Created in Birmingham

It’s festivals a gogo with the Fierce and Flatpack festivals kicking off today with a whole load of interesting stuff coming to Birmingham between now and Sunday.

You’ll no doubt have done the decent thing and booked up a load of tickets for both of these already but, if not, there should still be time. I’ve had a nosey through the programmes and reckon that I’ll be going to the following:

Tuesday:

• Fierce/Flatpack launch at VIVID
• The Irrepressibles at Town Hall

Wednesday:

• Shadow Shows at the Patrick Centre

Thursday:

• Shorts on Walls at VIVID
• Too Much Information at The Electric

Friday

• Nesst 2
• Queerfest to Fierce at VIVID
• Los Angeles Plays Itself at Ikon Eastside

Installations and ongoing things that I’ll try to catch when I can:

• Burningham
• The Commentators
• The Soldiers’ Song
• Prayer

All subject to having to work to do and so on. Plus I’m not around this weekend, which is a shame because there’s some ace stuff happening.

What are you going to be going to?

There’s a few ways to get involved in this summer’s Moseley Festival, which is happening for ten days from 8 – 17 July.

The Moseley Festival is the third of its kind, celebrating arts, culture and music in arguably one of Birmingham’s cutest suburbs. This years festival is taking place at various locations around Moseley, including Art Trails across both weekends.

They’re looking for artists to participate in the the trails, plus local residents to host exhibitions with an Open House.

Artists of all varieties are welcome, and needn’t be Moseley based, with an opportunity to exhibit, perform or organise an event, the festival is welcoming innovative and experimental ideas.

The deadline for artists to register interest is 18 April, which can be done through this form.

For more info, contact Lauren, the art trail co-ordinator by emailing moseleyarttrail@gmail.com or call 07813 341163.

The new site and programme is up for this year’s Flatpack Festival (23-27 March). Hoorah!

I’ve had a brief skim through and, as with previous years, would recommend ignoring the titles (which tend to leave me going ‘Eh? Never heard of it’) and read through the descriptions (which tend to leave me going ‘nice, I reckon I’ll go to that too’).

Of the things I’d already heard of, I’m looking forward to:

• Shorts on Walls featuring a screening of Man in a Cat
• Rubber
• Shadow Shows (with after party)

And this lot looks good too:

• Kinshasa Symphony
• Too Much Information
• Los Angeles Plays Itself
• and plenty others besides. Take a look at the programme.

There’s also a Paper Party (as a kind of progression from last year’s Plasticine Party), a vintage mobile cinema and all sorts of other goodness. It’ll be great buy tickets and don’t forget to see the free stuff too.

The Eastern Electronic Festival is a new six day festival, taking place from 28 February – 5 March, featuring music, film screenings, art exhibitions, panel debates and world premieres of visual-artworks.

The festival will celebrate progressive Asian music and multimedia art, spreading itself across the city, with events taking place at venues including The Custard Factory, The Rainbow and The Hockley.

They’ll also be showcasing the work of four emerging South Asian artists in online exhibition “M-V Future”. From 28 Feb, the exhibition with feature work from film director Mandeep Singh Jutla, live-music photographer Gobinder Jhitta, VJ-visual artist Coco Edwards and contemporary conceptual artist Kulwinder Bajar, .

There’s plenty of free events going on, including a film and karaoke night, with the premier screening of Sholay flip-animation (1 March),  a panel discussion entitled “Is it time to stop calling is Asian music?” (2 March), and Unplugged with Sanchita Farruque (2 March).

For a full line-up of performers, exhibitions and events, take a look at the online programme.

Events from 28 Feb – 3 Mar are free entry, but should be pre-booked, and tickets are £10 a day for Fri 4/ Sat 5, or £18 for both. Visit the website for information on how and where to book.

So news of next years Flatpack Festival has arrived, and it looks like there are a few treats in store. Along with their usual eclectic mix of film, animation, prize-winning documentaries, multi-media performance and interactive projections, they’re got a few novelties up their sleves.

The promise of a 22 seater vintage mobile cinema, a Friday night Drive-In, live scores and late night parties sounds like a pretty exciting prospect to me.

