called Misspent Youth, from the elegant surrealism of Cocteau’s ORPHÉE (selected by artist Cornelia Parker, p.21) to flatulent comedy Western BLAZING SADDLES (chosen by comedian Adil Ray, p.21). Fellow Brummie Felicity Jones (Like Crazy) asked for ROMEO + JULIET (p.21), while Joe Dunthorne (Submarine) has gone for "the first film that made me cry": the elephant Man (p.13).

THE ICEBOOK

LIVE CINEMA

ANOTHER FINE MESS

Flatpack kicks off at Birmingham Cathedral with an evening of comedy accompanied by the UK’s finest silent film pianist Neil Brand (p.7).

THE ICEBOOK

An evening of space-rock & psych-film, featuring full-on, fuzzed-up Brooklyn outfit WHITE HILLS and a barrage of hallucinatory visuals (p.20).

FIVE STORIES HIGH

The entire story of Citizen Kane, retold by fifteen different teams through words, pictures, film, performance and music (p.23).

BRING YOUR OWN BEAMER

The latest in a global series of events where artists are invited to bring along their work and a projector to show it with (p.13).

IKON SLOW BOAT

The festival will also be working with Ikon to convert a narrowboat into a temporary cinema for the weekend (p.12).

f l atpa c k p � l � is

Each year the festival transforms a space into our home from home. In recent years we’ve settled in a warehouse (Floodgate Kino) and at VIVID’s project space (The Dirty End), and this time you can find us in the Custard Factory’s former dance studio, just behind reception. From Friday 16 to Sunday 18 March the Flatpack Palais will host a string of screenings and performances (using magic lanterns, OHPs, oil-wheels, super 8 and your basic video projector), all of it free during the day. (More details on pages 11, 18 and 22.) A range of beverages will be available throughout, as well as festival t-shirts and bags and a range of cakes courtesy of the Boutique Baking Company.

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PANOPTICON

C O L O UR B O X

Magical, intimate performance for ten people, combining pop-up books with miniature projections (p.18).

F E ST I VA L S W I T H I N T He F ES T I VA L �ILM �UG

From 14–16 March we're taking over a range of bars, cafes and historical buildings in partnership with Colmore Business District (p.7-10).

Colour Box

Screenings and activities for younger viewers and doers, including a peek behind the scenes of BAFTA-winning Ragdoll series DIPDAP (p.14-15).

Outer sight

Psychedelic psynema strand, including an overnight event in which a select band of campers will bed down for a hypnagogic adventure (p.13, 20. 23).

Still walking

This new walking artists festival kicks off at the same time as Flatpack, and cinematic walks will be going on throughout the weekend (p.8, 18). That’s probably enough to be getting on with, no? If not, there is a roundup of other things happening in Birmingham at Flatpack time (p.25) as well as some recommended places to eat, sleep, etc (p.29).

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another fi n e m e s s

WEDNESDAY 14 March, 8.30pm birmingham cathedral / £10 (£8)

Shakespeare’s jokes may not have aged too well, but it’s a safe bet that in 300 years people will still be laughing themselves silly at Laurel and Hardy. This evening’s entertainment will feature one of the finest moments from the boys’ silent period, alongside a feast of comedy from the early days of cinema through to the late 1920s; all of it selected, presented and scored live by acclaimed pianist and composer Mr Neil Brand. Familiar for his work on The Film Programme (Radio 4) and his double act with Paul Merton on the Silent Clowns shows, Neil travels the world accompanying silent movies as well as creating new scores to rediscovered classics including Underground (dir: Anthony Asquith, 1928) and Piccadilly (E.A. Dupont, 1929 — see p.12). He has specially compiled for Flatpack a programme of neglected gems and old favourites, with a nod to our patron saint Charlie Hall (see p.4). Highlights will include:

(1929)

The sublime Anita Garvin and Marion Byron deal with stingy menfolk, revolving doors and ice-cream trouble.

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MU SIC T UBE

a pair o f tig h t s

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(1908)

A dog-driving-a-car film which after over a century has finally found its natural home on Youtube.

Laurel couple builds Comedy

(1928)

and Hardy at their anarchic best as a of hopeless musicians, in a film that to a famous pant-ripping climax. sound effects provided by you, the audience.

Afterwards you're very welcome to join us round the corner at the Jekyll & Hyde on Steelhouse Lane, for DJs, cocktails and a programme of coming attractions.

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y o u ' re dar n t o o ti n

�ilm �ug Dreamt up in partnership with Colmore Business District, Film Bug is a festival within a festival, with screenings and performances taking place in various city centre venues from Wednesday 14th to Friday 16th March. The programme (and Flatpack as a whole) will be kicking off at Birmingham Cathedral on Wednesday night with Another Fine Mess (see above). Then, on Thursday, the bug goes viral with screenings and events cropping up all over the district (full programme overleaf).

Part of the inspiration for Film Bug came from the vast number of film collectives, societies and organisations that have emerged and evolved over the last few years, and the knowledge that Birmingham’s year-round alternative film scene is actually in very good hands. As a way of promoting what these groups do throughout the year, we invited a handful to get involved. The result is a three-day mini film festival, brimming full with short films, talks, live cinema, artists’ programmes, documentaries, and of course a smattering of features (both old and new). What’s more, all of the screenings and events, (excluding Another Fine Mess, the Kit Downes event, and Birmingham Noir) are completely free.

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this is the point thursday 15 MARCH, 4–7.30pm & friday 16 march, 10am–4pm school of art, margaret street / free dir. various Another Fine Mess Wednesday 14 March, 8.30pm BIRMINGHAM cathedral / £10 (£8) Dir. Various, 90 mins Comedy shorts with live accompaniment from the UK’s premier silent pianist, Neil Brand. For more details see p.7.

best of the fests thursday 15 & Friday 16 March, 11am café costes / free Dir. Various On Thursday and Friday you will find short films in abundance including award-winning fare from Flip and Underwire Festivals, and some of the best submissions from Flatpack’s Pick’n’Mix programmes (see p.11 & 18).*

dust in the attic thursday 15 & Friday 16 March, 11am urban coffee / free Dir. Various Urban Coffee will play host to an archive programme of short films, including a humorous look at one of Birmingham’s most short-lived city-centre statues, King Kong.*

laurel & hardy thursday 15 March, 3pm the old joint stock / free Dir. various, 90 mins We’ll be doffing our cap to this year’s patron saint Charlie Hall with a selection of Laurel & Hardy shorts.

Birmingham City University’s School of Art will play host to two programmes of artists’ films curated by MA Contemporary Curatorial Practice course director, Mona Casey, and Birmingham-based artist and curator, Katy Woods.

dickens BEFORE SOUND thursday 15 March, 4pm birmingham & midland institute / free Dir. Various, 85 mins

musictube thursday 15 March, 6pm jekyll & hyde / free dir. various, 60 mins Often overlooked in the short film genre, we’re dedicating an hour to the best in contemporary music video. If you want more, see the music video appreciation society, p.22.

We’ll be celebrating the bicentennial of the Victorian literary master, Charles Dickens (who was one of the BMI’s earliest presidents) with a selection of screen adaptations from the silent era, including the first ever filmed version of Oliver Twist.

birmingham noir thursday 15 MARCH, 5.30pm bsm colmore row, FILM BUG HUB / £4 60 mins

blank city thursday 15 March, 6.15pm birmingham & midland institute / free Dir. celine danhier, usa 2010, 95 mins

Local historian Ben Waddington explores some of the more cryptic and sinister features and stories to be found around Colmore Business District and the surrounding cityscape. The tour also focuses on some unexpected aspects of Birmingham’s involvement in cinema history.

Birmingham International Film Society (BIFS) will be presenting Blank City, a documentary exploring the “No Wave Cinema” and “Cinema of Transgression”.

kino 10: roll out THE BARREL thursday 15 March, 6pm the old joint stock / free dir. various, 90 mins KINO 10 present a programme of comedy shorts. See p.10 for more detail.

THE lavender hill MOB thursday 15 March, 7pm the old royal / free dir. charles crichton uk 1951, 85 mins The Stirchley Happenings folk will present one of the finest Ealing comedies of the 50s, The Lavender Hill Mob.

kit downes & lesley barnes thursday 15 March, 7.30pm birmingham & midland institute / £8 (£6) Birmingham Jazz present Mercury Prize nominee Kit Downes and his entourage accompanying animation by Lesley Barnes. More details on p.10.

Birmingham's own Peoples' Cinema, ‘Just Film’ is a co-operative group who will be screening the independent documentary, Four Horsemen which attempts to explain the simple matter of how the world really works.

Juniper Cinema is the Jekyll & Hyde’s regular movie-night. Tonight they are presenting the 1979 archetypal mod film, Quadrophenia (see p.14 & 22 for more biker-related fare).

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quadrophenia thursday 15 March, 8.30pm jekyll & hyde / free dir. franc roddam, uk 1979, 120 mins

Charlie Phillips, Marketplace Director of Sheffield DocFest, delivers a talk followed by a programme of shorts made by IdeasTap members. More details on p.10.

four horsemen thursday 15 March, 8.15pm birmingham & midland institute / free Dir. ross ashcroft, uk 2011, 100 mins

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Ideastap: full flow thursday 15 March, 8pm the old joint stock / free dir. various, 90 mins

2 minute walk 100 m

CATHEDRAL Temple Row, B3 2QB

CAFÉ COSTES 58 Newhall St, B3 3RJ

BIRMINGHAM & MIDLAND INSTITUTE 9 Margaret St, B3 3BS

URBAN COFFEE Church St, B3 2NP

BSM COLMORE ROW, FILM BUG HUB 21/23 Colmore Row, B3 2BH

want to know more about Film Bug and the festival as a whole? Drop in to our Film Bug hub in the BSM unit on Colmore Row for a chat.

THE OLD JOINT STOCK 4 Temple Row West, B2 5NY

JEKYLL & HYDE GIN PARLOUR 28 Steelhouse Ln, B4 6B

In partnership with:

BCU School of Art Margaret Street, B3 3BX

THE OLD ROYAL 53 Church St, B3 2DP

*Please note that the programmes screening at Café Costes & Urban Coffee will alternate on Friday 16 March.

