Shop at Fact

Just found out the Shop at Fact is to close come the end of March 2011
sad times. .. ..

Sick of always losing in the film quiz?
You should swot up on your knowledge in the Shop at Fact!
A wee space crammed floor to ceiling with DVDs, magazines, gift cards and exhibition catalogues, it houses a great array of weird and wonderful books. There’s weighty tomes on urban art, new media and modern architecture but the majority of shelf space is devoted to books on classic and contemporary cinema. There’s books on important genres like French and Spanish cinema, Bollywood and American indies alongside anthologies and critical essays on visionary directors like David Lynch, Pedro Almodovar, Alex Cox and Jean-​Luc Godard.
Now, who played Serge Gainsbourg in the recent biopic? :-)

Although Fact is a fantastic place, a great cinema, a great café and a great bar, as well as a great exhibition space and media centre, I have my doubts about this shop!
It seems to be one of those twee, quirky and very overpriced shops that hoard together arty farty bits and bobs and whack a huge price tag on them, sell them in a arty and expensive carrier bag and laugh at those that have wasted £3.00 on a postcard to use as a bookmark in their £25.00 web design in the art world textbook.
E verything in this shop can be bought online or in other shops cheaper, it’s just all in one place here and its arty farty and therefore those that buy into the media house lifestyle will lap it up, much like Liverpool’s Utility shops that sell benches and stools for hundreds of pounds!
Maybe I’m only slating this way of trading because i’m skint, or maybe it’s because I’d rather spend my money on experiences and travelling than books on Art in War! Ball sacks!

The Shop at Fact is a little glass walled area at the back of the ground floor. It doesn’t look up to much until you step inside. The items on sale here are wonderful, from the cuddly lambanana’s to the arty books, there is so much on offer here you wont find anywhere else.
The items are cheap, but they are of a very high quality and being so rare, you don’t mind paying a little extra. The staff are very friendly throughout FACT and they are happy to suggest a gift and they will wrap your item for you if you wish.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a huge fan of monkey-​themed greetings cards. I don’t know what it is, but chimps and gorillas just have the card X Factor for me.
This is where this lovely place comes in. The FACT store does not disappoint, with a great array of unusual and unique gifts, cards, books, DVDS, art guides and much more, this is a haven to peruse for a good hour or two.
Being culturally ignorant, I was most enthralled by the cuddly superlambanas. Who on earth would not want a superlambana teddy? A great invention, indeed.
The store also offers some great pieces of jewellery. Bright, colourful and unusual.
Journals and notebooks were a point of interest, and I particularly liked the book on album artwork. Because if nothing else, I am a music nerd.
Definitely one of the best stores I’ve ever been in.

This place deserves its own distinct review from FACT because it totally understands its audience and those who frequent FACT’s amenities. They pull no punches when it comes to stocking the most interesting, informative and obsqure material in the subjects of art, design, photography and cinema.
I like anywhere that isn’t afraid to look pretentious because it’s better that than dumb down and forget some of the best, albeit difficult, names and titles in these fields. Having recently read a very intersting article on Slavoj Zizek I was happy to see a copy of his very demanding but thoroughly entertaining Pervert’s Guide To Cinema here.
If you’re stuck for something challenging in HMV or Waterstones then this place is for you. It looks like a tiny after thought, tooked away in the corner of the ground floor lobby but it’s packed full of great ideas and beautiful works.

Though only a small sectioned off area at the rear of the FACT building this shop is one of the best places in Liverpool to get hold of movie related books and gifts. Their selection of postcards featuring abstract versions of the city centre (the perfect small keepsake for the homesick art student) and old posters of B-​Movies and James Bond films (the perfect present label for the cinema obsessive) are fantastic, as is their collection of classic book cover posters (the one for «Slaughterhouse 5» currently adorns my wall and I plan on picking up several more).
The shop also carries a great selection of BFI guides to genre and directors (the «100 Best American Independent Films», which I picked up here, has been a book that I go back to again and again when I need something a little different to watch).
The staff here (it’s usually just the one guy) is happy to recommend suitable gifts or purchases and is happy to just have a bit of a movie fanboy jawing session.