Events

7 inch cinema

FlatPack Film Festival

19 - 22 January 2006

Venue: Various venues
www.7inch.org

FLATPACK FESTIVAL
19-22 January 2006
www.7inch.org.uk

Film, and then some.
As the January sales fade away, strange rumblings under Birmingham’s pavements herald the arrival of a ready-made revolution in film-going. Carefully assembled by the people at 7 inch cinema, the 1ST FLATPACK FESTIVAL aims to open eyes and set toes a-twitching across this fair land.

Offering an unholy mishmash of shorts, animation, features, music docs and live events, the Flatpack programme will bring together a host of up-and-coming folks along with hidden treats from the archives and a healthy dose of live music and audio-visual fun and games. Centre of operations is the Electric Cinema – a stone’s throw from New Street Station and one of the UK’s oldest working picturehouses, boasting a well-stocked bar, top-notch cake and sofa seating.

Highlights include:

AN AFTERNOON WITH HENRY JACOBS
A long-overdue UK retrospective for the legendary Californian sound artist, whose pioneering and very funny 50s radio work pointed the way for many audio experiments since. Includes a full screening of his mind-blowing 1971 TV show THE FINE ART OF GOOFING OFF.

NEW ANIMATION
Including bizarre Estonian satire FRANK AND WENDY, the latest hand-drawn opus from DON HERTZFELDT (four years in the making) and a shorts retrospective for BOB SABISTON (currently putting the finishing touches to Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly). Plus all manner of young turks coming through.

MUSIC DOCS
Smackbang in the birthplace of metal, the UK premiere of acclaimed new documentary METAL: A HEADBANGER’S JOURNEY. Other music docs include Icelandic hit SCREAMING MASTERPIECE and a new film about Berlin’s legendary TRESOR club.

NEW FEATURES
Including MIRRORMASK, the hotly anticipated feature debut of graphic novel legends Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman and Golden Globe-nominated South African thriller TSOTSI.

UNPACKED
Discussion day devoted to some of the folks who make a living from the crazy pictures in their head. Includes sessions on bedroom animation, new forms of distribution and the joys of limitations. Special guest is Vicki Bennett (PEOPLE LIKE US).

SHORTS GALORE
Dazzling homegrown and international work, including I’M BOBBY (heartfelt Bollywood remake using kids and paper cutouts), OPTICAL SOUND (a concert performed by 12 dot matrix printers) and Justin Edgar’s SPECIAL PEOPLE (community filmmaking gone wrong). Plus lots of shorts about dogs and trains.

SIDESHOW ANTICS
A Friday night variety show featuring the first-ever UK outing for Portland, Oregon’s VLADMASTER (simultaneous 3-D viewmaster experience), local klezmer stars THE DESTROYERS and Bristolian loop-pedal maestro MANYFINGERS.

KODACHROME WAKE
We bid a fond farewell to Kodak’s much-loved super 8 stock, recently pensioned off after 40 years of loyal service.

LIARS DVD LAUNCH
One of the first airings for Drum’s Not Dead, much-awaited CD/DVD from the Brooklyn art-punk combo featuring a selection of films by the band themselves.

THE AUDIBLE PICTURE SHOW
An ear-opening experiment in cinema without pictures…

Full programme online and on the streets from the end of December.
Prebooking for films/events at Electric and mac open from 9th January.
Write to info@7inch.org.uk to sign up for email updates.