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ki n o 1 0 : kit downeS & I d easTap : RO L L OU T T H E lesley barneS full fl o w B A RR E L THURSDAY 15 March, 6pm THE OLD JOINT STOCK / FREE Dir. Various, 90 mins KINO 10 have been screening films (predominantly of the short variety) in and around Birmingham for some time now. With a handful of films guaranteed to induce a smile, they’ll be setting up shop at The Old Joint Stock, screening a selection of jocular gems from all over the world. Highlights include the return of Marcel, the shoe-wearing talking shell, a rare comedic role for Peter Mullan in Long Distance Information, and A Gun for George, Warp Films’ latest short about a frustrated pulp fiction author looking for brutal revenge on the mean streets of East Kent.

THURSDAY 15 March, 7.30pm BIRMINGHAM & MIDLAND INSTITUTE / £8 (£6) 90 mins

THURSDAY 15 March, 8pm THE OLD JOINT STOCK / FREE Dir. Various, 150 mins

Kit Downes is a young pianist and composer who was up for a Mercury Prize a couple of years ago, and Lesley Barnes is a Glasgow-based illustrator who has made a move into filmmaking of late, including a Belle and Sebastian promo. Last year they came together along with geneticist Adam Rutherford to create Animation/ Migration, a DNA-inspired multi-media piece for the Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Tonight they’ll be reprising the performance and unveiling a number of new pieces which mix live improvisations and compositions with short films and still images.

When they move out into the big wide world, arts students often miss the connections and deadlines provided by education. Established in 2008, IdeasTap is a creative community which enables people to link up with each other and get their ideas funded. With nearly 60,000 members it’s no surprise that there are a lot of talented filmmakers involved, and the Full Flow programme is entirely made up of work submitted and selected by the IdeasTap network. Expect animation, drama, documentary and plenty more besides, including Rita Ribas’ touching Museum of Miracles (pictured). Before the screening Charlie Phillips from Sheffield Doc/Fest will talk about the brave new world of crowdfunding and some different opportunities for getting your work out there.

Presented in association with Birmingham Jazz. Full lineup: Kit Downes, piano; Calum Gourlay, bass; James Maddren, drums; James Allsopp, bass clarinet; Lucy Railton, cello.

Into the abys s : A Tale of Death , A Tale of L ife

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THURSDAY 15 March, 9pm Electric CINEMA / £7 (£5) Dir. werner herzog usa 2011, 107 mins

THURSDAY 15 March, 6pm mac / £7 (£5) Dir. Aki Kaurismaki finland/france 2011, 93 mins Deadpan humour; 50s rock n roll; a fierce affinity for the underdog; and shabby locations, lit up with primary colours you could eat. An Aki Kaurismaki film can be spotted a mile away, but this one – about an elderly shoe-shiner who befriends an African boy on the run from the local police – should win him plenty of new friends. Despite the director’s miserable demeanour his films seem to be getting more optimistic, and this one has a fairy-tale quality with just the right blend of sweet and salty.

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In 2001 two teenagers were imprisoned in Texas for a triple murder. Apparently motivated by wanting to steal a car, one was sentenced to death and the other given a life term. You may ask whether the world needs another death-row documentary, but in Werner Herzog’s hands a well-worn subject is approached afresh. The director asks unexpected questions (eg, “Tell me about an encounter with a squirrel”) and by talking to those who earn their crust from capital punishment (a chaplain, a corrections officer) he illuminates the whole sorry business. Typically, he also recommends that you see it with an audience in order to enjoy the film’s comic elements.

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The G I F SHO P

flatpa c k palais : day 1

FRIDAY 16 to sunday 18 march, 12–6pm CUSTARD FACTORY

Friday 16 March, from 10am FLATPACK PALAIS / free

Fancy making your own endless film? Throughout the weekend we’ll be hosting a temporary record shop with a difference at the Custard Factory. This is an ongoing experiment where you can create short looping animations on bespoke discs, and then play them using record decks repurposed as zoetropes and phenakistoscopes; a natural progression from turntable antics at previous Flatpacks (including Jim LeFevre in 2009, and Sculpture last year). The shopkeeper is Belgian artist Pieterjan Grandry (Crap is Good), who will also be bringing along his wonderfully ingenious animated gif player.

As always, the pulsating heart of Flatpack is our festival hub — a place to get a drink, watch films, meet people and pick up information. This year we’re occupying the Custard Factory’s former dance studio and turning it into the Flatpack Palais, with a three-day programme of free daytime screenings and paid evening events.

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REQUIEM FOR A VILLAGE FRIDAY 16 March, 3.30pm CUSTARD FACTORY THEATRE / £7 (£5) Dir. David Gladwell uK 1975, 68 mins In 1975 David Gladwell was best known as a skilled and versatile editor, particularly on Lindsay Anderson’s If… and O Lucky Man! He’d also made a series of his own experimental shorts, but nothing to prepare audiences for his first feature. Blending pastoral documentary, art film and a touch of supernatural horror, it jump-cuts between past and present, literally resurrecting the dead to explore what progress is leaving behind. With beautiful 16mm photography and a choral score by ethnomusicologist David Fanshawe, you wonder how this stayed hidden for so long. That it reemerged is credit to BFI Flipside, and curators Will Fowler and Vic Pratt will be here to talk about unearthing Requiem for a Village.

Friday kicks off at 2pm with Pick 'n' Mix 1, a selection of submissions which slaloms between contemplative abstraction and high-octane drama. Then at 4pm, A Life’s Work gathers together short documentaries about people who work with their hands — from knife-makers and wall-chalkers to jewellers and taxidermists. Tailor-made for the city of a thousand trades.

t h e fairy Friday 16 March, 6.15pM electric CINEMA / £7 (£5) dir. Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon & Bruno Romy belgium/france 2011, 93 mins A night porter has his life turned upside down when a woman walks into his hotel and offers him three wishes. He makes two, both granted immediately, but their budding romance stalls when she is readmitted into a mental hospital. The dialogue in The Fairy probably fits onto one page. The whole movie is built around Abel and Gordon’s glorious physical routines, from an undersea dance with plasticbag jellyfish to a back-projected car chase with cliffhanger climax, and though the setting may be nondescript (Le Havre – see opposite) this is the kind of sublime childsplay that Stan and Ollie would have loved.

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made in SHO R T S wolverhampton ON WA L L S FRIDAY 16 March, 5.45pm CUSTARD FACTORY THEATRE / £7 (£5) Dir. ADAM KOSSOFF uK 2011, 74 mins

Framed as a letter from the narrator to his girlfriend in Cuba, Made in Wolverhampton is a quizzical ramble around the city’s margins with a combination of locked-off photography and super-dry voiceover which recalls the work of Patrick Keiller. Hunting for ‘after-images of the industrial revolution’, the film builds up layers of observation, history and quotation to engaging effect, throwing Norton bikes, Che Guevara, Poundland, Galileo and roundaboutdweller Josef Stawinoga into the mix. In his day-job Kossoff teaches Film and Video at the School of Art and Design in Wolverhampton, and coincidentally we’ll also be showing a short made by one of his former students. LUV’IN THE BLACK COUNTRY (dir: Matthew E. Carter) is built around five tales of love on the canals.

FRIDAY 16 March, 6pm flatpack palais / FREE Dir. various An informal gathering for the region’s animators (and anyone who wants to watch their work), Shorts on Walls has become a solid fixture in the Flatpack schedule. Last year’s event provided a sneak preview of All Consuming Love (Man in a Cat) and Best, both of which have since gone on to screen around the world. Once again the evening will boast an eclectic range of styles and approaches as well as an insight into a Digbeth-based animation facility courtesy of Chris Randall, whose Second Home Studios produces all sorts of work from short films and advertising virals to star-gazing sequences for The Sky at Night.

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pic c a d illy Friday 16 March, 6.30pm piccadilly arcade / free Dir. e.a.dupont uk 1929, 108 mins Those who went on last year’s popular Invisible Cinema walking tour will already know some of the history surrounding one of Birmingham’s earliest cinemas, The Picture House on New Street. It opened in 1910 but survived only 16 years; a brief but glamorous life for the movie theatre. Turned into a retail emporium shortly afterwards, now known as Piccadilly Arcade, the building’s New Street facade retains many of its original features. We’ll be paying homage to the arcade’s former cinema self for a screening of the classic British silent film, Piccadilly, starring Chinese-American screen goddess Anna May Wong.

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lawre n ce of bel g ravia Friday 16 March, 8.30pm mac / £7 (£5) Dir. paul kelly uk 2011, 90 mins Lawrence is one of those legends that very few people have heard of. Focussed on stardom from an early age he jettisoned his surname and formed Felt, an 80s indie band with enigmatic allure, enormous influence (on Pulp and Belle and Sebastian, amongst others) and negligible sales. Later came Denim and then Go Kart Mozart, but fame never quite arrived. Rather than a talking-heads rehash of the whole story, Paul Kelly (Finisterre) has crafted a tender, bleak, funny portrait of the man himself now, a labour of love which accumulated over several years. This screening is a homecoming gig of sorts – Lawrence used to live over the road from the Midlands Arts Centre – and both subject and director will be here to talk about the film.

ik o n s l o w b o at Friday 16 + Saturday 17 March minerva works / free

Slow Boat, a converted canal boat, is the floating base for Ikon’s Youth Programme (known as IYP) and has recently settled at a new mooring at Warwick Bar. For two days the boat will be transformed into an aquatic cinema, screening films selected by IYP members along with Flatpack and artist Sarah Browne, whose exhibition How to Use Fool's Gold is currently showing at Ikon (p.25). Sarah Browne is leading the artistic programme for Slow Boat’s second year with her project Scarcity Radio.

The Fog Friday 16 March 7–9pm Dir. John Carpenter, USA 1980, 89 mins A classic spine-chiller, this film is chosen by Sarah Browne.

A r c h ive c a n al pr o g ramme

puppet o l o g y

Saturday 17 March 1–2.30pm & 4.30–6pm A rich and strange assortment of historic footage edited by members of IYP and accompanied live by the sounds of E. L. Heath and friends. With thanks to MACE.

Friday 16 March, 8pm Custard factory theatre / £7 (£5) Dir. Various We saw so many good puppet shorts this year that the temptation to bring back this programme (first seen at Flatpack 2010) was too much to resist. As before, we’re defining the genre pretty loosely, ranging from the claymation monster attack of Isaac Rentz’s Cage the Elephant promo to A Finnish Fable’s surreal mannequin holiday. There’s spy thrills aplenty in Brick Novax’s Diary (dir: Matt Piedmont), the beguiling/disgusting paper mache sci-fi of

El Arca (by Chilean duo Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña), and the return of puppetmaster Johannes Nyholm, whose latest work features his two year old daughter as a hell-raising tourist in Las Palmas. This Is It Collective have lit up Vimeo lately with nifty filmmaking and a special knack for handmade characters and props, and they’re here to present Sundance hit Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared (pictured).

