~ May 2023 ~
Vancouver’s City Poems contest: a model for local poetry-film competitions?
Fiona Tinwei Lam is the current City of Vancouver (Canada) Poet Laureate. She has had a very busy role co-ordinating the City Poems poetry project which aims to foster public engagement with local history and culture through poetry. I am very pleased to say that this project has a very significant poetry film component.
You can watch selections from the competitions while the project is open for the audience awards until 26th May 2023.
You can read more about the project in a short article Fiona wrote about the competition. I hope the project proves a good template for encouraging similar future projects in Canada and elsewhere in the world.
Call for films: Italy and Ireland
Some fresh calls for films this week … first up La Poesie che si vede, an international competition for poetry films based in Ancona, Italy, with the winner awarded €500.
The organisers say:
It is the product of the collaboration between two important festivals: La Punta della Lingua International Poetry Festival and Corto Dorico Film Festival. The first edition of La Poesia che si vede was held in July 2021. Its third edition will take place in June 2023.
The International Competition for Poetry Films is dedicated to poetry short films produced from all over the world. From kinetic text to sound text, from visual text to cine-poetry, up to the filmed performance, poetry film for La Poesia che si vede is total poetry, without discrimination of genre or format.
Submissions on FilmFreeway by 22 May 2023: https://filmfreeway.com/LaPoesiaCheSiVede
Next is the 11 Ó Bhéal Poetry Film Competition, an international competition based in Cork, Ireland.
Up to 30 shortlisted films will be announced during October 2023 and screened at the 11th Winter Warmer poetry festival (26th-28th Nov 2023) at Nano Nagle Place in Cork city, as well as online.
Submissions on FilmFreeway by 31st August, or direct via the instructions on their website https://www.obheal.ie/blog/competition-poetry-film/
