Posts By Dave Bonta
Call for submissions: Usurp Zone5 Film Festival
London’s Usurp Art Gallery is planning a film festival this summer, and the call for entries explicitly mentions poetry films as one of the things they’re interested in. I also like the emphasis on films or videos made with little or no money:
Free submission!
Submission deadline: 20 April 2015
Festival dates: 17 July – 2 August 2015Usurp Zone5 – an eclectic festival curated by the Usurp Art Gallery that will showcase inventive work by low-budget / no budget film and video makers in a gallery setting.
Think – abstract, absurd, activist, animated, asemic, clandestine, collage, conceptual, cut-ups, environment, experimental, glitsch, graffiti, graphic, identity, kinetic, outsider, paracinematic, performance, plunderphonic, poetry, radio, rebellious, scores, sci-art, scratch, silent, sonic, subterranean, subversive, surreal, synesthetic, typographic, video art…This is a UK and International call out so show us what you have!
Usurp Art Gallery develops opportunities for creative and critical voices from the margins – open to experimental ideas in all media. The Usurp Zone5 Film Festival will also launch our Usurp Film Club.
Visit the festival website for submission forms and more.
Upcoming PoetryFilm screenings in Scotland and Greece
In last week’s round-up of poetry film and videopoetry screenings planned for this spring, I lamented that there didn’t seem to be anything on the calendar for April yet. Fortunately that’s no longer the case. Zata Kitowski has announced two screenings on tap for next month, and each sounds very interesting: Transmutations: PoetryFilm / Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival, 16-19 April 2015; and PoetryFilm in Athens, 24-26 April 2015. The former will feature
a diverse selection of film artworks, chosen for their alignment with poetry, with poetic structures, with poetic experiences, and with the visual, verbal and aural languages of poetry in various forms. The 45 minute screening will be followed by a 15 minute Q&A with some of the filmmakers, including Richard Bailey (USA) and Sean Martin (UK).
The Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival will take place 16-19 April 2015 in Hawick, Scotland, UK.
Click through to the PoetryFilm post for a very complete description of the program.
As for the Athens screening,
PoetryFilm will be contributing a special programme of poetry films focusing on the body and gender/identity to the sound acts event in Athens in April 2015.
Visit the sound acts website for more about this unique-sounding festival.
Poetryfilmkanal website launches, issues call for essays to publish in magazine
After a slight delay from their projected February launch, the German website Poetryfilmkanal debuted this week, and I was happy to be able to add such a promising new site to the Moving Poems links page. Most of the content so far is in German, but it still has some useful features for Anglophone (and other) readers—especially the Calendar of world-wide poetry film events and the bibliography (Lektüretipps).
As the latter page suggests, this is a scholarly site. Here’s a machine translation from Google of the background page (Die Idee), edited for clarity:
Poetryfilmkanal—Poetry Film Channel—is an e-platform designed to carry ideas and information about the genre of poetry film. It was founded as a joint project between the Multimedia Narration degree program at the Bauhaus University Weimar and the Thüringen Society of Literature, incorporated [e. V.] by Aline Helmcke and Guido Naschert.
Examples of the cinematic adaptation of poetry, or poetic-associative design of short films related to poetry, can be found since the beginning of film history. With the advent of new media design options, a global poetry film movement has emerged in the last two decades. A growing number of festivals and contests, seminars, blogs and scientific publications have made for a confusing field. In addition, the standards by which poetry films are judged (and supported financially) are still very diffuse. The genre is often referred to, but without being explained – and misunderstood accordingly.
Poetryfilmkanal will supply information about this wild field, invite dialogue and contribute to the formation of concepts. With an international calendar of screenings and festivals (Calendar) and regular information on contests (Deadlines), ways to produce and view poetry films will become more transparent. Short articles showcase particularly valuable short films on a monthly basis (Film of the Month). Poetryfilmkanal also imparts basic knowledge of the history of poetry films (Timeline), shares references (Reading Guide) and tries to find a network of relevant web content (Links).
The core of the site is the Magazine that tracks the blog about three quarters of a year on a specific theme, before all the posts appear in an ePaper edition—just the Poetry Film Magazine archived. The editorial provides an introduction to the topic. Essayistic and literary texts in German and English will monitor the genre or introduce artists and authors. In addition, the blog will contain “excavations”: historical poetry films, interviews, festival reports and meetings. And an English translation of German contributions will be provided in the future.