L’ A tala n te Saturday 17 March 3pm Dir. Jean Vigo, france 1934, 89 mins Heartbreaking French classic about two young newlyweds on a barge, selected by Flatpack. These events are free but capacity is limited. To book or for more information contact Ikon on 0121 248 0708.

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bring your own beamer

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BFI Flipside Presents:

Friday 16 March, 7pm vivid / free

Psychomania

First dreamt up in Berlin, BYOB has snowballed into a worldwide series of events where – as the name suggests – artists are encouraged to bring along their own imagery and a projector to show it with. This Birmingham incarnation has been curated by Antonio Roberts and Pete Ashton, and will be plastering the walls of VIVID with a seething stew of visuals, cutups, animated gifs and who knows what else, with a soundtrack provided by guest DJs Arcade and Mark Bunegar. By the time you read this the submissions deadline will have passed, but keep an eye on www.byobworldwide.com for future events.

Established in 2009 as a home for the ‘waifs and strays’ of British cinema, BFI Flipside have built up a distinctive DVD catalogue (including The Bed Sitting Room and Peter Watkins’ Privilege) as well as hosting a popular series of events at their Southbank home. Now they’ve donned skull-head bike helmets to venture beyond the M25 for the first time, and here present an evening of two-wheeled entertainment as part of our Bikermania strand.

Our feature attraction is one of the shining oddities of 70s cinema, a supernatural thriller about a gang of undead bikers who worship frogs and terrorise the innocent shoppers of Waltonon-Thames. Written by two blacklisted Americans, directed by a jobbing Australian (Don Sharp, who died late last year), and blessed with a bizarre cast which mixes well-spoken youngsters with confused pros like Beryl Reid and George Sanders (plus a Dot Cotton cameo), Psychomania is an accidental masterpiece. By way of a warm-up we’ll also have short 1965 documentary Chelsea Bridge Boys, and Bank Holiday (1972), a halfhour drama by Colin Welland about Hells Angels at the seaside.

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FRIDAY 16 March, 8.30pm Flatpack Palais / £6 Dir. DON SHARP, UK 1973, 95 mins

the elep h a n t ma n Friday 16 March, 10.15pm custard factory theatre / £7 (£5) dir. David lynch usa 1980, 124 mins "For me, it's a masterpiece in the original sense of the word: a piece of work which an artist presents to his fellow craftsman to qualify for the title of 'master'. Since The Elephant Man I will always be willing to have faith in a new David Lynch film. I will not buy his coffee or listen to his songs — but I will happily sit through three hours of ungraspable HD-cam weirdness in Inland Empire. I was young when I first saw it. Too young to know it was black and white through choice, rather than necessity. As far as I knew, I had finally enjoyed my first old film, and I was very proud. It was also the first film to make me cry.” – Joe Dunthorne, author of Submarine and Wild Abandon.

A lterati o n s Friday 16 March, 8.30pm electric CINEMA / £7 (£5) dir. various, 80 mins Appropriating, re-working, sampling; call it what you will, chopping up other people’s films has always been a popular mode of filmmaking for video artists. Alterations features varying examples of this technique including Fabio Scacchioli & Vincenzo Core’s Miss Candace Hilligoss' Flickering Halo – a modification of the low-budget American indie horror film, Carnival of Souls. German artist Remo Rauscher’s imaginative urban escapade The Streets of the Invisibles takes its visuals from Google Street View and its soundtrack from The Streets of San Francisco, while the mindbogglingly brilliant Hello by Dutch mash-up aficionado Matthijs Vlot provides a fresh spin on Lionel Richie. There’s also new work from Jay Rosenblatt and Nicolas Provost.

O u ter s ig h t: wil d wo rl d Friday 16 March, 8pm TILL LATE The edge / £3 This world's wild at heart and weird on top, Peanut! A mini-festival within Flatpack, Outer Sight is a three-event headlong plunge into Psychedelic Psynema obscuritanism, a multi-hued place without exit signs and where the windows look in, even from the inside! Friday's Wild World psynematic travelogue will bring our patented mish-mash of WTF? clips and shorts, a secret midnight feature that'll give us plenty to scratch our heads about, and vinyl voyages by pith-helmeted guest sound explorers Pram.

u o r l o city lights Saturday 17 March, 1pm mac / £3 dir. charles chaplin usa 1931, 83 mins Recommended for ages 6 and up If seeing Hugo has given you a taste for silent comedy, this is the cream of the crop. Actually made after the arrival of the sound film, it’s the touching and hilarous tale of a tramp who falls in love with a blind flower-seller. Charlie Chaplin performs a brilliant series of slapstick jokes, from the opening when the Tramp gets his trousers caught on a statue, to the boxing match at the climax where he uses the referee as a shield. No excuse is needed to show City Lights, but we can now claim Charlie as a local boy; last year it was discovered that he was actually born in a caravan on a fairground in Smethwick.

dipdap: taking a line for a walk Saturday 17 March, 12.30pm mac weston studio / £2 particularly suitable for 4–7 year-olds Dipdap is a beautifully simple animated series from Ragdoll Productions, about a drawn line that creates endless challenges and surprises for the unsuspecting hero. In our humble opinion it’s the best thing on CBeebies — and we’ve watched a lot of CBeebies! At these short workshops you can meet Steve Roberts, the BAFTA-winning creator of Dipdap, watch some of his handiwork, and embark on your own adventure in drawing.

— 14 —

colour box 1: cinemajigs

colour box 2: daydream machine

Saturday 17 March, 11.30am mac / £3 Dir. Various, 75 mins Here’s a collection of films to get you dancing in your seat. Contents include singing starfish, flying pianos and beatboxing animals, as well as a festive number from Yo Gabba Gabba and a new version of the classic Sesame St pinball song. Cinemajigs features films from all over the world, and from Birmingham too: The Mechanical Musical Marvel is an animated short about Symphony Hall’s 6000-pipe organ.

Sunday 18 March, 11am mac / £3 Dir. Various, 75 mins Films can take you to all kinds of places in no time at all. In Streamschool a girl travels from a tiny brook all the way to the ocean, while Apollo is about a boy who finds he can stop time with a toy rocket. Taiwanese short Out of Sight explores the sensory world of a girl trying to navigate without her guide-dog, and capping it it all off is the wonderful Argentine film Luminaris — about a man in a lightbulb factory with a daydream he can’t shake off.

— 15 —

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C � l E n da r EVENT/FILM

VENUE

TIME

Wednesday 14 March

Another Fine Mess

Birmingham Cathedral

20.30–22.00

£10/£8

Opening Night Knees-up

Jekyll & Hyde

21.30–00.00

£8/£6

thursday 15 March

Best of the Fests

Café Costes

11.00–18.00

FREE

8&9

Dust in the Attic

Urban Coffee

11.00–18.00

FREE

8&9

Laurel & Hardy

The Old Joint Stock

15.00–16.30

FREE

8&9

Dickens Before Sound

Birmingham & Midland Institute

16.00–17.30

FREE

8&9

This is the Point

BIAD, Margaret Street

16.00–19.30

FREE

8&9

Birmingham Noir

BSM, Colmore Row

17.30–18.30

£4

8&9

Le Havre

mac

18.00–19.40

£7/£5

KINO 10: Roll Out the Barrel

The Old Joint Stock

18.00–19.45

FREE

Musictube

Jekyll & Hyde

18.00–19.00

FREE

8&9

Blank City

Birmingham & Midland Institute

18.15–19.50

FREE

8&9

The Lavender Hill Mob

Old Royal

19.00–20.30

FREE

8&9

Kit Downes & Lesley Barnes

Birmingham & Midland Institute

19.30–21.00

£8/£6

IdeasTap: Full Flow

The Old Joint Stock

20.00–22.30

FREE

Four Horsemen

Birmingham & Midland Institute

20.15–21.55

FREE

8&9

Quadrophenia

Jekyll & Hyde

20.30–22.30

FREE

8&9

Into the Abyss

Electric Cinema

21.00–22.50

£7/£5

This is the Point

BIAD, Margaret Street

10.00–16.00

FREE

8&9

Best of the Fests

Café Costes

11.00–18.00

FREE

8&9

Dust in the Attic

Urban Coffee

11.00–18.00

FREE

8&9

Pick 'n' Mix 1

Flatpack Palais

14.00–15.30

FREE

Requiem for a Village

Custard Factory Theatre

15.30–17.00

£7/£5

A Life's Work

Flatpack Palais

16.00–17.30

FREE

Made in Wolverhampton

Custard Factory Theatre

17.45–19.45

£7/£5

Shorts on Walls

Flatpack Palais

18.00–20.00

FREE

The Fairy

Electric Cinema

18.15–19.50

£7/£5

Piccadilly

Piccadilly Arcade

18.30–20.30

FREE

Bring Your Own Beamer

VIVID

19.00–22.00

FREE

Ikon Slow Boat

Minerva Works

19.00–21.00

FREE

Outer Sight: Wild World

The Edge

20.00–02.00

£3

Puppetology

Custard Factory Theatre

20.00–22.00

£7/£5

Alterations

Electric Cinema

20.30–22.00

£7/£5

Lawrence of Belgravia

mac

20.30–22.45

£7/£5

Psychomania

Flatpack Palais

20.30–23.00

£6

The Elephant Man

Custard Factory Theatre

22.15–00.30

£7/£5

FRIDAY 15 March

PRICE

PAGE

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Saturday 17 March

Sunday 18 March

EVENT/FILM

VENUE

TIME

PRICE

PAGE

Colour Box 1: Cinemajigs

mac

11.30–12.45

£3

Magic Lantern Show

Flatpack Palais

11.30–12.30

FREE

Shaping Cinema Walking Tour

Typhoo Tea Building

11.30–13.00

£4

Dipdap: Taking a Line for a Walk

mac Weston Studio

12.30–16.00

£2

City Lights

mac

13.00–14.30

£3

Ikon Slow Boat

Minerva Works

13.00–18.00

FREE

Laurel & Hardy in Birmingham

The Bartons Arms

13.00–16.00

FREE

OHP Draw Off

Flatpack Palais

13.00–14.00

FREE

Patience (After Sebald)

