The festival will be packed full of international shorts, a selection of films from Oska Bright, themed discussions and archived films, in the UK’s first celebration of disability and film.
The Public and mac will also be screening the BBC’s feature length film ‘Raspberry Ripple’, while Light House will be hosting a directors workshop in association with Film Nation.
Entry to all events is free. For more information on events and screenings, take a look at the full rundown over at the list of venues.
The film, starring local talent Rob Leetham alongside ex-Coronation Street star Adam Rickitt, is a surreal comedy about an angry wedding videographer disillusioned with life. Just when Pete thinks that his life can’t get any worse everything is turned upside down when he is abducted by aliens.
A Q&A session with the director will follow the screening, to attend email info@lighthouse.co.uk or call 01902 716055
On 20 November mac and The New Black, supported by Punch, will be hosting a screening of A Slice of Fela, based on the life and music of legendary Afrobeat musician and social political icon Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
The screening is part of the 50th anniversary of Nigerian independence, and will feature excerpts from various documentaries and recorded concerts.
A Q&A panel will follow the screening, with Rikki Stein, Fela’s long-time manager, artist Lemi Ghariokwu, who designed Fela’s album sleeves, former editor of Black Music and Jazz Chris May and personal friend of Fela, JK, will share their memories of the man and his music.
The celebrations start at 4.30pm, with a DJ in Bridges Café Bar from 6pm after the screening.
To book your tickets, call mac on 0121 446 3232 or via the website.
After exhibiting his photography at Hereford Photography Festival in 2004, Wang Qingsong has been invited back for the first UK screening of his video work. TROVE will be presenting his two films, 123456 Cuts and Ironman.
123456 Cuts and Ironman show remarkable restraint in terms of cast and scale of production. They demonstrate the more personal, more bodily, effects of excess: the bloody deconstruction of living flesh into meat and pulp.
The preview is on tonight (12 November) at 6-8pm, and is open 13 November at 6-8pm at TROVE Newhall Square, 144 Newhall Street.
International Project Space have launched a new programme of moving-image exhibitions beginning on 10 November and running through until 17 December. Curated by a selection of three invited curators, each has proposed a programme that draws on aspects of their current research.
ITWAN: curated by Jay Sanders
10 – 20 November (Opening reception 10 November)
a film document of an evening performance event at New York’s Sculpture Center collectively titled Inchoative Listening & Centerless Portrayal, featuring artists and musicians including Yuji Agematsu, Mother Earth, Tom Kovachevich, Tom Thayer and Circuit Des Yeux.
CRIPPLED SYMMETRY: curated by Christoph Gallois
24 November – 4 December (Opening reception 24 November)
Crippled Symmetry, borrows its title from a text by composer Morton Feldman in which he draws parallels between the form of his own musical approach and the dissymmetry found in woven carpets from the Middle East in which complex arrangements of space unfold.
EXODUS: curated by David Bussel
8 – 17 December (Opening reception 8 December)
Exodus brings together works by several artists and collectives who ‘investigate the meanings of and relations between (artistic) labour, thought and praxis.’
The Spotted Dog in Digbeth will be screening ‘Dawn’ by local filmmaker Lizzy Piffany on Thursday 4 November at 8pm.
Lizzy says;
Dawn is my Dorothy journey: the story of my adventure through danger and disappointment to realise my own magic, and find my way forwards to a new understanding of “home”.
This is taking place tonight, at Sound Bar from 6pm. The Halloween Monster Movie Challenge gave filmmakers the task of producing a 3-10 minute horror film on a tight budget, with the condition that they must include some form of monster.
They’ve got Darrell Buxton (cult horror film historian) and Owen Tooth (Midlands based award winning filmmaker) in to judge, and will be screening entries from around the country, around with a bit of live music and fancy dress.
The Union Black Film Festival is the UK’s first region specific film festival, celebrating Black British cinema based in central Birmingham, and is taking place from Thursday 14 – Sunday 17 October.
The festival will bring panel discussions, debates, events and film screenings. From commercial hits, to classics, here’s what’s on offer;
16 October – Precious (2009), 11am at Odeon Cinema, New St.
17 October – The Princess and the Frog (2009), 1.30pm at mac, which will include mask making and story telling as part of the festival’s family morning.
14 October – Mirror Mirror; Reflections of Black Women in the Media, 7pm at The Custard Factory. The evening will welcome a panel of leading black women within British media to discuss whether current images of scantily clad black women to victims of gang violence are having a negative impact on the self image and self-esteem of young black girls. A short documentary by a group of Birmingham based teen girls will follow the debate, focusing on this topic.
15 October – Glorious Technicolour, 7pm at The Custard Factory. This event will examine the reasons why black people still remain under-represented both in front of and behind the camera in Britain’s media industry. For all the regions film makers this also provides an opportunity to ask those already established how best to get their work funded and/or commissioned.
At 6.15pm Welcome to Nollywood will be screened, followed by a Q&A with special guest, Nollywood actress Chinelo Ndigwe. Then screening at 8pm is Thunderbolt, directed by Tunde Kelani.
Coming up there are more international film treats in the Sept/Oct programme;
Thursday 30 September: The Girl on the Train (Dir. André Téchiné, France) at 6pm / Storm (Dir. Hans-Christian Schmid, Germany) at 8pm.
