New Light House Web Site Launched

Things have all gone  little quiet on this here blog and with good reason, we’ve been busy. Busy launching our all new website, which means only one thing – this little piece of the internet is going to get a whole lot quieter now we’ve settled into our new home.

To keep up to date with all our news, see upcoming events and film programmes and any other little creative tidbits we pick up from the rest of the internet you will now have to point your browser to:

www.light-house.co.uk

and if you are reading this via RSS I’m afraid that’s moved too our news feed can now be found HERE.

We’re still ironing out the last few little wrinkles and appreciate your patience while we do this but in saying that any feed back would be gratefully received and can be directedto steph@light-house.co.uk.

Creative Networks Event: Getting Your Voice Heard

Thursday 29 April 2010, 6.00pm- 9.00pm

BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY, MILLENNIUM POINT, CURZON STREET, BIRMINGHAM B4 7XG

Including the quarterly network for film educators,Exhibitors and Archives 2.00pm -5.30pm and The Music Network 4.00pm – 6.00pm

With Guest Speaker – Marc Silk

His voice is heard in Cartoons, Movies, TV Shows, Games, Commercials and Theme Parks around the world. Creative Networks welcomes Voice Actor and Producer Marc Silk, the most famous person you’ve never heard of… and he’s based in Birmingham!

The man with a million voices began his career in radio. Since then he has worked with George Lucas on Star Wars Episode 1, with Peter Kay in Roary the Racing Car, and Jane Horrocks in Fifi and the Flowertots. He’s the voice of Bob the Builder in the USA, Johnny Bravo for Cartoon Network UK, the British Comedy Awards, The Royal Variety Show, Nintendo Wii TV commercials and Channel 4′s Comedy Roast.

Marc’s passion for technology helped him realise that broadcast quality material could be produced anywhere. Even though his character voices are heard worldwide, many are actually recorded from his studio in Solihull. It’s all music to Marc’s ears, as it promises to be to ours. Aside from a highly entertaining and engaging presentation of clips, we’ll hear his tips on how to create innovative content, spot new opportunities and make the most of available technology. Come and join us, tell your friends, sit back, enjoy and be inspired.

To join register for this FREE event, please email creative.networks@bcu.ac.uk or call Dave Taylor on 0121 331 5400. Alternatively, register online at www.creativenetworksonline.com

Showing this week: The Blind Side, Crying With Laughter and The Habbit of Art

The Blind Side(12A)

This is the remarkable true story of American football star Michael Oher. Teenager Michael is surviving on his own, virtually homeless, when he is spotted on the street by Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock). Learning that the young man is one of her daughter’s classmates, she insists that he come out of the cold. What starts out as a gesture of kindness turns into something more as Michael becomes a part of the family. As they help Michael fulfil his potential, his presence in their lives leads them to some insightful self-discoveries of their own.

BBFC Advice: Contains infrequent moderate violence, language and sex references

Fri – Tues: 7.40pm
Weds: 2pm & 7.40pm
Thurs: 7.40pm

Crying With Laughter (18)

Let Joey Frisk tell you about the worst week of his life. Things are looking up for stand up comedian Joey Frisk – his foul mouthed act has drawn interest from people in high places. Then he tells one little gag about an old school friend named Frank, who just happens to be in the audience, and things begin to unravel – suddenly Frank is everywhere Joey goes, wanting to talk about the old days. A bold, low budget thriller from Scotland, with a powerhouse performance from Stephen McCole (Rushmore, Last Orders).

BBFC Advice: Contains very strong references to sex and child abuse

Fri – Tues: 6pm & 8.15pm

Weds: 2.15pm, 6pm & 8.15pm

Thurs: 4.15pm

The Habit Of Art: Live from the National Theatre

The National Theatre comes to Light House with a live presentation of this acclaimed new play. Benjamin Britten, sailing uncomfortable close to the wind with his new opera Death In Venice, seeks advice from his former collaborator and friend W H Auden. During this imagined meeting, their first for twenty five years, they are observed and interrupted by, amongst others, their future biographer and a young man from the local bus station. ‘You are a rent boy. I am a poet. Over the wall lies the Dean of Christ Church. We all have our parts to play.’ Starring Richard Griffiths, Frances De La Tour and Alex Jennings, this premier production by Nicholas Hytner has received outstanding reviews.

