An article on the Guardian’s film blog has asked:
Can Birmingham’s eclectic lucky dip of a festival help rejuvenate its Digbeth base?
That festival being Flatpack. Now, I was always told that if the title of a newspaper article asks a question then the answer is most likely ‘no’. In this case, the answer given is revealed to be more like ‘well, first of all Digbeth needs a cash machine, some residents, public transport, a post office and some street lighting’. Which is fair enough.
Hanging the cultural hopes of an entire area on one annual festival (no matter how good) was a bit of a reach anyway.
On another matter, two parts of the article jumped out:
Amazingly, points out George Clark, a curator who put together Flatpack’s Build Them in the Mind programme of short films, Birmingham still lacks a proper arthouse cinema. This in England’s second-largest city.
Which is true but needs tallying against Ian Francis saying:
“I hate it when people say Birmingham is apathetic” about film and culture, he says. “The interest is there”
Which is also true.
That there’s only one independent cinema in Birmingham is a bit of a shocker, but mac reopens soon and don’t forget the Light House is only just up the road.
Even better, there are quite a few people getting off their backsides to put films on away from the multiplexes. Film nights are rife – off the top of my head there’s Moving Pictures, Juniper Cinema, Kino Concrete, Filmrats, Popcorn, the Animation Forum events, BIFS, Screen Sunday at The Plough and occasional things at The Sunflower Lounge. Those are just the ones I can remember, too. Pretty much all of those are in pubs, which isn’t always going to be ideal and they’re unlikely to show the latest releases, but I think Ian’s right about apathy not being the problem.
You can add the Aston Triangle Cinema Club to your list as well – an attempt to revive the spirit of the former Triangle Cinema that many of us get misty-eyed over. Their upcoming programme is here.
Some of the stuff listed is just showing mainstream films in pubs which seems less about dealing with an appetite for film than it does about pubs ensuring they have punters on quieter nights.
The Birmingham International Film Society shows the most diverse range of stuff – really ambitious programming.
Chris – no one was trying to “Hang the cultural hopes of an entire area on one annual festival (no matter how good) was a bit of a reach anyway.” it was rather meant to highlight what was going on in the area particularly coming to life when a host of organisations work together during the festival – it’s all about potential and hanging around Flatpack was meant to show that with the right type of high quality cultural activity you can attract both local and national attention to the area.
But as hard as the organisations that are based in Eastside try – a decent infrastructure is still missing and holding us all back as the article points out.
Film night at the CIB shop? All it needs is a laptop and a projector
Dave – ta, hadn’t seen that. This post was classic DH-bait, it must be said. Actually, looking over it again, I reckon the mainstream pub/film nights are in the minority in that little list.
Lisa – sorry, I must’ve got the wrong impression from the question the journo posed at the start. Agreed on the rest though.
Cashpoint Coming Soon! ;-)
I thought the article made some brilliant points. The concentration of cultural stuff going on here is amazing and why I love the area so much but the lack of amenities and an ugly High Street that ‘is basically a multi-lane motorway lined with car dealerships’ is frustrating for residents, to say the least, and actually preventing people from paying the place a visit or, if they do, killing time outside of their scheduled event/thing around here. Like Lisa’s said, it’s holding us all back.