Flatpack Festival have kindly invited us to put together a programme for their Home Entertainment Edition. It’ll be live from 14-17 May.

At a time when movement is so greatly reduced, the simple act of going for a walk takes on a new significance. While many of us are still able to take a stroll close to home, the act of venturing further afield to explore other cities or even countries is fast becoming a distant memory. We’re here to help. With this selection of ambulatory themed shorts, we invite you for a wander around a conflict zone in Iraqi Kurdistan, a back-alley pilgrimage in Islington and a cross-city odyssey in Birmingham, all without leaving the house.

Featuring the work of Sam Christie, Liberty Rowley, John Rogers, Owen Davey, Andy Howlett, Pete Ashton, Davina Kirkpatrick, Carol Laidler, Dominic Martin and Paul Sayers.

You will find the programme here.

Join Video Strolls curator Owen Davey and other Manchester artists/filmmakers for a FREE screening of music/place/films this Thursday, details on the flyer!

Additionally, Owen’s work and that of 500+ other Mancunian artists and filmmakers, place’y or otherwise, can be viewed at the first ever Manchester Open Exhibition at HOME MCR over the next couple of months. Enjoy!

Photo by Pete Ashton

Sunday 22nd December

Come and observe the shortest day of 2019 with a four-mile walk from Bordesley Henge to Witton Cemetery via Spaghetti Junction and the Grand Union Canal. We’ll watch the sunrise at the standing stones of Kingston Hill Park before following the canal northwards to the dramatic Witton Cemetery, a fitting spot to mark the dying of the year. Ceremonial embellishments will be provided by Hipkiss and Graney.

Meet at Bordesley Station* at 7:45am or if coming from Stirchley meet at Artefact at 7am for a taxi-share. If you’re planning on coming please email andy@videostrolls.com so we don’t leave anyone behind.

We’ll go ahead whatever the weather although we may cut things short and seek shelter if necessary. Wrap up warm!

*No trains will be operating; it’s just a handy start point.

Alleyways, back gardens, front rooms, lay-bys, meadows and public toilets – these short films range from documentaries, narrative fiction to more experimental, abstract works. As with all Video Strolls screenings there is plenty of humour along with the thoughtfulness.

A Bird Spotter’s Guide to Yorkshire Kevin Boniface  https://vimeo.com/145040652

My Back Garden Lee Kern  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyhpRNEYrYQ&t=3s

Turns Owen D Davey  https://vimeo.com/317807126

The Ashleigh Hotel Danielle Swindells  https://vimeo.com/240884873

Fieldnotes-001 Bill Newsinger  https://vimeo.com/337169813

St Cyprians Path  Liberty Rowley  https://vimeo.com/277861014

St Lawrence Way Liberty Rowley  https://vimeo.com/325013278

Like No Place  onlytheantscansaveusnow  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDAUiUbuHDU

Arterial  Christopher Ian Smith  https://vimeo.com/64670492

Ginnel  Rob St. John, Sam Mcloughlin and David Chatton-Barker  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_7ir2xSJzs&t=9s

NTH 2-9 Rest h264  Rob Parrish  https://vimeo.com/201550802

Work in Progress  – A walk along the Kent / Surrey boundary  Paul Sayers and Dominic Martin

Join us for a pre-screening stroll. Meet at Leytonstone Tube Station at 7pm we’ll take in the Churchyard, the Matalan carpark before heading to the library.

Wednesday 3rd July / 7pm – walk, 7:45pm – film screening /Leytonstone Library, 6 Church Lane, Leytonstone, London E11 1HG

Tickets: £6/£5 concs

Video Strolls returns to Birmingham for another afternoon of artists’ films on place and journeying. Featuring work by artists local and not so local including Siân Macfarlane, Michael Smith, Aaron Graham, Siobhán Mckeown, Pete Ashton and Joel Blackledge.

Prior to the film programme there’s the option of going on an actual real life stroll around the local area lead by artist and poet James Kennedy. If you wish to join the walk we’ll be meeting at the carpark outside the British Oak pub on the Pershore Road at 3pm. The film screening will be taking place at Artefact at 4pm.

Films shown:

Video Strolls Title Sequence – Owen Davey

Foot: Anatomy of Performance – Siobhan Mckeown

Living Under Spaghetti – Joe Sampson

Uncertain Eastside: A Bridge – Pete Ashton

Stranger on the Shore – Michael Smith/Maxy Bianco

Look at This – Aaron Graham

Shearwater – Joel Blackledge

The Future is a Foreign Country – Sian Macfarlane

Shell Line of Shingle Street – Xenia Dautzenberg

Turns – Owen Davey

The John Major Trail Part II – Paul Sayers/Dominic Martin

The Edgware Walker – Lee Kern

Facebook event

Venue website

Saturday March 16th / 3pm – walk, 4pm – film screening /1464 Pershore Road, Stirchley, Birmingham, B30 2NT/ Free entry!

