Digbeth’s Mockingbird Cinema Reopens With Fresh Interior and Second Screen

Writer Rachel Westwood / Photography supplied by Mockingbird Cinema

Birmingham has long been home to some great cinema venues in the U.K., hosting a roster of iconic independent venues like The Electric, MAC, and Mockingbird Cinema. A hidden gem of sorts, Mockingbird sits tucked away in The Custard Factory, Digbeth’s creative and digital workplace complex.

The Mockingbird Cinema has showcased everything from regional and national premieres to even dog-friendly screenings. Over recent months, the owner of Mockingbird – Lee Knabbs, set out to renovate and expand the establishment by developing a second screen to complement the 98-seat-cinema.

The Mockingbird team has been able to build upon the pre-existing programme, and offer more films to support and nourish the expansive filmmaker and movie fan community in Birmingham and beyond.

To allow the team to fulfill plans for a second screen model, Lee, in February 2022, began a crowdfunding event that was kindly supported by the loyal fans of the cinema. It managed to successfully garner £4,160 within 50 days.

Such generous support from the Birmingham community is what led Mockingbird Cinema to re-opening its doors on 29th April, whereby Lee and the team were able to ensure that local independent cinema continues to thrive.

Digbeth’s indie starlet is back with a completely new interior and vibe: the cinema now has a much more luxurious feel, but thankfully retains its Brummie roots.

I, for one, am very much looking forward to what’s in store for the future of a cinema with as much charm as it has eager filmgoers.

To see what films are currently showing at Mockingbird Cinema visit: www.mockingbirdcinema.com

Noisy Masters And Their Pastas At Muthers Studio

Writer Billy Beale / Lead photographer Joe Parkes – further images supplied by Freshlicker

Before attending the Fleshlicker show at Muthers in Digbeth, I had not seen a band play there before. Some live streamed shows gave me certain expectations of what the gig space would look and feel like, but we were instead ushered to a cramped rehearsal room.

I saw a catering-sized tray of spaghetti with a bag of vegan grated cheese next to it. “Oh sorry, is this the green room?” It is not. This is the venue. The noise and spaghetti share the space. They coexist here, in the carpet-walled room where a Matamp stack, proud and monolithic, will soon shake my ribcage.

Cutting an unassuming shape in a North Face hoodie, military-precision haircut and a smile on their face, Fleshlicker steps into the light and the noise begins. It does not stop. It’s the sound of one’s head being dragged through gravel inside the guts of a whale. Lit from below with a deep red, Fleshlicker turns their gaze to and from members of the audience, a game of eye-contact endurance of which they are the undisputed champion.

As they move around, the light catches and casts shadows over them, bathing their uncomfortable grins in terrifying drama.

Talking to Fleshlicker after their set, one gets a sense that the magician doesn’t want to explain the trick too much, but is interested in our responses. There’s some quirk of personality or sense of humour that, when nurtured correctly, creates a certain artist. The chaos priest, who stands at the Korg pulpit delivering a noisy gospel to an entranced congregation.

I cannot overstate how qualitatively unique it is to experience a quality amplifier and speaker rig working hard, rattling bones, alongside guilt free Italian cuisine. Where else can you safely feel the raw electricity moving enough air to divorce you from at least two of your senses, whilst feeding others?

Seek out your local noisemongers, bring earplugs, and apparently cutlery.

For more on Fleshlicker visit www.linktr.ee/fleshlicker

For more from Muthers Studios visit www.muthersstudio.co.uk/

Old Bort’s Mycophilia Residency At The Hive In JQ

Writer Beth Exley / Photographer Jessica Whitty

Walking into The Hive in Jewellery Quarter I’m greeted by the smell of espresso, and a few quiet crafters. The space is light, airy and has that post-industrial factory-refurb aesthetic which permeates many of the Jewellery Quarter’s establishments.

Birmingham based artist and musician Old Bort, warmly welcomes me into the space in which she has been working over the course of April. As the fourth of eight artists set to complete a residency funded by the Ruskin Mill Land Trust at the Hive this year, Old Bort has been working around the theme of mushrooms.

Old Bort’s passion for mycophilia blossomed during the second lockdown of 2020. After shielding for months, walks in the Jewellery Quarter’s graveyard became a daily ritual to allow Old Bort to visit some nearby greenspaces. In the graveyard, she spotted mushrooms popping up and became fixated on the way they grew and changed.

For a long time, Old Bort was simply painting what she found and saw in the Jewellery Quarter, so she says it’s nice to have a little more control over the process of growing them herself at the Hive as part of her artistic practice.

