Posts By Dave Bonta
New Liberated Words website
Congratulations to Liberated Words—Sarah Tremlett and Lucy English’s videopoetry- and poetry film-promoting organization—for their brand new website overhaul. It is now much easier to navigate, not to mention better looking than its predecessor. According to a post on their Facebook page, it’s the work of Peter Hunter. He adapted a three-column WordPress magazine theme, with a top navigation bar menu of major post categories that collapses behind a three-line “hamburger” icon on mobile view. The site loads quickly on my slow internet connection.
I’m relieved to see this, because previously I think new content was being added to the front page by editing and re-publishing it, which made for an incoherent archive and provided no way to subscribe to new content. Now there’s an RSS feed and everything, so I won’t have to worry about missing new posts… such as this introduction of two new members of their team, Caleb Parkin and Ursula Billington, or this piece on their judging of poetry films for the upcoming Newlyn International Film Festival. Well done.
Piedra negra sobre una piedra blanca / Black Stone on a White Stone by César Vallejo
A new Moving Poems production, remixing Vallejo’s classic poem prognosticating his own death with time-lapse photography and Creative Commons-licensed music (from Magna Ingress). For the translation, I enlisted the help of some friends with better Spanish than mine: Jean Morris and Natalie d’Arbeloff, among others, on the Poetry from the Other Americas Facebook group. Another member of the group, the Spanish filmmaker and actor Eduardo Yagüe, was kind enough to supply the voiceover.
Shockingly, this is the first Vallejo poem on Moving Poems. I can’t think of any other Latin American poet of his stature whom I’ve so neglected. I did make one other video for a poem of his some years ago, but I guess I must’ve decided it wasn’t quite up to snuff.
Free poetry film lesson plans from Motionpoems
This Instagram photo of the Motionpoems booth (with poet Eve L. Ewing) at the just-concluded AWP conference in Tampa reminded me that they’ve developed extensive lesson plans for undergraduate poetry writing and filmmaking classes — something I’ve heard several people in the larger poetry film community express a need for over the years. But other than one brief mention back in 2015, I’ve never really covered the Motionpoems lesson plans here. And they look very useful indeed! Go to http://motionpoems.org/teach/ to browse and download the PDFs.
They’ve developed two separate curricula, and I’m just going to copy and paste the text of the entire page in here so you can see why I’m so impressed:
The Motionpoems Poetry Curriculum
Made for undergrad poetry writing classes—but designed to be adaptable for other levels, courses, and genres.
Rather than create a series of lessons that you must teach in a certain order, we’ve created a flexible series of lessons, some of which come with video interviews. You can teach these in a sequence of concept and craft lessons, or you can drop them into a syllabus that you’ve already designed at the appropriate time. It’s also possible, depending on classroom hours, to fill an entire semester with these lessons! If you’re interested in setting up a Skype session with one of our artists, email Saara to see if a virtual conversation is possible.
We plan to add more, depending on audience interest, so tell us what you think and check back often!
ANOMALY, PARADOX, & IRONY
The List Poem: Anomaly, Paradox, Irony & “Cigar Box Banjo,” a lesson plan by Janet Burroway that uses “Cigar Box Banjo” by poet Kim Addonizio and filmmaker Danny Madden.
ANAPHORA
Anaphora, Ritual, & “The Tao of the Black Plastic Comb,” a lesson plan by Saara Myrene Raappana that uses “The Tao of the Black Plastic Comb” by poet Glenis Redmond and filmmaker Irving Hillman.
BONUS: This lesson plan incorporates video interviews with Glenis Redmond and Irving Hillman. Find them here.
REPETITION, NEGATION, & IMPERATIVE
Repetition, Negation, & Imperative in “How Do You Raise a Black Child?” a lesson plan by Saara Myrene Raappana that uses “How Do You Raise a Black Child?” by poet Cortney Lamar Charleston and filmmaker Seyi Peter-Thomas. BONUS: This lesson plan incorporates a video interview with Seyi Peter-Thomas and a text interview with Cortney Lamar Charleston. Find them here and here, respectively.
RHYME
Rhyme & “I’m Over the Moon,” a lesson plan by Athena Kildegaard that uses “I’m Over the Moon” by poet Brenda Shaughnessy and filmmaker Jessica Hundley.
