At the time of writing, the world record for the 100 metres is 9.58 seconds and is held by the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. In March 2012 we will be screening 8 very short films at the Fierce Festival in Birmingham, where each film will be 9.58 seconds long

The screening at the MAC was recorded so you can watch the films all together here.

Antonio Roberts has blogged about how the distribution ride went.

And this one’s from the 48 Sheet screenprinting workshop with Jim O’Raw.

As part of Yto Barrada’s exhibition at Ikon and in collaboration with Birmingham’s independent Flatpack Festival, Slow Boat opens as a cinematheque for three weekends during May and June.

Full listings are coming soon but keep on eye on the Ikon website for info.

To Be Home: Stirchley is:

A short film produced as part of the on-going series To Be Home exploring the varied districts and communities of Birmingham, UK. This film looks at Stirchley, and invites participants to reflect upon how they make sense of the place they live in in terms of its past, present and future, and how important their community is to them

For more info on this, head to Geoff Broadway’s website, intentional.co.uk.

(Via Pete Ashton)

BYOB Birmingham is a one-night exhibition where artists are invited to bring their own digital projectors (the beamer of the title) and explore the medium of projection by creating a collaborative happening of moving light, sound and performance.

Antonio Roberts and Pete Ashton are organising things and it’ll be presented by VIVID as part of the Flatpack Festival on Friday 16 March 2012.

If you’d like to get involved then details are on the website.

Pretty sure this is the first .gif on CiB too.

Valentine’s Date: Lady Mail Man was written and directed by Dice Productions and filmed by 144. Second Home Studios provided some lights and that cafe is 6/8 Kafe.

The highlights for this year’s Flatpack Festival are being released bit by bit on their website. As ever, the few things I’ve heard of are very good and I’m fully prepared to believe that things I’ve never heard of will be just as wonderful.

What’s more, for the first time since I’ve been aware of the film festival (now in its 6th year), I’m probably going to be in Birmingham the weekend it’s happening. That means I should play slightly more attention than I usually do to the programme. Recommendations gratefully received.

It was a bit dark in there, so in case you can’t read it, it says:

Endowed by DANIEL DAY-LEWIS in memory of SIR MICHAEL BALCON

If you’re not sure of who Sir Michael was, then here’s his Wikipedia entry and here’s a good profile in the Birmingham Post by Roger Shannon.

A moving image exhibition project, an art gallery and a South Asian arts organisation make for quite a nice banding together, I think.

Tonight’s event celebrates Chinese New Year and Fake Magazine inform us that highlights will include:

On the Way to the Sea, directed by Tao Gu which was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival and Rotterdam Film Festival in 2011. They’ll also be work by China’s most famous director, Wong Kar-Wai as well as animation by Royal College of Art alumni, Sharon Liu and Setaka Mizuno. They’ll also be plum wine and a live traditional Chinese musical performance in the interval.

Each 90 second film will provide top tips for budding filmmakers looking at areas such as film structure, storyboarding, direction, camera techniques, editing and sound and lighting.

Stephen Spencer runs the Nice Monster studio and, although he’s moved down to London now, he roped in Louis Hudson, Ian Ravenscroft, Marc Silk, The Audio Suite and possibly others from around here.

Only the first one is up so far. To make sure you don’t miss the rest, subscribe to First Light’s YouTube channel.