…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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A new press release from the folks behind the Weimar Poetry Film Festival notes that
With »Lit. Collage« we are setting a special emphasis this year. Paired with the Film Festival, the Collage and Poetry Festival is meant for anyone who enjoys experimenting with cutting and assembling techniques and sharing them with others. […]
This year 479 films from 51 different countries were submitted for the 9th Weimar Poetry Film Award. The award ceremony will take place on June 1st at the Lichthaus Kino in Weimar. Stay tuned for more information about our official selection!
April-May
Workshops and eventsWe invite you to participate in several workshops in April. The courses are led by the Weimar animation artist Franka Sachse, the Berlin Poetry Slam pioneer Bas Böttcher and the Weimar musician Kay Kalytta. Poems by the Belarusian poet Volha Hapeyeva, the Colombian author Ramona de Jesús and the Weimar writer Gisela Kraft (1936–2010) serve as inspiration and source material.
The results of the workshops will be presented on various occasions in May.
APRIL
SAVE THE DATES:13.04. & 14.04.
Stop motion workshop with Franka Sachse
ACC Galerie, Burgplatz 119.04.
Text collage workshop with Bas Böttcher
LiteraturEtage, Marktstr. 2-4 (OG)26.04 & 27.04.
Sound collage workshop with Kay Kalytta
Klangradar Weimar, Fuldaer Str. 185The entry fee is 30 euros per workshop (including festival pass for the Poetryfilmtage on 31st May/1st June).
Registration via mail: info@literarische-gesellschaft.de
For more information, click hereMAY/JUNE
SAVE THE DATES:02.05.
Exhibition opening „Drehmoment“ by Aline Helmcke
LiteraturEtage, Marktstr. 2-4 (OG)25.05.
Silent Party
ACC Galerie, Burgplatz 131.05.
Lit.Collage. Poetry, Performance, Film
Mon ami, Großer Saal, Goetheplatz 1101.06.
Poetryfilmtage / Award ceremony of the 9th Weimar Poetry Film Award
Lichthaus Kino, Am Kirschberg 4
Visit their website for detailed descriptions of the April workshops for Stop-Motion, Text-Collage, and Sound-Collage.
April is Poetry Month in the U.S. and Canada, so it’s no surprise that a couple of major poetry film festivals are held then. First up: Houston’s REELPoetry Festival.
Online April 1-5, 2024
In Person April 6-7, 2024
922 Holman St, Houston, TX 77002
REELpoetry/HoustonTX 2024 is an international poetry film Festival. This week long event showcases 100+ screenings under 6 minutes from 20 different countries. Connect with international curators and presenters in real time online, and in-person on the weekend; watch world premieres from Houston creatives; experience ASL poetry and performances; join use for two fabulous after parties.
Then toward the end of the month, it’s Seattle’s Cadence Video Poetry Festival.
Verse meets visuals in motion at Northwest Film Forum (NWFF) in April 2024. Cadence Video Poetry Festival, presented by Northwest Film Forum, programmed in collaboration with Seattle author Chelsea Werner-Jatzke and intermedia artist Rana San, is a series of screenings, workshops, and discussions on the genre of video poetry, taking place annually during National Poetry Month. This year’s festival takes place in-person April 19–21 and online April 19–28. Cadence approaches video poetry as a literary genre presented as visual media, cultivating new meaning from the combination of text and moving image.
In its seventh year, Cadence Video Poetry Festival remains the only festival dedicated to the form in the Pacific Northwest. The festival program includes four themed screenings with works selected from an open call for submissions, including video poetry by the 2024 screening team and jurors.
“This year, we did away with the submission categories the festival has had in place for the last six years. Moving away from submissions organized by how they were made (collaboration, video by poets, etc) places further emphasis on what is being made in the video poetry genre,” says co-director Chelsea Werner-Jatzke. “For the first time, a screening team of prior Cadence Artists-in-Residence helped program the festival, broadening the diversity of perspectives considering the video poetry that is screened as part of Cadence.”
“The 2024 festival includes video poems from 20 countries in 11 languages with a strong Pacific Northwest contingent, a quarter of the works representing artists based in Washington, British Columbia, and Montana,” notes co-director Rana San. “In conjunction with the online and onsite festival screenings and workshops, there will be gatherings for artists and audiences to connect in-person and virtually. We’re also collaborating with Frye Art Museum again to host a special satellite screening and artist discussion in May following the fest.”
Meanwhile, in Weimar, Germany, though details so far remain scant, one is advised on the Poetryfilmtage Instagram account to
SAVE THE DATES – Lit.Collage x Poetryfilmtage 2024
This year we are setting with „Lit.Collage“ a special accent. The collage and poetry festival is combined with our film festival and is meant for those who enjoy experimenting with editing techniques and sharing them with others.
…so as you can see: this year we have a lot more action going on and you can join our festival from the 13th of April till the 1st of June. Make sure you’ll save the dates! 🤩
More details on the individual events will follow soon.
It’s great that people anywhere in the world with a good internet connection can virtually attend these festivals, but I am just as excited by another new trend: more and more general poetry festivals are including film and video in various innovative ways. In Madison, Wisconsin, for example, the Hawthorn Public Library will be screening “some of our favorite video poems featured in the first four years of the Midwest Video Poetry Fest,” and in Newtown, Pennsylvania, poet Vasiliki Katsarou will be screening her feature film Fruitlands 1843. So be sure to support your local poetry scene!
Spain’s MALDITO FESTIVAL DE VIDEOPOESÍA has just announced open calls for its International Videopoetry Contest (short films) — guidelines here [PDF] — and its International Poetic Film Showcase (medium- to full-length films) — guidelines here. Maldito is
an international videopoetry contest that has been held in Albacete (Spain) since 2017.
MALDITO FESTIVAL launch this contest with the purpose to show two disciplines that, either individually or collectively, are much more isolated and forgotten as we would like. According to our experience, these disciplines are considered marginal and minor in the extent of the great European capitals, moreover, in the humble towns within regional borders where its dissemination is nonexistent.
MALDITO seeks to vindicate video poetry as an art that connects people, transmits feelings and stimulates different ways to see the world. It is also a tiny contribution of enormous people to empower visual art, stopping it from being marginal and damned*.
(* The Spanish word for damned is MALDITO).The festival is organized by non-profit Association Cultural Maldito; formed by a small team of professionals from the film industry, poetry and culture in general.
MALDITO Crew, as lovers of poetry, image and the expressive possibilities of its symbiosis, we pick up the baton and propose to continue the line of action, encouraging their approach to the public, either with the festival events or the educational activities that we carry out.
The festival will be in November 11-17. The deadline is July 10.