Before driving up to Birmingham for the Flatpack Film Festival, I pored over the events calendar, watched numerous trailers, marked out the films on my iCal and staked out the venues on my phone maps; yet despite all the extensive itinerary prep, none of my expectations could have prepared me for the amazing experience that laid ahead.

On the first night, I checked into a hotel and then went to the first venue to check out the documentary, “Who is Bozo Texino.”  The outside of the building was modest, described simply with a sign that read, “Floodgate Kino.” Stepping inside, I was warmly greeted by the hospitable volunteers as I quickly took in the view.  The warehouse had been transformed into a chic venue, including a bar that served a variety of drinks and cakes. The furniture inside was luxurious, if not a touch homely.  A casual blend of filmmakers, students and cinephiles were in attendance, all intently discussing their common interest (which of course lied in cinema.)

When we had a chance to get our drinks, coffees and cakes, we made our way to the screening area to watch “Who is Bozo Texino.”  The film had thrown out all of the orthodox rules of documentary filmmaking, creating in its place an intense and powerful look at a group of hobos who had rejected society creating, instead, their own subculture. The film had managed to explore so much, discussing art, American culture, lifestyles and norms.  With that much information divulged, I was surprised to learn at the conclusion of the film, that only an hour had passed.

The following morning I attended an event called “Unpacked” which was held at the beautiful Fazeley Studio. The show brought together a range of filmmakers for an insightful

look at their work. I was truly swept away.  (The full, written review can be viewed here.)

That evening, I also went to “The Electric Cinema”, a small but beautiful space in the heart of Birmingham. They served hot drinks, alcohol and cakes which actually proved a pleasant transition from the fizzy drinks and sweets found in traditional theatres.  They had a modest screen with standard seats, as well as sofa seats nestled in the back of the theatre, again exuding a pleasant and intimate vibe. It was here that I viewed the film, “One Night in the City.” (The full review can be viewed here.)

Next on my agenda (on a Saturday morning) I returned to The Electric Cinema to watch the film, “Paper Cinema and Red Balloon”. I was first introduced to the directors behind, “Paper Cinema” at the event “Unpacked”, which gave me an insightful look into the history and techniques of paper animation.  I was equally entertained by the live performances that were in conjunction with the film.  The attendees were primarily composed of young children with their parents (the obvious target audience.)  However, as an adult, I was simply mesmerized by the performances.  It furthered my pleasure to also witness the young audience laughing and cheering exuberantly at the spectacle.

That scene was a stark contrast to the next film on my schedule for the night.  When I went to the theatre in South Birmingham College, I came into a space which housed an audience principally composed of teenagers and young adults. The film entitled, “Style Wars” was an entertaining and informative retrospective on New York graffiti writers from the 80s.  Then after that one, I also got to see “In A Dream.” I have to say, that this film was seriously one of the best I’ve ever seen. It’s not out in theaters until Spring, and I’m so grateful to Flatpack to have had the chance to watch this cinematic gem. (Read the full review here.)

Finally, the last film I watched at the festival was “Megunica” back at the Floodgate Kino.  As we all sat down to watch the film, some people were sitting on their seats drinking beer, some had got out of their seats to sit on the floor with their coffee, it felt less like a formal screening, and more like an intimate gathering of friends.  Whilst watching the final screening on my press itinerary, I thought about how much I would miss the festival.  Sure enough, as I went into my car and started the engine, I felt the slight pang of post-partum.

The Flatpack Festival had taken my breath away with its amazing venues and quite simply this event brought out the best of Birmingham.  The festival was diverse in that it had a great selection of inspiring films that not only covered a wide range of genres and mediums, but attracted an array of festival goers of all ages and divergent interests.

The festival proved that cinema is still a thriving and pure art form (against the grain of commercial boxoffice fares), and the curators presented an amazing library of films and that continued to exceed my expectations and push the cinematic envelope.  Far more than simply viewing great works, the festival was also a platform for the education and discourse of modern-day cinema, attracting film students, filmmakers and cinephiles alike. An overall standout event that should not be missed; if you haven’t made it out to this year’s festival, please look out for the Flatpack Film Festival of 2010!

