~ July 2017 ~
Review of Poetry Film screening at the MIX conference
Bath Spa University, July 2017
Revolution, Regeneration, Reflections. These were the themes chosen for the MIX 2017 conference to celebrate the human capacity for renewal and experimentation combined with deep thought and to look at where creative writing, storytelling, and media creation intersect with and/or are dependent upon technology. The programme featured a mix of academic papers, practitioner presentations, seminars, keynotes, discussions, workshops and poetry film screenings.
Artists/poets and digital writers were asked to submit poetry films/film poems/video poetry responding to these themes. Nineteen poetry films from the international submissions received were screened throughout the duration of the conference.
The selection was curated by Lucy English, Reader in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and co-founder of Liberated Words, and Zata Banks, founder of PoetryFilm, an influential research arts project and film screening series.
I wondered if the themes of revolution, regeneration and reflections were too optimistic in theme. Perhaps war, power, consumerism, genocide, apocalypse, violence and chaos are nearer to what governs our thoughts at present.
Some of the poetry films covered predictable ground: love, word play, abstracts and introspection. Other films braved the realms of suicide, oppression, humour and sustainability. Some were cleverly and/or beautifully designed, others revealed their workings (you almost saw the filmmaker at work).
The curation itself was expertly put together. The viewer could watch to the end without feeling bombarded or overwhelmed, while at the same time feeling they had traveled; a journey which was troubling at times, more re-assuring at the end. We were taken from political marginalisation and resistance to universal sustainability in 19 films.
The first film, If We Must Die by Othneil Smith, used imagery from a 1970s Blaxploitation film to highlight resistance and a 1919 sonnet written in response to attacks on African-American communities, and began:
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
The last film, Kate Flaherty’s A Mouse’s Prayer, with a delicate voice and a mouse’s prayer to the moon, ended:
O moon, you see me
when others do not,
you know my brown fur’s sheen,
and you reflect for me
my own great smallness
in your immensely
dark and speckled sky.
At the end of the first film and the beginning of the last film, the viewer literally looked into someone’s face. This created an intimate space, connected the viewer to the personal and forged the link between responsibility and hope.
Whilst I watched, I kept thinking: this is a poet’s curation (but then, what is a poetry film if it’s not poetry?). There were no long distracting pages of seemingly endless credits, no words were trying to compete with images and there were no excessive soundtracks. Almost all the films selected had near equal elements of sound, image and text.
Selecting for a poetry film curation isn’t just about choosing the best films submitted. The films need to sit alongside one another to flow, illuminate, juxtapose — the whole should be greater than the sum of its parts.
I was able to recognize Zata’s experimental film choices that invited us to focus on semiotics. The meaning making systems in the elements that make up the films (sound, movement, etc). In Matthew Griffith’s Pain in Colour, we were asked to find meaning through colour, movement and sound but with no words.
But can you have a poem without words? I’m not sure. But I know you can have a ‘poetic experience’ and Pain in Colour offered up its own meanings within the whole curation. I’m not sure it would have done so on its own. I would prefer to see it in a gallery space, where I may be less self-conscious of finding a specific context and meaning.
The territory of poetry film is still being mapped. And as I watched the films the nagging question hanging in the mainly empty auditorium was ‘What is poetry film?’ The curation didn’t direct me to the answer. But it led me to wonder if poetry film needs to be more confident in embracing its own genres (whether that is seen as another type of art film or an entirely new genre of poetry), and then we may be nearer to developing clearer analytical language and critical discourses.
In the middle of the curation, the background evangelist in Cindy St. Onge’s Road to Damascus and the end line in Dave Bonta’s Grassland, “I’ll break like bread at your table”, gave a jolt toward the anxieties of faith and a hope for something more, and was a reminder that the curation was a journey from resistance to sustainability.
Angie Bogachenko’s version of Oracle of a Found Shoe and the collaboration between Cheryl Gross and Lucy English, Shop, both animations, demonstrated that animation works when the images and words work together, where you can’t see the seam between the two. Both showed the strength of the poem and the skill of the animator.
I noted that 11 of the 19 films, by nature of the poem or the choice of presentation, had a strong performance element. This reflects the balance of new work that I have seen emerging elsewhere. Poetry film is an ideal medium to embody spoken word poetry, and as a genre I think it will bring an immediate and urgent contribution to the field.
By design or chance, the curation at MIX 2017 brought a rhythm, line by line, film by film, that on a large scale was sustained to the end. The themes created a forward momentum — and that reflects the journey of poetry film itself.