Upon entering the space, Old Bort grabs a box of pink oyster mushrooms that she’s been sketching out in chalk. Her intense love of mushrooms is apparent off the bat, and it’s enthralling to learn more from someone who is so knowledgeable and passionate about the topic.

On the wall behind Old Bort, there’s a mind map drawn together with string – the kind of thing you’d expect to see in a detective’s office in a 1980s crime drama. Instead of evidence and suspects, however, this map is filled with notes and images relating to Old Bort’s interests and influences.

These range from Mesoamerican icons to a particularly gruesome shot of an unfortunate bug suffering from a case of Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis, otherwise known as zombie ant fungus (I’ll let you google that one for yourself).

In stark contrast, there are also crocheted mushroom berets, a sweet, unexpected edition considering the aforementioned zombie ant fungus.

The process of cultivating the mushrooms is central to Old Bort’s practice. Mainly grown on coffee grounds from her own and the Hive’s kitchen, the mushrooms represent a way of creating food out of waste. Old Bort excitedly shows me a huge bag full of Shiitakes she’s grown this month, and tells me about the risotto she’s going to use them in.

Apparently, she’s also found a crop of some mysterious mushrooms growing on the roof of the Hive, but thinks it might be a bit of a risk to try and introduce those into her culinary endeavours.

Around Old Bort’s temporary studio, there’s also a selection of still life drawings that Old Bort has created during her residency. A personal favourite is the black and white charcoal piece drawn over the course of about four days. Moving down the paper, the mushrooms appear to grow before your very eyes in a way that is reminiscent of Jenny Saville’s life drawings, capturing the movement of the subject.

The kinetic energy of Old Bort’s work partly comes from her choice of mediums. She likes to work in a way that really utilises her hands – whether that be smudging chalk and charcoal around, working with fibres through crochet, or sculpting clay.

After speaking with Old Bort, I feel I have learnt more about mushrooms than I have in my entire life up until that point. I can’t wait to check out some of the films and documentaries she has recommended. The Girl with all the Gifts (2016) a mushroom-related horror, filmed in Birmingham is probably top of the list.

For more information on Old Bort and her residency at the Hive visit her website: www.oldbort.wordpress.com

For more from The Hive visit: www.rmlt.org.uk/the-hive-jq

Why 420 Is A Protest Not A Party

Writer Jasmine Khan

1/5 people have smoked cannabis in their lifetime, that’s 20% of the population. And with cannabis being legalised in the land of (not so much) freedom and opportunity, as well as across Europe, why is it still illegal in the UK?

Well, the UK’s issues with cannabis, just like its issues with black and brown people, started long ago. British MP’s were already discrediting cannabis back in colonial times, without any real knowledge of the medical benefits. They said it made the Indian natives, a region which at the time hadn’t been spliced by western interests, lazy and unproductive. Unproductive for who sir, you?

Despite politician’s disgust for the naturally growing herb, the monarchy told a different story. Queen Victoria openly consumed cannabis for her menstrual cramps, with her doctor describing it as one of the ‘most valuable medicines’, and as early as 1843 medical papers in the UK reported on weed’s effectiveness when treating issues such as Cholera, joint-pain, and seizures.

In 1928, there was a blanket-ban placed on cannabis by the League of Nations. The USA’s history of cannabis prohibition is frankly horrific, although I won’t go into much detail here. For more information check out The Grass Is Greener, on Netflix. In short, politicians in America deliberately changed the name of cannabis in the mainstream media to marijuana in order to racialize it and associate it with Mexican people, further propaganda went on to associate it with black people and those considered anti-establishment like hippies. And unsurprisingly, heavy penalties followed suit.

Nevertheless, it’s important to mow your own grass first because the UK has its own shameful racist history in relation to cannabis.

In the 60’s and 70’s when the Windrush generation (migrants from Jamacia, Trinidad, Tobago and the surrounding islands) arrived on the shores of our not so great nation, they were met with hostility, to put it lightly, in many forms. One of which was their association with cannabis which was told by the government to be a madness inducing, paranoia provoking, highly-sedative drug.

By racializing cannabis to associate it with Britain’s new black population and inflating in to a Class B, rather than Class C substance, the government exercised unjustified control on the Windrush generation, and later South Asian migrants who arrived in the 80’s and beyond.

The rise in the cannabis’ ranking incurred an indefinite fine, a 5 year prison sentence for possession, and 14 years for supplying the drug.

