Today the UK Film Council announced the recipients of their national Festival Fund award, and it gives us great pleasure to confirm (rustle of envelope) that Flatpack Festival is one of them. The fund was set up last year to support and enhance two UK film festivals of international significance (ie, Edinburgh, and probably London) and up to eight festivals of national (or potentially national) significance. They picked seven in the end, including Sheffield DocFest, Cinemagic in Belfast and Nottingham’s Silent Cinema Festival, and Flatpack has been awarded £70,000 over the next three years to build on the promise of the first two editions. (There’s more background on the festival in the projects section, or last year’s programme is at flatpackfestival.org)

So what does this mean for us, the producers of Flatpack? Well, the money will obviously come in handy, although there is still plenty of work to be done on the fundraising front. But it’s also a fantastic stamp of approval, a big frilly rosette from the national body responsible for film. To build something like this up on a really tight budget, to show that there’s an audience for this kind of programming, and then to secure the support which allows you to plan ahead and think a bit bigger; it’s a mighty good feeling. And without going all Oscar-night about it, it wouldn’t have been possible without all the filmmakers, volunteers, artists, promoters, technicians, funders, venues and enthusiastic punters who have chipped in to help us get this far. So thanks a lot, and here’s to Flatpack III in February 2009 and beyond…

(And congratulations to DeafFest at Wolverhampton Light House, who were also on the list)

Being fans of pre-cinema gadgetry and well-stocked with civic pride, we were delighted to discover yesterday that Birmingham is the birthplace of the flipbook. Well, that’s stretching the truth slightly; people had been flicking sheets of paper in quick succession to make moving pictures since at least the 18th century, but it wasn’t until 1868 that someone thought to patent the idea. That someone was John Barnes Linnett, a lithograph printer based in Smithfield St near the Bull Ring (or BullRing, as they like to call it nowadays). He called this ‘device’ the Kineograph, and the picture above is from his patent which can be found in Birmingham Central Library. Linnett apparently died young from pneumonia, contracted while taking photographs in Wales, and his wife sold the patent to an American. A classic Birmingham tale…

Big thanks to Mike Simkin for the tipoff. Flipbook fans should check out flipbook.info, and note that there will be some kineographic action at our Flummoxed event on 3rd July.

Terrific, random lineup of music for the Venn Festival in Bristol this weekend, running the gamut from A(rtamanova) to Z(unzunegui). (cheesy straplines our speciality!) Also a good opportunity to discover the world of Ergo Phizmiz, who has converted a scout hut into “an enchanted Bavarian woodland made of twigs, cutlery, mechanical birds and constant, ever-evolving sound”. Ergo will be one of our guests for Flummoxed next month, and has just released a digital single with People Like Us via WFMU.

(dang, can’t stop linking to WFMU…)

A quick doff of the cap to the amazing Bo Diddley, who died on Monday aged 79. Aquarium Drunkard has a couple of MP3s (we recommend ‘Who Do You Love’, loud) and Dave the Spazz is doing a tribute show tomorrow on the reliably ace WFMU. Or click on the picture above for Bo’s 1973 encounter with a gunslinging heckler.

“The Bays incorporate a classical ensemble into their improvised electronic performance, using a unique system of real-time music scoring projected for the audience to see as well as hear.”

Sounds like there’s plenty of potential for disaster or triumph here. The Bays improvise, the composers throw the score at the orchestra as they go along, and the conductor hopes for the best… The video below gives you a bit more of an idea, and this writeup. Catch it on Friday as part of Integra; not the kind of thing you see at the Custard Factory everyday.

Another knitting film for Friday afternoon… This here is a knitting machine made out of LEGO by the resourceful Thomas Johnson, whose site also features some other contraptions made with little bricks.

Image from Flickr by judepics.

The Telectroscope is one of those nifty ideas that make you go ‘why didn’t I think of that?’. Two giant lenses in London and Brooklyn, and a chunky broadband connection enabling you to wave down the trans-atlantic ‘tunnel’ in real-time. The Jules Verne aesthetic just tops it off.

From harrisj.

Thanks to filmficciones for the tipoff.

Compton Verney gallery in Warwickshire asked us to put together something filmy which will complement their Fabric of Myth exhibition, opening next month. We settled on a programme of knitting-related shorts and animation, to screen throughout the weekend of 19/20 July with free needles, wool and knitting tuition for those who’d like to have a go. More info soon, but in the meantime here’s a youtube clip of one of the films: a promo for ‘Les peaux de lièvres’ by Canadian duo Tricot Machine. The animation by Simon Laguanière was made using over 700 frames created on an electronic knitting machine.

With special thanks to David at Dare to Care records.

PS:: Those of a knitting/crocheting persuasion in the Birmingham area may be interested in Stitches and Hos, gathering at the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath on Tuesday 27 May.

The imminent arrival of Julian Cope at Town Hall next week has resurrected heady teenage days when I wore a homemade ‘Julian Cope is God’ tshirt, played Peggy Suicide to death and pored over his declarations in the NME. Cope’s freewheeling memoirs are still a joy to read, and a reminder that Monday is almost a homecoming gig. He grew up in Tamworth, fled to Liverpool as a student and tasted pop infamy with The Teardrop Explodes, then after the group broke up in the early 80s holed up in his hometown to nurse various paranoid complexes, accumulate a huge collection of toy cars and gradually rebuild his life. In one of his more mental solo songs ‘Reynard the Fox’ the backdrop is provided by childhood memories of the countryside east of Tamworth (see Paul Drummond’s map below), and long before he was writing scholarly tomes about megalithic Britain Cope was making up his own pre-history of the ‘Alvecote mound’, a slag-heap which now overlooks the M42. (Pictured on the cover of Fried with emblematic toy truck, above.)

The internet does boast a ‘Tamworth Bands Heritage Trail’, but there’s no mention of Cope in there (too posh? too weird?) so I decided to rectify this with a little help from Google Maps (in the process discovering that you can now attach video clips to specific locations, which is very exciting). Now that’s quite enough stalking, time to get on with some proper work…

If you’re anywhere near Birmingham (uk) this weekend, be sure to book yourself an appointment with The Divine Edgar, which has found a new home in the Vaults restaurant as part of this year’s Fierce Festival. Scott Johnston’s unique premature burial experience was one of the highlights of our Halloween event at Ikon Eastside last year, and even if you’ve already sampled it a rerun is recommended; Scott tells us he is working on some modifications…