~ May 2019 ~
Whitman on Film | a video essay at the poet’s bicentennial
I just shared H. Paul Moon‘s adaptation of “America” and mentioned the trilogy of Walt Whitman poetry films of which it is a part. But that’s not all that Paul’s been getting up to. This wonderfully comprehensive and personal video essay takes a chronological look at the use of Whitman’s poetry in film, embracing a multitude of movies and TV shows good and bad, high-brow and low. It’s the centerpiece at Paul’s site whitmanonfilm.com, and will be part of the May 31st Whitman bicentennial screening in Washington, D.C.
This video essay is an analysis of Walt Whitman’s every appearance in cinema and television, leading up to his 200th birthday on May 31, 2019. […] As explained at the end title, this video essay was created for non-commercial educational access, in the spirit of fair use for analysis, with gratitude to these filmmakers who have honored Walt Whitman.
Go to Vimeo for the clickable timecode list of cited films, but really, you should just watch the whole thing straight through. I’ll paste the list in below.
I should mention for the benefit of any newcomers to the film poetry genre that the 1921 film Manhatta by Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand was not only the first real Whitman poetry film, but also arguably the first American avant-garde film and the first proper film poem. (Watch it in full here.) For this reason alone, fans of poetry film and videopoetry need to pour one out for old Walt on May 31. Long may his poetry live and continue to shape art and literature around the world.
02:30 Intolerance (1916): Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking
02:49 Manhatta (1921): A Broadway Pageant; Mannahatta; Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
03:39 Street Scene (1931): Passage to India
04:25 Now Voyager (1942): The Untold Want
05:18 Goodbye, My Fancy (1951): Good-bye My Fancy!
05:54 The Twilight Zone, Season 3 Episode 35 (1962): I Sing the Body Electric
06:46 Fame (1980): I Sing the Body Electric
07:16 Sophie’s Choice (1982)
08:12 Down By Law (1986): The Singer in Prison
08:59 Bull Durham (1988): I Sing the Body Electric
11:17 Dead Poets Society (1989): O Captain! My Captain!; O Me! O Life!; Song of Myself
15:17 Northern Exposure, Season 1 Episode 2 (1990): When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d
17:12 Quiz Show (1994): I Hear America Singing
17:33 Doc Hollywood (1991): Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking
18:14 With Honors (1994): Song of Myself; One Hour to Madness and Joy; Song of Myself
19:49 Little Women (1994): Give me the Splendid, Silent Sun
20:24 Beautiful Dreamers (1992)/Song of Myself (1976)
21:19 Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, Season 5 Ep. 21 (1997): Song of the Open Road; I Hear America Singing
25:31 Love and Death on Long lsland (1997): The Untold Want
26:15 L.I.E. (2001): Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking
27:25 The Notebook (2004): Spontaneous Me; Continuities
29:19 Leaves of Grass (2009): To You
31:10 Breaking Bad (2011-2013): When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
32:57 Whitman Trilogy by H. Paul Moon (2016-2019): America; The Wound Dresser; Civil War poems
33:21 Short Film by Sara Wolfley (2019): Poets to Come
America by Walt Whitman
A recording of Whitman’s own reading of “America” is juxtaposed with shots of demonstrators in Washington, D.C., minutes after the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, to great and moving effect. This is part of a trilogy of Whitman poetry films by H. Paul Moon, “a filmmaker whose body of work includes short and feature-length documentaries, dance films, and experimental cinema, featured and awarded at over a hundred film festivals worldwide.” Paul tells me that he’s currently shooting the last part, a setting of Civil War poems, in the Richmond, Virginia area right now, and based on what he did with “America”, I’m guessing that that film may not shy away from contemporary political references. But we’ll have to wait until May 31 to find out. That’s when the whole trilogy will be posted to whitmanonfilm.com, to mark Whitman’s 200th birthday. They’ll also be screened the same evening in Washington, D.C. as part of a week-long Whitman bicentennial celebration. If you’re in the DC area, check it out.
Moon’s description at Vimeo is worth quoting in full:
The confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was politically divisive, but Walt Whitman’s 19th century wisdom is timeless. In 1892, the poet wrote in prose:
“I have sometimes thought, indeed, that the sole avenue and means of a reconstructed sociology depended, primarily, on a new birth, elevation, expansion, invigoration of woman.”
Towards the end of his life in 1888, he added “America” to his collection “Leaves of Grass,” and then recited four lines from the poem, onto a wax cylinder recording, before he died (it is the only record of his voice in existence):
“Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love”And the written poem proceeds to say:
“A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,
Chair’d in the adamant of Time.”This poetry film combines my documentation of the minutes after Kavanaugh’s confirmation, with Whitman’s own voice, and original music by composer James S. Adams. I used the new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K at 120 frames per second, and color graded using the FilmConvert emulsion/grain simulation of Fuji 8563 RL film stock.