This all sounds very ambitious. Two films have already been included in the Film of the Month feature, and the inaugural editorial, “Faszination Poetryfilm?” has been made available in English translation. I urge anyone with an interest in the genre to go read the whole thing; I’ll just quote the final two paragraphs:
We decided to open the blog’s discussion on a very general level in order to prepare the ground for more specific investigations in future editions. What makes an engaging poetry film? By which characteristics a poetry film is able to develop a certain fascination? Is there any general answer or do we have to look more precisely into the categories of live action and animation film? Are there certain sorts of poems which are particularly suitable for a translation into the audio-visual media? In which way do sound and voice-over determine the outcome? How come so many poetry films appear to only scratch the surface and fail to take us deeper into the meaning of the poem?
The discussion will consist of short blogs in an open form, about 3000-4000 signs in length. We will invite practitioners in the field to contribute their texts but encourage and welcome anyone interested to submit their own statement or opinion. By the end of this year, we aim at publishing the first edition of the Poetry Film Magazine from the texts and statements received.
We are looking forward to an engaging and lively discussion!
All the Best,
Aline Helmcke, Guido Naschert
The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey…
By situating the action of this animated short in the “pavements grey” rather than the “bee-loud glade,” director, scriptwriter and editor Don Carey was able to avoid the trap of too-literal illustration while drawing attention to the poem’s longing and suggestion of despair. The ending is brilliantly ambiguous.
According to the Vimeo description, Innisfree was “produced by the students of the animation department at the Irish School of Animation, Ballyfermot College of Further Education, 2013.” It won best animation at the 2014 Royal Television Society awards, and has been screened at several festivals, including the Cork Spring Poetry Festival, the 7th ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in Berlin, and the Liberated Words Poetry Film Festival 2014 in Bristol (and again last week at their “Reflections” screening in Bath).
mimes in hi-fi by Howie Good
https://vimeo.com/120554706
Dale Wisely has been making videopoems at a great rate, playing with a variety of techniques and approaches. Here, a Babel of voices and text gradually gives way to a poem in the soundtrack and (partially) on the screen. Howie Good is one of the hardest working and most widely published poets on the internet; it’s always a pleasure to add to his archive here.
The Golden Bird by Helen Moore
My friend Rachel attended Liberated Words‘ “Reflections” screening at Bath last week, and this film, directed by Howard Vause of Frome Media Arts, was one of her favorites. I agree it’s a marvelous blend of live and animated sequences, and the back-story—the way it grew out of creative sessions with adults with dementia—is compelling, too. Here’s the description from Vimeo:
‘Babka and The Golden Bird’ is a Russian folktale in which the heroine, Babka, an elderly woman rescues a dying bird. When the forest is threatened, the bird grants her three wishes…
The Golden Bird Project invited patients on the RUH [Royal United Hospitals] Older People’s Units to take part in a series of interactive storytelling workshops with poet, Helen Moore and film-maker Howard Vause. With music by Frankie Simpkins and models by Edwina Bridgeman (Art At The Heart Musician and Artist in Residence respectively), the project was initiated by Sarah Tremlett (Liberated Words), funded by BaNES and supported by Art at the Heart’s Hetty Dupays and Diane Samways (Arts Programme Manager and Marketing, respectively).
This film features an original poem by Helen Moore based on both the folktale and contributions from workshop participants. It premieres at Liberated Words Poetry Film Festival (Arnolfini, Bristol) in September 2014.
See the page 12 of the programme on Issuu for a much fuller description of the project from Helen Moore. (See also the website for Art at the Heart of the RUH.) Moore writes, in part:
Drawing on my experience of running story sessions with older adults with dementia, I’ve seen how tactile objects can offer a stimulating opener for group work. Handling the objects provides the participants with sensory engagement, which helps ground them in the present moment. And by choosing things that connect with the story I’m about to tell, there’s a ‘bridge’ into what will follow. … Encouraging participants to express associations that arise with the objects can also facilitate self-expression in new/unexpected areas, mining memories and experiences, which were perhaps long forgotten.
This Poem is Free by Ngoma Hill
Performance poet and musician Ngoma Hill was the first person to be featured in a terrific series of web videos filmed, directed and edited by the artist and poet known as Advocate of Wordz. His Director of Wordz series—”digital films and performance art videos consisting of Spoken Word Artist, Poets, Singers, Emcees, and Storytellers”—is now up to six episodes; I’ll post more of them in the coming weeks.
