Home of Metal put on a series of cinematic events in its ‘Metal on Film’ programme. It was a juggernaut of Heavy Metal cinema, blazing a trail across the Black Country with an awesome programme of documentaries, rare archive, late-night horror and special guests. The heart of the action was at the Light House Cinema in Wolverhampton, with a menu of movies which will took audiences from the Midlands foundries to Morroccan rooftops, from spandex nonsense to raw doom.

The following screenings and associated events took place as part of Metal on Film held in September 2011 across several different venues in Birmingham and the Black Country.

Thursday 1st September

Vintage Mobile Cinema | Outside Wolverhampton Art Gallery 
Beautiful 1960s film-bus, hosting screenings throughout the afternoon.

Heavy Heads | Walkabout, Wolverhampton 
Gird your loins for a packed weekend with a night of short films and musical trivia. Includes heavy metal bingo and Guess the Solo.

Friday 2 September

Vintage Mobile Cinema | Dudley Museum & Art Gallery 
Beautiful 1960s film-bus, hosting screenings throughout the day.

Roots of Metal | The Public
Black Country archive programme screening throughout the day

Between the Hammer and the Anvil | New Art Gallery Walsall
Programme of live footage, promos and cult shorts, as part of special event Between the Hammer and The Anvil.

Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey | Light House
This documentary by a metal-loving sociologist is an excellent introduction for the uninitiated. Interviewees include Tony Iommi, Lemmy and Alice Cooper.

Dream Deceivers: The Story Behind James Vance vs. Judas Priest | Light House
A portrait of the legal and media storm stirred up when the parents of a young suicide victim took Judas Priest to court.

 I Tre Volti Della Paura (aka: Black Sabbath) | Light House
The film which gave the band their name, Mario Bava’s cult 1963 horror still retains the power to chill.

Saturday 3 September

Vintage Mobile Cinema | New Art Gallery Walsall 
Beautiful 1960s film-bus, hosting screenings throughout the day.

Roots of Metal | The Public + Black Country Living Museum 
Black Country archive programme screening throughout the day.

Promised Land of Heavy Metal | The Public 
Finnish metal pioneer Kimmo Kuusniemi (Sarcofagus) returns to his home country to find out how bands like Lordi took metal to the mainstream.

Sound it out | The Public
Jeanie Finlay presents her new documentary, about Teesside’s last surviving independent record shop.

In Bed with Chris Needham + More Bad News | Light House 
Two milestones of metal filmmaking, one a Video Diary by a Loughborough teenager and the other a Comic Strip spoof which climaxes at Monsters of Rock. Followed by a Q&A with Chris Needham himself.

Heavy Metal Parking Lot – Silver Jubilee | Light House 
This year celebrating its 25th anniversary, Krulik and Heyn’s VHS document of Judas Priest fans outside a gig in Maryland is the essence of 1986 and was apparently staple viewing on the Nirvana tour-bus.

The Beyond | Light House 
Napalm Death lynchpin Shane Embury has selected one of his favourite horror movies, this classic Lucio Fulci video nasty about a hotel concealing the gateway to hell..

Sunday 4 September

Roots of Metal | The Public + Black Country Living Museum 

Free Black Country archive programme screening throughout the day.

Vintage Mobile Cinema | Haden Hill House 
Beautiful 1960s film-bus, hosting screenings throughout the day.

Arena: Heavy Metal | Light House
Rarely-screened BBC documentary on the 80s metal boom, featuring Slayer, Napalm Death, Sabbath and many more. Plus a new Sky Arts documentary on Home of Metal.

Joe the Chainsmith + The Saturday Men | Light House
Two snapshots of Black Country masculinity in the days before metal.

Metal Till I Die | Light House 
Shorts, animation and artists’ film of a metallic bent including Dylan, Ania Winiarska’s beautiful portrait of a Belfast teenager.

Cathy Come Home | Light House
Ken Loach’s ground-breaking 1968 docu-drama was partly filmed in Aston, in the neighbourhoods where Black Sabbath grew up.

Heavy Metal in Baghdad | Light House 
Terrific Vice documentary about young Iraqi metal band Acrassicauda, and their efforts to rehearse, perform and survive while the city around them is torn apart.

This is Spinal Tap | Light House 
The mother of all metal films, and one of the funniest comedies ever made.

The Black Country season of activity has been curated and organised by Capsule on behalf of the Black Country Arts Partnership and supported by Arts Council England, Renaissance West Midlands and MLA. Metal on Film is supported by Screen West Midlands and MACE.