Make it New John by Duncan Campbell

Flatpack Festival consists of five days of cinematic wonders in various venues spread across Birmingham city. From mobile cinema to bunker installations and shadow shows, this years programme of events looks even greater than previous years.

This years programme sees Animate Projects and Flatpack Festival present a screening of experimental film Make It New John, followed by artist Duncan Campbell in conversation with curator Anna Douglas. Best known for its starring role in Back to the Future, the DeLorean DMC-12 is an enduring symbol of brash 80s optimism. Its designer John DeLorean had risen through the ranks at General Motors, and when he left to set up his own company he persuaded the British government to help bankroll a new factory on the outskirts of Belfast with a promise to bring prosperity and unity to the area. It all turned out very differently. In a story which rings plenty of contemporary bells, Make It New John stirs together 50s surf tunes, 80s news reports and scripted reconstructions to explore the mechanics of selling a dream. Make it New John and Duncan Campbell will be at Ikon East from 15:00 – 16:50 Sat 26th March.

Other events APEngine highlights of Flatpack Festival are:

Pixel Visions at Ikon Eastside. Including artists’ John Whitney whose early films were made using a modified analog computer, originally used to control anti-aircraft guns in the war, then at IBM he worked by directly filming his computer console. Lillian Schwartz whose work can be more chaotic, notably the mixed-media meltdown of Pixillation (1971), while Larry Cuba achieves ethereal effects by synchronising dots of light with a Japanese flute in 3/78 (1978) and Allures (1961) by Jordan Belson. This is followed by a half-hour performance from Scree, an experimental audio-visual project investigating the properties of feedback loops and chaotic systems.

Mind Bombs at The Electric. Morphing, pulsating psychedelia seems to be back in a big way. Young animators have picked up the gauntlet from Bruce Bickford (see Flatpack 4) and Pink Floyd visuals, and carefully melted that gauntlet with various 21^st century tools. Highlights include the award-winning Love and Theft (dir: Andreas Hykade), Anthony Francisco Schepperd’s amazing Blockhead promo and Umbra, a sci-fi parable from the prolific Malcolm Sutherland. Also nestling within Minds Bombs is a mini-retrospective for Mirai Mizue, whose dazzlingly detailed frame-filling ‘cell animation’ needs to be seen on the big screen. Includes a world premiere for his new short Tatamp.

To keep up to date with Flatpack’s news and festival recommendations visit their blog.

The festival runs from 23-27 March.

Flatpack Festival

Lengthening nights and falling leaves mean it’s time to start cranking up for Flatpack – Birmingham’s excellent season of spring screenings and events. It’s time now for filmmakers to submit their work for the 2011 call for submissions. The team will be spending their christmas holidays sifting through hundreds of shorts for the programme, make sure they see yours by submitting before the 10 December deadline.

Flatpack Festival 2010

Dates: 23rd – 28th March | Location: Birmingham, UK

Back for six days of cinematic adventures in venues across Birmingham, Flatpack 2010 is shaping up quite nicely. As ever the programme is a lucky dip of the best new features, animation, documentaries, shorts, kids movies and experimental film, along with live scores, bus-tours, workshops, special guests and loads of free screenings. There’s also a bit of a 1930s flavour to our archive strand in honour of ‘patron saint’ Oscar Deutsch, who created the Odeon cinema empire from nothing and brought modernist super-cinemas to Britain’s high streets.

Accompanying the festival is Unpacked, Flatpack Festival’s show and tell day which takes place on Friday 26 March at The Bond in Digbeth, Birmingham. Unpacked is a place where you get to inspect the cogs and gears behind some of the work on show in the Flatpack Festival programme. A range of filmmakers and artists will talk about how they make work, and how they go about getting it out into the world.

For further information and the full festival line-up, visit www.flatpackfestival.org.uk