Crust, 8pm, Thurs 16th May, Stirchley United Working Men’s Club

“The Citizen Kane of boxing shrimp movies”

On Thursday 16th May at 8pm, Stirchley Happenings will be joining forces with the I.W.W. union, who run a regular film night at Stirchley Working Men’s Club, to present a free screening of Crust; a major midlands feature film about a boxing shrimp that not many people know outside of Japan (where it has apparently spawned a new sub-genre of fighting crustacean films).

Why wasn’t it a success? There’s was twist in the tale, as explained by the I.W.W. “Crust was funded as a tax dodge by fishy geezer Guy Hands, who thought he’d cracked a legal loophole existing to promote the UK film industry, which he exploited to avoided shelling out in bills, netting him a tidy return. Unfortunately for him he was caught and made to throw back his takings. Regardless, Crust still didn’t get a proper release, although it has been quietly making waves on the net ever since.”

The reviews for Crust are unanimous in their praise: ‘made me cry real tears’ The Times; ‘all the makings of a cult hit’ Evening Standard; and most telling of all, ‘the Citizen Kane of boxing shrimp movies’ Film Threat.

Crust was directed by local film-maker Mark Locke who has gone on to direct videos for the likes of Dinosaur Jr. and most recently, Birmingham’s own Misty’s Big Adventure. We’ll be showing his short film Eat In as a precurser to the feature.

We hope to see you there, and should mention that although the films don’t have a rating, we’d suggest that it’s a 15.