Electric Cinema

13.00–14.30

£7/£5

The IceBook

The Custard Factory

13.00–18.00

£5

Suitcase Cinema

Flatpack Palais

14.30–15.30

FREE

Boro in the Box

Electric Cinema

15.15–17.30

£7/£5

Pick 'n' Mix 2

Flatpack Palais

15.30–16.30

FREE

Two Years at Sea

mac

16.00–17.30

£7/£5

Hit Me with Music

Flatpack Palais

18.00–20.15

£4

Through the Looking Glass

Electric Cinema

18.00–19.30

£7/£5

This is Not a Film

mac

18.15–19.45

£7/£5

Dragonslayer

Custard Factory Theatre

19.00–20.45

£7/£5

Wrinkles

Electric Cinema

19.45–21.20

£7/£5

Night Fishing

Custard Factory Theatre

21.00–22.20

£7/£5

Panopticon

Flatpack Palais

21.00–02.00

£10/£8

Juan of the Dead

Electric Cinema

21.45–23.30

£7/£5

Outer Sight: Over Night

The Edge

23.00–10.00

£10 (strictly limited places)

I Drink Your Blood

Flatpack Palais

00.00–01.40

£7/£5

Colour Box 2: Daydream Machine

mac

11.00–12.15

£3

Salon des Refusés

Flatpack Palais

11.30–13.00

FREE

16mm Cartoon Rock

Custard Factory Theatre

12.00–14.45

£7/£5

On Location Walking Tour

One Colmore Row

12.00–13.30

£4

Music Video Appreciation Society

Flatpack Palais

13.00–14.00

FREE

Orphée

mac

13.00–15.00

£7/£5

Romeo + Juliet

Electric Cinema

12.00–14.00

£7/£5

Blazing Saddles

Electric Cinema

14.30–16.30

£7/£5

Filum Afternoon

The Spotted Dog

14.00–17.00

FREE

Going Underground

Eastside Projects

14.00–17.00

FREE

On Location Walking Tour

Five Brindleyplace

14.30–16.00

£4

No Limit

Custard Factory Theatre

15.00–16.40

£7/£5

Your Mediatheque

Electric Cinema

15.00–16.40

£4

Exploring the Attic with Suzan Pitt

mac

15.30–17.30

£7/£5

Five Stories High: Citizen Kane

Flatpack Palais

16.00–18.30

£2

Bikermania Shorts

Custard Factory Theatre

17.00–18.30

£7/£5

Grandma Lo-Fi: The Basement Tapes of Sigríður Níelsdóttir

Electric Cinema

18.30–20.15

£7/£5

I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle

Custard Factory Theatre

18.45–21.00

£7/£5

Unlikely Film Quiz

Flatpack Palais

19.00–22.30

£3

Outer Sight: The Uncanny World of Robert Morgan

mac

20.20–22.00

£7/£5

The Casebook of Eddie Brewer

Custard Factory Theatre

21.15–23.15

£7/£5

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T H� iceb o o k Saturday 17 March, 1–6pm performances every 30 mins custard factory / £5

walki n g t o u rs

The IceBook started life as a miniature model for a life-size stage show but has developed into a show in its own right, one which combines pages of intricate cut-out, pop-up magic with a fiendishly clever blend of magnets, lighting, green-screen and projections. Inspired by magic lanterns and Russian fairy tales, artists Kristin and Davy McGuire have created a compelling little world for an audience of ten, and they’ve since gone on to apply similar techniques on a much larger scale in an adaptation of Howl’s Moving Castle. The IceBook is tailor-made for Flatpack, and given the limited capacity we recommend that you book ahead!

patie n ce ( after s ebal d ) Saturday 17 March, 1pm electric CINEMA / £7 (£5) Dir. grant gee uk 2011, 84 mins Despite the autobiographical undercurrent of Rings of Saturn, Vertigo and Austerlitz, the writer behind them has always been something of a mysterious figure, so it’s fascinating to see a picture of WG Sebald start to emerge as this documentary progresses. Interviewing acolytes and friends (including Marina Warner, Andrew Motion and Tacita Dean) as well as retracing the walk around coastal Suffolk which inspired Rings of Saturn, the film’s layered approach does a great job of reflecting Sebald’s own discursive and often dark turn of mind.

Two more cinematic rambles from the Still Walking festival. See also: Birmingham Noir, p.8, and www.stillwalking.org.

s h api n g c i n ema Saturday 17 March, 11.30AM / £4

Follow the trail of Birmingham Cinema: its history, architecture, entrepreneurs and its wider influence on British Cinema. Martin Parretti (of WalkIt.com) leads this 90 minute walk through Digbeth and the city centre. 11.30AM: Tour will start from Typhoo Tea building, on the corner of Pickford St and Bordesley St, Digbeth.

o n l o c ati o n

SUNDAY 18 March, 12PM & 2.30PM / £4 Mark Wilson spent three months of 2011 on the trail of BBC's Hustle and their filming locations around the city of Birmingham. Seeing his home city used as a London substitute led Mark to research other shows and movies that had previously used city locations. This approximately 90 minute walking tour has many tales of con artists, soap queens, game show kings and even a phantom flan flinger. Join Mark on a discovery of the city's rich TV & Movie past, present & future. 12PM: Tour will start at Snow Hill Station, outside 1 Colmore Row 2.30PM: Tour will start at 5 Brindleyplace

boro in the box Saturday 17 March, 3.15pm electric CINEMA / £7 (£5) Dir. bertrand mandico France 2011, 41 mins + 60 MINS TALK Zigzagging between animation and live action, arthouse and porn, the startling work of Polish auteur Walerian Borowczyk (La Bete, Blanche) should really be better known. In telling his life story from A to Z, Boro in the Box takes the kind of imaginative and sensual approach that its subject deserves. (It’s also nice to see Elina Löwensohn again, a familiar face from Hal Hartley’s early movies). To follow, Polish cinema specialist Daniel Bird will take us on his own journey through Borowczyk’s life and work, exploring his collaborations with Jan Lenica and Chris Marker and sharing footage and papers from the director’s own archive.

flatpa c k palais : d ay 2 Saturday 17 March, from 10am Flatpack palais / free We’re packing it in at the hub today. At 11.30am there’s an authentic Magic Lantern Show from Mike and Theresa Simkin, using painted glass slides from the nineteenth century to transport us up Mont Blanc (ideal preparation for The IceBook, above). Then at 1pm EC-Arts present an OHP Draw Off with Canadian artist Tidal Grace and others, in preparation for the 48Sheet billboard show taking over Birmingham next month. From 2.30pm Suitcase Cinema will be unpacking a programme of 16mm shorts, and then at 3.30pm our second Pick 'n' Mix programme features a medley of submissions with a number of filmmakers in attendance.

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tw o years at s ea Saturday MAc / £7 Dir. ben uk 2011,

17 March, 4pm (£5) rivers 88 mins

We’ve been enjoying Ben Rivers’ short films for some time and hopes were high for his first feature, but there was also some trepidation. Would Rivers’ approach – shooting in 16mm monochrome, highlighting textures and moments – work over the course of a whole feature? We needn’t have worried. From the very first frames of Two Years At Sea you feel you’re in good hands, and through accumulated detail, scattered clues and odd episodes it unfolds into something special. The beauty of the images is no surprise but what’s really exciting here is the skill Rivers shows in telling a story, building a world, while nothing much appears to be happening.

t h is is n o t a film Saturday 17 March, 6.15pm MAc / £7 (£5) Dir. Jafar Panahi & Mojitaba Mirtahmasb Iran 2011, 75 mins The political back-story to this domestic snapshot is hard to ignore. Made by Iranian director Jafar Panahi with a friend (documentary director Mirtahmasb) while under house arrest in his apartment, having just been sentenced to six years in prison for filmmaking without a permit, it was smuggled out of Iran to its Cannes premiere on a USB stick hidden inside a cake. However, like all of Panahi’s best work (including Crimson Gold, Offside) the political is illuminated here by the everyday. In this case, the director himself brewing tea, feeding his iguana, and compulsively drawn back to cinema despite the potential cost.

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laurel a n d d ra g o n h ar d y i n s layer birmi n g h am Saturday 17 March, 1pm the bartons arms / free We’ve already highlighted the role played by local boy Charlie Hall in the work of Laurel and Hardy (see p.4), but the boys also visited the city themselves a number of times, performing in Birmingham at the height of their fame in 1932 and then later on when their film careers had begun to wane. After a gig at the Aston Hippodrome it was the Bartons Arms where they bedded down for the night – an opulent Victorian boozer which also welcomed Caruso and Chaplin over the years – so it’s only fitting that we return there today. John Ullah, Grand Sheik of the Sons of the Desert’s Birmingham ‘tent’ and author of a new book on Charlie Hall, will be giving a talk and we’ll also have a medley of the duo’s finest two-reel moments.

saturday 17 March, 7pm custard factory theatre / £7 (£5) Dir. tristan patterson usa 2011, 74 mins The aimless, amiable world of Orange County skate-punks is beautifully conjured up in this bittersweet documentary, which steers well clear of the awesome-tricks-and-loud-music formula found in many skateboard movies. We follow struggling pro Josh ‘Skreech’ Sandoval through tournaments, photo-shoots and parties as he comes to terms with fatherhood (by getting a big tattoo of a rocket), trawls Google Earth for empty pools to explore, and tries to imagine a life beyond skating. Sprinkled with beautiful moments and lovely, languid HD photography, Dragonslayer picked up the Grand Jury Award at last year’s SXSW Festival. Preceded by skate shorts, and presented in association with Ideal Skate Shop, who will be keeping their Custard Factory ramp open till 7pm tonight.

T H R OU G H T H E h it me wit h LOOKING GLASS music Saturday 17 March, 6pm electric CINEMA / £7 (£5) Dir. various 80 mins

Always a joy to put together, Flatpack’s roundup of new animation is consistently one of our most popular programmes. A mixtape of handdrawn, 3D, stop-motion and pixilation, this year’s crop explores unfamiliar worlds from the sublime to the ridiculous, where people produce lightbulbs from their mouths (Juan Pablo Zaramella’s Luminaris), a boy attempts to rescue his ungrateful brother from inside a whale (Julia Pott’s Belly), and talking insects struggle to survive in post-apocalyptic realms (Isamu Hirabayashi’s 663114). It’s not all a surrealist playground though. Graduates Natalie Bettelheim and Sharon Michaeli offer a sweet tale of a mother accepting her baby’s slightly feral ways, and Kangmin Kim’s 38-39°C has a man transported back to his childhood by an intoxicating steam-bath.