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For more info on the festival, visit: “Flatpack Film Festival” official website.

For more Photos click here.

Unpacked, Flatpack’s titular “Show-and-Tell Day”, gives the audience a chance to discuss all the different aspect of a filmmakers’ work.  The event was split into four parts, the first showcased David O’Reilly. However jet-lagged the animator was, his presentation was brilliant. He began with a short introduction, displaying some of his early work as a concept artist, then showed segments of his feature lengths such as Son of Rambow.  He topped it all off with a 10-minute animation entitled, “Please say Something” (shown above) which won a Berlinale award.

As David began to discuss his methods of creating the animation, he unravelled the process behind his filmmaking. Essentially, he stripped down the animation process to its basics; choosing, instead, to find the simplest and quickest method to make an animation.  He is a purist at heart.   Expanding on this, he began to show us how he had set himself rules, such forgoing the “blurring effect,” choosing instead to pixelate the characters in the background to make the foreground bold.

The rules are based on David’s theory on authenticity.  David explained how realism is a science used to emulate the real world; whereas authenticity is creating a new world that is believable; a world with it’s own norms.  For example a sport simulator is aspiring to realism, whereas a film like “The Incredibles” is creating an cartoon world, but because everything follows the world’s rules, it’s believable (authentic).

He explained that when authenticity goes wrong it causes people to be pulled out of the film and remember the medium they are watching. This occurs a lot in mixed-medium, such as with CGI in movies, when people pull themselves out the plot and think about “how great the special effects are”; the ultimate goal in authenticity is to have people forget about the medium and be immersed in the film itself.

David put so much thought into his work, developed around profound theories,  whilst humbly reminding us that these are only his ideas.  It amazed me even more that the self-taught animator is only 23 years old–he clearly has a bright future ahead of him.

Then the filmmaker, Jim LeFevre presented next (he as well truly related to David’s sentiment about stripping the medium down to its basics.)  He showed us how he distilled his brand of animation; using only a turntable, a video camera and mini-figurines.   The evolved process looks like this clip below:

He discussed his technique, he had the video camera linked to a projector, with the turntable in front of the audience. As it began to spin, the animation started flowing and the audience was awed.

Next Nic Rawling, an illustrator shared with us his story about how the “Paper Cinema” came to be, demonstrating how he uses his cut-outs, an onstage camera and live music to create an ingenious live performance. He demonstrated techniques of zooming out, creating an effect of going through a key hole and moving over still images to create a sense of motion, but he kept stopping after demonstrating each effect. I wished I could see the whole show, luckily the next day I got that chance to see the Paper Cinema perform at the electric cinema.

Overall “Unpacked” proved to be an insightful event for both the cineaste and the casual cinephile.  A truly rare opportunity to engage in intimate conversations with up&coming filmmakers in one of the best moments of Birmingham’s Flatpack festival.

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For more info on the festival, visit: “Flatpack Film Festival” official website.

For more Photos click here.

David O’Reilly’s official website
Paper Cinema’s official website

When I sat down to watch One Night in the City at the electric cinema, I really didn’t know what to expect.  The Flatpack film festival had thrown me a cocktail of films of so far with a diverse range of genres and mediums. The only thing I knew about this film was it promised to be a “stop-motion-animated feature-length black comedy horror film.”

Jan Balej’s Czech horror is comprised of a series of intertwining shorts narratives which all takes place within the same finite world (much akin to the structure of films such as “Sin City” and “Pulp Fiction.”)

The film is set in Prague’s dimly lit streets, with dilapidated buildings and a creepy aura reminiscent of Tim Burton’s work–or actually more like its darker, twisted step-cousin.

