We're looking forward to welcoming you to our Grand Opening on Thursday 19th November. Pop in anytime from 2pm onwards. It's going to be an Open House, a FREE event, so no booking is necessary. It is a chance to take a peek at many of our spaces. Below is what we have programmed for you. There’s also a 10% discount all our CAFE BAR purchases.
1. SONGLINES (location: Outdoors)
A new project by DMU’s Professor of Digital Creativity, Martin Rieser, to develop cyclist information that includes tours and podcasts via a mobile-accessible online wiki. (4pm onwards)
2. ‘ARISE’ (location: Outdoors)
Watch the young people of Leicester perform, paint, project and produce stunning light paintings. (4pm)
3. LIFE IN THE CULTURAL QUARTER (location: ETC Suite)
Artist Sally Rose Renner has been commissioned by developer Blueprint to produce an installation that depicts the living and workspace accommodation at Phoenix Square. (2pm onwards)
4. SILENT SHORT FILMS (location: Courtyard)
Experience the magic of silent cinema and savour the ambience of our courtyard. (weather permitting) (4pm onwards)
5. VIRTUAL ROMAN LEICESTER (location: Screen Room)
First viewing of DMU’s new interactive research project that digitally recreates Roman Leicester (Ratae Corieltauvorum) by Doug Cawthorne and George Watson. (2pm onwards)
6. SHIFT (location: Screen Lounge)
An installation by None of the Above – a group of DMU students – that uses sounds gathered from around Leicester to produce dynamic, sculptural patterns and shapes projected in stereoscopic 3D. (2pm onwards)
7. cMATRIX12 (location: DMU CUBE)
DMU’s Dr Bret Battey showcases the DMU Cube by representing sounds as a mass of flowing particles in this three-screen immersive video in high definition and quad surround sound. (2pm onwards)
8. EXPLODING PLASTIC & INEVITABLE REDUX (location: Screen Lounge)
A re-imagining of the psychedelic classic created by Andy Warhol with the Velvet Underground in the late 1960s that immerses viewers in a ‘total art’ experience by Steve Gibson and Stefan Muller Arisona. (6.15pm onwards)
9. SHOW REELS (location: Screen 1 & Screen 2)
3D Capability: Phoenix Square’s two cinema screens will show a selection of 3D showreel demos, trailers and stings. (2pm onwards)
10. SANCHO PLAN (location: Screen 1 & SANCHO PLAN feed into Screen 2)
Sancho Plan will present a 30-minute performance with on-stage musicians orchestrating sounds and simultaneously controlling on-screen animated characters. (8.30pm)
11. GREEN SCREEN (location: Basement - Production Studio)
Interact and be transported to a different landscape using special effects. (6.15pm - 10pm)
PHOENIX SQUARE, 4 Midland Street, Leicester LEI 1TG BOX OFFICE 0116 242 2800
In collaboration with
De Montfort University
De Montfort University
Friday, 13 November 2009
DAY OF THE UNDEAD RISES AGAIN
Phoenix Square, Leicester’s new film and digital media centre, gets its brains into gear with a 12 hour ZOMBIE marathon on Saturday 28th November.
Britain’s only dedicated Zombie Film Festival is now in its third year and continues to showcase the celluloid undead with six feature films and a host of other events. A packed programme of screenings, book signings, zombie make-up classes, zombie X-box gaming, and a competition for the city’s Best Dressed Zombie compliment a line up of new and classic X-certificate epics of undead life and death.
Kicking off at 12noon with George Romero’s masterly Dawn of the Dead, the festival then slithers on into the early hours of the following morning with a heady mixture of comic and extremely serious examples of the zombie genre. New films include Pontypool (listening to the radio turns a town into a hell-hole of brain-eating killers); Dead Snow (featuring zombie Nazi’s chomping their way through the tourists of northern Norway); and, La Horde (a French film that does for zombie-infested tower-blocks what Die Hard did for sweaty vests). In addition there is also the recent box-office smash Zombieland and a sneak preview, ahead of its world premiere, of Leicester director Rhys Davies’ home grown shocker Zombie Undead, shot right here in the city!
Phoenix Square film programmer Alan Alderson-Smith commented on the event: “Three years in and every year it gets better and bloodier. All our previous festivals have completely sold out which shows just how much the people of Leicester really go for the jugular when it comes to zombie films. It’s also a great way to enjoy all the impressive features of the brilliant new Phoenix Square.”
