Posts By Dave Bonta
Hoover by Trevor Meaney
This is the first of a four-part series of film poems called The Meaning of Lemon, based on the poetry of UK performance poet Trevor Meaney and directed by Bryan Dickinson of the Lancaster Film Makers’ Co-op. Each of the films in the series uses a similar device: a nonplussed or phlegmatic person listening to a unexpected poem delivered through improbable means. In “Hoover,” actor Philip Cowles’ eyebrow action really makes the film for me.
White Sound by bpNichol
This is an excerpt from The Complete Works, a 41-minute film directed and animated by Justin Stephenson based on the work of the late Canadian avant-garde poet bpNichol. Here, a poet-friend of Nichol’s, Steven Ross Smith, performs a virtuosic translation of visual poetry into sound poetry. Stephenson wrote about this and another sound-poetry segment from The Complete Works in an essay published in Poetryfilm Magazine last weekend, “Seeing the Said“:
Both segments start with visual texts as the source for a sound performance. Using digital algorithms to create and modify animations based on audio, a method called audio reactive animation, I inverted the optophonetic see-and-say strategy. In both pieces, the sounds of the performances are algorithmically connected to various visual parameters to generate resemblances between the performance and the visuals.
[…]
The white noise of technological media is the focus of Nichol’s visual text, White Sound. It’s a chap-book that contains pages filled with layers of the rubber stamped words »white sound« set against the backdrop of degraded photocopies of images created by printing blank mimeo plates, stamping empty sort rails, and pressing entire ink pads against the page.
Interspersed within the pages are sheets of semi-transparent colour tissue that act as a filter through which the background text can be viewed. The artefacts and noise introduced through the photocopy process are recorded on the pages of the book.
In The Complete Works, Steven Ross Smith performs White Sound as sound poetry. The performance enacts the organic »generation loss« depicted in the text. The term generation loss is used to describe the noise introduced by duplicating content in analog media – each successive copy (generation) introduces more noise, decreasing the quality, or signal to noise ratio. In the case of White Sound, however, signal to noise is inverted so that the noise is the signal. Accordingly, the text gains quality in each successive generation.
Do read the rest, which goes into detail about the tools Stephenson used as well as his guiding philosophy. His conclusion gives some strong hints about what makes filmmaking like this so compelling, even to those of us who might otherwise remain unmoved by such experimental poetry on the page:
Nichol’s notion of notation is saying what can be seen. This seeing and the saying, though, require participation on the part of reader. They involve diving into the uncertain foggy region between representation by sign and representation by resemblance – this unstable space – and working to locate and read compressions and rarefactions, stresses, tensions that can be recreated in a different medium. In the work of the film, letting the ear lead is a choice that became the foundation for the entire film. It provided the methods and permission to see-and-say in a way that honoured the methods of the texts, but allowed them to take new forms. Visualizing bpNichol’s sound poetry provided an important entry point (which became a crevasse) to the myriad of translations of his work that make up the film.
I should add that Stephenson was kind enough to let me have a sneak peak of the complete film, and I was blown away. It’s a masterpiece. Neither a documentary nor a standard poetry film, The Complete Works focuses resolutely on the poetry, giving just enough biographical information to let viewers know where Nichol was coming from and what he was up to. The interweaving of poems and animation techniques contributes to a really propulsive energy that I sense Nichol would’ve appreciated, and using his friends and colleagues as interpreters gives the film a feeling of accessibility without dumbing down the content in the least.
You can watch other excerpts, and check out reviews and other material on the film’s excellent website, but if you’re able to get to a screening, don’t miss it. There are at least two more coming up: one at the Niagara Artists Centre in Saint Catharines, Ontario on November 23 at 8:00 p.m. (where it will be paired with the launch of Christian Bök’s The Xenotext), and another at the Close-Up Film Centre in London, UK sometime in March.
El caballo ahogado / The Drowned Horse by Pablo Antonio Cuadra
A poem by the late Nicaraguan poet Pablo Antonio Cuadra (1912-2002), as recited by various Nicaraguans in a video filmed, directed and edited by NYC-based artist Miah Artola, part of her “far away” multi-platform project on Nicaragua, which includes “installation, experimental documentary, drawing, and expanded cinema.”
Why Poetry? Despite Nicaragua’s travails, the quality and influence of its literature, and its poetic output in particular, has earned it the epithet ‘Land of the Poets.’ The poets of Nicaragua have created works that have influenced every facet of cultural, political and social life and is a center of creativity in the Spanish-speaking world. Poets have tremendous influence in Nicaragua as politicians, revolutionaries and cultural leaders.
Background: I am of Nicaraguan descent and visited relatives there for the first time in 2013. “far away” was conceived then, and I returned in November 2015 to shoot. It is my intention to raise funds for local education based Nicaraguan organizations and charities.
The music is by Ken Engel, and the actors include Harry Torrez Sandinez, Esmeralda Sos, Anita Arralano, the children of Puedo Leer Library, and school children in Granada Masayac.