APOSTROPHE
Apostrophe & “The Mother Warns the Tornado,” a lesson plan by Saara Myrene Raappana that uses “The Mother Warns the Tornado” by poet Catherine Pierce and filmmaker Isaac Ravishankara.
TONE
Tone: “The Long Deployment” & “The Mysterious Arrival of an Unusual Letter,” a lesson plan by Janet Borroway that uses “The Long Deployment” by poet Jehanne Dubrow/filmmaker Nicole McDonald and “The Mysterious Arrival of an Unusual Letter” by poet Mark Strand/filmmaker Scott Wenner.
PERSONAL MYTH
Personal Myth & “Things I Carry Into the World,” a lesson plan by Saara Myrene Raappana that uses “Things I Carry Into the World” by poet Cynthia Manick and filmmakers Jamil McGinnis and Pat Heywood.
BONUS: This lesson plan incorporates a video interview with Cynthia Manick, Jamil McGinnis, Pat Heywood, and producer Claire McGirr. Find it here.
AMBIGUITY
(The Right Kind of) Ambiguity & “The Blue Black Wet of Wood,” a lesson plan by Eric Doise that uses “The Blue Black Wet of Wood” by poet Carmen Gillespie and filmmaker Malik Vitthal.
BONUS: This lesson plan incorporates a video interview with Carmen Gillespie. Find it here.
METAPHOR
Metaphor & “A Day at the Mall Reminds Me of America,” a lesson plan by Janet Burroway that uses “A Day at the Mall Reminds Me of America” by poet Sarah Blake and filmmaker Ayse Altinok.
ALLUSION
Allusions! & “The Robots Are Coming,” a lesson plan by Eric Doise that uses “The Robots Are Coming” by poet Kyle Dargan and filmmaker Julia Iverson.
BONUS: This lesson incorporates a video interview with Kyle Dargan and Julia Iverson. Find it here.
FIXED FORM/VILLANELLE
Fixed Form & “The Long Deployment,” a lesson plan by Saara Myrene Raappana that uses “The Long Deployment” by poet Jehanne Dubrow and filmmaker Nicole McDonald.
IMAGE
“Either/Or” & the Necessity for Image, a lesson plan by Athena Kildegaard that uses “Either/Or” by poet Maxine Kumin and filmmaker Adam Tow.
IDEA GENERATION
Generating Ideas & “I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast,” a lesson plan by Saara Myrene Raappana that uses “I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast” by poet Melissa Studdard and filmmaker Dan Sickles.
The Motionpoems “How to Make Motionpoems” Curriculum
We’ve found that the process of making a motionpoem has numerous educational benefits. We’ve seen student filmmakers, regardless of their major, develop:
- a deepened, nuanced understanding, not only of the poem they’re adapting, but of poetry in general;
- skills in project management, video editing software, and artistic collaboration;
- functional, productive vocabularies centered around teamwork, collaboration, and audience;
- really cool motionpoems!
We’re making our “How To Make Motionpoems” curriculum available to you for your classrooms. These lessons, which can be accomplished in 4-6 weeks depending on class hours (maybe even less if you’re pressed for time), were developed for undergraduate, cross-disciplinary classrooms of poetry, film, and music majors, but can be easily adapted for your students regardless of their majors or education level. One middle school Language Arts class even managed to complete this unit in two weeks! Not sure how to do it? Email us for help!
DOWNLOADS:
- Read first: Notes for teachers.
- Day 1 Handout
- Motionpoems Best Practices
- Storyboard Template
- Phase 1 PowerPoint
- Phase 2 PowerPoint
- Phase 3 PowerPoint
- Phase 4 PowerPoint
- Phase 5 PowerPoint
Check out some motionpoems made by students here!
(Again, all of the above was lifted from the Motionpoems website; lengthy blockquotes are cumbersome to read. Kudos to Saara and the other authors for writing and compiling such a tremendous resource for students and educators.)
Word: Collected Poetry (Makayla Posley, Trace DePass, Nkosi Nkululeko and Esther Aloba)
Directed by Jamil McGinnis and Pat Heywood, Word: Collected Poetry is an exemplary poetry-film anthology that conveys a real sense of the unique character of a vital, passionate community of poets. Jamil and Pat call it
A collection of spoken word poems brought to life, adapted from the work of four poets living in New York City.