Partnered with the UK’s No 1 zombie web-site, www.terror4fun.com, 2009’s Day of the Undead is set to be the best yet.
DAY OF THE UNDEAD: SATURDAY 28TH NOVEMBER: 12 NOON TO MIDNIGHT AND BEYOND
PLEASE CALL THE BOX OFFICE TO RESERVE YOUR TICKET 0116 242 2800
Monday, 9 November 2009
PRESS RELEASE - Phoenix Square Opening!
LEICESTER¹S new state of the art film and digital media centre is set to open its doors to the public with a day of free activities showcasing what it has to offer.
Phoenix Square, in the city¹s Cultural Quarter, will open its doors to the public on Thursday, November 19, with a day-long open house event.
From 2pm, visitors will be able to explore the venue for themselves, experiencing 3D show reels in the two full-size cinemas, the screen room, the De Montfort University Cube a unique immersive exhibition area and the Screen Lounge café bar.
At 4pm, a breathtaking outdoor projection and a spectacular light show featuring local youngsters will thrill visitors.
A dramatic free evening event will start at 6.30pm, and will continue an audio-visual exhibition, VJs and live electronic music.
Visitors will also be able to wind back the clock almost 2,000 years and experience an interactive virtual tour of Roman Leicester, or opt for the lifestyle exhibition showcasing Phoenix Square¹s business and living facilities.
As a special opening offer, there¹ll be 10 per cent off the cost of all food and drinks in the Screen Lounge café.
Leicester City Council¹s cabinet member for culture and leisure, Councillor Andy Connelly, said: ³This will be a great opportunity for people to find out about the spectacular range of facilities and entertainment that Phoenix Square has to offer.
³The exterior of this impressive building has become a familiar site on Leicester¹s skyline, so this is the chance for people to find out what is on offer inside.²
Creative director at Phoenix Square, Tom Holley, added: ³We¹re very excited about our future, and our new building, and we¹d like to invite people to come and join us in celebrating our opening.²
Last week, Phoenix Square revealed details of its first-ever season of entertainment, which includes a feast of independent and 3D cinema and digital art. A full-colour brochure with details of all forthcoming events is available from Phoenix Square, as well as local libraries, museums and the Tourist Information Centre.
For details of the opening event, contact Phoenix Square on 0116 242 2801.
Phoenix Square¹s website, highlighting details of all events and attractions, will be launched on Monday, November 16, at www.phoenix.org.uk
In addition, the Box Office will open its doors to take bookings from Thursday, November 19. To contact the Box Office call 0116 242 2800.
Phoenix Square is a unique combination of the arts, workspaces and city living the result of a dynamic partnership between Leicester City Council, Blueprint, East Midlands Development Agency, De Montfort University and Phoenix Arts, with additional support from the European Regional Development Fund, EM-Media and Arts Council England through National Lottery Funds.
(end)
For press enquiries only contact Christian Dezelu in the Press Office on 0116 252 6081, or email christian.dezelu@leicester.gov.uk
Phoenix Square, in the city¹s Cultural Quarter, will open its doors to the public on Thursday, November 19, with a day-long open house event.
From 2pm, visitors will be able to explore the venue for themselves, experiencing 3D show reels in the two full-size cinemas, the screen room, the De Montfort University Cube a unique immersive exhibition area and the Screen Lounge café bar.
At 4pm, a breathtaking outdoor projection and a spectacular light show featuring local youngsters will thrill visitors.
A dramatic free evening event will start at 6.30pm, and will continue an audio-visual exhibition, VJs and live electronic music.
Visitors will also be able to wind back the clock almost 2,000 years and experience an interactive virtual tour of Roman Leicester, or opt for the lifestyle exhibition showcasing Phoenix Square¹s business and living facilities.
As a special opening offer, there¹ll be 10 per cent off the cost of all food and drinks in the Screen Lounge café.
Leicester City Council¹s cabinet member for culture and leisure, Councillor Andy Connelly, said: ³This will be a great opportunity for people to find out about the spectacular range of facilities and entertainment that Phoenix Square has to offer.
