19—24 April 2016 sees the return of Flatpack, Birmingham’s favourite film festival. Across six days and multiple venues across the city, films from around the world, from the early years of cinema to the present day, will be screened alongside an exciting programme of performances, talks, installations, exhibitions, workshops, and other events.
Of particular potential interest to Fluid Radio readers is the Optical Sound strand, which brings together film, music, and sound art in all their many intertwinings — from live accompaniments to classic films such as La Jetée and works by experimental film pioneers Joseph Cornell and Francis Thompson, to Chris Plant’s light and sound installation made with Aston University’s Photonics Institute; from explorations of the musicality of Shakespeare’s language to films about musicians such as The Residents and David Thomas Broughton. Following short works by early purveyors of visual music such as Len Lye and Oskar Fischinger, Dr Clare Jonas from UEL will be sharing insights from her research into synaesthesia. Mothwasp will be performing their unique mix of noise, drone, chaos and concrete, and Giant Axe Field will present an improvised audio-visual tribute to the magical surrealism of director Georges Franju. An Optical Sound pass allows entry to all the events in the strand for £35.
Oddly not part of the strand is a concert of three audiovisual performances by Amsterdam duo Optical Machines, sound artist Graham Dunning, and artist collective Transforma (Luke Bennett, Baris Hasselbach and Simon Krahl) and musician/composer PC NACKT (Warren Suicide).
Throw in big feature films, Flatpack’s renowned short film showcases, screendance, blind film, an inflatable venue, optical toy workshops, a full moon party, and much more, and you have the perfect weekend for fans of film, sound, and all their many combinations. Don’t miss!