During the film, you encounter a variety of misshapen low-lifes, eccentrics, freaks and mutants. I found that their demented appearance repulsed me in a manner common to horror; such as the ghost-like dog killer who lures in a puppy in order to cremate it alive and a hold a funeral service for it (or at least that is the first morbid impression). Yet when we spend more time with him, we see him dress-up as the crying family (in a hilarious dress), take photos, and sing hymns at the make-believe funeral service; only to realise he is merely a dog lover who means no harm, and is in actual fact in love with the pup’s owner.

The film explored the city’s folk, from a violinist busker so desperate to play well that he tears his own ear off, a tree man that shares a strong friendship to a fish to lonely man searching for love in all the wrong places. As the film introduced me to the city’s folk it had me fear them, only to laugh with them and ultimately understand and empathise with them; impressively it does this without using any discernible words throughout the film, only grunts and grumbles.

The film is a comedy, one of the funniest dark comedies I’ve seen in a long time. The humour is definitely fit for an adult audience, the cocaine snorter who also snorts ants, the hopeless romantic who’s so lonely that he hires escorts because he has no friends to show his art to. But although the humour is adult in nature, it manages somehow to remain heartfelt and even sweet at times.

The highlight for me was the drunkards who discover a genie who grants them their wildest desire, sending them on a giant tea-cup ride with oversized cigarettes, beer, shots, food and pornography.

This film, like many others I’ve had the good fortune of witnessing at the Flatpack Film festival manages to exceed my expectations. It seems these diligent festival curators of esoteric taste have managed  to unearth a library of underrated cinematic gems.

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For more info on the festival, visit: “Flatpack Film Festival” official website.

“One Night In The City” official website.

I sat down to watch the film, coffee in hand, prepared for an edgy, philosophical, plunge into the mind of Philadelphia’s prolific artist, Isaiah Zagar.  What I found, instead, was a film that I truly connected with like no other.

In the beginning of the film we are introduced to Isaiah and his beautiful mosaic murals that cover over 50,000 square feet of Philadelphia. Then the film begins with Isaiah’s narrative on his salad days as an artist, and from that point you had a sense that this would not be your typical film about art.  Moreover, the cinematography was equally as mesmerising as plot; panning over Isaiah’s stunning architectural art both inside and out.

Rather than being a standard biopic or a dreary journal of events, the film is a brutally honest piece on the quirky warm-hearted Isaiah alongside his one-in-a-million wife Julia and their beautiful family throughout the years.

Director Jeremiah Zagar never shies away from any aspect of his family’s life or history, delving into issues of mental illness, molestation, addiction, forgiveness, love and family. He lays his family bare allowing the audience to really build a connection, not based on just empathy or admiration, instead, a real sense of kinship.

I hadn’t even realised my own connection with Zagar’s family until I reached a pivotal point in the film where Isaiah’s marriage skates on thin ice.   Until then, I had never watched a movie praying for something to happen, like I did when I prayed silently for Isaiah’s family to stay together through all the emotional hangups.

I had plans to watch a few more movies and then drive back to London after the festival was over. However as surreal as it sounds, after the film, all I wanted to do was to see my family, my parents, my siblings.  I even strongly considered driving straight out of Birmingham, past London, straight to my parents house (which is basically driving from near the top of England right down to the south coast!)  The film had touched me that much!

Do you know how crazy that is? To watch a movie about strangers and then want to drive clear across country to see your parents. But hand on heart; that’s what this film did for me. The next morning I fruitlessly went online to buy the DVD, then to find the cinema times; like an addict I was trying to do anything I could to see this film again.  However I must wait; the film arrives in cinemas this spring, I cannot recommend this enough.

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For more info on the festival, visit: “Flatpack Film Festival” official website.

“In a Dream” official website.

With 1000 songs squeezed into its tiny frame and the voice over reading out the names of artist and songs (in 14 different languages), Apple has raised the bar again.