Upcoming poetry-film screenings and festivals
Spring is almost upon us in the northern hemisphere, and with it some opportunities to see poetry films and videopoems on the big screen, with a cluster of events around the equinox.
March 12 in Leipzig
Lange Nacht Des Gedichtfilms: Google Translate renders that as “Long Night of the Poem Films,” which sounds rather dire, but apparently it will consist of “the award-winning films to poems from the audiobooks ‘Black fears’ and ‘Words are boats,'” with “skilful interplay between visual, narrative and auditory elements of style.” See the Facebook event page for full details.
March 19-21 in Bezons (right outside Paris)
Ciné Poème Festival de courts métrages de la ville de Bezons en partenariat avec le Printemps des Poètes. I don’t know much French, but “Printemps des Poètes” sounds pretty alluring. Visit their webpage (or see the English translation via Google) for the full details.
March 19-21 in Gijón, Asturias
Deletréame Poesía: I Festival de Poesía de Gijón includes a section called “Poesía Iluminada (palabra + imagen)” each day of the festival. On the 19th, the poetry filmmaker Eduardo Yagüe will be curating a selection of works. See the complete schedule on Facebook.
March 19-20 in Barcelona
PoetryFilm will be presenting two programs at the Kosmopolis Amplified Literature Festival at CCCB Barcelona. For the full list of films, see the PoetryFilm website. (And by the way, if you’re a filmmaker or videopoet, be sure to check out PoetryFilm’s guidelines for submission. “There is no deadline; submissions are ongoing and continuous throughout the year.”)
April is National Poetry Month in Canada and the U.S.
You’d think there would be poetry-film screenings planned for somewhere, but if so, I have yet to hear about any. (If you know of anything, please share the details.)
May 21 in Minneapolis
Motionpoems Season 6 World Premiere at the Walker Art Center. Make a donation via the Motionpoems front page and qualify for discounted reserved seats. (Also in Motionpoems-related news: they have a call-out for voice recordings to be used in one of their films. The deadline is March 14.)
May 24 in Edinburgh
Hidden Door arts and music festival will be including screenings from Filmpoem on the 24th. Mark your calendars and stay tuned for more information. And in the meantime, as reported here last week, Filmpoem submissions are open until May 1.
Culoarul vagonului e liber/The coach’s aisle is clear by Doina Ioanid and Teniet/Undone by Jan H. Mysjkin
For some reason, poetry filmmakers don’t tend to combine texts by different authors very often. With Undone, Marc Neys AKA Swoon shows just how well that can work, even with multiple language barriers to cross. Doina Ioanid‘s Romanian text meets Jan H. Mysjkin‘s Dutch text in the soundtrack, with an English translation by Mysjkin in subtitles. As if that weren’t enough, Marc made a second version with the poets reading their work in French translation, also subtitled in English:
And a version of that version with subtitles in German and supertitles in Turkish:
Marc wrote about how he came to make the film in a recent blog post:
Such a fun one, this.
2 poems, by 2 different writers in different languages with different subtitles.
I have worked with Doina Ioanid and Jan H. Mysjkin before.This time I picked out Culoarul vagonului e liber/ The coach’s aisle is clear by Doina and combined it with Teniet/ Undone by Jan for obvious reasons.
They both read the poem in French, Doina also read hers in Romanian, Jan his one in Dutch. They also gave me English, German and Turkish translations. So much blocks to work with.
[…]
German, English and French translation: Jan H. Mysjkin
Turkish translation: Burak Sengir
[…]Working with a split screen came natural. I combined 2 sets of visuals for each poem. Empty <-> crowded, abstract <-> concrete, nature <-> urban, black&white <-> colour.
Shifting between those during the readings and in between…
In the final editing I made some minor cuts to fit the footage with the reading (different languages, different pace), but nothing major. They all ‘feel’ the same.
I guess that last bit answers my question: Why not put all the translations into Vimeo’s own subtitling system and just serve up a single video? Because Swoon’s an insane perfectionist, that’s why.
Spilled Milk on Banjo by Lisa Williams
A poetry film by the Michigan-based conceptual artist and educator Adriane Little, the latest of at least three she’s made for different poets. This one features a text by Lisa Williams from Gazelle in the House (New Issues Poetry & Prose). According to a note in the Vimeo description, “This video was made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.”
Adriane Little also teaches videopoetry to undergraduates, and nosing around on Vimeo, I discovered a few of their student films.