Monday 4 October: Ivul (Dir. Andrew Kötting, France) at 6pm / A Room and a Half (Dir. Andrey Khrzhanovskiy, Russia) at 8pm.
Birmingham International Film Society screenings are held at Library Theatre. Tickets for all screenings are £3.50/ £2.50 (concessions), and for double bill screenings are £6/ £4 (concessions). Book online and by calling 0121 303 2323
The issue of local TV has cropped up again recently.
A couple of weeks back Will Perrin put some thoughts down, responding to government plans to encourage the development of up to twenty new local TV stations by 2015. The general gist of his post (although I’d encourage you to read it) was that there’s no need, it won’t work and, besides, the web would do the job better.
Nick Booth has built on this and claims that Birmingham’s informal, fledgling network of local, mainly volunteer-led news websites shows that people are already delivering the kind of activity Jeremy Hunt says he wants to encourage using TV stations (see Nick’s post for details).
My generally unconsidered view on this is that establishing a local TV station wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing – if someone (and I think City TV are still looking to get involved) can make the finances stack up and run something that doesn’t depend on handouts then great. It just doesn’t seem to be a particularly forward-thinking thing to spend public cash on.
If money/time/effort/attention/whatever is going to be spent on local media, I’d rather it was spent on getting people using the web and using it better – helping them access local information and publishing it themselves. There’s no reason video can’t be part of that – see I Am Birmingham for an example of someone using a website with a free template and a YouTube account to do regular-ish video content.
Also in the web’s favour – costs and barriers to entry are lower and the skills required are more readily transferrable. It’s also relevant to the government’s current strategy of closing down public services and replacing them with websites (Jobcentre Plus, Business Link and so on).
The whole ‘more TV by 2015′ thing bothers me too. 2015 is five years off. Bear in mid that YouTube is only five years old and you get a sense of how much things could change in the intervening years.
Anyway, I feel I’m starting to edge slightly further away from CiB-land now. If you want to get involved in the debate then see what people are saying on Will and Nick‘s posts.
When I was 17, a considerable time ago, I wrote a short story which I was very proud of and equally pleased with. It consisted of just a handful of sentences/paragraphs, but “artistically” it was personally satisfying. I have always remembered this story in great detail, and in many ways consider it as the most authentic thing I have ever created
Paul Busst, thanks to some friendly coercion via Facebook, is now planning to make that story into a short film. The 43RPM Productions blog is:
A record of making a short film with no previous experience
Hi8us Midlands will be hosting a series of free workshops for 14-19 year olds in association with the Film Nation: Shorts competition.
The workshops will give young film-makers the chance to meet professional film-makers and acquire new skills in film-making techniques using the latest state-of-the-art Panasonic equipment.
Film Nation: Shorts was launched by eminent film producer Lord David Putnam and actors Nicholas Hoult and Georgia Groome at BAFTA in London and invites 14-25 year olds to create short films that celebrate the values of the Olympic and Paralympic Games: respect, courage, excellence, friendship, equality, determination and inspiration.
The workshops will be held on 11th, 12th, 17th, 18th and 19th August from 10am to 4pm at The Bond and participants should be able to attend all dates.
Workshops for the 19-25′s will be popping up across the country, so check back to the Film Nation site if you’re interested.
Submissions for the first round of the competition are open until 1 October 2010.
Anyone interested in attending should contact Vicki at Hi8us on 0121 753 7700 or email vicki@hi8us.co.uk.
There was a film crew at the bottom of my road the other morning. I’m not sure what they were filming (it was Doctors last time) but there are a few crews filming in the city at the moment. Hustle‘s back and Helena Bonham Carter Carter keeps being spotted in Kings Heath minding her own business/filming Toast.
However, it’s the no-budget Turbulence that’s swamped my Twitter stream over the past couple of weeks:
TURBULENCE is a Musical Romantic Comedy. The project is a collaboration between the actors David Alwyn, Adrian Banks, Emma Devereaux, Connor Mills, Shay O’Driscoll and Sophie Waller (all recent graduates of Birmingham School of Acting) and BAFTA award winning producer/director team Natasha Carlish and Michael B Clifford. Other exciting collaborators in the project are Adam Regan and the Hare & Hounds, The Scholars and Katy Pryce
There’s no particular budget for the film but it’s great to see how many people have pitched in to get the thing filmed.
Things are being documented diligently on their blog, so have a browse through. There’s likely to be scope for getting involved if you fancy it – a Twitter search for #turbulencefilm should keep you up to date on that.
Ian and Pip from 7 Inch Cinema/Flatpack Festival have been nominated for The Hospital Club 100 which is:
a search for the most influential people in the creative and media industries, with the emphasis on current contribution and importance, not just the size of someone’s celebrity status, profile, bank balance, titles or past reputation
I’ve no idea what the award would mean but they say it’ll make their mums proud, which is good enough reason for me. Besides, Ian and Pip are good souls who do some good work. Speaking of which, they have some events coming up.
Trawling down the other nominees, I spotted Sue Collins in the ‘Art’ category. The blurb says this about her:
She has recently just completed a her first solo museum show at IKON in Birmingham, and in response was dubbed by the Mirror as the ‘worst artist in Britain’
