1ST FLATPACK FESTIVAL
Birmingham, 19-22 January 2006
Venues: Electric cinema; Mac cinema; IMAX; the Sunflower Lounge; the Rainbow pub; 22 Green Street; Vivid; Scruffy Murphy's.
Programme included:
WONDERLAND no.3
A skewed tribute to the Wonderland filmshows of Black Country fairground showman Pat Collins, at the Electric Cinema. Featured the UK premiere of Portland, Oregon’s Vladmaster experience (100 viewmasters going ‘ker-chunk’ in unison); a selection of films from the BFI’s Mitchell and Kenyon collection with newly-commissioned live accompaniment by The Destroyers; Bristol’s versatile one-man-band Manyfingers; and the ever-popular Telly Savalas Looks at Birmingham.
UNPACKED
A day of informal discussion covering areas like the joy of limitations, archive re-use and new forms of distribution. Guests included Vladimir, Plexifilm, BBC Creative Archive, Halloween’s Kate Taylor and Vicki Bennett (People Like Us).
METAL RETURNS TO BIRMINGHAM
Another UK premiere, for Canadian documentary Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey. The screening at the IMAX was followed by full-throttle metal karaoke at Scruffy Murphy’s. Other music documentaries included Screaming Masterpiece, Mike Andrawis’ Tresor Berlin and a portrait of Latino Morrissey fans, Is It Really So Strange?
AN AFTERNOON WITH HENRY JACOBS
A long-overdue retrospective for this tirelessly inventive Californian sound artist, whose exotic CV includes early surround-sound experiments in the San Francisco Planetarium, directing dance shows for Mexico’s first TV station and a cameo in George Lucas’ first film. As well as his legendary 1971 series The Fine Art of Goofing Off, this event included a tribute by fellow eartoonist Peter Blegvad and a specially-made film about Jacobs with the man himself philosophising from his hot-tub.
ANIMATION GALORE
With previews of Neil Gaiman’s Mirrormask, Estonian oddity Frank and Wendy and a shedload of fantastic shorts including work by Don Hertzfeldt, Bob Sabiston and Run Wrake (whose Rabbit was the unofficial Film of the Festival). Also a great talk by Esther Leslie on the links between 30s Disney and the avant-garde.
…AND PLENTY MORE
Including Matt Hulse’s Audible Picture Show, a wake for Kodachrome 40, latenight horror, a launch for the Liars dvd and sonic fun and games with Modulate.
Some feedback:
Press
“An outcrop of the regular nights of shorts and music held at the Rainbow pub in Digbeth by enterprising cineastes 7 Inch Cinema, this debut mini-fest offers an eclectic weekend of shorts, animation, documentaries, features, talks and live events.” - The Birmingham Post
“Hard to imagine this being anything other than fun.” - The Guardian Guide
“A plethora of strange and wonderful performances” - Fused magazine
"A cornucopia of aural and visual oddities" - Metro
Guests
“Some amazing work screened and I made some really useful contacts … The programme was very well thought out and your evident enthusiasm as organisers really shone through.”
“Thanks for inviting me. I really enjoyed myself. The highlights were the Vladmaster which I thought was wonderful, the Destroyers and the Bollywood film. I was also amazed at the audience response at the Rainbow. Everyone got up to watch the films!”
“This festival left me totally reinvigorated for what a film festival can be. Excuse me if I spiral off into hyperbole, but the programme, the people and style of fest just don't seem to fit in with the way that everything else seems so hyper-defined and funding-box-ticking, it was just programmed really imaginatively and diversely. It felt instinctive and well informed.”
“I wish you all the best with Flatpack. Of the festivals I’ve been to, it’s one of my favourites.”
Audience
“I thought you put a fantastic programme together and was greatly impressed at the hard work it must have taken.”
“I wanted to thank you for a blissful Sunday afternoon... [7 inch cinema] are the only people programming cinema the way I would like to see it go. Both in terms of the programming content and the varied approaches to screenings your festival employed. I've only been to a few of your evenings in Digbeth (I live in Leamington and don't drive, so it's not easy for me to get back and forth to Birmingham), but every time you do something it seems wonderful. Please don't stop.”
“Just wanted to drop you a line to congratulate you on the success of the flatpack festival. I tried to attend as many events as i could and had a great time. My personal highlight was the vladmaster + destroyers show. I met so many lovely and inspiring people over the weekend. I'm filled with ideas and inspiration to carry on making short films. I wish I had submitted one of my films for screening. I hope it was the first of many flatpack festivals.”
“Really great to be walking across town and bumping into people going from one event to the next, or hanging out in bars waiting – just fantastic.”
“Last night I went to the screening of “Tresor Berlin” (after a small panic that it had sold out!). I can’t tell you how much I appreciated it. I’m a massive techno fan and always wanted to go to Tresor but never got the chance…there were parts that made the hair on the back of neck stand up. Anyways, much respect to all at 7 inch and thanks again for giving folks a chance to see something different.”