Call for work: new Oregon-based poetry film festival Cinema Poetica
Poetry film festivals are pretty thin on the ground in North America right now, so I was excited to hear about a new one set for October 28 in Ashland, Oregon as part of the Ashland Literary Arts Festival and sponsored by a newish journal called The Timberline Review. Like most film festivals, Cinema Poetica is set up as a contest, and submissions are via FilmFreeway, but the guidelines make it clear that they’re open to decidedly DIY, low-budget, poet-produced videos. It’s not entirely clear whether more professionally made poetry films are welcome, but they don’t appear to be excluded by the rules and terms per se. Instead, I think the “challenge” is intended to encourage adventurous poets with crap equipment to give it a go. But it might be worth querying the editors before submitting more polished work.
There are several other unique features of this contest, mostly reflecting the typical mindset of an American print literary magazine (e.g. the assumption that the poem is essentially textual, preceding the video, and the requirement that it be previously unpublished to be considered for publication) so I’ll take the liberty of reproducing their guidelines in full:
Cinema Poetica
The Timberline Review is excited to host Cinema Poetica, a film festival celebrating the cinema of poetry, an emerging short-film genre.
Make a one- to three-minute film featuring a poem you’ve written, or perhaps a poem you wish you’d written, as the dramatic narrative.
It’s poetry. Budget is limited. Technology is what you can shoot on your phone. There aren’t going to be any car chases, stunt doubles, FX, studio overdubs, 35 mm stock, or spaceships.
The Cinema Poetica Challenge
Strip it down to the poem. Strive to make your film not “polished,” but ever more raw, primitive, visceral, surprising, intuitive.
Start with the poem and let the poem be your guide. Shoot in real time. Shoot in real locations. Shoot in color. Incorporate location sound into your film. If you’re going to use music, make the music on camera. Use natural lighting. Use a handheld camera. Forget about special effects and optical filters.
Keep it low-tech and keep it real. Focus on the content of the poem.
For very basic access to editing tools, here’s a good – and free – editing app designed specifically for mobile devices — Adobe Premiere Clip.
Rules and Terms
Film must include a poem narrative and not just include the poem but be grounded in it. In other words, dramatize your poem.
All film submissions should be made through Film Freeway. Ready to submit?
Regular submission period runs August 1st through September 30th, 2017.
Maximum running time is 3 minutes.
Poems can be in any language, but if not in English, you must provide English subtitles.
No filmed readings, please.
If the underlying poem is not the submitter’s own original work, by submitting your film you acknowledge and warrant that you have obtained any and all necessary permissions from the author of the work, which must include the right to record and perform the poem you’ve used in your film.
Judging Criteria
All films will be evaluated by an independent group of filmmakers and poets. Films judged to best exemplify the Cinema Poetica challenge will be screened at the festival, receive additional recognition, and be considered for the Grand Prize* and Audience Favorite.
Prizes
Grand Prize winner receives a $250 cash prize and possible publication in The Timberline Review.*
Audience favorite receives a hand-drawn broadside of the poem.
Top ten finalists receive special mention and promotion on The Timberline Review website.
*To be considered for publication, poem must be previously unpublished in the English language.
The Festival
Films will be screened throughout the day, October 28, 2017, in the Hannon Library, on the Southern Oregon University campus in Ashland, Oregon, before an adoring public of indie publishers, authors, filmmakers, editors, and artists celebrating the independent spirit of film, literary, and visual arts. There is no admission fee. All are welcome to attend.
The Grand Prize winner, if present, may be invited to join a conversation about poetry and film with our judges and editors.
And Saturday evening at 6:00, it’s a party! Stay tuned for all the details.
The Gallery
Browse some examples of filmed poetry.
Questions
Get more information about the Ashland Literary Arts Festival, or contact editors@timberlinereview.com if you have any other questions.
The Fine Print
Cinema Poetica is a film contest, open to all, sponsored by The Timberline Review, a literary journal published by Willamette Writers, a 501(c)3 organization, based in Portland, Oregon.
Timberline Review editorial staff and members of the Willamette Writers Board of Directors and their immediate family members are not eligible for the Grand Prize.
All films remain the property of the submitter. The Timberline Review and Cinema Poetica retain the right to publicly display any film submitted to the Cinema Poetica film festival, for non-commercial purposes. The Timberline Review retains the right to publish, at its sole discretion, any underlying poem submitted to Cinema Poetica.
Special Thanks
Kim Stafford, Brian Padian, Cascadia Publishers, Mercuria Press, and our partners, Willamette Writers, Ashland Literary Arts Festival, and Film Freeway.
