~ July 2016 ~

To Be There by Sharon Lenger

On 7 July, 2016 by Dave Bonta with 1 Comments - Author-made videopoems
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An author-made videopoem from 2008 by Israeli filmmaker Sharon Lenger, offering “Brief glimpses into residential apartments in Tel-Aviv. An attempt to breathe in the life that is there, and feel slightly at home,” according to the description in the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival’s 2010 archive, where it was part of a program called “Poetic Tel Aviv.” In addition to ZEBRA, the video has been shown in galleries and at festivals around the world, winning first prize in the “Life into Art” show at the Pen and Brush gallery, New York, and second prize at EMERGEANDSEE 2011, Berlin.

Ends by Saba Riazi

On 6 July, 2016 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Author-made videopoems
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https://vimeo.com/172833728/34ea4be1a0

An author-made videopoem by Saba Riazi, a young Iranian filmmaker who divides her time between Tehran and Brooklyn. The music and sound design are by Bahar Royayi. To see more of Riazi’s very personal, idiosyncratic work, check out the videopoems page on her website. Her statement at the head of that page is worth quoting in full, so that perhaps other filmmakers in her situation will feel inspired to follow her example:

To us NYU film graduates, high production values are almost equal to ethics and principles. After three and a half years of having “Ice cream” my first feature in post production I realized I have lost “time” waiting for finances to come to be able to finish Ice cream. This has been the issue for many of my colleagues who wanted to make REAL MOVIES. So I decided, in the meantime I will shoot my life on my iphone or Canon 70D as I go, when I can and where I can and I will try to finish up weekly or biweekly video projects, freestyle, almost in form of a poem. You might notice sound pops, imperfect cuts and abstract narratives in these pieces and although those are conscious and some intentional, the only reason I make these videos is that they actually make me happy. They are very personal creative projects and they give me a chance to express myself and exercise my craft, without worrying about industry standards and three act structure and so on and so forth. [link added]

De Tak / The Branch (La Branche) by Yves Bonnefoy

On 5 July, 2016 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Videopoems
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And I return, a shadow on the white ground,
To your sleep that haunts my memory,
I pluck you from your dream, which scatters,
Being only water filled with light.

To mark the July 1 death of the great Yves Bonnefoy, Marc Neys A.K.A. Swoon made public what he called “an older (and personal) videopoem, never released before,” featuring his own reading of Bonnefoy’s poem “La Branche” in a Dutch translation by Jan H. Mysjkin with the English translation by Alison Croggon in subtitles.

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Where Commuters Run Over Black Children, 1971 by Lillien Waller

On 2 July, 2016 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Interview videos, Videopoems
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Generally, I think my work is interested in how history bears down on the individual and on communities, how it affects people’s lives in large ways, as in social policy, but also in kind of the small things that trickle down, like how much glass is on your kid’s playground.

For Fourth of July weekend, here’s a portrait of Detroit-based poet Lillien Waller combining interview excerpts with historic footage and Waller’s recitation of her poem. It was directed by Oren Goldenberg (Cass Corridor Films) for Kresge Arts in Detroit, where Waller was a Literary Arts Fellow in 2015. The soundtrack incorporates music by Sterling Toles.

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