³The exterior of this impressive building has become a familiar site on Leicester¹s skyline, so this is the chance for people to find out what is on offer inside.²
Creative director at Phoenix Square, Tom Holley, added: ³We¹re very excited about our future, and our new building, and we¹d like to invite people to come and join us in celebrating our opening.²
Last week, Phoenix Square revealed details of its first-ever season of entertainment, which includes a feast of independent and 3D cinema and digital art. A full-colour brochure with details of all forthcoming events is available from Phoenix Square, as well as local libraries, museums and the Tourist Information Centre.
For details of the opening event, contact Phoenix Square on 0116 242 2801.
Phoenix Square¹s website, highlighting details of all events and attractions, will be launched on Monday, November 16, at www.phoenix.org.uk
In addition, the Box Office will open its doors to take bookings from Thursday, November 19. To contact the Box Office call 0116 242 2800.
Phoenix Square is a unique combination of the arts, workspaces and city living the result of a dynamic partnership between Leicester City Council, Blueprint, East Midlands Development Agency, De Montfort University and Phoenix Arts, with additional support from the European Regional Development Fund, EM-Media and Arts Council England through National Lottery Funds.
(end)
For press enquiries only contact Christian Dezelu in the Press Office on 0116 252 6081, or email christian.dezelu@leicester.gov.uk
Monday, 2 November 2009
Our first programme brochure is out now! We'll be taking bookings shortly
The brochure is out!
PHOENIX SQUARE Film & Digital Media
OPENS Thursday 19th November
Monday, 26 October 2009
On the homeward stretch now London Film Festival
The Times/BFI 53rd London Film Festival comes to an end on Thursday 29th October. You could argue that there's far too many titles but being spoilt for choice is a delicious pleasure, especially in bothersome Britain. Here's a few sentences on some movies I caught during week 2.
AN EDUCATION: A lively adaptation of journalist Lynn Barber's memoir about being a promising 16-year old schoolgirl in middle-class Twickenham in 1961 who gets grandly seduced by a guy maybe twice her age is definitely a class act. Exquisitely faithful to its period the movie oozes acting talent - Emma Thompson, Alfred Molina, and Hollywood heart-throb Peter Sarsgaard sporting a pretty convincing British accent - as O-levels get the heave-ho when our heroine is whisked off for a romantic weekend in Paris. But does it end happily? You'll just have to see it to find out!
UP IN THE AIR: Probably the best acting job George Clooney has turned in for a long time, this diamond-sharp satirical rom-com about a man whose job is to fire people on behalf of companies that haven't the guts to do it themselves, sees the ever debonair Clooney flying all over the USA and revelling in the experience of having no ties, romantic or family-wise, with other people. But then he has great sex with another high-flyer and the undercarriage starts to come down under his perfect little lifestyle. Very funny and surprisingly un-Hollywood when it comes in to land, this is grown-up popular cinema at its best.
KICKS: Two Liverpool teenagers, Nicole and Jasmine, lead a pretty dull life where the only highpoint is hanging around the Anfield gates looking out for their favourite midfield player, the gorgeous, rich, and inevitably egotistical Lee Cassidy. But as luck would have it the two girls find themselves in a position that comprehensively beats Lee literally to a standstill. Attractivly shot and played with gusto this is a nicely barbed comment on celebrity culture though a bigger budget might have added depth to some of the 'Scouse cliches.
VALHALLA RISING: Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn made the gruelling Pusher films plus one of 2008's best movies, Bronson, before embarking on this weird hybrid Viking epic that plays like a mash-up between Werner Horzog and Akira Kurosawa. Shot entirely in Scotland and starring Mads Mikkelsen (the villian from Casino Royale) as One-Eye, a mute brute whose violence is so nasty everyone thinks he's been "brought up from Hell", there's lots of moody, broody shots of the astonishing landscapes, bouts of ultra-blood-letting, and huge dollops of spiritual philosophising, that don't all quite sit together. But its vision is undeniable.
BRIGHT STAR: Alongside the new 3D version of A Christmas Carol, Jane (The Piano) Campion's lastest foray into the female centred period picture, Bright Star will open the new Phoenix Square cinema programme on 19th November. The film itself portrays the two-year romance between poet John Keats and Fanny Brawn, the daughter of his next-door neighbor when he lived in Hamstead in 1819. Bautifully captured through the changing seasons, the on-off affair never quite get through the bedroom door but there are enough heaving bosoms and anguished cries to make this one of the most impressive pictures of the year. As a love story it resolutely does not seek out your tears but there were few dry eyes at the screening I attended.