Personally i’m looking forward to catching this perfectly restored 1960′s Vintage Mobile Cinema which will be touring the city screening a range of shorts, home-movies and archive clips.

Following the success of this years Invisible Cinema tour of original 1930s art deco Odeons, 2011 will uncover more of Birmingham’s finest cinema heritage, including ex-picturehouses and forgotten celluloid landmarks. They also have an exhibition of images from disused cinemas planned.

Here’s a few other things they’ve got lined up;

Prostitute – on the eve of its re-release, Tony Garnett revisits his 1980 drama Prostitute, partly shot in Balsall Heath, a few years before community action shut down the local red light district.

Loft in Translation – screenings in partnership with MACE’s Full Circle project, which encourages people to retrieve home-movies from their attics.

Archive Revival - Artists and filmmakers who appropriate and repurpose archive material including work by Thom Andersen, Duncan Campbell and Peter Tscherkassky.

Other confirmations – 1992 video diary In Bed With Chris Needham, a vivid snapshot of an adolescent metalhead in Loughborough; the UK premiere of Shadow Shows, an experiment in surreal horror created by Pram and Film Ficciones; and Every Minute Always, an immersive sound piece using headsets in a cinema, inspired by Brief Encounter.

The full programme will be announced in February 2011, so keep an eye on their website and blog for more updates.

Throughout the week of 22 – 27 March 2011, Birmingham will be treated to an eclectic programme of film and performance from Flatpack Festival and Fierce Festival, who’ve announced that they’ll be sharing dates next year.

Flatpack’s fifth festival will celebrate and take film to unexpected places; where new film fraternises with silent cinema and archives are re-imagined. Expect live soundtracks, workshops, installations, offbeat family screenings and a vintage mobile cinema which will roam across the city.

Fierce Festival returns after two years and the appointment of new Artistic Directors Laura McDermott and Harun Morrison.  True to tradition, spectacular projects and public interventions will collide with the kind of agenda setting performances and wild parties on which the festival’s ten-year reputation rests.

The full line up for each of the festivals is expected in February 2011, so keep an eye on their websites over the next few months, www.flatpackfestival.org / www.wearefierce.org

Capital‘s first Festival of New Writing is taking place at The Old Joint Stock between 22 – 27 November, bringing writers, actors and theatre makers together to celebrate developing work.

The festival will use the current political climate as a backdrop, offering an informal platform for participants to explore new work, ideas and audiences. They have also launched a competition asking ‘What’s your take on Cameron’s “Big Society”? Have you been affected by any of the issues raised?’, urging playwrights to create small plays about a big society.

To enter, take a look at the full details, and send your entry to catherine@capitalplays.co.uk by 5pm on Friday 12th November 2010.

For further information on events happening throughout the Festival, visit the Capital website.

Birmingham’s festival of queer culture – Shout – is taking place from 4 – 23 November, with a wide range of events happening across the city in exploration and celebration of LBGT communities and individuals.

Visibility and Invisibility are major themes of this year’s festival providing opportunities to increase the visibility of the LGBT community within the city and to make arts and culture a more visible part of our own lives.

But the festival themes also enable us to ask challenging questions about the invisibility of some sections of our own community in particular those who are old, have a disability or are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

The launch weekend is being held at mac on 4 – 7 November, hosting three theatre performances and a documentary screening. The first night kicks off at 6.30pm in the Terrace Gallery at mac, and will showcase live performances, interventions and the premiere of new work by artist, Qasim Riza Shaheen, which will be proceeded by an 8 week residency.

The festival will continue to present events in visual arts, film, live performance, comedy, artist talks, research and social events. For a full run down of what’s on, take a look at the Shout website, where you can also purchase tickets and find out more about associated artists and venues.

That title should perhaps be capitalised, but I’m not sure whether it’s a Proper Thing or just a loose kinda ‘it’s complicated‘ thing*.

Anyway, I’ve had an invite to the launch of a publication celebrating the ‘vitality, innovation and diversity’ of this group that comprises:

• Bass Festival
• Birmingham Book Festival
• Birmingham International Jazz and Blues Festival
• Fierce Festival
• Flatpack Festival
• Rhubarb Rhubarb
• Supersonic Festival

[* not sure what I'm implying here]

**UPDATE**

Ah, it is a Proper Thing, I’ve found a blog post about it and a picture too:

We’ve never had a caption competition on CiB as far as I can remember. Just a thought…

**Another UPDATE**

Ask and you shall receive – this was submitted to the CiB email address:

Splendid.

