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.

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

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).

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.

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.

Crazy Heart (15)

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

Set in LA in 1962, A Single Man is the story of George Falconer, a 52 year old British college professor (Colin Firth) who is struggling to find meaning to his life after the death of his long time partner Jim. We follow him through a single day, where a series of events ultimately leads him to decide if there is a meaning to life after Jim. George is consoled by his closest friend Charley (Julianne Moore), a 48-year-old beauty who is wrestling with her own questions about the future. A Single Man is a romantic tale of love interrupted.

Dir. Tom Ford, USA, 2009, 1hr41
BBFC Advice: Contains suicide theme, moderate threat, drug references and nudity

Fri: 5.40pm
Sat: 3.30pm
Sun – Tue : 5.40pm

The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo (18)

Based on the bestselling literary phenomenon by Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a gripping thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat. Enigmatic computer hacker Lisbeth Salander and disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist unite to solve the case of a missing girl. The unlikely duo form a fragile alliance as they dig into the past of a secret and dysfunctional family. As they unravel a dark and appalling family history, Blomkvist and Salander are about to discover how close they can get to the truth before they too become a target.

Dir. Neils Arden Oplev, Sweden, 2009, 2hr33, Swedish with English subtitles
BBFC Advice: Contains scenes of sexual violence

Fri: 7.45pm
Sat: 3pm
Sun – Thu: 7.45pm

Everybody’s Fine (12A)

BOOK TICKETS ONLINE

Tickets are now available to book online via movietickets.co.uk. Just choose the performance date/time and ticket type you want and pick up your ticket at the box office (50p booking fee applies).

Tony Stringfellow your regular host is planning on making it an extra special one:

The Poetry Train will be stopping at the Light House on WORLD POETRY DAY!!! So let’s make it one to remember, as many of you that can must get on board and bring  not only your own poetry, but your personal favourite poem of all time!

I will also be running a competition, judged by yourselves for the best poem of the night written by yourselves, so be prepared, the prize is a gooood one!

The train will be here in Light House’s main gallery at around 8pm.

Hopefully we’ll see you here!

South Africa is the subject of Richard Heeps’ brand new work. As the World Cup draws the media spotlight to this tumultuous country once again, The New Lantern offers a personal glimpse of quiet, everyday life in and around the Free State region. Combining a foray into portraiture with Richard’s signature style of colour-saturated landscapes, this exhibition follows his wife Natasha’s first return to her homeland in six years.

Natasha grew up in several towns and went to many different schools in the Free State, and she describes her father as always chasing the proverbial pot of gold. Although everything in the show is immediately personal to Natasha (the title of the work comes from a roadhouse which she used to visit and every image has a connection to her family), the exhibition plays on wider themes of childhood, identity and looking back in order to look forward.

Birmingham’s Three White Walls Gallery will also be exhibiting images from a previous body of work by Richard Heeps called Old England from Thurs 1 Apr to Mon 10 May with a Private View on Thurs 1 Apr, 6.30 – 8.30pm.

For more info visit 3whitewalls.blogspot.com

The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo (18)