City News

11 - 15 March 2009
Birmingham – various venues

7 Inch Cinema are excited to announce the return of Flatpack Festival, a celebration of eclectic, genre-bending cinema where the magic of early film rubs shoulders with the best new animation, graphics, and live music. Taking place over five days in March 2009, Flatpack plays out against the backdrop of Birmingham’s cinemas, warehouses, churches and bars and is set to attract over 5,000 admissions.

The launch event on 11 March in Birmingham Town Hall will pay tribute to the influential showman Waller Jeffs, an early pioneer of cinema in the UK. Between 1901 and 1912 Jeffs introduced the people of Birmingham to the delights of cinema through his screenings at the Curzon Hall, Suffolk Street. Light opera, military bands, live sound effects, and novelty acts such as ‘Unthan the Armless Wonder’ were presented alongside the films. His work will be brought together with live music from 15-piece gypsy folk band, The Destroyers. The event promises to capture the spirit of 1900s film culture, with the programme including key figures of early film such as George Méliès and Cecil Hepworth.

Other attractions at Flatpack 2009 include special guests David O’Reilly and Guy Sherwin; a programme exploring muralists and art in public spaces, including a special screening of Megunica, Lorenzo Fonda’s documentary about Italian street artist, Blu; and Unpacked - two days of discussions and demos where filmmakers and artists explore creative and practical issues around their work. There will be sessions on archive reuse, intellectual property, live cinema, and more.

For younger cinema aficionados, The Travelling Picture Show is a programme of children’s matinees and workshops, concentrating on the lesser known and the unusual, including Paper Cinema, a unique performance using paper cut-outs to create a film before your eyes.

During the festival, an installation trail designed by students and recent graduates from Birmingham Institute of Art and Design at Birmingham City University will feature in a number of shop windows around Birmingham city centre. Festival visitors will be able to navigate their way around the trail, inspired by pre- and early cinema, using the Flatpack programme.

The festival offers the best in new animation, short film, music documentaries and independent features, in venues ranging from Floodgate Kino, a warehouse in Birmingham’s Eastside district which will be transformed into a picturehouse for the weekend, to art project spaces IKON Eastside, Eastside Projects, The Edge and the Electric, the UK’s oldest working cinema, which will be celebrating its centenary in 2009.

Peter Buckingham, Head of Distribution and Exhibition at UK Film Council, said: “As viewing habits and distribution models change, film festivals have an increasingly important role to play as a gathering-point both physically and virtually. But they need to be innovative, flexible and attuned to their audience, and this is why there is huge potential in Flatpack’s approach. It has a really strong identity, and the range of venues and screening contexts means that it can reach people in many different ways. I really think the sky is the limit for this festival.”

The full programme will be announced in early February.