Posts By Dave Bonta
Про форму / Concerning Form by Yurii Andrukhovych
This is Love Mykolaiv if you dare (Закохайся в Миколаїв, якщо насмілишся) by Ukrainian director Angie (Anzhela) Bogachenko, featuring actors Zoryana Tarasyuta and Denis Shvetsov and a poem by the prominent Ukrainian writer Yurii Andrukhovych called “Concerning Form”, with Roman Reznik’s English translation in the subtitles. Visit Poetry Film Live for the full text and background on the film (including bios of Bogachenko and Andrukhovych). Here’s the summary:
The film introduces viewers to the architecture and the ‘peculiarities’ of life in Mykolaiv. Angie Bogachenko says: “We love our city, but over the years it loses shape. How can it be corrected? Imagine that you found a magic music box, which is able to change any of the drawbacks.”
The Fauvist In Spring by Daniel Cockrill
https://vimeo.com/40280198
Poetry by the UK performance poet Daniel Cockrill animated by Richard Jackson (Plume Animation) with music by Julian Ward. Jackson does a marvelous job of expanding and extending the images in the texts, connecting what appear to be two separate poems, and concluding with a purely visual epilogue after the credits. Uploaded to Vimeo six years ago, it came to my attention just the other week when it was shared on YouTube by Muddy Feet Poetry.
This is one of at least four animations that Cockrill and Jackson have collaborated on. I see too that both of Cockrill’s books with Burning Eye have been produced collaboratively with visual artists: Sellotaping Rain to My Cheek with the cartoonist Tony Husband, and In The Beginning Was The Word, Then A Drawing, Then More Words, Another Drawing, And So On, And So On with illustrator Damien Weighill. Very cool.
6th International Video Poetry Festival in Athens, 19-20 January: full program released
Plans have been finalized and a press release issued for the 6th International Video Poetry Festival in Athens. It will be held at the Embros self-organized theater next Friday and Saturday, and includes the work of 134 video artists, filmmakers and poets from 25 countries, five performances with 21 live poets, three DJs with four live concerts, two video installations AND a book fair! (Have you ever heard of a poetry film festival with a book fair before? Me neither, but what a great idea!)
Here’s the full, profusely illustrated press release, and I’ll paste in the most informative of their posters below. I realize this is kind of short notice for people to make travel plans, but obviously it’s hard to make long-range plans for major events happening in unofficial spaces vulnerable to state repression. I have yet to attend one of these myself, but I got a first-hand report from friends who attended last years’, and they said the screening was extremely well-attended and the audience diverse and seemingly rapt (though perhaps a little too fond of cigarette smoking). The point is there’s more than one way to organize a videopoetry or poetry film festival, and I think it’s important to pay attention to how they’re doing it in Athens. This sounds like a really dynamic, exciting event.
Film festival news note: Newlyn extends deadline to 21 February
The deadline for submissions to the Newlyn Film Festival has been extended to February 21st. (It had been January 31.) This is the festival slated for April 6-8th on the southwestern tip of England with a special category for poetry films, to be judged by Lucy English and Sarah Tremlett. The director tells me they’ve had a good response from poetry filmmakers so far, so I guess we’re not the main reason the deadline has been extended, but don’t miss your chance to be a part of this brand-new festival. Here are the guidelines.
Motionpoems Season 8 premiere set for February 8 in New York
The Minnesota-based, nonprofit poetry film production company Motionpoems will be premiering its new season of films in New York City for the first time this year. (Get your tickets here.) But that’s only one of the things that makes this sound so intriguing.
To start with, they’re calling Season 8 “Dear Mr. President.” And they’ve produced films for poems by some of the hippest and most popular poets in the U.S., with directors from around the world:
Led by executive producer Claire McGirr, Motionpoems decided to tackle issues that affect everyone.
The season features poems that tackle racism, LGBTQIA+ rights, immigration, women’s rights, gun control, educational & social welfare, judicial system reform, climate change, and news/media/social platforms.
Our poets include Tiana Clark, Natalie Diaz, Eve L. Ewing, Peter LaBerge, Robin Coste Lewis, Sussanah Nevison, Danez Smith, Maggie Smith,LeeAnn Roripaugh, and Nomi Stone.
Their poems were adapted to film by Dan Daly, Kate Dolan, Mohammad Hamad, Anais La Rocca, Savanah Leaf, Monty Marsh, Jane Morledge, Ty Richardson, Ryan Simon, Tom Speers, Jovan Todorovic, and Tash Tung.
These issues affect populations internationally. Therefore, our filmmakers are international too. Hailing from America, England, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Australia & Serbia, among others, this year our Directors are an eclectic collective of visionaries & artists.
Click through to reserve seats. The premiere is at the Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Avenue (at 2nd Street), New York, NY, and I’m told seating is limited. Between this event, and the New York-based Visible Poetry Project set to debut its second season of films in March, is it possible that the east-coast establishment arbiters of American literary taste will finally start paying attention to poetry film? Well, probably not, but we can always dream.
