Created in Birmingham

There’s a big project (18 months, 17 artists, 138 performers – that kind of thing) that’s coming to a head this weekend, specifically between 6.30-9.30pm on Saturday 7 August at Retort House, 9 Gas Street:

The River project is a collaborative animated film based on a bespoke piece of contemporary dance

The event will be an exhibition featuring live music, dance and film. It’s a one-off, so don’t go thinking you’ll get a second chance to see this.

There’s a proper website that looks all brooding and impressive, but I’ve enjoyed browsing through the blog that talks about the impressive city centre venue (the first time it’s been used as an arts venue), the musicians and the many rehearsals.

Lots of goodness at the next 7 Inch Cinema event:

• Launch of Pram‘s DVD ‘Shadow Shows of the Phantascope’
• Airings of some of Pram’s inspirations
• Brian Duffy and Grandmaster Gareth playing choons

and in a more tradtional 7 Inch vein earlier in the evening there’ll be plenty of shorts including:

• Rachael (Rill) Marchant – ‘Untitled Actress’
• Brothers McLeod – ‘Codswallop’ (their new short)

It’s on Sunday 28 Sept at the Hare & Hounds, starting at 7pm, and by my reckoning £4 is a bargain for all that.  Here’s the flyer:

Having promised to mention this before, I nearly forgot.  This summer:

Friction Arts will be collaborating with their US partners, Touchable Stories on a unique, living history arts project, attempting to reveal the true voice of Digbeth, Birmingham

There’ll be an exhibition and a series of other events including meetings, talks and dinners.  The first such event will be ‘Mining For Gold – a master class in oral history and community engagement’ from 3pm to 8pm on 25 July.  Shannon Flattery (Touchable Stories) will talk about work in some of the ‘third world’ communities in the US and Sandra Hall (Friction Arts and recently consultant to the Dutch culture dept) will present her own approaches to working, and making art.

There’s more general info on the Friction Arts site and here’s the flyer for this particular event:

Also coming up at The Edge, although I’ve not seen any info anywhere yet, Scott from Film Ficciones and Matt from Pram will be hosting some underground film nights.  I think that’ll be on Saturday 26 July but if anyone has any further info then let me know.

Next weekend Capsule‘s festival of rock and electronic music – Supersonic – is taking place at the Custard Factory. In addition to planning that, Capsule recently took local acts Pram and the ZX Orchestra to Barcelona’s Sonar festival for a well-received showcase.

Frankie sat down with Jenny and Lisa to discuss DIY ethics, council funding, the city’s lack of suitable venues and this year’s Supersonic festival.

Capsule Interview from Created in Birmingham on Vimeo.

If you’re going then you might want to check the timetable for each day and see what talks and presentations have been announced.

If you’re not already going there might be a few e-tickets left, so if you want to see why people are flying in from around the world to visit this then get in quick.