Odds and Ends by Joseph Harker

Joseph Harker‘s poem appeared in qarrtsiluni back in October (whence the recording of his reading). Swoon blogged (in Dutch) about the making of the video here.

For a long time, I’ve wanted to make a film for my father, who died last year. Plenty of ideas. Especially ideas about how things are definitely not allowed to look. Or sound. The epitaph could not be more than a tribute to his own simplicity.

In the poem “Odds and Ends” (Qarrtsiluni Podcast 28.10.2011) by Joseph Harker, I found the words summoned up the right atmosphere for me. I was even more excited when Joseph gave permission to use his poem.

[…]

For the images I wanted a split. 2 tracks of images. Two streams of thought.

I used footage from “And So They Live,” a documentary from 1940 by John Ferno and Julian Roffman. Simplicity and warmth were the central concepts that I was looking at in these images. I also used (self-filmed) images from the train to my hometown. The contrast of the warmth and tranquility in the nostalgic images with the blurred images of the train rushing forward to my roots is, for me, successful evocation.


(Translation by Google and guesswork)

3 Comments

  1. Reply
    sherry o'keefe 19 December, 2011

    the blurred images of the train rushing forward works so well with this poem and the documentary. what a great poem, as well.

    nice to experience you again, marc!

    sherry

  2. Reply
    Swoon 20 December, 2011

    Thanks Sherry.

  3. Reply

    […] very flattered that the piece had an impact, which was interpreted further in a new medium. (Dave Bonta liked it enough to share it, too!) That, to me, is a unique and interesting gift. (Considering that […]

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