(Click image to enlarge)
Click 'Read More' for full text
Let’s start with a bold statement: Flatpack Film Festival is probably the coolest thing any ex-Warwick student has produced. Ever. Admittedly, the words “Warwick” and “cool” are rarely heard together in the same sentence, but after thoroughly racking my brains I have found absolutely nothing to compete. Even if there is something huge I have overlooked, its cool rating would have to be off the scale to have a hope of giving Flatpack a run for its money. For now the statement stands.
After graduating from Film Studies at Warwick, Ian Francis founded 7inch Cinema and began putting on eclectic film nights in pubs all over Birmingham.
7inch’s guiding motto states: “we are firm believers in the old-fashioned communal film experience.” It was this yearning for a more social cinema that eventually lead to the birth of Flatpack Festival.
Now in its sixth incarnation, Flatpack has always managed the delicate balancing act of showing off the freshest new films from all over the world, while also paying tribute to Birmingham’s local cinema history.
Leafing through the festival programme you are taken on a journey through the cool, sometimes passing through the weird, and often wheeling off into the realm of the wholly unexpected.
The festival seems to be able to shift gears effortlessly between cult classics and cutting edge animation and film.
Highlights include Four Horsemen, in which 23 thinkers, advisors, and Wall Street money-men attempt to explain the simple matter of how the world really works. All in just over an hour and a half.
The Bikermania strand includes Mod favourite Quadrophenia and seventies supernatural thriller Psychomania, about a gang of undead bikers who worship frogs and terrorise the innocent shoppers of Walton-on-Thames. You just couldn’t make it up.
The festival takes place in a range of interesting venues scattered about the city, including The Electric, the UK’s oldest working cinema, and the legendary Custard Factory, the festival’s base, in shabby chic Digbeth.
Bursting at the seems with off the wall delights, the expansive animation section has helped build Flatpack’s considerable reputation.
Boro in the Box tells the life story of Polish auteur Walerian Borowczyk, zigzagging between animation and live action, arthouse and porn. While Outer Sight is a ‘headlong plunge into Psychedelic Psynema obscuritanism.’ What that means when it’s at home is anyone’s guess...
Other treats include a canal boat cinema, a magic lantern show, and electronic music outfit Capsule providing psychedlic party action on Saturday night.
Simply, Flatpack is a festival like no other.
--------------------------------------
Various locations around Birmingham 14-18 March
No comments:
Post a Comment