Saturday 17 March, 6pm flatpack palais / £4 Dir. miguel galofre spain/jamaica 2011, 90 mins Although it takes its title from a Bob Marley song, this infectious documentary goes beyond familiar reggae territory to explore Jamaica’s dancehall explosion. There’s plenty of music of course – including an interview with the pioneering Yellowman – but it’s the actual dancing that sets this film on fire, an eyepopping range of styles from acrobatic to surreal to downright filthy. Tribute is paid to the late ‘Dancehall Master’ Bogle, the inventor of countless popular moves including the Wacky Dip and the Jerry Springer, and there’s an entertaining sequence with young dancer Jelly Baby who has a sideline in DIY Jackie Chan movies. To set the scene, Robin G (Jam Jah Sound) will be playing a few tunes beforehand.

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n ig h t fis h i n g

& Other Twisted Folk Tales Saturday 17 March, 9pm custard factory theatre / £7 (£5) dir. park chan-wook, park chan-kyong south korea 2011, 35 mins Korean directors Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy) and his brother Park Chan-Kyong’s thirty minute film, Night Fishing is somewhat of an anomaly and something we may see a lot more of in the not too distant future; a bloody good film shot on a camera-phone. What they've produced is a gloriously atmospheric chiller about a fisherman who catches more than he bargained for. Screening with Night Fishing are a couple of other weird and wonderful folk tales from the east. Man-Eater Mountain uses the traditional Japanese method of Kamishibai (storytelling with hand-drawn still images) to tell the bizarre tale of a police detective who investigates a series of murders in a small village. The show opens with a piece of classic puppet animation, featuring live haiku narration from writer/performer Lonesome Panther.

i d ri n k y o u r bl o o d Saturday 17 March, midnight flatpack palais / £7 (£5) dir. dave e. durston usa 1970, 90 mins “Satan was an acid-head. Drink from his cup. Pledge yourselves, and together we'll all freak out!”

When horror curator Matt Palmer offered us a grindhouse classic about a gang of satanist hippies terrorising a small town, we felt it would be rude to refuse. Machine-tooled for the late-night drive-in circuit, I Drink Your Blood was cannibalised by the censors at the time but shows here in all its repugnant, bizarre glory.

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WR I N K L E S SATURDAY 17 March, 7.45pm Electric cinema / £7 (£5) Dir. Ignacio Ferreras spain 2011, 90 mins Based on the award-winning graphic novel by Paco Roca, Arrugas (Wrinkles) is an acerbic and moving look at a world rarely visited on film. A new arrival at a well-appointed care home, Emilio is shown around by Miguel, a shrewd Argentine who has made a nice little business out of swindling the more distracted residents. Detailed and realistic 2D animation moves us between the daily lives of these ‘inmates’ and their more colourful fantasies, leaving plenty of room for laughter while pulling no punches about society’s attitude to the elderly.

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pa n o ptic o n Saturday 17 March, 9pm flatpack palais / £10 (£8) This year’s Saturday night knees-up is presented in partnership with Capsule, and promises to be a psychedelic phantasmagoria. We welcome two of North America’s finest proponents of mesmeric wig-out music: Brooklyn’s White Hills are space-rock renegades who provided one of the highlights at last year’s Supersonic; and Pontiak are three brothers from rural Virginia with a distinctive, swampy take on blues and Americana. The walls of the festival hub will be plastered with a visual stew of super 8, oil wheels and kaleidoscopic trickery, and we’ll also have guest DJs and a rolling programme of shorts from the far side of the moon.

j ua n o f t h e d ea d Saturday 17 March, 9.45pM electric CINEMA / £7 (£5) dir. alejandro Brugués cuba 2011, 100 mins “Juan of the Dead, we kill your beloved ones, how may I help you?” Juan and his mate Lazaro spend most of their time fishing and drinking, but this slacker idyll is interrupted when a horde of zombies take over their Havana neighbourhood. Dismissed by the authorities as a Yankee plot, it quickly becomes clear that the threat is internal and our heroes find a new sense of purpose in wasting the undead. Similarities to certain British zombie comedies may not be coincidental, but Juan of the Dead has its own gung-ho spirit and represents a real change of gear for Cuban cinema.

o u ter s ig h t: o ver n ig h t Saturday 17–sunday 18 March, 11pm the edge / £10 (strictly limited places) Our first ever Psychedelic Psynema Psleepover! Yes, armed with only a sleeping bag and a burning desire to have their dreams tampered with, a very limited number of beds are available for the truly foolhardy to embark upon this epic all-nighter of sights and sounds to soothe the savage beast. Featuring vintage vinyl voodoo by fellow sleep-avoider Grandmaster Gareth, irregular interventions by Friction Artists and an all night Campfire Cafe.

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#mispentyouth

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1 6 mm c art o o n r o c k sunday 18 March, 12PM custard factory Theatre / £7 (£5) Recommended for children aged 8–80

r o me o + j uliet

Curator and writer Kier-La Janisse (Blue Sunshine Film Center) has accumulated a terrific collection of cult cartoons from the 1970s, and we’re honoured to welcome her from Montreal to share some rare gems with us on celluloid.

T H E PO I N T

Dir. Fred Wolf, USA 1971, 74 minS, 16mm (rare original telecast print!) Dustin Hoffman narrates the famed animated feature dreamt up, written and produced by the late Harry Nilsson, based on his album of the same name and featuring the hit song Me and My Arrow. A treat for Nilsson aficionados and '70s animation fans alike.

T H E DE V I L & DA N I E L M OU S E

Dir. Clive Smith, Canada 1977, 25 minS, 16mm (uncut version NOT AVAILABLE ON DVD) Based on the classic folk tale The Devil and Daniel Webster (and by extension, Faust), this Halloween TV special features a struggling folk-singer who is offered a very tempting deal by B.L. Zebub, agent to the stars. …With many other surprises in store, and complementary cereal to boot.

sunday 18 March, 12PM electric CINEMA / £7 (£5) dir. BAZ LUHRMANN usa 1996, 120 mins

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"I was twelve when Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet came out and spent many hours watching the film over and over again and listening to the incredible soundtrack. I couldn't believe how something so vibrant and electrifying and compelling could exist... a film that made Shakespeare completely relevant and intoxicating for a whole generation." — Bournville-raised Felicity Jones, whose recent performance in Like Crazy has been making waves.

#mi s pen t you t h

# mis p ent y out h

o rp h É e

blazi n g s a d d les

sunday 18 March, 1PM mac / £7 (£5) DIR. JEAN COCTEAU FRANCE 1950, 95 MINS & 12 MINS

sunday 18 March, 2.30PM ELECTRIC CINEMA / £7 (£5) DIR. MEL BROOKS USA 1974, 93 MINS

Chosen by artist Cornelia Parker for Misspent Youth, two films that play with reality in very different ways. Our main feature is Jean Cocteau’s reworking of the Orpheus myth, with human candelabras, leather-clad bikers as messengers of Death and post-war France as the Underworld. As an appetiser, John Smith’s Girl Chewing Gum, in which the director seems to be choregraphing a Dalston street corner. Parker: “Made when he was barely out of film school, it’s a quiet masterpiece. It is his voiceover imbuing each frame with a subtext, that keeps me hooked; his unwitting real life subjects become part of a drama that unfolds in real time.”

“Vulgar, crude, shocking, hilarious and brave. The ultimate ingredients for a great comedy classic. A satirical look at Hollywood Westerns with a big dose of racial humour thrown in. I was about 8 years old when I watched this first time around. I didn't get all the jokes but must have rewound the 'beans' scene about fifty times. The last time I watched it I rewound the 'horse' scene fifty times. Nope, I haven't grown up much. That's the best thing about a funny movie - it has to make you laugh like a big kid.” — comedian and writer Adil Ray. Watch out for Adil’s new Sparkhill sitcom Citizen Khan, hitting BBC1 in the autumn.

yo u r mediatheque sunday 18 March, 3.30pm electric CINEMA / £4 In 2013 Birmingham will welcome a BFI Mediatheque as part of the new Library of Birmingham, giving visitors free access to thousands of hours of archive film material. But what will it look like, and what would you like to see within the collection? This special event is a chance to find out more about the Mediatheque, watch some examples of rarelyscreened film (from both the National Film and Television Archive and the Media Archive for Central England), and have your say on what the collection might include.

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bikerma n ia

NO L I M I T SUNDAY 18 March, 3pm CUSTARD FACTORY THEATRE / £7 (£5) dir. monty banks uk 1935, 80 mins Ideal Sunday afternoon entertainment comes in the form of George Formby’s third feature, a rollicking yomp around the Isle of Man’s TT Races. A chimney sweep from Wigan with a homemade bike — lovely checkerboard creation the Shuttleworth Snap — George unexpectedly finds himself leading the pack and doing record times when his brakes fail. Scrapes ensue, as well as the inevitable ukelele moments and some great numbers with comedienne Florence Desmond. A rose-tinted snapshot of 30s Britain, No Limit is still screened every year at the TT Races.

BIKERMANIA SHO R T S SUNDAY 18 March, 5pm CUSTARD FACTORY THEATRE / £7 (£5) dir. various, 80 mins Birmingham was the birthplace of many iconic motorbikes and this archive programme charts the rise and fall of the city’s bike industry, from its wartime heyday to the sad decline of the 1970s. There’s footage of an American auctioneer flogging off what was left of the BSA factory, and on a lighter note some beautiful home-movie footage of a group of teenagers attempting to relive The Wild One in the Leicestershire suburbs. We finish off with a compelling BBC report on a gang of Black Country Hells Angels, investigating marriage rituals and following a young man called Hitler as he goes to meet his unimpressed new in-laws.

flatpa c k palais : day 3

I B OU G H T A VA M P I R E M O T O RC YC L E SUNDAY 18 March, 6.45pm CUSTARD FACTORY THEATRE / £7 (£5) dir. dirk campbell uk 1990, 101 mins No Birmingham biker season would be complete without the city’s own unique contribution to the genre. I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle was born when the team behind 80s comedy-drama Boon decided to take advantage of some equipment and free time to make a horror movie. Starring one of the show’s leads Neil Morrissey as a hapless courier who purchases the cursed Norton, the film offers the cheap thrills of 70s B-movies (see Psychomania, p.13) as well as the zesty gore of early Peter Jackson. And a talking turd. Tonight we’ll be welcoming the director and writers back to the neighbourhood where much of it was shot. As the poster puts it, “In Digbeth, no one can hear you scream.”