METROPIA: Worst film so far. A dreary, washed-out animated sci-fi movie from Sweden, Denmark, and Norway (and with its unrelenting coldness you can really feel it) about - you guessed it! - a world of soul-less government spying on downtrodden proles and the efforts of one man who fights back. Metropia has moments of visual thematic brilliance but not enough by a long chalk to sustain interest in its mere 80mins running time. Didn't help either that the screening took place in what might be the worst cinema in London, the Vue 9, where crap sightlines and the backs of people's heads really were invented by Big Brother.
AN EDUCATION: A lively adaptation of journalist Lynn Barber's memoir about being a promising 16-year old schoolgirl in middle-class Twickenham in 1961 who gets grandly seduced by a guy maybe twice her age is definitely a class act. Exquisitely faithful to its period the movie oozes acting talent - Emma Thompson, Alfred Molina, and Hollywood heart-throb Peter Sarsgaard sporting a pretty convincing British accent - as O-levels get the heave-ho when our heroine is whisked off for a romantic weekend in Paris. But does it end happily? You'll just have to see it to find out!
UP IN THE AIR: Probably the best acting job George Clooney has turned in for a long time, this diamond-sharp satirical rom-com about a man whose job is to fire people on behalf of companies that haven't the guts to do it themselves, sees the ever debonair Clooney flying all over the USA and revelling in the experience of having no ties, romantic or family-wise, with other people. But then he has great sex with another high-flyer and the undercarriage starts to come down under his perfect little lifestyle. Very funny and surprisingly un-Hollywood when it comes in to land, this is grown-up popular cinema at its best.
KICKS: Two Liverpool teenagers, Nicole and Jasmine, lead a pretty dull life where the only highpoint is hanging around the Anfield gates looking out for their favourite midfield player, the gorgeous, rich, and inevitably egotistical Lee Cassidy. But as luck would have it the two girls find themselves in a position that comprehensively beats Lee literally to a standstill. Attractivly shot and played with gusto this is a nicely barbed comment on celebrity culture though a bigger budget might have added depth to some of the 'Scouse cliches.
VALHALLA RISING: Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn made the gruelling Pusher films plus one of 2008's best movies, Bronson, before embarking on this weird hybrid Viking epic that plays like a mash-up between Werner Horzog and Akira Kurosawa. Shot entirely in Scotland and starring Mads Mikkelsen (the villian from Casino Royale) as One-Eye, a mute brute whose violence is so nasty everyone thinks he's been "brought up from Hell", there's lots of moody, broody shots of the astonishing landscapes, bouts of ultra-blood-letting, and huge dollops of spiritual philosophising, that don't all quite sit together. But its vision is undeniable.
BRIGHT STAR: Alongside the new 3D version of A Christmas Carol, Jane (The Piano) Campion's lastest foray into the female centred period picture, Bright Star will open the new Phoenix Square cinema programme on 19th November. The film itself portrays the two-year romance between poet John Keats and Fanny Brawn, the daughter of his next-door neighbor when he lived in Hamstead in 1819. Bautifully captured through the changing seasons, the on-off affair never quite get through the bedroom door but there are enough heaving bosoms and anguished cries to make this one of the most impressive pictures of the year. As a love story it resolutely does not seek out your tears but there were few dry eyes at the screening I attended.
METROPIA: Worst film so far. A dreary, washed-out animated sci-fi movie from Sweden, Denmark, and Norway (and with its unrelenting coldness you can really feel it) about - you guessed it! - a world of soul-less government spying on downtrodden proles and the efforts of one man who fights back. Metropia has moments of visual thematic brilliance but not enough by a long chalk to sustain interest in its mere 80mins running time. Didn't help either that the screening took place in what might be the worst cinema in London, the Vue 9, where crap sightlines and the backs of people's heads really were invented by Big Brother.
Monday, 19 October 2009
More Film Reporting for the London Film Festival
Alan our Film Programmer is staying true to his word.. see below!
PAPER HEART: A semi-fake "documentary" about the efforts of kooky comedienne and actress Charlyne Yi (good in Knocked Up) to find out if ther's such a thing as love and whether she can have some, there just weren't enough funny bits to justify its cute though over-smart concept. Credibility gets strained when Yi meets real-life Hollywood actor Michael Cera (the geeky boyfriend in Juno) who maybe/may-not she falls in love with. Has Marmite all over it.
