Posts By Dave Bonta
Sea Breeze (Brise Marine) by Stéphane Mallarmé
A brilliant musical adaptation and video remix of A.S. Kline’s English translation of Mallarmé’s poem by D. Estrada, AKA Vox Poesis (YouTube, Instagram, Bandcamp). The sped-up images of water have a propulsive force to match the music and intoned text, for an effect that’s at once meditative and unsettling—as the poet probably would’ve wanted.
The Self as Product by Tom Disch
A 2020 upload from Blank Verse Films, one of the channels added to our freshly updated links page. Director Mike Gioia told me in an email that he ‘borrowed the concept of the Stage Manager from Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town” and applied it to the poetry. I made the poet a physical character in the scene but one who is distinctly apart from it.’ It works brilliantly, in part because the guy playing the poet, Brendan Constantine, is a very good performance poet in his own right.
The YouTube description notes that ‘The music is “Tango Cool” by Ted Gioia, copyright Time Records.’ Here’s what it has about the poet:
Tom Disch (1958-2008) was a gifted, witty, and biting writer. Disch wrote poetry under the name Tom Disch and wrote science-fiction and fantasy under the name Thomas Disch, including the children-adventure series The Brave Little Toaster, which was later adapted into a Disney movie. Disch’s dark yet hilarious take on the world is beautifully condensed in this poem “The Self as Product”, which was originally published in his 1991 collection Dark Verses & Light.
You can find out more about Tom Disch on his wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_M._Disch
You can read more of Tom Disch’s poetry here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/tom-disch
Cathedrals by Salena Godden + The Tyger by William Blake
British author and performance poet Salena Godden reads “Cathedrals” from her just-published collection With Love, Grief and Fury in a video from the production company STORYA. This is not a book trailer, however, but something new to me: a museum exhibition trailer in the form of a videopoem!
The exhibition is William Blake’s Universe at the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge, UK., and the museum also worked with STORYA and Godden on a more conventional video trailer: a reading of Blake’s most famous poem, “The Tyger” which I’ll append below. But they had the sense to include Salena’s own, personal reactions to Blake and the exhibition at the end of that trailer, and then—or perhaps from the inception—they had the brilliant idea to ask her to read a poem of her own, placing her in conversation with the poet whose multimedia works are the focus of the exhibition.
STORYA is Lucy Andia and Frederick Shelbourne, both profiled on their About page. They say they specialize in videos about artists and exhibitions, and in fact their filming of “The Tyger” is one of the two highlighted projects on their website:
To coincide with the Fitzwilliam Museum’s exhibition, William Blake’s Universe, we were commissioned to create a film. The brief? Capture the exhibition’s striking design and draw inspiration from Blake’s powerful poetry.
Salena Godden, a poet deeply inspired by Blake’s rebellious spirit and unwavering dedication to creativity, was the perfect choice for a reading. Her selection: the iconic poem, The Tyger. Through creative brainstorming sessions, our team identified fire as the poem’s central element to visualise.
Flickering lights and shadows of tigers and foliage were used to create an immersive atmosphere surrounding Salena’s reading. This museum film, a testament to the power of collaboration, is the result of many creative minds coming together.
Godden has a whole blog post about the shoot, full of photos—check it out. As she notes, “Radical British poet, painter and visionary William Blake believed in the power of art and words to bring us together.”
Moving Poems has moved and shape-shifted
…though not as much as I might’ve hoped yet. My web-design skills are rudimentary, so please be patient, but recovery continues from a malicious hack and my disastrous, panicked response to it ten days ago. I took advantage of the crisis to do something I’d been intending to do for some time now: merge the news-and-views section, formerly known somewhat confusingly as Moving Poems Magazine, with the video library into one WordPress installation under a single banner. This should mean fewer problems with the email newsletter, since we no longer have to rely on a third-party feed blender (though we may still have to relocate to Substack at some point).
I think I’ve re-created all the posts I inadvertently destroyed, though I’m afraid a few pages may be unrecoverable.
If anyone is mad enough to want to join us as an author, get in touch. I have increasingly limited time to review videos for the site.
Symphony Jane by Rosemary Norman
A love song to the Eurasian blackbird, the American robin’s more musical cousin, this recent film from long-time videopoetry collaborators Stuart Pound and Rosemary Norman shows the power of a simple concept beautifully realized:
A poem arrives on the screen letter by letter. The image is all text with the story in the soundtrack, a blackbird’s song.
Last year, Pound and Norman came out with a print book showcasing their collaborations, Words & Pictures, available from Aspect Ratio (2 Lothair Road, London W5 4TA) for £8.50, which garnered a good review in London Grip:
Many readers will have seen and enjoyed Rosemary Norman’s poems in magazines and also observed that her bio note mentions her collaborations with video artist Stuart Pound in the making of poetry videos. These videos have been shown at festivals and other film events (including some at the BFI); but the majority of Norman’s readers will probably not have had a chance to attend one of these screenings. Fortunately it is now possible to experience a selection of Norman & Pound’s work in the comfort of one’s own home. A new book Words & Pictures contains 18 of Norman’s poems together with a number of stills from the corresponding videos and, more importantly, an internet link / QR code giving access to an on-line archive where the videos can be seen in full. This offers a simple but satisfying multi-media experience where one can enjoy the words on the page alongside (or as a curtain-raiser to) a visual and auditory interpretation.