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http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/

The tunnel created by the bridge gave the illusion of entering through a time portal where you encountered a sleazy XXX strip bars (with real strippers), ripped nostalgic posters and even Mason’s Garage, complete with 1970’s American muscle cars and yellow cabs on your way to the entrance.

As the queue grew longer actors came out, as Newstand workers handing out newspaper like programes, rioters came out in protest against the masked vigilanties, NY police officers came out to try and keep the peace, a news anchor came out to get the scoop. As I began taking shaky shots on my phone I realised I should of brought a camera with me, because this event was clearly shaping up to be a lot more than I had expected.

All of the actors interacted with the us and each other, staying in character the whole night through; slowly drawing you into the world of the Watchmen until you forgot about London and what year it was. As the time ticked closer to the doors opening, the comic came to life right in front of our eyes; teens on top of a smashed up car standing alongside prostitutes marveling as Dr. Manhattan walked by, followed by scientists, as Ozymandias rode on top of a car and finally The Comedian smugly rolled up on top of a tank. The queue for the screening had become an interactive play right before our eyes.

The amount of detail inside was like something out of a Universal Studious show, the whole club had been transformed, into sets from the Comic. As we walked through we saw, amongst other things,  Ozymandias was there watching his multiple television sets all at once. There was the Gungan Diner, with the Minutemen all celebrating, a live band playing, waittresses on hand serving hotdogs, drinks and popcorn.

When everyone had a chance to soak up the atmosphere, grab their snacks and complimentary drinks, everyone was seated in the theatre room where illustrator Gibbons came out to present the movie.

After the movie the party continued, as the live bands played, the staff who were all actors remained in character flawlessly irrespective to what you asked of them. Though this format may not be suitable for every kind of film, it certainly gave that fourth dimension that no CGI could ever accomplish and certainly gave a more tangible  incentive to empathise with the protagonists of the movie. This maybe as biggest a step to the film-going experience since colour film – watch this space.

The new year of the Earth- Ox arrives in Tibet with the region under armed guard.
Last October Britain’s government had been the only one not to formerly recognise China’s sovereignty in Tibet, instead accepting de facto control. After discussion with Chinese diplomats, Britain, apparently ignorant of the importance of the issue to China and exiled Tibetans, tactlessly changed policy in a bland statement published on the internet.

The economic downturn has pushed Tibet further down the international agenda. Last week when Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, visited China she said that rights concerns should not be allowed to hinder co-operation between the two countries on issues such as the global economic crisis and climate change.

However last Wednesday’s release of an annual US state department report alleged that the attitude of the Chinese leadership to human rights worsened last year, with increased repressive policies in Tibet and the predominantly Muslim province of Xinjiang, and was restricting dissent and religious freedom in the two western regions. The report went on to say that, “The government’s human rights record remained poor and worsened in some areas,”. China has strongly rejected these criticisms of its human rights record, with state media describing the charges as “groundless, irresponsible and an interference in Chinese affairs”.

In what China deceivingly calls the “Tibet Autonomous Region”and in neighboring provinces, security had been intensified, foreigners had been kept out and Tibet had been close; to prepare for the 50th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule that led the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, into exile in India.

Yesterday residents and witnesses said a Tibetan monk protesting against Chinese rule was shot dead after he set himself on fire in the Tibetan-populated town of Aba, in China’s southwest, during a gathering of more than 1,000 monks. An echo of the bloody anti-Chinese riots in Lhasa that occurred last year, the 50 year long problem is something China must solve in order to move forwards.

China blames the problem on a “few reactionaries manipulated by foreign powers”, believing that a solution will be found upon the passing of main reactionary, the Dalai Lama.

However the Dalai Lama is Tibet’s greatest hope for salvation, unlike most of his followers in exiled populations and in Tibet itself, he accepts Chinese rule. The Dalai Lama only demands true “autonomy” and that his followers pursue their aims peacefully.

50 years has shown us that Tibet is an issue that cannot be solved by time alone, only through discussion until a solution is found, with the spiritual leader approaching 75, China may one day regret their rejection of the Dalai Lama’s moderating leadership.