Call for artists’ participation in the 6th International Video Poetry Festival | Athens Greece
The +Institute [for Experimental Arts] and Void Network
present
the 6th International Video Poetry Festival 2017
Winter 2017
at Free Self-Organised Theatre EMBROS / Athens / Greece
The yearly International Video Poetry Festival 2017 will be held for sixth time in Greece in Athens. Approximately 2500 people attended the festival last years.
This year there will be one zone of the festival. The unique zone will include video poems, visual poems, short film poems and cinematic poetry by artists from all over the world (America, Asia, Europe, Africa).
We are inviting the artists – poets, video artists, directors, producers – who want to visit the festival to present their art project at the Theatre. We can provide to them accommodation for 3 days one day before the festival, during the festival and one day afterwards.
The International Video Poetry Festival 2017 attempts to create an open public space for the creative expression of all tendencies and streams of contemporary visual poetry.
It is very important to notice that this festival is a part of the counter culture activities of Void Network and the +Institute [for Experimental Arts] and will be a non-sponsored, free entrance, non commercial and non profit event. The festival will cover the costs (2000 posters, 15.000 flyers, high quality technical equipment) from the incomes of the bar of the festival. All the participating artists and the organizing groups will participate voluntary in the festival.
This year the +Institute [for Experimental Arts] invites the artists and creators of video poems to participate from their side in our effort to cover the expenses of the festival without private or state sponsorship. For this reason we propose to the artists the suggested donation of 5 euros for the submission of their video poems. THE PARTICIPATION IS FREE. Each artist can send more than one work (1 to 3 video poems for free). You can add the suggested donation of 5 euro (or more) to the following bank account
National Bank of Greece 04664860451 Iban GR2101100460000004664860451 Swift (BIC) ETHNGRAA
Void Network started organizing multi media poetry nights in 1990. Void Network and +the Institute [for Experimental Arts] believe that multi media Poetry Nights and Video Poetry shows can vibrate in the heart of the Metropolis, bring new audiences in contact with contemporary poetry and open new creative dimensions for this ancient art. To achieve this, we respect the aspirations and the objectives of the artists, create high quality self organized exhibition areas and show rooms, we work with professional technicians and we offer meeting points and fields of expression for artists and people that tend to stand antagonistically to the mainstream culture.
We would like to thank Dave Bonta from the Moving Poems, a global site with the best video poems in the web that inspired us to create the International Video Poetry Festival in Athens and we cooperate since 2012 to spread out the announcement of the Festival each year so as to gather new video poems from all over the world.
International Video Poetry Festival photos on Flickr
You can look here and here for some photos of previous poetry nights
organized by Void Network and + the Institute [for Experimental Arts]
And visit Flickr for more photos from Void Network art, events and actions
APPLICATION FORM CLICK THE BELOW LINK:
https://docs.google.com/forms/
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: no later than November 20, 2017 (date of postmark)
SUBMIT YOUR POEM(S)
Submit your poem(s) in three simple steps:
- Click here to downloadand complete the submission form
- Your participation is FREE. Please you can add the suggested donation of 5 euro (or more) to the following bank account
National Bank of Greece 04664860451 Iban GR2101100460000004664860451 Swift (BIC) ETHNGRAA
- Please, send the submission material via email as following:
- a)via email:
your video poems in mp4 or mov file (all video poems in a single we transfer file)
the submission form and photos in .jpg file
Email: theinstitutecontact [at] gmail.com
*please replace [at] with @ symbol to send email
APPLICATION 2017
HOW TO SUBMIT A WORK
- Complete the application form. You have to send it back to the email account theinstitutecontact@gmail.com
Συμπληρώστε την αίτηση. Θα χρειαστεί να την στείλετε στον ηλεκτρονικό λογαριασμό theinstitutecontact@gmail.com
- Attach 1 to 3 images (jpeg, tiff) of your artwork to the email containing this application form.
Χρειάζεται να επισυνάψετε 1-3 εικόνες (σε μορφή jpeg, tiff) της δουλειά σας στο email μαζί με αυτή την αίτηση
- Send the digital file of your video poems through internet using the email account theinstitutecontact@gmail.com.
We propose the following Definition and File Type
Definition:
720 x 576
1280 x 720
1920 x 1080
File Type:
mp4
mov
You can use wetransfer.com or any other FREE SERVICE to send us big files.
Στείλτε τα αρχεία με τα βιντεο-ποιήματά σας μέσω email στον ηλεκτρονικό λογαριασμό theinstitutecontact@gmail.com. Μπορείτε να χρησιμοποιήσετε το wetransfer.com ή οποιαδήποτε άλλο ελεύθερο διαδικτυακό ταχυδρομείο για να στείλετε μεγάλα αρχεία.