Darkness by Ben Morgan
This delightful new animation by Suzie Hanna recreates the world of illuminated manuscripts to bring to life a text by poet and scholar Ben Morgan. Like many viewers, I’m sure, my main reference point for that sort of thing was Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but I had no trouble adjusting to this more serious and cerebral use of Medieval imagery and motifs. In fact, I found it—dare I say?—quite illuminating.
Made for an installation ‘Invertlight’ in St Peter Hungate Church Norwich in 2024, this animation of Ben Morgan’s poem imagines an encounter between Julian of Norwich, a 14th century Anchoress locked away in her cell, and her son who visits to challenge her decision to give up on the natural world. It is not known if she had children but she entered the ‘living death’ after child bearing age, and may well have been a mother before her voluntary incarceration. Julian wrote ‘Revelations of Divine Love’ the first surviving book to be written by a woman in the English language. ‘Invertlight’ is a Research project at Norwich University of the Arts that focuses on creating Art for buildings that have been changed from religious to secular use.
For more on the poet, see One Hand Clapping:
Ben Morgan is a poet and academic based in Oxford, UK. His first poetry pamphlet, Medea in Corinth: Poems, Prayers, Letters, and a Curse, was published by Poetry Salzburg in 2018. It retold the famous myth through poetic letters, spells, prayers, sonnets and songs, as well as theatrical interludes. He has also published poems in Oxford Poetry and at The Sunday Tribune and The High Window. He has taught Shakespeare studies and early modern literature at a number of colleges in Oxford and is completing a monograph on Shakespeare and human rights for Princeton University Press.
Ein traum / A Dream by Sophie Reyer
A 2023 film by Marc Neys based on a poem by Austrian writer Sophie Reyer, with whom he has collaborated at least twice before. The choral voices in the soundtrack help mediate between the two sets of images in the video, either one of which could be seen as dream-like or nightmarish from the perspective of the other.
Video for ‘Ein Traum’ by Sophie Reyer
Concept, camera, editing & add. arrangement: Marc Neys
Words, voice, composition: Sophie Reyer
Choir: voicesandgraces
Conductor: Antonia kalechyts
Footage: Andrew Arthur Breese & Lodewijk Van Eeckhout
thanks: Mazwaiein traum
den hageputten blättern
aus einem traum winkend:rot zwischen kahlem
ader geäst. du hastdie vogel perspektive wieder
gefunden. sitzt in denbaum gerippen und erzählst
dir die welt: märchen inwintergrau. laub.
a dream
waving to hibiscus leaves
from inside a dream:red between bare
veins, branches. you’ve regainedthe bird’s eye
view. sitting in thetree’s frame and telling
yourself about the world: fairytales inwinter’s grey. foliage.
International Video Poetry Festival program set
In my recent round-up of where to watch poetry films this month, I forgot to include Athens! The International Video Poetry Festival, as it’s called these days, organized by +The Institute [for Experimental Arts], is in its 11th incarnation.
124 FILMS | 42 COUNTRIES |
40 PERFORMANCES | 2 WORKSHOPSFRIDAY 19 & SATURDAY 20 APRIL 2024
Free Self Organized Theatre Empros
Riga Palamidi 2- Psiri – Athens GreeceInternational Video Poetry Festival celebrates eleven years of creative collaboration with more than 2000 artists from 85 countries in general, a world of poetic visions for the benefit of humanity. Poetry, cinema, music and spoken word come together to communicate the inspiration, dreams, ideas and hopes of all of us.
We welcome you to this magical world.
Click through for the list of countries and filmmaker/poets (also on Facebook) as well as information on the workshop and lecture scheduled for Saturday the 20th. I’m so happy this festival continues to be held.
Call for work: RESONANS
A Copenhagen-based festival focusing on the poetics of nature and the environment is open for submissions.
RESONANS: A Fringe of Nature and Culture
(Previously known as the Nature & Culture International Poetry Film Festival)
This festival focuses on the poetics of nature and environment, and takes place annually in Copenhagen, Denmark (with headquarters in Sweden and Finland for smaller features) as well as an online festival which is of free access at poeticphonotheque.com during the festival dates.
The Organizers:
The Poetic Phonotheque started in 2020 as an audio collection of poetry from all over the world which now counts with over 500 adiovisual poems in all languages and an international permanent collection of poetry films. The Poetic Phonotheque is managed by Red Door Gallery in Copenhagen, which also counts with its own magazine www.reddoormagazine.com since 2009.
In 2021, Kulturhuset Islands Brygge (Copenhagen, Denmark) became the official home of the Poetic Phonotheque, to house its audio collection and launched a second round of poetry open calls to collect audio poetry recordings in every language with the theme of climate, sustainability, nature, and our planet’s preservation as the focus.
In 2021, Kultivera, a cultural organization in the city of Tranås, Sweden, also became headquarters of the Phonotheque for that country.
In 2022, the screening location of the festival was Husets Biograf, a cultural centre located at Rådhusstræ 13 in central Copenhagen, Denmark.
In 2023, Bokens Hus, in Turku, Finland, joins the team as Finnish headquarters, collaborators and mapping team.
In 2024, Empire Bio in Copenhagen joins as the screening location for the 4th edition of the festival.
We invite you to submit your films on this important subject, whether they’re animation, short film, poetry film, experimental, or documentaries. A focus on the NATURE & CULTURE (humanity’s connection with our environment) is encouraged.
Poetry films are invited to remain as part of the permanent video collection of the Poetic Phonotheque. We encourage BIPOC and LGBTQ+ creators to submit their work.
It’s €10 to submit (Student: €6) and the deadline is May 31. Visit FilmFreeway for rules and terms. Browse the growing library of films at The Poetic Phonoteque.