It has been presented at the 2018 Rabbit Heart Film Festival, the 2019 Beeston Film Festival, and the Walt Whitman 200 Festival.
Filmed and edited by H. Paul Moon | Zen Violence Films | zenviolence.com
Music composed and performed by BLK w/ BEAR | James S. Adams | courtesy of LCR Records | littlecrackdrabbit.co.uk/lcr001.html
Poetry film panel included in Saboteur Awards Festival
I was pleased to see this inclusion among the workshops and panels scheduled to coincide with the 2019 Sabateur Awards ceremony, to be held on May 18 at Impact Hub, Birmingham, UK:
2:30-3:30pm Poetry Film: The Power of Collaboration, a panel run by Lucy English, Helen Dewberry, and Sarah Tremlett.
This panel investigates the rapidly growing genre of poetry film, and how it is expanding through social media sharing and poetry film making workshops. Spoken word poet Lucy English, and film makers Helen Dewbery and Sarah Tremett, discuss the collaborative process in the creation of The Book of Hours and share some of the challenges and benefits of cross genre art forms.
The Book of Hours was created by spoken word poet, Lucy English and 27 collaborators from Europe, America and Australia. The Book of Hours is a re-imagining of a medieval book of hours and contains 48 poetry films. The project has been twice longlisted for the Sabotage Awards and was shortlisted for the New Media Writing Prize. Individual films have been screened at a variety of international short film festivals.
Founded in 2011 by Sabotage Reviews, the annual Saboteur Awards include some genuinely interesting categories, with a public nomination process that may or may not make it more egalitarian—which seems on the face of it an odd concern for an essentially competitive undertaking, but literary prize culture always invites a certain amount of anxiety and discomfort, so such gestures toward populism can help dispel that.
Since the vast majority of Moving Poems’ readership is from outside the U.K., it might help to put this in anthropological context. From what I can determine, the U.K. literary scene appears to be largely centered on a bewildering array of prizes and honours, which poets must compete for in order to make themselves more attractive to potential publishers and to assert dominance over fellow poets. This is not surprising given the intensely hierarchical and competitive nature of British tribal culture, especially among the Oxbridge moiety, many of whose members come from the traditional warrior elite. The size and popularity of the literary prize system may also partly be explained by the awkward nature of British courtship practices and intimate relationships more generally, which historically has led individuals to attempt to demonstrate romantic fitness and/or filial piety through grotesque and extreme efforts, helping to launch a colonial empire and the industrial revolution. So, for example, the newly appointed poet laureate, Simon Armitage, cited his indebtedness to his parents in his first statement to the press — and had his qualifications for the job ritually questioned by members of the Oxbridge moiety, disturbed perhaps by his northern and working-class background (though too constrained by linguistic taboos to say so directly).
All that said, I still don’t understand why Lucy English’s Book of Hours project has failed to win in the collaboration category for the Saboteur Awards—not once, but twice. This more than anything indicts the prize system for me, though it’s cool that they have this festival to help broaden the conversation.
Muirburn by Yvonne Reddick
Dutch filmmaker Helmie Stil‘s latest filmpoem, just released online yesterday, is a brilliant follow-up to her award-winning The Opened Field. Like that film, it’s based on a poem from the UK Poetry Society’s 2017 National Poetry Competition, this time the commended poem “Muirburn” by Yvonne Reddick, a scholar of ecopoetry and up-and-coming poet from the northwest of England. And like Dom Bury’s “The Opened Field”, “Muirburn” is an unsettling poem that gives Stil plenty of room to subvert viewers’ expectations, steering just close enough to standard, narrative film-making to draw us in and reveal the—I would argue—true, uncanny reality of nature and our relationship with it. One of the National Poetry Competition judges, Pacale Petit, noted that the poem itself contains “filmic flashes, which dissolve and sear as if glimpsed through a furnace”, and added that it “concludes on an astonishing parting image”—a real gift to the filmmaker, who certainly rose to the challenge.
The film premiered in March, according to the Poetry Society’s announcement post:
Yvonne Reddick also won the inaugural Peggy Poole Award, and the film ‘Muirburn’ was premiered at the Peggy Poole Award readings at Bluecoat, Liverpool on 13 March 2019.
2019 Weimar Poetry Film Award to focus on Spanish-language poetry film scene
A couple of recent posts at Poetryfilmkanal unveiled a unique focus for this year’s Weimar Poetry Film Award and screening. First they announced the programme, which includes some portions in English:
Poetry films from Spain and Latin America
This year, the Weimar Poetry Film Award aims to be a forum for the Spanish-language poetry film scene. With a selection of short films from Spain and Latin America we try to present important positions and centers of the Iberoamerican video poetry. We also want to ask how to improve the visibility and perception of poetry film in Latin America. A main focus will be on Colombia.