With stop and search laws forever being enforced disproportionately, even though white people consume cannabis at the same rate as the rest of us, the impact on black and brown communities in the UK across the years has been unimaginable, but let’s try…

Already poor communities suffered indefinitely because of the unjustified stigmatisation governing bodies have placed on cannabis. Is weed harmful? Sometimes. Is it as harmful as alcohol, clearly not. And does it have far reaching medical benefits which could be of serious use to those who currently take opiates for pain? Yes.

So why is it illegal in the UK when the UK is the world’s biggest supplier of medical cannabis.

The hypocrisy is glaring us in the face and yet I’m still writing articles whilst boys in hoodies are being roughed up because they might smell like weed.

The benefits of legalisation or at least decriminalisation are present currently in Portugal, they’ve been present in The Netherlands for years. Its prohibition leads to a underground market which impacts citizens safety both through the environment and the quality of the product they purchase.

Ending prohibition would allow for a new wave of cultivators, ones who could create multi-generational streams of income from growing and supplying weed for medical and recreational purpose.

These people, those who are currently taking the risk to supply a growing market illegally, have the necessary expertise. But, instead of utilising their skills and benefiting the economy, we fine them, lock them up and drain taxpayers’ money. Not to mention horrifically negate their opportunities, potentially for life, with a criminal record.

We all know Rastafari tracks like Peter Tosh’s ‘Legalize it’ and Bob Marley’s ‘Kaya’, which speak on the medical benefits of cannabis and their plight to end prohibition in Jamaica, a limitation that was only implemented by the British Empire in 1913.

50% of people in the UK support weed legalization for recreational purposes, and 75% of people support its legalization for medical purposes. Yet, our institutions still use it as a means to police its non-white population.

420 isn’t a party, it’s a (peaceful) protest. The fight for legalisation cannot be separated from the fight for racial equality and our governments current crack-down is further evidence of its institutionalised racism, not that we needed more.

Look out for my interview with musicians Ruth Kokumo and Liam Mckeown, where we’ll be discussing 420 culture more in depth and you can hear their opinions on the importance of cannabis legalisation.

If you’re concerned about your cannabis use talk to FRANK: www.talktofrank.com/drug/cannabis

To see the Grass Is Greener, follow this link: www.netflix.com/title/80213712

Brighton Based Post-Punks DITZ Inspire Local Artist Lottie Canto

Writer Emily Doyle / Photographer Jess Whitty

We live in heavy times, and so heavy sounds are called for. You want squalling guitars? Sledgehammer drums? Acerbic vocals? A ludicrously noisy cover of Peaches’ opus, ‘Fuck The Pain Away’? You want DITZ.

Well, Lottie Canto did; the local collage artist created this piece as soon as they got home from seeing DITZ at the Hare and Hounds back in March.

“I tried to capture the effortless but dark coolness of the show.”

DITZ’s first LP, The Great Regression, came out last month on Alcopop Records and it’s ten tracks of mangled, fuzzed up post-punk. A twin attack of chunky guitars and primal drums call to mind Fugazi or Sonic Youth, while glitched out processing gives it a hyper-pop tinge. (Lead singer Cal Francis is on record as being a big SOPHIE fan.)

In late March DITZ brought their abrasive sound to the Hare and Hounds. Venue 2 was already packed – on a Monday night as well – when local post-punks Mutes kicked things off, followed by a barrage of high powered grunge from ones to watch Total Luck.

For Canto, DITZ’s performance is riveting: “To hear an album you recently listened to for the first time, played so well, is a real pleasure,” they said, reflecting on the show afterwards.

Canto’s artwork is varied and they undertake everything from electronics to photos and websites. They also regularly self-publish collages under the alias Eliminating Ghosts.

Canto’s collage work is typically black and white, as is the case with their DITZ piece. Yet, strong splashes of colour are still reserved for select pieces with particular moods.

Canto takes analogue and digital pictures of specifically vintage magazines (in the case of the DITZ piece not so vintage mediums) and creates mood provoking collages. They were quick to publish their artwork in relation to DITZ, uploading the collage to their page the next day. Which is unsurprising considering the performance DITZ gave not so long ago.

Frontman Francis spent most of the set turned away from the crowd, secure in the knowledge that DITZ had their undivided attention. Drummer Jack Looker was the real star, holding the whole band together with relentless, math-rock precision.

The band conjured swells of noise from the sea of pedalboards at their feet, and Francis wandered into the crowd every few minutes, piling the microphone lead on top of their head like a crown of thorns. So, it makes sense that inspiration was quick to strike local artist Lottie Canto.

For more of Lottie Canto’s art visit www.lottiecanto.com or their Eliminating Ghosts blog www.instagram.com/eliminatingghosts

Check out DITZ here www.ditzband.com

For more on the Hare & Hounds visit www.hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk