If you’ve ever been to a Birmingham Opera production in a warehouse or burnt-out ice-rink and wondered how they got such a thing off the ground, spend an hour listening to Graham Vick and it all starts to make a bit more sense. This is quite a special man. Sharp-eyed, passionate, with a very clear idea of what he wants to do and say while remaining bracingly honest about the doubts and contradictions of being an opera-director. He clearly loves his job, and his enthusiasm is hard to resist. ‘I want you to be part of what I believe’ was one of the many lines that stood out from his lunchtime talk at the Barber Institute today. By blogging my scribbled notes below I probably run the risk of making him sound like a luvvie or a demagogue, but he is a long way from either. (more…)
Trailer for a new documentary about composer Raymond Scott by his son, Stan Warnow. Sensoria Festival in Sheffield are premiering the film next Tuesday, with Warnow talking to Martyn Ware (Heaven 17) afterwards.
Alongside Tim Burton, Kate Beckinsale and Shekhar Kapur there’s a chair on this year’s Cannes jury reserved for Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi – but no one’s likely to be offended if he doesn’t show up. The Cannes invitation was extended as a gesture of solidarity towards Panahi, who has been under arrest since 1st March. It isn’t fully clear what he’s been charged with, but some reports have mentioned allegations that he was making an anti-government film in his home. Over the next few days there are scores of screenings of Panahi’s films going on around the world, and as a small Birmingham contribution we’re putting on his 2006 World Cup docudrama Offside at Maison Mayci in Moseley on Wednesday. (It’ll probably be busy, so show up a little before 7 if you want to see it.) Elsewhere in the UK, there are screenings on Tuesday at the Star and Shadow in Newcastle and the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield. Here are a few links for further info:
Free Panahi facebook page and twitter feed;
iranhumanrights.org report on his condition;
Huffington Post writeup
This is the same Jafar Panahi who was held in handcuffs and leg-irons by US immigration officials at JFK airport in 2001. Who’d be an Iranian filmmaker?
Today we went for a curry in the Big Bulls Head with artist and animator Ian Emes. He is best known for creating the visuals for Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon tour, but his jumbled CV also includes Oscar-nominated short Goodie Two Shoes, Comic Strip film The Yob with Keith Allen and most recently kids TV series Bookaboo. Ian grew up in Erdington and studied at Birmingham College of Art where he was turned on to the likes of Oskar Fischinger. It was matinee encounters with Flash Gordon at the Odeon Kingstanding – one of the stars of our recent bus tour – which turned him into a filmmaker. Look out for a selection of his work as part of a 70s show at Ikon Gallery this summer.