Alan Bennett’s immaculate new play-within-a-play has the audience bawling with laughter throughout. This sad, funny, whimsical piece about age and fading dreams is immaculately executed and represents the National at its very best. I thought it unlikely that he would be able to equal the success of The History Boys but The Habit of Art is another absolute cracker, often wonderfully and sometimes filthily funny, but also deeply and unexpectedly moving.

Daily Telegraph

Alan Bennett’s fictionalised encounter between two giants of the 20th-century culture is full of ideas – and great jokes… a gloriously sustained, constantly shifting piece of irony….Both Griffiths and Jennings are terrific. A tsunami of jokes, a tidal wave of argumentative statements, a gorgeous gust of opinion.

The Guardian

Take your seats on Thursday for 6.45pm, joining the audience at the National Theatre, ready for ‘curtain up’ at 7pm.

Crying with Laughter Competition

To celebrate the release of Crying with Laughter on April 16, BritFlims have teamed up with the Daily Mirror and their friends at Britfilms Distribution, to give you the chance to laugh all the way to the bank.

It’s simple. All you have to do is send your best joke to the Daily Mirror. The one that is the most pant-wettingly funny – making them cry with laughter – will win £1,000 in cash!

So get your funny bones warmed up and send your side-splitting joke (plus name, address and phone number), to theticket@mirror.co.uk and the winner will be announced in the week of release. Crying with Laughter won Best Film at the 2009 Bafta Scotland Awards and also had nominations for Best Actor and Best Writer.
In the film, Joey Frisk (Stephen McCole) is a stand-up comedian whose life has stopped being funny. He then bumps into an old school friend who takes him on a bad trip down memory lane.

Crying With Laughter will be playing here at Light House 16th – 22nd April.

Showing this week: Green Zone (15), Crazy Heart (15) and Blue Velvet (18)

Green Zone (15)

Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, United 93) re-team for their latest thriller in Green Zone, a film set in the chaotic early days of the Iraqi War. During the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad in 2003, Officer Roy Miller and his team of Army inspectors were dispatched to find weapons of mass destruction believed to be in the Iraqi desert. Rocketing from one booby-trapped and treacherous site to the next, the men search for deadly chemical agents but stumble instead upon an elaborate cover-up.

Dir. Paul Greengrass, USA, 2010, 1hr55

BBFC Advice: Contains strong language and violence

Fri: 5.45pm & 8.15pm
Sat- Tue: 5.45pm & 8.15pm
Thu: 5.45pm & 8.15pm

Crazy Heart (15)

Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who’s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician. As he struggles down the road of redemption, Bad learns the hard way just how tough life can be on one man’s crazy heart.

Dir. Scott Cooper, USA, 2009, 1hr52

BBFC Advice: Contains strong language

Fri: 5.40pm & 8.20pm
Sat-: 5.40pm & 8.20pm
Wed: 2.15pm, 5.40pm & 8.20pm
Thu: 8.20pm

Blue Velvet (18)

Blue Velvet is sensual mystery thriller about strange happenings in a small North Carolina town. A college student stumbles across a bizarre mystery and wants to know more, perhaps too much more. The strange world he’s found lurking beneath his hometown’s picture-postcard veneer is about to become much stranger. It is also an unforgettably fascinating and foreboding world.

This unique season of films will be shown as part of the University of Wolverhampton’s Film Studies MA course and the module Spaces in Modern American Cinema. Each film will be introduced by film studies lecturer Dr Frances Pheasant-Kelly who has recently been published in an international book which discusses the representation of public toilets and gender in film.

Dir. David Lynch, USA, 1986, 2hr
BBFC Advice: Contains strong sex, violence and language

Thu: 5.45pm