Richard van der Laan‘s “visual arrangement of Frisian poetry on moving canvas.” The reading is by Siem de Vlas, a Frisian landscape architect who also appears in the film, “working in his studio and visiting the grave of the famous dutch landscape architect Lucas Pieters Roodbaard (1782 – 1851),” as the description on Vimeo puts it. Here’s the original text of Durk van der Ploeg’s poem. As someone of (distant) Frisian ancestry, I was happy to find this videopoem.
http://vimeo.com/43268894
With spoken word videos, sometimes setting is everything. Ram Devineni filmed Alexander on the Highline in New York City for a Meena Alexander feature in Issue 3 of Ratapallax magazine. For more on the poet, visit her website.
Faith Eskola created this month’s Motionpoem for a poem by America’s preeminent contemporary formalist poet. See Motionpoems for the text and some process notes by Eskola in the comments.
Another selection from the performance “Nothing Twice” (Live Performers Meeting, Rome, May 2012) directed by Agnieszka “Bronka” Bronowska. The translation is credited to Stanisław Barańczak and Clare Cavanagh and the performers are Joanna Łacheta and Lulu Lucyfer.
A “mash-up-videopoem” by the indefatigable Swoon Bildos, focusing on “truth and fiction in the US…TV and violence…reality and fear.” The poem is from Howie Good’s Dreaming in Red. The video uses footage from Kansas City Confidential by Phil Karlson (1952) as well as CCTV from the security tapes of the fatal police beating of Kelly Thomas.
Animation by Amy Swapp and Fiona Hobson. (For the text of the poem with proper punctuation and such, see The Poetry Archive.)
This student film by Alex Robinson offers a new take on Blake’s “mind-forged manacles.”
Be sure to expand this to full-screen. It’s one of several videos of Szymborska poems directed by Agnieszka Bronowska featuring Polish sign language performers, all from a longer presentation called “Nothing Twice.” I’m not entirely sure I understand the relationship between the video and the live performance, but here are the complete notes from Vimeo:
A part of the performance “Nothing Twice” (to be premiered during Live Performers Meeting in Rome, May 2012).
Directed by: Agnieszka “Bronka” Bronowska
Music: Dave Evans
Video and visual effects: Agnieszka Bronowska
Performers (video): Joanna Łacheta (feat. Sandeep Patil, Senbo Xiao, Dave Evans, Jozef Ivanecky, Johannes Wagner, Jing Zhou, Ilona Baldus, and Wolfgang Müller)
Performers (live): Agata Jurkiewicz, Agnieszka Bronowka, VJ Emiko, and Dave Evans
Piano and sound engineering: Dave Evans
Vocals (spoken word): Agnieszka Bronowska
The poem (“Wszelki wypadek” by Wisława Szymborska) was translated into English by Stanisław Barańczak and Clare Cavanagh.
Credits: Thanks to Joanna Łacheta, Bartosz Marganiec, and Foundation for the Promotion of Deaf Culture “KOKON” for a great meritoric support and assistance in Polish Sign Language interpretation of Wisława Szymborskaʼs poetry.
An animation by film student Aja Rose Matthews, with the reading of course by Ferlinghetti himself.
http://vimeo.com/41097136
Another Swoon film for a poem by his compatriot Peter Wullen. This one incorporates CCTV footage courtesy of ITN News. He also made a version in the original Dutch:
http://vimeo.com/41639292
According to a note on Vimeo, this was screened at ‘In de Luwte’ (Roosdaal, Belgium) from 18-20 May 2012 (kalmkunstfestival.be).