Created in Birmingham

• Call for submissions – Interactive artwork for touch-screens
  Shiny tech stuff at The Public – “Submissions are now being accepted for TOUCHinteractive, UK’s first open submission exhibition specifically for digital-interactive artwork”
• Mark Harris
  “My work has a strong interest in systems and generative processes in art and music – I have developed a number of software applications which allow me to work with these processes in a live performance environment.”
• BBC News – Ten ‘most threatened’ buildings in England and Wales
  Includes the former Moseley School of Art, Moseley Road, Birmingham
• Birmingham newspaper war: Chris Bullivant closes the Birmingham Press and the Free Press and complains to Office of Fair Trading
  “Chris Bullivant says he fears “there is no future for independent publishing in the UK” after deciding to close The Birmingham Press and The Birmingham Free Press, admitting he cannot compete with ad rates he claims are being offered to estate agents by the Birmingham Mail.”
• Birmingham Post – Arts funding cuts will hit West Midlands hard, admits Ed Vaizey
  ‘Birmingham’s arts organisations will lose out to London when they are forced to bid for private investment to keep afloat amid Government cuts, Culture Minister Ed Vaizey said”
• Birmingham Mail – Brum lap-dancing clubs left out of pocket by Tories
  Question is, when referring to ‘one of Birmingham’s leading industries’ was John Lamb referring to Birmingham’s entertainment sector in general or lap-dancing in particular? I should probably be asking Jon Griffin that, but then I’m no journalist
• A&B Awards 2010 announced – Audiences Central
  People got dressed up and were given statues. Yay!
• Screen WM – Birmingham International Film Society wins Film Society of the Year Award
  Awarded at the annual conference of the British Federation of Film Societies
• contemporary monkey //
  A Birmingham-based online art critic who isn’t afraid to call something rubbish if he thinks it’s rubbish. That’s refreshing (says Cheerleader No. 1, despairing of himself)
• de papel
  I’m not sure who’s behind this blog, but CiB is in the blogroll (a list of ‘Super Blogs’, no less) so I’m giving a courteous nod back
• About DANCE BOX « Dancebox’s Blog
  “DANCE BOX is a dance network for young people who LOVE TO DANCE, in Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire”
• Radio Wildfire
  “Radio Wildfire broadcasts to you from the West Midlands of England. It concentrates on live literature, spoken word performances and oral art”
• William Gallagher
  A writer and photographer from Birmingham. Seems to write knowledgeably on Strictly too

Tonight Birmingham International Film Society will be celebrating 50 years of Nigerian Independence with a double bill of Nollywood films.

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

If you’re free this afternoon then VIVID is the place to be (or one of them, at least) from 2-6pm for Afternoon Delight, another Capsule birthday bash event:

Almost since day one, 7 Inch Cinema have been crouching in a corner at Capsule gigs with a video projector gaffa-taped to a stool showing films of hairy men shouting and small dogs in space. To celebrate the grannies’ remarkable and unexpected longevity we shall be gathering up some filmic highlights from the last decade and showing them at Vivid, alongside the customary mix of light snacks and word-searches

Outer Sight will be there too, bringing “disco sci-fi and noisy puppets”.

Also, if you’re in the area then pop into The Funeral of The Site which closes today.

While we’re on the topic of films, here’s the next few listings for the Birmingham International Film Society:

• 15 Dec – Conversations With My Gardener (6pm) and Le Pere Noel Est Une Ordure (7.45pm)
• 14 Jan – Chevolution (6pm) and Herostratus (7.45pm)
• хотелско обзавеждане21 Jan – Identity of the Soul (7pm)

The latter being a five-screen installation with HD plasma screens combining film, poetry, music and dance. Which sounds pretty cool.

All films are shown in the Library Theatre.

Well hit me with a spanner and call me Susan – the Birmingham International Film Society finally have a website (heck knows I for one have been waiting long enough). This pleases me, especially as it’s a pretty nice one too:

Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything, but an RSS feed for the news/events page would be nice (there’s just an RSS for the schedule at the mo).

(Via BiNS)

The Birmingham International Film Society (who continue to infuriate with no web presence save for a Facebook Group) have issued their October programme.  Click on the pics to make them legible.

Page 1:

Page 2:

PS – seriously, a free little website can be set up in no time at all.  I set up the blog for the Birmingham Social Media Cafe in 5 minutes (well, an hour once I’d fiddled with the formatting) and can do something similar for you if you bribe me with a coffee or two.  Or visit Pete Ashton in Rootys between 4-6pm on a Thursday.