The Union Black Film Festival is the UK’s first region specific film festival, celebrating Black British cinema based in central Birmingham, and is taking place from Thursday 14 – Sunday 17 October.

The festival will bring panel discussions, debates, events and film screenings. From commercial hits, to classics, here’s what’s on offer;

14 October – Burning an Illusion (1981), 9pm at The Custard Factory

15 October – Pressure (1975), 9pm at The Custard Factory

16 October – Precious (2009), 11am at Odeon Cinema, New St.

17 October – The Princess and the Frog (2009), 1.30pm at mac, which will include mask making and story telling as part of the festival’s family morning.

Aside from the family morning, other educational events include;

14 October – Mirror Mirror; Reflections of Black Women in the Media, 7pm at The Custard Factory. The evening will welcome a panel of leading black women within British media to discuss whether current images of scantily clad black women to victims of gang violence are having a negative impact on the self image and self-esteem of young black girls. A short documentary by a group of Birmingham based teen girls will follow the debate, focusing on this topic.

15 October – Glorious Technicolour, 7pm at The Custard Factory. This event will examine the reasons why black people still remain under-represented both in front of and behind the camera in Britain’s media industry. For all the regions film makers this also provides an opportunity to ask those already established how best to get their work funded and/or commissioned.

Flash wakes up to a phone call from Angel announcing that he’s being released from prison and wants the £500k he’d left with Flash for safekeeping. Short of the full amount and pushed for time, Flash is forced to strike a deal with Evil who more than lives up to his name. 1 Day follows Flash’s race against the clock as he’s pursued by a rival gang, the police, his three irate babymothers and his granny

And here’s the trailer (warning, contains gratuitous, kinda-cool overhead shot of Spaghetti Junction):

As the Light House blog says:

1 Day, which is due for national release on 6th November has caused quite some controversy with the Birmingham Post reporting that it has been criticised for “encouraging impressionable youngsters to join violent criminal gangs” and “glamorising gun crime“  and BBC have reported that at least 2 of the big Birmingham cinemas, Cineworld and Odeon  are not going to be screening it

I’ve no idea whether that controversy is real or just marketing hype. Previous CiB contributor Danny Smith has written about his concerns – he’s coming from a position of some experience and really isn’t the timorous type. Meanwhile Screen WM are carrying an interview with director Penny Woolcock and the Guardian have profiled lead actor Dylan Duffus from Handsworth.

The film’s out nationwide next week and you’ll be able to see it at Star City, AMC Broadway and a few other places.

The Visualisation Lab at King’s College London plan to create a “unique, interactive, virtual reality, Cinema History database”

The objective of this first phase was to reconstruct the Kingstanding Odeon, Birmingham, whose 1935 opening represents a key moment in the evolution of purpose-built cinemas

More info here.

Via Tom Lennon