Last Wednesday I went to the imaginatively titled Local shorts Film Club, which I previously talked about here. I was pleasantly surprised to find a large turnout (a quick head count of around 80) maybe its because of by passion for social media and indoctrination into the cult of blogging that made me presume that a poor web presence, and equally poor advertising automatically means low attendance.
The night is ran by Nigel and Sabine of It’s About Time Productions and chatting to them before hand I was interested to find out that updates, the forthcoming programme, submission requests and basically all the functionality of a blog is actually carried out by a mailing list, of which over three hundred people are signed up too. They explained this lo-fi attitude is partly intentional as not to appear to exclusive. Unfortunately this attitude also means that the LSFC is one of the best kept secrets of the film community in Birmingham. Speaking to a local video artist we both remarked how frustrating it was that this event was happening 200 yards away from where we were doing our degree with other student film makers, yet we never heard about it.
The event itself was very informal and friendly with the quality of the films varying widely. Standing out from the pack was the short film written and directed by Lewis Arnold called <i>Long Standing</i>. An engaging, warm, and very funny but ultimately melancholy study of old age and a mans emotional redemption through human contact. Lewis seems to be very talented capable of producing slickly finished pieces on almost no budget that are both humorous and visually interesting. I can’t help but see big things for him.
As for the night, the relaxed setting, friendly atmosphere and question and answer session after each film are much to the organisers credit, although the community itself does seem kind of small. The event has recently secured funding from Screen West Midlands so will using the money to develop a wider film making audience and the next night is scheduled for late July.
to get on the mailing list e-mail your address, theirs can be found here.
7inch Cinema have a new website! And it’s very bloggy by the looks of things with RSS and everything. Worth checking out the other sections too as they’ve crammed it full of some really good writings.
The next Pub Conversations conversation, where an artist and a guest of their choice discuss stuff in a pub, takes place on April 29th in the Lamp Tavern on Barford St. Melanie Carvalho and Ross Birrell are the speakers and there are usually questions from the audience. Free but spaces are limited so email selfservice [at] hotmail.co.uk to book. And while the recording will be podcasted the Lamp is a lovely little pub.
Fused inform of an exhibition by local artist Gail Troth taking place at Three White Walls from April 24th – 3rd June.
Is this truly a participatory Universe?
Who makes up your world view are they the poets, writers, and philosophers who give us visions people gifted with some exceptional ability to sense and express the dream that is any age?
Or… Do you consider that each of us by the nature of our consciousness and the need of that consciousness to integrate its experience is a visionary on at least some small scale?
Pete James, custodian of Birmingham Library’s legendary photographic archive, sends through info of From Canton to Guangzhou, part of Birmingham’s China Festival running through this year at BM&AG.
This exhibition presents the work of two photographers who have made very different visual records of Birmingham’s Sister City in China. It contrasts the photographs of buildings and street scenes taken in the historic city of Canton (now known as Guangzhou) by the European photographer Felice Beato in 1860 with those of the contemporary Chinese photographer Xu Peiwu (1997 – 2007), whose work witnesses the dynamic change during the urbanization and rise of Pearl River New City in Guangzhou.
The exhibition runs from 3 May to 10 August at BMAG with the official opening on Thursday 8 May. Invite only, by the looks of things, so if you wanna go contact kath.leahy [at] birmingham.gov.uk, tel: 0121 303 8775.
Probably more interesting than hobnobbing in the Round Room is a seminar in the afternoon of the 8th at 2pm at BIAD, Margaret Street with Pete, Dr Jiang Jiehong (Director, Centre for Chinese Visual Arts, BIAD), photographer Xu Peiwu and Cheng-Hsuan Kao (PhD Candidate, Kings College London). Here’s the flyer (PDF).
These little images are rather tantalizing…
Coinciding with her exhibition at Ikon, a stunning new series of works by Ruth Claxton will be shown at The Barber Institute of Fine Arts from 2 April – 6 July. Using postcards of works from the Barber’s permanent collection, Claxton has manipulated the top layer of the cards to raise questions about the nature of representation and our relationship with the object.
Here’s the winners of the My Fierce Festival public vote competition thingy:
Theatres
Whisper (Proto-type Theater)
Playing The Victim (Switch)
I Told It To A Mannequin (Francesca Millican Slater & Lindsey Price)
Public Spaces
The Fête Encounter (Various Artists)
B1 Labyrinths (Needless Allies)
It Sank With The Shape Of Us (Victoria Pratt)
Unconventional Spaces
The Moment Before We Kiss (Michael David Jones)
The Divine Edgar (Scott Johnston/Film Ficciones)
Foot Washing Foor The Sole (Adrian Howells)
These will take place over the May Bank Holiday weekend, 23 to 26 May, as part of the Fierce Festival.
A very last minute notice from Sandra at Friction Arts of an event that seems to have parallels with their Reality Estate shindig.
This show is the result of a project where Director Cees Bavius & writer Pieta Bot set up ‘shop’ in a disused supermarket in an urban district of Rotterdam… The performers for this show ranged from 14 to 83 years old and their here to share their stories! For some of our visitors this is their first trip outside of Holland so please join us to welcome them and see the show.
That’s tomorrow.
Punch Records ran a competition to design the ident for this year’s BASS Festival and the winner is Pretesh Mistry:
The two runners up are here.