SUNDAY 18 March, from 10am FLATPACK PALAIS / FREE Each year we sift through around 500 short film submissions on the hunt for gems to screen, and this time the process had an extra edge to it. Waiting to leap on all those films we couldn’t find a home for was the Salon des Refusés, a collective devoted to screening work which has been rejected by international festivals – in this case, ours. Their selection screens at 11.30am, then at 1pm we welcome the Music Video Appreciation Society. Two local artists (Harun Morrison and Cody Lee Barbour) share their guilty promo pleasures — expect a patchwork of the conceptual, the ridiculous and the old-skool classics of the genre.

+ free mati n ees SUNDAY 18 March, 2pm THE SPOTTED DOG + EASTSIDE PROJECTS / FREE A couple of Flatpack friends will be hosting additional screenings on Sunday afternoon. Nicky Getgood used to run a regular Irish filmnight at the Spotted Dog, and returns to the pub for a one-off FILUM AFTERNOON (2-5pm) featuring rare 1900s footage and poetic adaptation I Could Read The Sky. Around the same time at Eastside Projects photographer David Rowan will introduce GOING UNDERGROUND (2-5pm), a subterranean double-bill to complement his current show Pacha Kuti X at the gallery (see p.25).

E X P LO R I N G T H E A T T IC WITH SUZAN PITT SUNDAY 18 March, 3.30pm mac / £7 (£5) DIR: SUZAN PITT, 80 MINS APPROX. Perhaps because her breakthrough film Asparagus accompanied Eraserhead on the midnight movie circuit, the work of Suzan Pitt has often been compared with that of David Lynch. He has talked about fishing the subconscious for his ideas, and it’s clear that Pitt sets out from a similar place; led by dream logic and ‘interior sense-making’, with no clear idea of an end goal. The result is a small but unique body of work, tricky to pin down or explain but often breathtakingly beautiful and capable of crawling under your skin in unexpected ways.

This rare retrospective will feature all of Pitt’s key works from the surrealist visual orgy of Asparagus (1978) to the UK premiere of her latest short, the haunting Visitation (2011). The production process behind them tends to involve intensive 35mm cel animation not dissimilar to the way it was done in Disney’s day, but with room for all sorts of other techniques including scratching, claymation and sand animation. This helps to account for the long gaps between films, although Pitt’s career also covers a fascinating range of other work including expanded cinema, opera, music video, environmental activism and of course her first love, painting. An artist with a singular vision, we’re thrilled to welcome Suzan Pitt to Flatpack.

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FIVE Grandma Lo-Fi: STORIES HIGH: The Basement Tapes CITIZEN KANE of Sigríður Níelsdóttir SUNDAY 18 March, 4pm FLATPACK PALAIS / FREE Five Stories High is the brainchild of YARN festival. A well-loved story gets divided up into chunks and distributed to fifteen teams. Each team has a week to prepare their part of the tale, rendering it in film, performance, pictures, words or music, then it all comes together in one dazzling, multi-media, cast-of-thousands climax. As one of our twitter respondents pointed out, “it could be brilliant, or perhaps a disaster.” Well, they've managed to pull off The Odyssey; how hard can it be to do The Greatest Film Ever Made?

SUNDAY 18 March, 6.30pm electric cinema / £7 (£5) dir. Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir, Orri Jónsson & Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir iceland 2011, 62 mins + 37 mins A charming portrait of a Danish woman living in Iceland who discovered music late in life, produced a stream of self-published albums recorded on a hi-fi system in her kitchen, and found herself a cult artist in her seventies. Sketching in a few telling details of her early life, the bulk of the film concentrates on Níelsdóttir’s inspiring, intuitive approach to making things: “sometimes it’s art, and

sometimes it isn’t.” Filmed in Super 8 and 16mm with animated sequences and musical tributes from her fans (including members of Sigur Ros and Múm), the style of Grandma Lo-Fi is beautifully in tune with its subject. Showing with I Woz Ere, a documentary by Jim Turner about another artist who works with limited means; in this case the Humbrol paints found in the Coventry landscapes of George Shaw.

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UN L I K E LY FILM QUIZ SUNDAY 18 March, 7pm FLATPACK PALAIS £3 PER PERSON The end is in sight, but before we all bid each other adieu here’s a chance to flex those filmnerd muscles. Although, if you’ve ever been to an Unlikely Quiz – in their usual home at the Red Lion in Kings Heath – you’ll know that boffinry is not essential to enjoy one of their events. Deploying 3D props, silky backwards DJ skills and warped cabaret, this should be the perfect curtain-call for the Flatpack Palais. £3 per person, with a maximum of 6 per team, and a low-key Sunday night shindig to follow.

OUTER SIGHT: THE CASEBOOK THE UNCANNY OF WORLD OF EDDIE BREWER ROBERT MORGAN SUNDAY 18 March, 8.20pm MAC / £7 (£5) Dir. ROBERT MORGAN De-camping bleary-eyed and fuzzy-brained to the mac on Sunday, we're ecstatic to be presenting a full retrospective of macabre short films by Outer Sight favourite and special guest, Robert Morgan. Since first discovering his sublime The Cat With Hands (our vote for one of the most perfectly realised shiver-shorts ever made), we've wanted to present a full five course meal of his particular madness in a darkened auditorium. Morgan will be in attendance for a post-screening chat, and will hopefully be bringing archive materials and examples of his equally unnerving illustrations that can be seen at The Edge during our other events.

SUNDAY 18 March, 9.15pm CUSTARD FACTORY THEATRE / £7 (£5) dir. ANDREW SPENCER uk 2012, 95 mins

Eddie Brewer is an old-school paranormal investigator, being followed as part of a documentary about how spook hunting has changed over the years. The crew join Eddie as he investigates a neurotic mother who believes her daughter is apparently possessed by a 19th century clown, and a dilapidated council building where workers have reported ghastly noises, strange odours and electrical surges. Filmed around his home patch of Erdington, Andrew Spencer’s second feature skilfully mines the unsettling from the familiar. The Casebook of Eddie Brewer is an impressive achievement pulled off on a micro-budget, and Flatpack is honoured to present its world premiere.

Book Now! Spring And Summer Season 2012

Book Online

Gravity @ mac 23 February to 3 March Waiting For Godot @ The Old Rep Theatre 13 to 17 March Wasted @ mac 23 March Time Has Fallen Asleep In The Afternoon Sunshine @ Central Library 30 March to 7 April Berlin Love Tour @ City Centre 30 March to 8 April Mustafa @ mac 17 to 21 April

birmingham-rep.co.uk

Spring Hill Stories @ Spring Hill Library 26 May The Just Price Of Flowers @ A E Harris 15 to 30 June Harborne Herald @ venue TBC 20 & 21 June The Witchesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Promise @ Weoley Castle ruins 7 to 15 July Kidnapping Cameron @ The Old Rep Theatre 18 to 21 July Forests @ The Old Rep Theatre 31 August to 15 September

Box Office

0121 236 4455

Registered in England 295910 Charity No.223660

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S e e a ls o You may feel that there’s enough in this publication to keep you entertained, but just in case, here are some other things to look out for in the neighbourhood:

E x h ibiti o n s o p e n i n g f r i d ay 1 6 m a r c h , 6 – 9 p m

(If there was a veritable collective term for exhibition openings, we would deploy it here.) Eastside Projects Yangjiang Group: After Dinner Shu Fa at the Cricket Pavilion (until 5 May) An intriguing-sounding performative installation: a 'post-planning social food calligraphy meets cricket pavilion'. � www.eastsideprojects.org Eastside Projects David Rowan: Pacha Kuti X (until 5 May) Underground landscape photography depicting hidden, sometimes unknown or forgotten underground environments around Birmingham & the Black Country. � www.eastsideprojects.org GRAND UNION Reynir Hutber: Stay Behind The Line (until 22 April) New media installations and recent works by this London-based artist, influenced by the anxieties and uncertainties of living in an era of constant surveillance. In collaboration with Fierce Festival. � www.grand-union.org.uk

E x h ibiti o n s o n g o i n g ikon Gallery Sarah Browne: How to Use Fool's Gold (until 22 April) In her first UK solo exhibition Dublin-based artist Sarah Browne presents a survey of film and sculptural works based on exchange, community and scarcity in the current economic context. Also showing is a series of wall pieces by walking artist Hamish Fulton. � www.ikon-gallery.co.uk

F ES T I VA LS

Mu s i c

Still Walking 15 March – 1 April 2012 The Still Walking festival launches this year, including guided tours by local historians, architects, walking artists, psychogeographers, dancers, micro navigators and ramblers. The festival bridges the gap between Flatpack and Fierce, and is intended to complement and overlap the two festivals in its themes. An online programme will highlight other walking events taking place around the city. � www.stillwalking.org

MOTHWASP, 48Sheet project space Thursday 15 March, 7–9.30pm Matt Watkins invites his band Mothwasp (guests at Flatpack 5) to create an installation distorting art noise and architecture. The Mailbox ground floor, B1 1RE. � www.48sheet.com

ST PATRICK'S DAY Saturday 17 March Most of the celebrations/carnage will be taking place in Digbeth the previous Sunday, but no doubt there will be some relevant events going on to mark the day itself. � www.stpatricksbirmingham.com Fierce Festival 29 March – 8 April 2012 Fierce is back at the end of March for another festival of live art and performance at venues across Birmingham. This year’s highlights include a visit from broadcast collective LuckyPDF, a Holy Mountain night and a Daschund U.N. During the festival a new public garden will also be opening in the heart of Digbeth, under the auspices of Edible Eastside. � www.wearefierce.org

m o r e o ut d o o r pu r s uit s Walk Northfield for Climate Week Saturday 17 March, 2–4pm Join Ikon Gallery for a walk exploring the area along and around the River Rea which runs through the heart of the Northfield constituency. Places are free but should be reserved by calling Ikon on 0121 248 0708. Only 30 places are available. � www.ikon-gallery.co.uk

CO M I NG AT T R A C T I ON S When Flatpack Festival started life in 2006, it grew out of the year-round events and film projects of 7 Inch Cinema. The work we do during the year remains as important as ever, and covers everything from film-tents at music festivals to family film tours and commmunity archive detective work. Once the sixth festival is out of the way we’ll be launching a new website which gathers all of this together in one place, and there are already some exciting plans for where we go next with both Flatpack Projects and the annual festival. You can keep abreast of all this via the usual portals (see below), and if you’re interested in working with us in some way we’re always open to interesting ideas.