Guests: Timo Berger (Berlin), Luis José Galvis Diaz (Colombia), Sonja Hofmann (Cologne), Belén Montero (Spain), Celia Parra (Spain), Cecilia Traslaviña (Colombia).
[…]
The poetry film, one likes to say, is almost as old as film history. From the beginning we find adaptations of poems in the moving image. At the same time, film history was also influenced by poetry in other ways. Many filmmakers were inspired by poets and poems to develop a particularly poetic imagery. But what is this »Cinema of Poetry« (Pasolini) offering for the poetry film genre? Can and should one attach to the poetic auteur cinema in the cinematic adaptations of poems? The lectures by Thomas Zandegiacomo Del Bel (Berlin), Theresia Prammer (Berlin), Lia Martyn (Potsdam), and Tom Konyves (Montreal / Canada) are dealing with the avant-garde film, Pasolini, Tarkowski, and the fundamental questions about the relationship between poetry and film.
[…]
Colombia is the host country of the 20th backup festival. With a selection from the program of the Bogotá Short Film Festival, we are giving an impression of what is waiting for you at the next festival. The anniversary backup will take place from November 27th to December 1st 2019.
[…]
The third edition of the poetry film program »lab/p« has been realized as an Egyptian-German coproduction of OSTPOL Leipzig and Fig Leaf Studios Alexandria. Inspired by the topic »Identity« authors and filmmakers created jointly in 6 international teams 6 short films.
The animation and experimental films of»lab/p 3« take us – each with its unique artistic signature – on an adventure beyond the common aesthetics. They invite us emotionally, politically, ironically and playfully to reflect upon »Identity« in an intercultural context.
[…]
All Friends of poetry and short film can experience again at our award ceremony, what is going on in the contemporary poetry film scene. Our one-hour program features nominated films selected from 250 international submissions. The Spanish poet and producer Celia Parra will read, as poetic opening, from her new book of poetry Pantallas/Screens. The award ceremony will be presented by our jury team Belén Montero, Sonja Hofmann, and Timo Berger. Afterwards, we are offering drinks and Colombian live music in the lounge of the Lichthaus cinema.
[…]
Screening of the documentary Verses & Frames (Spain 2017, 75 min)
Verses & Frames, produced from Galicia (Spain) has been considered the first documentary in the world about the international videopoetry scene. Its intention is giving voice to some of the main videopoets and portraying the emotions that videopoetry arises. Verses & Frames is an emotionaly journey towards the discovery of an increasingly popular artistic phenomenon. Poets and filmmakers share how they see life through this genre and help answer the question: what is this videopoetry thing?
(Click through for times, dates and locations.)
Another post on Poetryfilmkanal this past week introduced the jury for the 2019 competition: Belén Montero, Sonja Hofmann, and Timo Berger. Montero is the director of the documentary on videopoetry mentioned above, Versogramas (which I reviewed last year), and the other two are experts on Latin American poetry, literature and film — a perfect fit for this year’s focus. Check out their bios.
This is a very ambitious and exciting line-up, and I’d encourage anyone who can make it to go. Weimar is a lovely small city, not to mention a site of pilgrimage for devotees of Goethe and Schiller, and the new Bauhaus Museum has just opened in time for the 100th anniversary of the 20th century’s most influential design movement.
Call for entries: 7th Ó Bhéal Poetry-Film competition
I’m pleased to see that the Ó Bhéal Poetry-Film Competition is back for another year. Submissions opened on May 1 and close on August 15. The 7th Ó Bhéal International Poetry-Film Competition is organized as usual in association with the IndieCork festival of independent film and music, which will be held on October 6 to 13 in Cork, Ireland.
2019 is Ó Bhéal’s tenth year screening International poetry-films, and seventh year featuring this competition. Up to thirty films will be shortlisted and screened during the festival in October. One winner will receive the Indie Cork / Ó Bhéal prize for best Poetry-Film.
2019 Judges: poet/filmmaker Colm Scully & poet Stanley Notte
The submission deadline is August 15th, 2019.
Guidelines
Entry is free to anyone, and should be made via email to poetryfilm@obheal.ie – including the following info in an attached word document:
- Name and duration of Film
- Name of director
- Country of origin
- Contact details
- Name of Poet
- Name of Poem
- Synopsis
- Filmmaker biography
- and a Link to download a high-resolution version of the film.**
** If you are sending a vimeo or youtube link, etc, please ensure that the download button is enabled.
You may submit as many entries as you like. Films must interpret, or convey a poem which must be present in its entirety, having been completed no earlier than 15th August 2017. They may not exceed 10 minutes in duration. Non-English language films will require English subtitles. The final shortlist will be announced here during September.