THE ROAD: An almost biblical adapation of Cormac McCarthy's haunting novel about the end of civilisation and its brutal aftermath, John (The Assissination of Jesse James) Hillcoat's direction is as faultless as the acting (by Viggo Mortensen especially) which totally carries you along with its tale of a father and his 12-year-old son walking through an annihilated USA towards the sea. En route they fight off hunger, a lot of doomy SFX, and remarkably scary cannibals. You never find out what took the world out but surviving the Armageddon of The Road proves a profoundly rewarding watch.
ENTER THE VOID: French bad-boy Gasper Noe (Seul Conta Tout, Irreversible) turned up in person at the start of his latest assult on the senses (sonic, visual, and moral) and described his nearly 3 hour hallucinatory death epic as "Long and painful on your eyes. Enjoy the trip”. With more CGI than Avatar and a trillion times more sex (top of which was a "vagina-cam" shot of an ejaculating penis; which on a screen the size of Centre Court was pretty gobsmacking!) you can't deny Noe's genius for technique, but anyone looking for simple things like a story or characters you might care about for more than 2 minutes, should probably look elsewhere. Best film ever made though if you're incredibly and hopelessly stoned.
WHITE MATERIAL: The always excellent Claire Denis surprises yet again with an utterly contemporary portrait of a family of washed up French colonials getting their comeuppence when a coup breaks out in their tropical African country and life, dreams, history, everything, becomes very cheap indeed. A mesmerising performance (as always) from Isabelle Huppert as the mother fighting hard to keep everyone going when in fact they're all just falling down around her, is matched by some genuinely chilling scenes of drugged-up 10-year-old with machetes and Christophe Lambert (remember him from The Highlander movies?) looking older than a dried up coffe-bean. A must-see brilliant piece of cinema.
PAPER HEART: A semi-fake "documentary" about the efforts of kooky comedienne and actress Charlyne Yi (good in Knocked Up) to find out if ther's such a thing as love and whether she can have some, there just weren't enough funny bits to justify its cute though over-smart concept. Credibility gets strained when Yi meets real-life Hollywood actor Michael Cera (the geeky boyfriend in Juno) who maybe/may-not she falls in love with. Has Marmite all over it.
THE ROAD: An almost biblical adapation of Cormac McCarthy's haunting novel about the end of civilisation and its brutal aftermath, John (The Assissination of Jesse James) Hillcoat's direction is as faultless as the acting (by Viggo Mortensen especially) which totally carries you along with its tale of a father and his 12-year-old son walking through an annihilated USA towards the sea. En route they fight off hunger, a lot of doomy SFX, and remarkably scary cannibals. You never find out what took the world out but surviving the Armageddon of The Road proves a profoundly rewarding watch.
ENTER THE VOID: French bad-boy Gasper Noe (Seul Conta Tout, Irreversible) turned up in person at the start of his latest assult on the senses (sonic, visual, and moral) and described his nearly 3 hour hallucinatory death epic as "Long and painful on your eyes. Enjoy the trip”. With more CGI than Avatar and a trillion times more sex (top of which was a "vagina-cam" shot of an ejaculating penis; which on a screen the size of Centre Court was pretty gobsmacking!) you can't deny Noe's genius for technique, but anyone looking for simple things like a story or characters you might care about for more than 2 minutes, should probably look elsewhere. Best film ever made though if you're incredibly and hopelessly stoned.
WHITE MATERIAL: The always excellent Claire Denis surprises yet again with an utterly contemporary portrait of a family of washed up French colonials getting their comeuppence when a coup breaks out in their tropical African country and life, dreams, history, everything, becomes very cheap indeed. A mesmerising performance (as always) from Isabelle Huppert as the mother fighting hard to keep everyone going when in fact they're all just falling down around her, is matched by some genuinely chilling scenes of drugged-up 10-year-old with machetes and Christophe Lambert (remember him from The Highlander movies?) looking older than a dried up coffe-bean. A must-see brilliant piece of cinema.
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PHOENIX SQUARE
Phoenix Square Film & Digital Media will offer state of the art experiences in cinema, exhibition and media production. We open to the public on Thursday 19th November.
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