Flatpack Festival 2010
23 - 28 March
Taking film to an eclectic array of unexpected spaces and showcasing eye-popping technological tomfoolery, Flatpack Festival 2010 offers a platform for new filmmakers and moving image creativity along with a programme of cult classics re-imagined, silent cinema re-scored, and archive material re-invented.
Special Events Include:
- The opening film, F.W. Murnau’s 1927 marvel Sunrise, presented at St Martin’s Church in the Bullring with a new score by acclaimed jazz musicians Alcyona Mick and Robin Fincker.
- French artist Julien Maire plays with technology to create bewitching optical illusions. Working from Birmingham library, Maire will make text appear with his fingertips, and presents a rare performance of his piece Diapositives using modified slide-projectors.
- Dublin collective Synth Eastwood are doing a mini-residency in Birmingham, building up to a warehouse event blurring the boundaries between gallery and club. Expect an eye-opening stew of graphics, installations, music and performance. Live guests include Clark (Warp), AV duo Gangpol and Mit and youtube provocateur Hugh Cooney.
- This year’s Flatpack ‘patron saint’ is Oscar Deutsch, the son of a Birmingham scrap metal merchant who built his first Odeon cinema 80 years ago and went on to bring art deco glamour to high streets across the UK. Flatpack doffs its cap to the great man with bus-tours to landmark Odeon buildings, classic matinees and an exploration of Birmingham’s cultural scene in the 30s with writer David Lodge.
- Ghost Box present the Sunday finale of haunted electronica, spooky 70s telly and cult soundtracks at the Belbury Youth Club.
Films Include:
- Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (dir: Werner Herzog) – Herzog and Nicolas Cage take the action-movie in unexpected new directions.
- Dogs in Space (dir: Richard Lowenstein) - UK premiere of restored Australian cult classic, featuring Michael Hutchence. Accompanied by a new film from the same director about Melbourne's Eighties post-punk scene.
- The Cameraman (dir: Buster Keaton) - with live piano accompaniment.
- A screening of John Waters trash classic Pink Flamingos starring Queen of Celluloid Divine, accompanied by the UK premiere of the Waters-inspired BOY by Ssion.
- Puppet films of all shapes and sizes, including work by young Swedish talent Johannes Nyholm and classic shorts from Jiri Trnka and Georges Pal.
- Best Worst Movie – At last it can be told! The true story behind the atrocious horror film Troll 2, and how it was embraced as a cult classic.
- Colour Box - Flatpack’s family film strand takes a peek behind the scenes of the ingenious CBBC series with The Making of Ooglies, brings a classic Irish text to life with Brendan and the Secret of Kells (dir: Tomm Moore), and brings Dr Seuss’s insane vision to the big screen with the frighteningly fun musical The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T (dir: Roy Rowland).
The full screening programme and more special events will be announced very soon. Keep checking the Flatpack website for more information
Flatpack Festival at Ikon Eastside
Once again, Ikon is pleased to be working with Flatpack Festival to present a series of events at Ikon Eastside.
Highlights at Ikon Eastside include the UK premier of Monument, which tells the story of post-minimalist artists Dan Graham, Robert Smithson and Gordon Matta-Clark, who wander the New Jersey suburbs revisiting old haunts.
Birmingham’s Eastside district – the urban, post-industrial area east of the city centre – is now home to communities of artists and creative enterprises including Ikon Eastside. Visit the We Are Eastside blog at www.weareeastside.com
More information and full listings for Flatpack Festival at Ikon Eastside are here...
Flatpack at Ikon Eastside 2010 (.pdf 60 KB)