TED annual conference brings together fascinating minds from around the world; challenging them to give the “talk of their lives” in 18 minutes.  In this video Juan Enriquez – one of the world’s leading authorities on the economic and political impacts of life sciences – discusses facinating advances in cell, tissue and robotic engineering and the “reboot” they will cause.

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For more on this year’s TED conference, visit: http://www.ted.com/

“British jobs for British workers” raises questions.
In 2008 it was predicted that Britain’s unemployment figures would increase continuously throughout 2009. Then two months into the year, official unemployment rate hit the roof. Experts forewarn a continuing rise well into 2010, as the recession deepens and the effects of the slowdown manifest itself.

On the 28th of January, hundreds of workers from the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire UK were on strike, they protested against the presence of foreign workers hired to expand the refinery.

The French oil firm that owns the refinery, Total, had subcontracted IREM, an Italian company, that shipped about 100 Italian and Portuguese workers to the Lincolnshire plant.

Protesters were on shaky ground as the European Union open market laws gave EU citizens the freedom to work in any EU member state. Whilst many claimed that the subcontracted foreign work force has undercut local wages and conditions, officials from Unite – Britain’s biggest union – are not willing to make direct accusations.

Sympathy strikes have developed since February 4^th, and now 22 other sites had been affected.  The next day, however, the case was resolved as Total assured new jobs for around 100 Brit workers. As one dispute was resolved another flared up amongst construction workers, who were demonstrating outside London offices, rejecting the appointment of foreign subcontractors in Staythorpe power station in Nottinghamshire.

Solutions may be found case-by-case, however, the underlining tension between trade openness and protection will endure, as unions fret that foreign contractors will freeze out local workers. Conservatives argue that Gordon Brown’s pledge in 2007 of, “British jobs for British workers,” unearthed a deep vein of nativism. The protesters echoed this pledge with an air of xenophobia that reverberated from Britain’s far right fringe.

With the EU open market legally allowing EU member to work in any member state, and more Britons being “posted” abroad in the EU than Europeans are in Britain. What right does Britain have to support and take advantage of open markets, whilst demanding that it’s workers have superiority over foreign workers from the EU?

You may argue that foreign contract workers may lead to money leaving the British economy, however Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, gave warning that protecting the “British worker” would turn “recession into depression”.

As British citizens, we must be wary not to allow compassion and tolerance to be forgotten in times of financial strife; lest political extremes thrive and take over.

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Image source: theglobeandmail.com

Anticipating the return of Street Fighter
When people think back to the nostalgic games they grew up with, Street Fighter II is there more often than not amongst the usual suspects. At the forefront of the UK golden era of arcade gaming, Street Fighter II machines were guzzling pocket money and forging childhood memories all across the country–well before they invaded living room televisions with the likes of Super Nintendo and Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) cartridges.

With the Street Fighter franchise being one year older than myself, I couldn’t claim to be there from the start.  However, when I was six, a friend called my brother and me over to play his brand-new game, Street Fighter II Turbo. Being the youngest I was the worst at it, nevertheless I couldn’t put it down.

Three months later the four of us had set up a little tournament, fighting head to head with each other.  Finally, by that point, I had somehow ended in first place. I remembered thinking, “I am the best at Street Fighter! The best!” Needless to say, I was hooked.

With many of the early Street Fighter II players well into their late-twenties or early thirties the hype surrounding Street Fighter IV’s release is fueled primarily by the nostalgia factor. While the game may have a different aesthetic, the gameplay and character roster reveal a return to the fundamentals of Street Fighter II (the franchise’s hallmark).

With die hard fans waiting years for the highly anticipated sequel, February’s release will have the kidults amongst us performing rusty Hadoukens and Sonic Booms all month long.

Release Dates:
US February 17, 2009
Europe February 20, 2009
Japan February 12, 2009
Australia February 20, 2009

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Image courtesy of: udonentertainment.com