FEATURING:
“Untitled” by Makayla Posley (0:09)
“band-aids & other temporary healings” by Trace DePass (4:01)
“From the Inside” by Nkosi Nkululeko (7:23)
“Rule #1” by Esther Aloba (11:09)
It was produced in association with Urban Word NYC, and grew out of an earlier project for Motionpoems (Things I Carry Into the World, featuring Cynthia Manick), as they explained in an email:
Essentially, the film is a work of collected poems brought to life. The featured poems’ authors are young poets from New York City. We wanted the film to feel as if someone had wandered into a bookstore and began flipping through a book of poems. […] It’s essentially an extension of the Motionpoem we did (but produced independently of them).
We partnered with a nonprofit called Urban Word NYC, who introduced us to the poets. We wanted to dive into the same themes and ideas that their poetry does, so naturally, collaborating closely with the poets was an essential part of the process. We didn’t want to assume anything about their experiences, but rather create a visual space to explore them further. We raised these questions about the school-to-prison pipeline, the problematic side of creative expression, and queerness, amongst others because they did. They gave us that space.
The film premiered online in Booooooom, which noted that “The film’s production was entirely crowdfunded through Kickstarter, raising over $15,000 through nearly 200 donations in 30 days.” Jamil and Pat told them that
Adapting poetry to film was a lot closer to putting together a thematic puzzle than it is building any kind of narrative. All sorts of space for us as filmmakers opened up to explore their language. Juxtaposing images, observing, asking questions rather than giving answers. We wanted a film that was challenging and abstract, but at the same time, presented moments of meditation.
Click through for photos from the shooting of the film as well as for the full, extensive credits.
Säv, säv, susa / Sigh, Rushes, Sigh by Gustaf Fröding
A haunting Swedish poem brought to life by the German director Patrick Müller. Here’s the English portion of his Vimeo description:
SIGH, RUSHES, SIGH: In his tale of passionate love and heartbreaking grief, Swedish poet Gustaf Fröding (1860–1911) explains the drowning of the beautiful Ingalill. The words find its counterpart in black and white images, shot with an old 16mm film camera.
Film by Patrick Müller. Germany, 2018, 3 Min, 16mm.
Poem: Gustaf Fröding, Narrator: Klaus-Rüdiger Utschick, Camera: Krasnogorsk 3, Film stock: Fomapan R100, Processing: Andec Filmtechnik, Telecine 4K: Ochoypico, Madrid. Filmed at Rügen, 2018.
There was a lively discussion on the Poetry Film Live Facebook group the other day about whether and when it’s appropriate to use illustration in a poetry film. I think this film strikes the perfect balance between illustration (it wouldn’t have made sense not to begin and end with rushes on a lake shore) and suggestion (the girl’s drowning is only briefly hinted at in the visuals). The film with its black-and-white, 16mm graininess not only conveys but intensifies the melancholy mood of the text. Such illustration as it includes doesn’t tame or trivialize the poem but contributes to an over-all ostranenie.
America by Gertrude Stein
A brilliant remix by Miss Muffet AKA Lisa Seidenberg. The Vimeo description:
A poetry film re-invents a stylised text by author Gertrude Stein as a reflection on the current national zeitgeist using visuals from Charlottesville and other assorted Americana.
Call for essays: Poetry Film Magazine
Aline and Guido at the Weimar-based website Poetryfilmkanal have released a call for contributions to the fourth issue of their digital and print magazine. The theme this year: Poetry film as art.
We are calling for contributions that deal – exemplary or in general – with the fine art aspects of poetry films. They can discuss individual installations or performances, focus on individual artists or events, investigate traditions of the film and art history or follow up on theoretical discourses. Possible questions could be: Are poetry films works of art or can they rather be regarded as media events in the first place? Is the work or the event character paramount? How is the performativity of the lyrical performance integrated into the closed form of the short film? (Performativity is characterised by the impossibility of repetition. Does this category apply to the medium of film at all?). In how far is the filmic level cracked open in order to go beyond its audio-visual unity? How do installations or interactive works deal with the connection of text, sound and the moving image? Which role does the spectrum of possible associations play when it comes to text-image-relations? We are looking forward to contributions that investigate the realm between performativity and mediality as exemplified by the poetry film.