Meters by Carol Ann Duffy
For the UK’s National Poetry Day, here’s a poem by the UK’s national poet on a matter of some national interest. It was commissioned by the NGO Smart Energy GB, who say on their website:
Inspired by the passing of traditional gas and electricity meters and the coming of smart meters, Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has published a new poem.
The 300-word elegy to the “whirring wheels” of “artefacts” that are making way for smart meters has been set to an accompanying short film by BAFTA-nominated director Gary Tarn, immortalising traditional meters while looking to an inspiring, digital, green future.
Click through for the text. They include a quote from Duffy:
Household meters are one of the most unusual topics I’ve written about.
I hope people enjoy the poem and film, and take a moment to think about the boxes under the stairs and in hallway cupboards, which have been silently recording household life for so long.
水调歌头 (Water Music Song) by Su Shi / Su Tung-P’o
The great Song Dynasty poet, statesman and intellectual Su Shi or Su Dongpo (Wade-Giles: Su Shih, Su Tung-P’o) wrote this poem in the song-like ci form in 1076, one of several poems about the autumn moon that remain among his most often anthologized works. Beijing artist Hong Huo, currently a student in the Department of Kinetic Imaging at VCUarts in Virginia, notes on Vimeo that this is
A video poem I made recently that is related to the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival couple weeks ago. I chose this Chinese poem that describes the nostalgic feeling of a person that is away from home and family during this time for family and friends to get together and celebrate. Poem written by Su Shi from the Song Dynasty, which still remains popular today. I want to address not just my passion for my culture but also the sense of belonging and loneliness in part of me about how I have passed a journey to become who I am today. Special thanks to my dearest friend Jiaxin Zeng as she has been such a great model for this project.
The English translation in the subtitles is certainly adequate, and it’s a pleasure to hear the poem in Mandarin while reading it. I found another translation online included as apart of an essay by A. R. Davis, “On Such a Night: A Consideration of the Antecedents of the Moon in Su Shih’s Writings,” which is worth reading to learn about the greater cultural milieu as well as the direct influences and allusions at play here. (The translation itself is rather wooden and not worth reproducing here.)
The Walk by Bharath Divakar
https://vimeo.com/183251946
Bangalore-based spoken word poet Bharath Divakar meditates on the meaning of slam culture in this film by Krishna Prasad Raveendran, who notes:
The film tries to capture the thought process of a poet as he/she walks up on stage. The film was shot and edited for Airplane Poetry Movement, a project to give spoken word poets in India a platform to showcase their work and get discovered […] Shot on Sony A6300 (The portions of the walk) The rest of the clips were curated. Filmed and Edited by Krishna Prasad Raveendran
“Digitized Figures” installation combining video, text and live dance reaches funding goal, debuts in two weeks
If you can get to Brooklyn on October 14th, 15th, 16th, 21st, 22nd, or 23rd, the Digitized Figures performance and installation at the Gowanus Loft sounds like an event not to be missed. You may remember my post back in August about the Kickstarter campaign. They just updated it today to announce that they’ve met their goal (44 backers pledged $5,133), and tickets are for sale. As the Facebook event page describes it:
Digitized Figures is an immersive installation created by Sarah Rose Nordgren and Kathleen Kelley that incorporates video, text, and live dance to conjure a richly textured and fluctuating landscape. The installation elements surround and interact with the viewer, inviting them to play in and co-create the performance environment. Digitized Figures is totally immersive experience that you roam through, interacting with the text, the projections, and the dancers.
For more information, see the Smart Snow website. The next-to-most-recent update to the Kickstarter also goes into some detail about the interactive aspect:
As we are moving forward with the show, we are currently in the process of building interactive touchscreens designed by Krista Anne Nordgren. These touchscreens will allow the viewers to choose words and directives that change the dancer’s movements.
When they get instructions from the touchscreens, the dancers interrupt their regular looping dance structure to respond to the audience’s prompts. There are three dancers, three touchscreens, and an infinite number of possibilities for how the dance can be built by YOU the viewer. You build the poem, you build the dance.
It sounds wild.
Human by Meghann Plunkett
Andrés Fernández Cordón of the Buenos Aires-based studio Sloop animated and directed this adaptation of a charming poem by U.S. poet Meghann Plunkett. The Vimeo description notes that “We approached the production much in the same way the poem reads, step by step, drawing one frame after the other without knowing before hand where it would take us.” Plunkett provided the voiceover, and the music is by Shayfer James.
The video was featured at Luna Luna Magazine on August 30, with an accompanying appreciation by Aja Monet, a fellow poet and friend of Plunkett’s since college, as she recounts. Check it out.
Red Coil (excerpt) by Cecilia Vicuña
https://vimeo.com/156326963
I discovered recently that the Chilean poet, visual artist, and filmmaker Cecilia Vicuña has an active presence on Vimeo, with many documentary videos of her performances and installations. Here’s one by Geoffrey Jones that I quite liked.
Film by Geoffrey Jones
Cecilia Vicuña and Jane Rigler.
Four performances for sitelines, New York, 2005, sponsored by LMCC and Poet’s House.In this performances the artist pays homage to Gloria Anzaldúa’s line “The serpent, mi tono, my animal counterpart…” (Borderlands 26).
