Category: Flatpack Festival

  • 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

  • BHTV curated by Flatpack Festival at moseley road baths

    BHTV curated by Flatpack Festival at moseley road baths

    10am-4pm, Saturday 12th August, Moseley Road Baths

    Join us in the Living Room as we gather round the television for “BHTV”, three channels of Balsall Heathen programming curated by Flatpack Festival. Expect family-friendly entertainment from around the world, as well as creative and documentary films about Balsall Heath and Moseley Road Baths itself.

    Flatpack is a mobile arts organisation which exists to show amazing work, bring people together and develop new ideas. We love film in all shapes and sizes, particularly where it bumps up against other artforms, and get a kick out of transforming spaces to create unforgettable events. Every May bank holiday you can find us taking over venues across Birmingham with the “magnificently eclectic” Flatpack Festival, while throughout the year we pop up all over the place with everything from family activities to al fresco horror.

    More about Flatpack here