Twitter: Facebook: Flickr: Web:

@flatpack flatpackfestival 7inchcinema (festival pics will go up here)

www.flatpackfestival.org.uk

23 April – 19 May 2012 INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL BIRMINGHAM The third IDFB will once again be taking over theatres and public spaces across the city for a celebration of global dance. This year it will include Light Fantastic, an eclectic menu of dance movies put together by Flatpack. � www.idfb.co.uk 4–5 June at Aston Hall, Birmingham BOOK BASH The climax of the Young Readers Festival is a two-day celebration at Aston Hall, and we’ll be providing Colour Box highlights and silent comedy in the film tent. � www.birmingham.gov.uk/youngreaders July–August at Twycross Zoo, Leicestershire WITHOUT BOUNDARIES Outdoor screenings, family films and archive programmes as part of the zoo’s summer-long arts programme. � www.twycrosszoo.org

Spaghetti Western Orchestra, Town Hall Friday 16 march, 7.30pm Armed with over 100 instruments, (not to mention coathangers, rubber gloves and bicycle pumps) these enterprising musicians will perform a fistful of Ennio Morricone classics. Alas, this event is sold out but they've added another show by popular demand, and will be back in May. � www.thsh.co.uk/event/spaghetti-westernorchestra

courses Flatpack Festival is delighted to welcome a number of industry training events across the week, including: Independent Cinema Office � www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/training Sheffield Doc/Fest � www.sheffdocfest.com/view/devisetodeliver Cinovate � www.cinovate.org

www.wearefierce.org

The Mermaid Show, Ann Liv Young

Thursday 29 March - Sunday 8 April 2012

Fierce is an international and annual festival of live art across Birmingham. Expect theatre, music, installations, public interventions, workshops, talks, digital projects & wild parties.

Presents

Lullabies of Broadway Extra performance added due to high demand! Saturday March 31st 2:30 & 7:30 pm Sunday April 1st 2:30 pm

Tickets £12 Show & Meal ticket £20

Tel: 0121 200 0946 www.oldjointstocktheatre.co.uk

Flatpack Chicken Balti £5.95 Vegetable Balti £4.95 Come and enjoy a flatpack Chicken Balti for only £5.95 or a Vegetable Balti for only £4.95. The traditional Balti is garnished with sliced aubergines pan fried in Bangladeshi five spices.

20% DISCOUNT

(with this voucher) Off the food bill for evening dining. This is not valid in conjunction with any other offer.

Custard Factory, Unit 16/17 Green House, Gibb Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B9 4AA. www.bayleaf-restaurant.co.uk | info@bayleaf-restaurant.co.uk

0121 224 7700

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TEAM

t h a n ks

Director Ian Francis

Gemma Mitchell (YARN); Tony Dudley-Evans (Birmingham Jazz); Neil Rami and Tim Manson (Marketing Birmingham); Ralph Smith; Mike and Theresa Simkin; David Bishop, Pete James, Janet Brisland, Nicola Crews and all at Birmingham Archives and Heritage Service; Kirsten Henly (Colmore BID); Chris Keenan; Dave Peebles, Tara Newman and Danny Smith (Custard Factory); Sandra and Lee (Friction Arts); Yasmeen, Laura and Marian at VIVID; Gavin Wade and Ruth Claxton at Eastside Projects; David Sin, Tilly Walnes (Independent Cinema Office); Jay Arnold, Sarah-Jane Meredith (Creative England); Will Fowler, Vic Pratt (BFI Flipside); George Watson, Katie Ellen, Marcus Prince (BFI); Cornelia Parker; Adil Ray; Felicity Jones; Joe Dunthorne; Lawrence; Paul Kelly; Peter Maxwell Dixon; Ben Javens; Hannah Raybould (Cinovate); Charlie Phillips (Sheffield Doc/ Fest); Vickie Pritchett (Boutique Baking Co.); Ruth Morgan (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); David Grindi &co (Club Unlikely); Laura McDermott and Harun Morrison (Fierce Festival); Ben Waddington (Still Walking); Julia and Nat Higginbottom (Aquila TV); Paul Keene and Jess Thomas (Performances Birmingham); Ralph Brown (BBC); Ruth Harvey and Carol Currier (Birmingham Cathedral); Kate Self, Rebecca Small and all at Ikon Gallery; Sarah Browne; Dirk Van Extergem (Offscreen Festival); Jack Stevenson; Mo White and all at Ticketsellers; our postman; Laura MacFarlane (IdeasTap); John Tighe (The Spotted Dog); Mona Casey (BIAD Margaret St); Ravi, Matt, Rob and all at BIAD Gosta Green; Aftab Rahman (Bayleaf); Peta Murphy-Burke (Arts Council England); Phil Leach (MACE), Ren Walton (FLIP Animation Festival); John Cooper (Just Film Co-Op); Tony Jones and Becky Innes (Cambridge Film Trust); Jerome Leavey and all at Birmingham International Film Society, Nick Bradshaw (Sight and Sound); Tom, Sam, David, Paul and all at the Electric; Amy, Alex, Dan, Amanda, Rachel and all at mac; Chris, Roxie, Genevieve, & Tom (Stirchley

Festival Co-ordinator Selina Hewlett Assistant Programmer Sam Groves Festival Assistant Maya Darrell Hewins Marketing Assistant Holly Cooper Artist Liaison Jane Morrow Venue Coordinators Jill Arbuckle, Annabel Clarke, Robyn Lawrence, Anna Mathers, Michael Palmer, Liam Smyth, Gushi Sohal, Chris Swann, Hannah Wood Flatpack Palais Matt Moore (Design), Pete Stevens (Operations) Design An Endless Supply / anendlesssupply.co.uk Web Developer Jacob Masters / gabba.net Press and PR Emma Pettit and John Dunning / Margaret PR Technical Co-ordination Phil Slocombe and James Islip / Lumen Board of Directors Jonathan Watkins (Chair) (Ikon Gallery); Bob Ghosh (K4 Architects); Jake Grimley (MADE Media); Jenny Moore (Capsule); Kate Taylor (Independent Cinema Office)

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 screenings and events are also available in advance from mac 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. 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.

And a very special thanks to our volunteers. We'd be lost without you, and we love you very much.

C o n ta c t

b o o ki n g a d va n c e ti c k e t s

Happenings); John Ullah (Sons of the Desert); Philip Fisher, Martin Boyle and all at the BMI; Andrew Woodyatt (Revolver); Adam Hotchkiss (Studio Canal); Sophie Bush (Soda Pictures); Carl Hawkins (Jekyll & Hyde); Beatrice Nuoh (6 Sales); Zenesha Riley (Nice Time Productions); Ben Luxford (Artificial Eye); Louise Johansen; Mika Shim (Finecut); David Luke Allen (Animation Forum WM); Roger Shannon (Swish); Chris Woods and Steve Roberts (Ragdoll Productions); Joseph and Becky (This Is It); Chris Hurst & Kim Stephens (Retail Birmingham); Sarah Hamilton Baker; Pat (The Old Royal); Matt (Bartons Arms); Steve Tommy, Nina Meeks, & Melissa Spence (Hortons); Nerys James; Ed Wakefield; Natasha (Cafe Costes); Cath (Urban Coffee); Katy Woods; Piccadilly Arcade; Pieterjan Grandry; Antonio Roberts; Pete Ashton; Gil Leung (Lux); John Baker (Animals of Combat); Martin Myers (Miracle Communications); Anne-Claire Martin (Coproduction Office); Davy and Kristin McGuire; Nic Rawlings (Paper Cinema); James King (Verve Pictures); John Ramchandani (Metrodome); Gerv Havill (Mission Print); James Sharman (Sharman & Co.); Matt Palmer; Daniel Bird; David Good (Warner Bros); Dirk Campbell and Mycal Miller; Robert Morgan; Andy Spencer; Ted Ryan; David Rowan; Claire Farrell (EC-Arts); Pram; Nicky Getgood; Fred Wolf Films; Nelvana Studios; Lloyd Bowen; Lucy Reid; Jenny, Lisa and Sarah at Capsule; Kier-la Janisse; Suzan Pitt; Scott Johnston; Dave Gaskarth (Cyrk); Janet and Pete Hewlett (Babysitters Inc.); Pip McKnight; and all our tolerant, supportive friends and family.

£ 2 4 s p e c ia l s c r e e n i n g pa c ka g e 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 on-line or by calling The TicketSellers booking line.

g e n e r a l i n f o r m ati o n 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, except Ikon Slow Boat screenings via 0121 248 0708. Concessionary rate tickets are available for students with a valid NUS or student card, registered unemployed with a valid DSS form, under 16’s and over 60’s 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/venues-booking

FESTIVAL HQ Unit 118, The Custard Factory Scott House Gibb St Digbeth Birmingham B9 4AA WEB www.flatpackfestival.org.uk EMAIL info@flatpackfestival.org.uk TWITTER @flatpack

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m ap s & v e n u e s more C i Col

Ln se ou lh

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BIRMINGHAM & MIDLAND INSTITUTE 9 Margaret St, B3 3BS

BSM COLMORE ROW, FILM BUG HUB 21 Colmore Row, B3 2BH

JEKYLL & HYDE GIN PARLOUR 28 Steelhouse Ln, B4 6B

THE OLD ROYAL 53 Church St, B3 2DP

Flood

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

The Victoria – Boasting a 360 degree central bar, a menu stuffed with yummy Soul Food, and some darling Penguin paperback-inspired cocktail menus, The Victoria also manages to squeeze in DJ's, bands and a weekly Sound and Vision pub quiz. And my, they do have some lovely tiles on the walls. 48 John Bright St, B1 1BN � www.thevictoriabirmingham.co.uk

Al-Barakah Lebanese Bakery – Tucked away in deepest Balsall Heath, it's worth seeking out this ‫أ‬. ‫( ميرك رجح‬gem in Arabic, kids — get us), specialising in Lebanese flatbreads (khobez), pizza, and mezze bits and pieces to eat in or takeaway. 167 Mary Street, Balsall Heath, B12 9RN � www.indiefoodbrum.co.uk/al-barakahlebanese-bakery/

Birmingham Backpackers – Former pub made homely hostel with brightly painted walls. They have a cinema room and some bedrooms are equipped with pods. ay ew The dl Eastside Tavern, 58 Coventry d MiStreet, B5 5NH � www.birminghamcentralbackpackers.com ra

Canalside Cafe – This 18th-century lock-keeper’s cottage is now a snug pub-cum-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 your window. Wave, and they will wave back, my friend. Worcester Bar, Gas Street, B1 2JU � goo.gl/znmxW