Thus the Vimeo description. It’s actually apparently an excerpt from a longer work:
Red Coil. Video, English. 68 mins, 2005
Records four performances where Cecilia Vicuña & the flutist Jane Rigler improvise music and poetry along the Hudson River, within the context of the Sitelines Festival of New York. Filmed and edited by Geoffrey Jones.
ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival’s complete list of films, English-language program online
https://vimeo.com/185122525
With the biannual ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival — the world’s largest and most prestigious such event — less than a month away, their website is replete with information, including what should be of most interest even to those who (like me) can’t attend: lists of all the films in each screening. Access those via the main programme page. They also issued a press release on Wednesday; here’s the English version:
ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival Münster | Berlin – The Program
For the first time, the Zebra Poetry Film Festival Münster | Berlin will be held in Münster from 27-30 October at cinema Schloßtheater. Established in Berlin in 2002, the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival was the first and remains the largest international platform for cinematic adaptations of poetry: poetry films
With three poetry-film competitions – one international, one German, and one North Rhine-Westphalia based – as well as themed film programmes, a retrospective on TV poetry hosted by Klaus-Peter Dencker, readings, a Colloquium, a lineup for younger audiences called ZEBRINO and a lineup focused on works from the Flanders and the Netherlands, ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival 2016 promises to showcase the richness and diversity in the emerging film genre of poetry films.
This year, more than 1,100 submissions from 86 countries were submitted to the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival Münster | Berlin, among which 80 have been nominated by the program commission to compete in the international and national competitions. Four prizes totaling €12,000 will be awarded by the three-member international jury, including the “ZEBRA Award for the best poetry film”, the “Goethe Film Award”, the “Ritter Sport Film Award”, as well as the “Award for the Best film for Tolerance”. Additionally, 18 films will be presented in the newly established NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia) competition.
The Flanders and Netherlands Focus
As part of the official programme of the Frankfurt Book Fair, ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival Münster | Berlin will bring into focus Dutch language and literature this year, and present work of artists from Netherlands and Flanders. With selected poetry films from this year’s submissions, award-winning classics and the results of the Master Class “Poetry across the borders”, ZEBRA will showcase the diversity in language arts in the area between the dunes and the polders through poetry readings and Film Talks.
In this year’s festival, we have permission from Dutch poet Mustafa Stitou, author of the poem oracle van een gevonden schoen, to use said poem as a theme for short films. The six best among the filmmakers who decided to center their film on oracle van een gevonden schoen have been invited to Münster to present and engage in discussions of their work.
The Festival Committee has also organised a Retrospective on the work of Klaus Peter Dencker, visual poet and literary scholar, who is widely considered to be the inventor of the TV poetry. Klaus Peter Dencker created the Sequencing form, which in turn has influenced his work of visual poetry. Throughout his years in the television industry, he played an important role in creating more than 100 documentary and experimental films for ARD and ZDF, including influential experimental films like starfighter, rausch and Austronaut, which were broadcast over the now defunct SWF of Baden-Baden during 1970-1971. Professor Dencker will be present at the festival to talk about his work.
ZEBRINO Program for Young Audiences
The ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival Münster/Berlin will make poetic forays with younger audiences. What is a poetry film? Where does the idea of making a cinematic poem come from? What is a poem? ZEBRINO is a lineup of colorful short films based on poems which target audiences of 10-14 years old and aims to bring children closer to the genre of poetry film. In this program, the young visitors will not only meet a rabbit-turtle, a black bear, people with funny mice, but also travel with two brothers back into their past. In the end, the young participants will get to choose their favorite film by voting. The film with the most votes wins the ZEBRINO competition 2016 prize worth 500 euros.
The Zebra Poetry Festival is organized by the Filmwerkstatt Münster in cooperation with the Haus für Poesie (formerly Literaturwerkstatt, Berlin). It is made possible by the support of Kunststiftung NRW, the LWL Kulturstiftung, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the city of Münster, the Stiftung der Sparkasse Münsterland Ost, the Kulturrucksack NRW, the Netherlands Consulate General and the Flemish Embassy. The competition prizes have been donated in 2016 by the Haus für Poesie, the Goethe Institute, the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, the Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG and Deutsche Lufthansa AG. The festival is also supported by the Münstesche Filmtheater-Betriebe, GUCC grafik & film, as well as the Factory Hotel.
lighght by Aram Saroyan
I’ve been reading Aram Saroyan‘s Complete Minimal Poems and wondering how one might make a videopoem out of a one-word poem. Then I found British photographer Duncan Wooldridge’s Reading Aram Saroyan On The Bus, 2015 (1minute extract), which deploys Saroyan’s most infamous poem of all. Wooldridge’s Vimeo description:
Reading Aram Saroyan’s poem ‘lighght’ on the bus towards Camberwell Green, as a work of durational reading using the technical apparatus of the camera.
I wonder how long the whole video is? I love the idea of it almost as much as I love the idea of the original poem.
