11-15 March 2009

Birmingham UK

It's around this time of year that everything goes a little quiet on the 7inch front while we crank up for the Flatpack Festival. The same idea - showing interesting stuff in interesting places - but on a somewhat larger scale, taking over all manner of venues across Birmingham for an extended weekend of cinematic rabble-rousing. The best place to find out what the heck is going on is the festival website, but in the meantime here are a few things we're excited about...

> 1900s filmshow at Birmingham Town Hall, featuring The Destroyers;

> a series of films around street art and muralism, including Lorenzo Fonda's Megunica;

> Unpacked discussion day, with special guest David O'Reilly;

> Kids matinees at the Electric cinema;

> an installation trail using shop-windows around the city;

> cut-out magicians Paper Cinema;

...and loads of shorts, animation, music docs, movies, archive oddities, live events, what have you. Well worth a visit, we would suggest. Here are some nice things which people have said about past editions:

"Wilfully eclectic...  hard to imagine this being anything other than fun"

- the Guardian

"Promises innovation... and does not disappoint"

- Plan B magazine

Audience feedback:

“Flatpack tickles parts of my brain I didn't know I had. Thank you 7inch. Birmingham deserves this”

“I wanted to thank you for a blissful Sunday afternoon...  the only people programming cinema the way I would like to see it go. Both in terms of the programming content and the varied approaches to screenings your festival employed.... Please don't stop."

“This festival left me totally reinvigorated for what a film festival can be. Excuse me if I spiral off into hyperbole, but the programme, the people and style of fest just don't seem to fit in with the way that everything else seems so hyper-defined and funding-box-ticking, it was just programmed really imaginatively and diversely. It felt instinctive and well informed.”

"I met so many lovely and inspiring people over the weekend. I'm filled with ideas and inspiration to carry on making short films... I hope it was the first of many Flatpack Festivals."

More background on Flatpack here.