359 - Wonderland: Birmingham's Cinema Stories

Flatpack Festival and Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery are running a marvellous exhibition until 30th October 2022: Wonderland tells stories of filmgoing and cinema culture in Birmingham. It begins with the earliest days of cinematic experimentation, including a visit from Eadweard Muybridge to demonstrate his moving images, through the glory days of the picture palaces in the 1930s and 40s, the influence of Asian and Caribbean immigration, and the slump of the 1980s, to where we are today, with a combination of multiplexes and more specialised venues, including, of course, the Electric, which continues to proudly boast the title of the UK's oldest working cinema. It's a densely packed exhibition, full of elegantly and concisely organised information, focusing not only on places and eras but also people: individual attention is given to notable figures such as Iris Barry, the UK's first female film critic, Waller Jeffs, who popularised cinema in the 1900s with his annual seasons at the Curzon Hall and travelling show, and Oscar Deutsch, the Balsall Heath-born creator of the Odeon brand, the first cinema of which opened in Perry Barr in 1930. Wonderland: Birmingham's Cinema Stories is free to visit at BMAG until October 30th, and it's a must-see for anyone interested in filmgoing in Birmingham. The history it describes is cultural, technological, social and economic, and it's beautifully curated and designed to do just that. It's also got a big interactive map in the middle where you can look for your house and see the five cinemas that used to be on your road back in 1940. Don't miss it. Recorded on 30th May 2022.