Category: Climate

  • RETROFIT DOUBLE-BILL

    RETROFIT DOUBLE-BILL

    From 2pm in the Drawing Room

    Two films about retrofit: our homes and neighbourhoods, and the huge 1960s Smallbrook Ringway building in the city centre. 

    RETROFIT REIMAGINED – embargoed film preview!

    We’re delighted to preview in Balsall Heath this inspiring 18 minute film.

    Retrofit means insulating your home to cut fuel bills, cut carbon, improve health, give new jobs and skills.  

    Retrofit Balsall Heath is a community-led local group, and co-founder of RETROFIT REIMAGINED Festival, created in July 2022 in collaborative with Civic Square in Ladywood and others. 

    Retrofit Balsall Heath is working to embody RETROFIT REIMAGINED’s foundational question: “What if the climate transition and retrofit of our homes and streets were designed, owned and governed by the people who live there?”

    In autumn 2023, RETROFIT REIMAGINED toured to five venues across the UK, launching in Balsall Heath at Moseley Road Baths.  This beautifully created film tells the whole story. 

    18 minutes

    SAVING SMALLBROOK – fresh from première at Flatpack film festival!

    Although Birmingham City Council’s planning committee voted to demolish Smallbrook Ringway Centre, the fight is still on, with a new legal challenge. 

    This 2-year ongoing planning battle has been captured on film by Liverpool’s Doberman Films, in a new documentary which explores the city’s ambivalent relationship with its post-war heritage. 

    Like its sister building the Rotunda, Smallbrook Ringway Centre was designed in the 1960s by Birmingham architect Jim Roberts. 

    Retrofitting would be much lower carbon than the 187 million kg of CO2 for demolition and rebuilding. 

    25 minutes 

    Free event, with Q&A, and donations invited to Save Smallbrook crowdfunding campaign 

    https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-smallbrook-1

  • Hell Bus Tour 2023

    Hell Bus Tour 2023

    The ‘Hell Bus’ is an exciting interactive art installation by artist Darren Cullen (@SpellingMistakesCostLives) exposing the dirty tactics polluting industries employ to green their public image. Joined by campaign group Adfree Cities and environmental organisation Switch It Green, people of all ages will be welcomed aboard the exhibition to be entertained, educated, and encouraged to get involved.

    The bus has already made appearances at COP26, Glastonbury Festival and Boomtown, and featured in comedian Joe Lycett’s Channel 4 documentary ‘Joe Lycett vs The Oil Giant’. It is sure to catch some eyes in Birmingham.

    The exhibition’s tour is timely, as public concern surrounding planet-harming activities and fossil fuel expansion is high while greenwashing by large corporations is leaving individuals feeling unsure of the solutions. The ‘Hell Bus’ tells this story in a fun and accessible way, while Adfree Cities and Switch It Green are on hand to provide people with simple, effective ways to take positive action against oil and gas companies like Shell.