A curated collection of artists’ films on place and journeying by Video Strolls for the West Hampstead Cinema Club.

Saturday 23rd June 2018, 6:30pm for walk. 7:30pm for films.
The Community Association of West Hampstead
17 Dornfell Street, London NW6 1QN

Programme: 7:30pm
Refreshments: 7pm
Group stroll from West Hampstead Thameslink Station along the Black Path to West Hampstead Community Centre: 6:30pm

Free entry –Wine & Snacks
Donations welcome

Showing films about walking and/or made while walking:

Deborah Burnstone Land’s Edge
Mark Williamson / Spaceship Pictures Traffic Report No 2: Clacket Lane Services  and Traffic Report No 4: The Sun in the Sands
Martin A Smith Secretly Sharing the Landscape with the Living
Flora Skivington Newt Wonders
Andy Howlett Digbeth Delights
Owen D Davey White Paint Spills in Public Places: Annual Review 2016
Liberty Rowley & Mark James A406 North Circular Kaleidoscope
Aaron Graham Look at This
Lee Kern, Edgware Walker. This film isn’t available to watch online, but you can see some of his other films here

Join us for a group walk along the terrifyingly named ‘Black Path’ to the screening from West Hampstead Thameslink Station. Meet at the station ready to set off at 6:30pm
Or meet us at West Hampstead Cinema Club from 7pm for drinks and nibbles before the films start at 7:30pm

Book in advance
020 7794 3729
info@westhampsteadcc.org.uk

The Community Association of West Hampstead Charity no: 1135778

We’re excited to be back at Birmingham’s Flatpack Film Festival this year.

We’ll be showing Christopher Ian Smith’s New Town Utopia documentary.

Wednesday 18th April, 8pm to 10pm
Centrala, Unit 4 Minerva Works, 158 Fazerly Street, Birmingham B5 5RT

What happens when you try to build a town and construct a community? New Town Utopia tracks the lives of the residents (mostly artists) of Basildon, Essex.

Conceived as an ideal post-war arena to pursue a happier post-war existence, Basildon’s legacy has since fluctuated from slow structural and communal disintegration to a hotbed of creativity and back again. Through paintings, puppets and poetry, these enduring and passionate artists discuss utopian dreams as well as their concrete realities and, in doing so, explore the success of ‘the experiment of the new town.’ This screening will include a short slide performance, Tower/Garden by artist Libby Cufley.

Tickets £7, £5 concessions.
Book now

We’re excited to be showing a small collection of scary films about landscape as part of The London Fortean Society’s Haunted Landscapes conference “Folklore, Ghosts and Witchcraft”

Saturday 18^th November, 10am to 5pm
Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL

We’ll be showing some spooky films by Adam Scovell and Lee Kern, while the rest of the day promises authors, experts and researchers discussing ghosts, strange beasts and magic. From haunted folk songs to 3000-year-old chalk giants, phantom black dogs, Albion’s Goat God and the Queen of the Fairies.

Book your ticket for this full day conference and learn that this green and pleasant land we abide in has dark, strange and uncanny other side.

Andy Howlett is in the process of making a film about the loss of our iconic Central Library and the Birmingham architect John Madin, “Paradise lost history in the unmaking” . He will be presenting clips from his film and examples from other artists, Emily Wright and Olivia Sparrow. The presentation will pose the question – What can we do collectively to save Birmingham’s C20th heritage?

This event is taking place in the John Lewis Community Hub which is on the top floor of the store.

Tickets are free but places are limited so please book here to avoid disappointment: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/paradise-lost-but-not-forgotten-tickets-36144016727

Saturday 9th September 2017 / 5pm to 6:30pm / John Lewis Community Hub, Grand Central, Birmingham B2 4AU / Free!

We’ll be showing a selection of short films with a literary bent, about amorous feelings for library buildings and of poets and the places they write about.

Films include:
Robey by Owen Davey, Craig Bilham and Tim Wells
The Battle of Maldon by Tom Wood
Paradise Lost: History in the Un-Making by Andy Howlett

The screening will be followed by a walk led by poet and essayist Edmund Hardy who will lead a mysterious plunge into Stoke Newington’s byways and long lost ganglands.

Festival Website

Facebook Event

Saturday 3rd June / 12 noon to 1:30pm / Ryan’s N16, 181 Stoke Newington Church Street, London N16 0UI / Free!