Essays (10,000 characters long and no footnotes if possible) can be submitted until the end of July.
There’s a lot more to the call than that, so do click through (here’s the German version).
Call-out for Instagram poetry (including short films)
The Poetry Library at London’s Southbank Centre posted a Call-out for Instagram Poetry back on the first of February — but there’s still plenty of time to enter:
A whole new generation has taken to Instagram to create and share poetry. Often described as an underground culture, some of the most successful Instagram poets have millions of followers and post over a dozen new poems a day.
That’s why we are asking poets and Instagrammers alike to share their work on Instagram, by tagging the library @nationalpoetrylibrary and using the hashtag #instapoetrylib. We are also looking for short poetry films which should be submitted using the same hashtag.
The best of these will be displayed in an exhibition at the National Poetry Library. From striking typographic design, to social comments and emotional confessions, this exhibition provides the perfect introduction to this emergent form of poetry.
How to enter
Participants can start publishing their Instapoems and short films right now, and can continue to do so until Wednesday 21 March.
All entries must be posted on Instagram using #instapoetrylib and tagging the library too (@nationalpoetrylibrary). Make sure you do this otherwise we might not see your entry! Only one entry per person.
By submitting your poems you are agreeing for your entry to be shown in the exhibition at the library.
We welcome you to play around with the form using images, illustrations, different typefaces or anything creative you want to explore – there are no limits! We are looking for interesting designs as well as strong poetic content.
There are no restrictions on location – this is a global competition so please share far and wide.
What you get
A selection of the library’s favourite poems will be displayed in an exhibition at the National Poetry Library, Southbank Centre. Three of the selected poets will be invited to read at the opening event and will receive a £100 performance fee.
If you’re new to Instagram, here’s how to post a video (note the maximum length: 60 seconds). You can of course create a video on a desktop computer, but it must be transferred to a mobile device and uploaded via the app. (User agent switcher plugins make it possible to post still photos from a web browser, but not video.) Note that Instagram videos play in a loop, like GIFs, so it might be fun to take that element of the user experience into account.
Instagram is of course the epitome of a web-hostile app — so much so that it doesn’t even permit links in posts — so if you’re an idealist who believes in the open web, and you’re not already on Instagram as I am, you’re probably better off not joining just to enter this contest. In any case, you don’t have to join to browse the web version, which is a far pleasanter experience than attempting to watch a video on a goddamn phone. Here are all the posts tagged #instapoetrylib so far. It looks as if at least one user has ignored the instruction to only enter once, and is busy spamming the hashtag with utter dreck. Yep, that’s Instagram.
But OK, being able to view all the other submissions is pretty cool, I’ll give them that. I’d love to see contests on other platforms practice this kind of openness.
Hat-tip: the Poetry Film Live group on Facebook.
Light Ghazal by Matt Hetherington
Some gorgeous new work from Australian poetry-film collaborators Marie Craven (video concept, edit, effects) and Matt Hetherington (poem and voice), with music by Masonik and film sourced from Mono No Aware. Marie’s process notes (with links added):
‘Light Ghazal’ is the third video collaboration with poet, Matt Hetherington. From across the world, Dave Bonta put us in email contact for the first of these, ‘Orphanage‘. Since then Matt, who lives not far from me here in Australia, has been coming up this way to meet and collaborate in person. This process resulted in the second piece, ‘Everything sleeps but the night‘, and now this latest. It’s kind of radical for me to collaborate in the flesh these days, as most of my collaborations for the past decade, video and music alike, have been net-based. I welcome this recent development. For the soundtrack I selected ‘Inna Sky’ from the ‘Sutol’ album by Fremantle-based Masonik, whose sounds I have also worked with before in my poetry videos. The source footage for the image track is from Mono No Aware in New York, whose films are available on Creative Commons licence at Vimeo. I selected the sections of footage most fitting for this new video and created two layers on top of each other. This was so I could add dimensionality and fx to bring out the hand-processed film textures, as well as bring into sharper presence the ghostly, underlying images on the original film. I love hand-processed film. It seems to emphasise the direct chemical expression of light hitting celluloid and focus us on the materiality of that process. Thus the footage seemed especially relevant to the poem here, which is all about light.