Ort – An art and community café and bar space in Balsall Heath, ORT is aimed at the local community of residents, artists, art enthusiasts, young people, students, tourists and Birmingham lovers. Functioning as a café during the daytime and a bar e at at night, ORT is also a community hg g centre hosting events, screenings and Hi performances. 500-506 Moseley Road, Balsall Heath, B12 9AH � www.ortcafe.co.uk

Places to stay

Veged Out – A new community cafe serving vegetarian and vegan food near the City Library. In addition to providing healthy and tasty food, they have a community ethos and an emphasis on ethical values. Brownie points all round! 7 Fletchers Walk, B3 3JH � www.vegedout.co.uk

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Urban Pie – Hearty pies, sweet and savoury, with all the obligatory extras. After 5pm pies are half price! The Bullring Shopping Centre, B5 4BE � www.urbanpie.co.uk

Adderley

Urban Coffee –The best coffee in Birmingham, located just behind Snow Hill Station. You can pre-order through their website. Urban Coffee, Church Street, B3 2NB � www.urbancoffee.co.uk

y S t

Caffe Chino – Kawaii cafe in the heart of China Town. Decadent gateaux, French macaroons and green tea cakes galore! Why not enjoy one with a Bubble Tea? The Arcadian, Hurst Street, B5 4TD � www.caffechino.com

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P OC K E T G U I DE T O B I RM I NGH A M Cafe 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 Street, B5 4SL � www.cafesoya.co.uk

Ch ea ps id e

Yumm – Sandwiches, hot food and coffee throughout the day. The Custard Factory, Gibb St, B9 4AA � www.yummdeli.co.uk

Near the City Centre

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Near The Custard Factory

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THE BIG BULL'S HEAD — Another great local establishment. Their home-made beef and Guinness pie is heartily recommended. 75 Digbeth Birmingham, B5 6DY � www.bigbullshead.co.uk

BCU School of Art Margaret Street, B3 3BX

Smal lbro ok Qu eens way

Bullring

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 Street, Digbeth, B5 5LZ � www.myspace.com/the_spotted_dog

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rd es

High

Moor STREET Station

100 m

Warehouse Cafe – Located above the Friends Of The Earth offices, a friendly café which serves a range of scrumptious vegetarian and vegan food that’ll leave you with a wholesome feeling. 54–57 Allison Street, B5 5TH � www.thewarehousecafe.com

THE OLD JOINT STOCK 4 Temple Row West B2 5NY

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Car rs

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2 minute walk

Bayleaf Restaurant – A recent addition to the Custard Factory, serving authentic Bangladeshi food. The Custard Factory, Gibb St, B9 4AA � www.bayleaf-resturant.co.uk

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URBAN COFFEE Church St, B3 2NP

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CAFÉ COSTES 58 Newhall St, B3 3RJ

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CATHEDRAL Temple Row, B3 2QB

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Bartons Arms 144 High Street Newtown Birmingham B6 4UP

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A3 8

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The Edge Friction Arts 79-81 Cheapside Birmingham B12 0QH

mac Cannon Hill Park Edgbaston Birmingham B12 9QH

Temple Row

New

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Broa

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New Street

Row

victoria square

loo

Wa te r

The Spotted Dog 104 Warwick Street Birmingham B12 0NH

Eastside Projects 86 Heath Mill Lane Birmingham B9 4AR

Film Bug Venues (see p.8 & 9)

Grand Union + Slow Boat 158 Fazeley Street Birmingham B5 5RT

The Electric Cinema 47 Station Street Birmingham B5 4DY

VIVID 140 Heath Mill Lane Birmingham B9 4AR

The Custard Factory Theatre Gibb Street Birmingham B9 4AA

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Flatpack Palais The Custard Factory Gibb Street Birmingham B9 4AA

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 BLOC - Not a stone has been unturned in kitting out this hotel. The spec features, amongst other things, Japanese-style pod rooms (but bigger), wet rooms, engineered mattresses, and they even called in a Scandinavian sleep expert to make sure their thermostats are set to the right temperature for a perfect night's sleep. We hope they take it as a compliment when we say it feels like Star Trek in there. Caroline Street, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham B3 1UG � www.blochotels.com

For more options you can search the accommodation directory at www.visitbirmingham.com

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Index

"THIS IS MORE THAN I CAN STAND" — Charlie Hall, Laughing Gravy

PAGE

A– H

PAGE

H–p

PAGE

p–Z

16mm Cartoon Rock

13, 22

Hells Angels

Pontiak

38-39ºC

Hit Me With Music

Puppetology

663114

I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle

Quadrophenia

Alterations

I Drink Your Blood

Ray, Adil

Another Fine Mess

I Woz Ere

Requiem for a Village

Apollo

IceBook, The

Roberts, Steve

Archive Canal Programme

9, 10

IdeasTap: Full Flow

Romeo + Juliet

Asparagus

Ikon Slow Boat

Salon des Refuses

L'Atalante

Into the Abyss

Shaping Cinema (walking tour)

Bank Holiday

Janisse, Kier-La

Shorts on Walls

9,10

Barnes, Lesley

Jones, Felicity

Simkin, Mike and Theresa

Belly

Juan of the Dead

Best of the Fests

Juniper Cinema

4, 7, 8, 11, 14, 19

slapstick

11, 13

BFI Flipside

Just Film

Sloan, Becky

4, 13, 22

Bikermania

8, 10

KINO 10: Roll Out The Barrel

8, 18, 25

Still Walking

Bikermania Shorts

8, 10

Kit Downes and Lesley Barnes

Stirchley Happenings

Bird, Daniel

4, 7, 8, 19

Laurel and Hardy

Streamschool

Birmingham International Film Society

Laurel and Hardy in Birmingham

Suitcase Cinema

Lavender Hill Mob, The

This Is It Collective

Birmingham Noir

Lawrence of Belgravia

This is Not a Film

Blank City

Blazing Saddles

Le Havre

This is the Point

Library of Birmingham

Through the Looking Glass

Bobby Yeah

Boro in the Box

A Life's Work

Two Years at Sea

Lonesome Panther

Ullah, John

Brand, Neil

Bring Your Own Beamer

Luminiaris

Unlikely Film Quiz

15, 19

Luv'in the Black Country

Visitation

Calendar

16-17

Casebook of Eddie Brewer, The

Made in Wolverhampton

Venues and booking

28, 29

Magic Lantern Show

Waddington, Ben

Chelsea Bridge Boys

City Lights

Man-eater Mountain

walks

8, 18, 25

Maps

White Hills

Colour Box

9, 29

14-15

Colour Box 1: Cinemajigs

McGuire, Davy and Kristen

Wild World

Mechanical Musical Marvel, The

Wilson, Mark

Colour Box 2: Daydream Machine

Contact details

Misspent Youth

Wrinkles

5, 13, 21

Morgan, Robert

YARN

Dipdap: Taking a Line For a Walk

Dickens Before Sound

motorbikes

Yo Gabba Gabba

4, 11, 13, 21, 22

15 7

You're Darn Tootin

Devil and Daniel Mouse, The

Music Video Appreciation Society

Your Mediatheque

Dog Outwits the Kidnappers

Musictube

Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared

Night Fishing

Dragonslayer

No Limit

Dust in the Attic

OHP Draw-Off

The Elephant Man

On Location (walking tour)

Exploring the Attic with Suzan Pitt

Orphée

Out of Sight

Fairy, The

13, 20, 23

Outer Sight

7–10

Film Bug

Panopticon

Filum Afternoon

Parker, Cornelia

Five Stories High: Citizen Kane

Pair of Tights, A

11, 18, 22

Flatpack Palais

Parretti, Martin

Fog, The

Patience (After Sebald)

Four Horsemen

5, 12

Pelling, Joseph

Gif Shop, The

Phillips, Charlie

Going Underground

19, 20

phone films

Grace, Tidal

Piccadilly

Grandma Lo-Fi

11, 18

Pick 'n' Mix

Grandry, Pieterjan

Pitt, Suzan

4, 8, 19

Hall, Charlie

Point, The

BOX OFFICE 0121 345 0602

www.thsh.co.uk Friday 13 April, 7.30pm, Town Hall

The Sinking of the Titanic Gavin Bryars’s 20th century classic of experimental music weaves a timeless soundscape, accompanied by turntablist Philip Jeck’s sample-based materials and hazy archival film footage from artists Bill Morrison and Laurie Olinder. £15* 20% discount for full and part-time students. Photo credit: Laurie Olinder. Courtesy of The Ridge Theater, Peregrine Arts and the Boyer College of Music and Dance, Temple University.

Friday 4 May, 3.30pm & 7pm, Symphony Hall

The Wizard of Oz With live accompaniment by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Wilson, complete with original vocals. £9.50 - £35* Kids go free: One free ticket per child (aged 16 and under) for every adult ticket purchased. Film screening, Certificate U

Saturday 26 May, 7.30pm, Symphony Hall

The Infernal Comedy Starring John Malkovich Confessions of a Serial Killer John Malkovich stars in a stage play for baroque orchestra, singers and actor, based on the real-life story of convicted serial killer Jack Unterweger. £9.50 - £40* Supported by Birmingham Repertory Theatre John Malkovich. Photo: Olga Martschitsch.

Tuesday 29 May, 8pm, Symphony Hall

Dracula: The Music and Film Original music by Philip Glass Performed by Philip Glass and Kronos Quartet (Michael Riesman conductor) to the Universal Pictures 1931 film classic Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi. £9.50 - £35* Film screening, Certificate PG

search ‘Town Hall Symphony Hall’

Supported by

@THSHBirmingham

Town Hall renovation also funded by

Find us on Spotify, search ‘Spotify:user:townhallsymphonyhall’

*£2 fee per transaction (£2.50 after 1 April 2012) will be charged on all bookings except purchases made in person at Town Hall or Symphony Hall Box Office

BFI FLIPSIDE ‘The BFI’s Flipside collection is one of the best things to happen to British cinema in a long while… Do yourself a favour and buy them all.’ Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz)

COMING SOON FROM THE FLIPSIDE: Andy Milligan’s ultra-rare Nightbirds and Ian Merrick’s hard-hitting The Black Panther

bfi.org.uk/flipside

BFI Flipside DVD ad Flatpack fest 350x264_v1.indd 1

Available as Dual Format Editions (DVD/Blu-ray) from all good retailers

21/02/2012 10:09