~ August 2022 ~
Աշնանացան / Autumn Sowing by Anahit Hayrapetyan
Let me turn into a song and spread in your wilderness
Let me turn into a ray of sun and by diffused in your light
Let me turn into a seed and sprout in your fields…
Moving Poems’ first film from Armenia is part videopoem, part documentary of an installation. Poet Anahit Hayrapetyan‘s lines are first shown on screen then incorporated line by line as white flags planted in a scarified landscape of furrowed fields and eroded pastureland, making a powerful statement about how land is claimed and occupied. Only in the final words is the poem’s political agenda revealed: “beloved Artsakh.”
Both installation and film are credited to Maïda Chavak and Naïri Khatchadourian, with Narek Harutyunyan as cinematographer, typography by Sargis Antonian and editing by Nina Khachatryan. The music was composed by Miqayel Voskanyan with Rafik Avagyan on blul (a type of flute). Together, they call themselves the AHA Collective. Autumn Sowing is the third part of a triptych called Hanging Garden, and is probably best seen in that context, as part of an exhibition including “objects of memory, traces of an act of emergency, historical sources of a heritage site with a status left hanging.”
[T]here is an urge to reinvent how mankind inhabits territory and heritage and what new forms can be taken by one’s sense of belonging to one’s land and language. The third space showcases such a short film and an educational program for all to practice the art of typography through wooden stamps, to write by hand to inscribe a permanent imprint.
Call for work: International Migration and Environmental Film Festival, Toronto, Canada
Still time to submit to the International Migration and Environmental Film Festival (IMEFF) – a not-for-profit cultural organization, that raises awareness about migration and environmental issues. They say that:
“IMEFF is dedicated to presenting the best of international film, documentary, photo and artwork that captures migration, trafficking, refugees, pollution, habitat loss, climate change, to educate, entertain, inform and encourage conversations, provokes debate about changes, innovation, sustainability and how to make the world a better place for every creature.”
The event takes place 10-16 October 2022 in Toronto, and last date for entries via FilmFreeway is on 31st August. There are a range of categories for entry in the festival, but includes a specific poetry category.
What Day, from “West: A Translation” by Paisley Rekdal
Salt Lake City-based filmmaker Jennilyn Merten collaborated with Utah’s former poet laureate, Paisely Rekdal, on an online video installation for Rekdal’s cycle of poems West: A Translation,
a linked collection of poems that respond to a Chinese elegy carved into the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station where Chinese migrants to the United States were detained. “West” translates this elegy character by character through the lens of Chinese and other transcontinental railroad workers’ histories, and through the railroad’s cultural impact on America.
West connects the completion of the transcontinental railroad with another significant American historical event: the Chinese Exclusion Act, which passed thirteen years after the first transcontinental’s completion.
This is What Day, which was also featured at Terrain.org. It’s the one that works best as a stand-alone film, in my opinion. Rekdal also has a 20-minute video on YouTube of her reading from the collection.
West: A Translation is slated for publication in book form by Copper Canyon Press in May 2023.
Every Word I Say to You by Paloma Sierra
Every Word I Say to You is a simple yet deeply touching piece by Paloma Sierra, a Puerto Rican writer, translator and film-maker. She describes the video:
The poem is inspired by my family’s experience living with Alzheimer’s. Since my grandmother’s diagnosis in 2015, my father and his siblings have dedicated themselves to ensuring my grandmother receives all the love and care she deserves. This poem is for them, my grandmother, and the many families who are living with Alzheimer’s.
Designer Supawat Vitoorapakorn, in Queensland, Australia, is credited with animation for the video. Music is by US composer, Andrew Abrahamsen.
It received funding from by City of Asylum in Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry.
