Music Matters
From the opening night live score, to films about Soviet punks, to all of the AV performances that make up the Optical Sound strand, music and sound art play a huge part in the festival. This here’s a sonic route through Flatpack 13...
TUESDAY 30 APRIL
A Page of Madness
This one’s been in the making for quite a while. Silent Japanese feature from 1926 about a mental asylum with a brand new score by Sinestro Home Video - basically a 6-piece Birmingham supergroup. The music itself has been written by Matt Eaton (Pram) and Gareth Jones (Misty’s Big Adventure, Grandmaster Gareth), and it will be spectacular.
THURSDAY 2 MAY
Josephine Foster
American singer-songwriter Josephine Foster is in the UK for just two shows, and one of them is at Flatpack. She’s also picked out a film which she’ll introduce - screening earlier that day: Black Moon.
FRIDAY 3 MAY
BodyVice
Natalie Sharp (aka Lone Taxidermist) performs an out-there AV show using handheld microscopic cameras which explore the body. She’s great value, and this will definitely be a lot of fun.
Summer
Really good new feature film about the underground rock scene of pre-perestroika Leningrad.
Pram Video Party
World premiere of two new Pram videos with one or two older promos showing too. Followed by members of the band DJing, and visuals by Film Ficciones.
SATURDAY 4 MAY
Soundplay Dome
Ace interactive dome with lights and sounds stationed at mac for the whole day.
Space Odysseys
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire students perform new compositions to a selection of spaced-themed shorts.
Sound Bite
An eclectic mix of new international short films on the subject of music and sound.
Shut Up and Play the Piano
Feature doc about pianist and musical maverick Chilly Gonzales. Highly entertaining.
Beats
Feature film about 90s raving. If you liked Trainspotting, you should check this out. Followed up by our 90s party (which might not be raving as such, but will definitely be a good laugh).
BEEF: Vitreous Humour
Bristol Experimental and Expanded Film collective make their way up the M5 with various projectors and contraptions for an evening of short audiovisual performances - loads of great stuff here.
SUNDAY 5 MAY
Hyperplanar & Terraforming M
Dutch AV collective Klankvorm make their way over to Brum for two world premiere performances, using lazers, hazers, projectors, and a quadraphonic sound setup. The perfect way to blow-off any cobwebs from the night before.
Fizzle: X-X
We’ve picked out some terrific short films, improv jazz night Fizzle have picked out some incredible musicians and together we’ve teamed them up. This is the third collaboration between Flatpack and Fizzle and if the two previous events are anything to go by, this will be brilliant.
Soundscreen
More shorts and live scores, this time with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group - featuring a mesmerizing Hitchcock mashup with live musical accompaniment.
Dorcha Takeover feat Kinomanual
Birmingham band Dorcha take over the reins to close the festival - as well as Dorcha themselves, there’ll be various audiovisual performances, including that of KinoMANUAL, a Polish duo experimenting with synths and live animation. It’s a bank holiday the following day so you can stay up late and not feel guilty.