Shortlisted films also appear in Ó Bhéal’s poetry-film touring programme, at a number of film and literary festivals, to date including the Clare Island Film Festival, Belfast Film Festival, Stanzas in Limerick, the Cyclops festival in Kiev, Poemaria in Vigo, the Madeira Literary Festival (2018), Salerno Letteratura (2018) and Cadence: Video Poetry Festival in Seattle (2019). Shortlisted entries are also screened throughout the year from Ó Bhéal’s competition shortlist archive (in random), at the start of each Ó Bhéal poetry evening.
Best of Luck!
Call for work: films based on poems from UK publisher Ignition Press
Ignition Press is a publisher of poetry pamphlets (which is what chapbooks are called in the UK) recently launched by the Poetry Centre at Oxford Brookes University. I’ve just learned about a cool contest they’ve set up to generate filmpoems for their initial crop of pamphlets. The prizes aren’t terribly big, but I know a lot of poetry filmmakers are mainly just looking for good texts to work with, so I expect this will be a success, and I would encourage other poetry presses to try something similar. Check it out:
Make a short film about a poem published by ignitionpress and win recognition and prizes!
The films should last 2-5 mins & be about one of the five following poems
(apart from that you have complete creative freedom):
‘//’ by Mary Jean Chan (available here)
‘reasons for leaving home’ by Belinda Zhawi (available here)
‘Moss’ by Natalie Whittaker (available here)
‘Half Measures’ by Patrick James Errington (available here)
‘We are to blame for the decline of the giraffes and only we can save them’ by Lily Blacksell (available here)
You can find the individual poems at the links above and all five here.
What is a poetryfilm? Alastair Cook, Filmmaker and Director of Film-poem Festival, says: ‘A poetry film is a single entwined entity, a melting, a cleaving together of words, sound and vision. It is an attempt to take a poem and present it through a medium that will create a new artwork, separate from the original poem.’
Inspiration & examples of other filmpoems can be found here.
Prizes: £50, £30, £20 Amazon vouchers
Major exposure: the winners’ films will be shared on our website, social media and could be shown at events organised by, or involving, ignitionpress.
Deadline: Friday 7th June, 5pm. To enter, please submit your poetryfilm to Niall Munro at p0076993@brookes.ac.uk If the file is too large to e-mail, share it via Google Drive or another file sharing service.
Winners announced: Friday 14th June.
Judges: Niall Munro, Director of ignitionpress, and interns.
ignitionpress is a pamphlet press based at Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre. Find out more about the pamphlets and the poets here. All poems are copyright, but the poets have granted permission for filmmakers to use their work.
Questions? Please contact Theodora Vida (15094967@brookes.ac.uk) or Niall Munro (p0076993@brookes.ac.uk).
ZEBRA’s competition for poetry films from Germany (English version)
The main ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival is held on even-numbered years in Münster now, under the aegis of Filmwerkstatt Münster, but its original founders in Berlin, Haus für Poesie, remain an active partner, and in February even announced a whole new competition, to be screened on off years in Berlin. I reported on that back in March, but had to rely on Google Translate to make sense of it. At some point in the interim Haus für Poesie posted the call-out to the English version of their website, and it seems only fair to pass that on now as well:
Since 2002 the international ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival has been taking place every two years. In 2019, the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival is inviting entries for its first competition to find the best poetry films from Germany! Eligible for entry are short films (co-) produced in Germany in or after 2016, which are based on poems and are no more than 20 minutes in duration. All languages are allowed. The competition winners will be awarded prize money.
A programme committee will select films for the German competition and for all the other festival programmes from among the entries. The winning films will be chosen by a jury comprising representatives from the worlds of poetry, film and media. ZEBRA is also inviting you to make a film interpretation of this year’s Festival Poem, ‘*** [dieses regionale getreide]’ ([native vegetation a natural resource]) by the poet Daniel Falb. The directors of the three best film interpretations will be chosen by the programme committee and invited to come to Berlin where they will have the opportunity to present their films at the festival and discuss them with the poet.
The Festival Poem may be used only for the purpose of film interpretation within the scope of this call for entries. For any other use at other festivals or on other platforms, etc. the film makers must obtain the rights from the rights holders. Text and audio of the poem together with translations can be found here.
Closing date for entries: 15. July 2019 (date as postmark)
Conditions of participation and registration form: ZEBRA-2019-entry-form.pdf
We’d love you to take advantage of the elegant submission service provided by FilmFreeway:
The ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival is organized by the Haus für Poesie.