The programme of events for this years Birmingham Book Festival has been announced

Taking place from 5 – 21 October, the festival welcomes writers of all kinds, from journalists to novelists, and hosts a variety of events including workshops, lectures and the Fringe Festival. A few highlights include:

Novelists Jonathan Coe and David Nicholls, who also writes for television will be at the Conservatoire on 7 October at 7.15pm.

Join Jenny Eclair for ‘Chin Up Britain!’ at the Library Theatre on 14 October at 6.45pm, where the comedian and novelist will bring helpful and hilarious tips for austere living.

Award winning journalist Fatima Bhutto will be speaking about Songs of Sweat Blood and Sword, her memoir of growing up in Pakistan’s ruling dynasty, at the Conservatoire on 14 October at 8pm.

Novelist and journalist Lionel Shriver will be at the Conservatoire on 19 October to talk about her latest book So Much For That, at 7.15pm.

The Fringe Festival, in association with Birmingham Libraries, is part of a free wider programme which runs through Autumn. Together the Fringe Lounge will host some of the events during the Birmingham Book Festival.

Taking place at the Conservatoire on 5 October at 7.45pm, the Festival Lecture will ask ‘ What is a City’s Culture’, along with the discussion on Birmingham’s own ‘culture’.

Ikon are also joining in, with a workshop in Hitchcock’s Hallway installation.

You can download the full programme or visit their website for all of the events. Booking can also be done online or by calling 0121 303 2323

The British Science Festival has been taking place in Birmingham this week. Based around Aston University, the festival has brought a whole host of seminars, workshops and activities to make our brains ache, along with a chance to show that scientists can play just as hard as they work. Starting with this flash mob of dancing lab coats…

Already there has been plenty of interesting topics at the festival, including why exercise won’t cure obesity, how lasers are being used to explore the dark side of space, why finding love means loosing two of your best friends, and the preparation for an imminent British earthquake. The New Optimists also had a few events to coincide with the festival, including their book launch, and a panel event at Aston University.

But if you’ve been stuck at work all week, you can still catch plenty of things to do at the weekend, take a look at the online programme in full, where you can also filter out which events are suitable for your level of science knowledge and interests.

The line-ups for the individual days are up. Brumcast’s Little Chris is doing a three-part podcasty preview with episode 1 online here and there’s a Supersonic Spotify playlist too.

Volunteers are needed too – 12 hours work will get you a weekend wristband (over 18′s only). They’re also after any professional standard photographers who’d like to help with documenting the festival to get in touch. Info about both opportunities here.

The Black International Film Festival 2010 takes place October 25-31.

Now in its fourth year of existence and continues to be a film festival with a difference, incorporating music, live arts and education providing platforms for practitioners and film makers to exhibit their creative talents.

The deadline for festival submissions is 24 September, and is open to short films, first features, documentaries and music videos. All selected films will be entered into the BIF Festival competition, where the winners will be announced at the Music Video & Screen Awards on 30 October, held this year at Birmingham International Convention Centre.

Tickets are also on sale for the Music Video & Screen Awards, to book call 07050 206 055

Further events are still to be announced, so check back to the BIF Festival website nearer that time. If you fancy getting involved, they’re also looking for volunteers, email volunteers@Vtelevision.co.uk if you’re interested.

Cooler than your average comic book convention, this years British International Comic Show 2010 is being held at Thinktank Millennium Point on 16 & 17 October.

So far they have a whole bunch of comic legends announced as guests for the weekend, and are open to submissions for this years Portfolio Review.

This is your chance to show your stuff to top commissioning editors in the field, in previous years aspiring artists have been snapped up by the likes of DC, Panini and Warner Bros at BICS, going on to launch careers as professional comics artists.

There are still more events to be announced, so check their website for updates.

Tickets are now on sale, with concessions for the kids, available as either full weekend or single day passes.

Off The Cuff is a new festival happening at The Flapper from 23 to 25 July.

(Spotted via Blue Whale Blog)