Σας προτείνουμε τις παρακάτω τεχνικές λεπτομέρειες
Definition:
720 x 576
1280 x 720
1920 x 1080
File Type:
mp4
mov
- It is very important to name your files (videos and still images, photos) as it is shown below:
Title of video poem
Artist’s name
Country
Είναι σημαντικό να ονομάσετε τα αρχεία που θα στείλετε (εικόνες και βίντεο) όπως φαίνεται στο παράδειγμα παρακάτω:
Τίτλος Βιντεοποιήματος
Όνομα καλλιτέχνη
Χώρα Συμμετοχής
- Be careful, you have to send only one email with
- the application form
- the link to download the video poems or the video poems archives
- the still images of the video poems
- any website of your art work projects
Προσοχή, θα πρέπει να στείλετε μόνο ένα email το οποίο θα περιλαμβάνει:
α. την αίτηση συμμετοχής
β. το Link που χρειάζεται για να κατεβάσουμε τα βιντεοποιήματα ή το ίδιο το αρχείο που μας στέλνετε
γ. τις εικόνες
δ. website του καλλιτεχνικού σας έργου
- We recommend you to add English or Greek subtitles to your video poems even if the spoken language is in English as it will be easier for people outside the English spoken world to understand it.
Σας προτείνουμε να προσθέσετε αγγλικούς υπότιτλους στο βίντεο σας έτσι ώστε να μπορεί αυτό να συμπεριληφθεί σε προβολές του προγράμματος του Φεστιβάλ σε άλλες χώρες εκτός Ελλάδος.
We suggest you to send your video poems through internet. Otherwise you can also post your DVD file in the following address / Προτείνουμε η αποστολή των βιντεο–ποιημάτων σας να γίνει μέσω email. Διαφορετικά ταχυδρομήσετε το DVD με τα αρχεία σας στην διεύθυνση
INTERNATIONAL FILM POETRY FESTIVAL
TASOS SAGRIS
159 KREONTOS
SEPOLIA ATHENS
GREECE 10443
Please post it not later than November 20, 2017 (date of postmark) to the International Film Poetry Festival, Athens.
Παρακαλούμε πολύ μην τα ταχυδρομήσετε αργότερα από της 20 Νοέμβρη2017.
+ the Institute [for Experimental Arts] will inform you about your participation in early December 2017.
Το +Ινστιτούτο [Πειραματικών Τεχνών] θα σας ενημερώσει για την συμμετοχή σας έως τις αρχές Δεκεμβρίου 2017.
Dark Place by Lucy English
As her ambitious Book of Hours has unfolded, it’s been fascinating to watch Lucy English‘s poetry evolve and adapt to the online video medium and to the exigencies of particular film-making styles. Here’s how Stevie Ronnie, her collaborator for this film (along with composer Jim Ronnie), describes their process at Vimeo:
Lucy and I wanted to try something different as a way of kick starting the collaborative process for Dark Place. It started from a desire to work on something that was going to become part of Lucy’s Book of Hours poetry film project. Poetry films often begin with the words or footage or sound but we decided to start from a colour palette. I created a palette and sent it to Lucy and she wrote the poem from the colours. Lucy then sent me a couple of drafts of the poem and, after spending some time digesting Lucy’s words, I decided to respond to it visually. Using the colours that I found in Lucy’s poem I rendered the poem as a painting, where each mark on the canvas represents a letter in the poem. I then captured this process as a series of still images which have been strung together into the film. The soundtrack, performed by my father Jim Ronnie, was composed and added during the video editing phase as a response to the poem’s images and the words.
From 35,000 Feet / Praise Aviophobia by Geffrey Davis
The latest release from Motionpoems‘ Season 7 was directed by Chad Howitt, and is based on a poem by Geffrey Davis from his 2014 collection Revising the Storm. The cinematography is by James Laxton, who was also the Director of Photography for Moonlight, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Call for submissions: Filmpoem Festival 2017 at Depot, Lewes
Filmpoem, the artists’ moving image project founded by British artist Alastair Cook in 2010, is at long last sponsoring another poetry-film festival and competition, this time partnering with Depot in Lewes, East Sussex and the UK’s Poetry Society. Submissions are open through September 8th, and the festival will be held on Saturday, October 28th.
Note that the rules are a bit stricter than for most poetry-film festivals: submission is by physical artifact (USB stick or DVD) only, and explicit permission, rather than simply the blanket permission granted by a Creative Commons licence, must be obtained for all copyrighted material such as music used in the film. UPDATE: Digital submissions and CC licences are now permitted. See the complete guidelines on the Filmpoem website.
While you’re there, be sure to read the essay on the About page, which appears to have been recently augmented with new material, for a better understanding of what Alastair means by filmpoetry.
