Posts By Lucy English
Poetry Film at UK’s Lyra Bristol Poetry Festival
The Lyra Bristol Poetry Festival is due to begin on 12th April. Do check out our full programme as we have so much going on!
We have two poetry film events which I would love you to be able to see.
If you can’t be in Bristol many of our events, including the Zebra screening, will be live-streamed. Our ‘festival digital pass’ is only £15 and you will be able to view the events online.
The first poetry film event is Cancer Alley, the poetry film immersive hologram which is going to be screened at The Watershed 18-21st April from 10-5pm.
Cancer Alley is an immersive poetry film hologram which features environmental destruction in ‘Cancer Alley’, Louisiana, the heart of the Global petrochemical industry. The project draws attention to the need for multinational companies to take more responsibility for their impact on the environment and the growing public awareness of how people’s lives are affected by extreme pollution. Cancer Alley is free, and is available to view at the Watershed 17-21st April on a continuous loop.
Cancer Alley has been created by poet Lucy English, US filmmakers Pamela Falkenberg and Jack Cochran, and Bristol based company Holotronica.
The second is the curation of films by the Zebra Poetry Film Festival on Saturday 20th April at The Watershed 3-4pm. Haus für Poesie presents a selection of the best films from the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival. The programme shows short films on the subject of “Poetry and Technology”. On the one hand, the poetry films are technically extremely sophisticated or deal with topics such as artificial intelligence, algorithms and social media. The films are based on poems by Jörg Piringer, Raed Wahesh and Yehuda Amichai, among others.
Presented by Thomas Zandgiacomo Del Bel, who will join us for a special in-person Q&A all the way from Berlin.
I look forward to seeing you at the festival in person or virtually! Here’s the link.
Call for work: MIX 2019, Experiential Storytelling
MIX 2019: Experiential Storytelling
Monday 1st July – Tuesday 2nd July 2019
Corsham Court Campus
www.mixconference.org
After the success of the last four MIX conferences, MIX 2019 returns to the beautiful surroundings of Bath Spa University’s Corsham Court Campus in Wiltshire. This year’s conference will be a more intimate, single strand version, curated for a smaller audience to give time and space to instigate conversations around digital writing with a focus on experiential storytelling, including immersive technologies and new forms of publishing, from transmedia and poetry film to virtual reality to AI in storytelling.
Corsham Court
A conference where creative writing and media creation intersect with and/or are dependent upon technology should be as interdisciplinary as possible, and that’s what we are aiming for with MIX 2019. The conference will host a vibrant mix of academic papers, practitioner presentations and keynotes. Confirmed speakers include publisher, Maja Thomas, Chief Innovation Officer, Hachette Innovation Program; Thomas Zandegiocomo, Artistic Director Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Berlin; and writer Nikesh Shukla.
Within the single-strand programme there will be four themed panels. We would like to encourage the submission of research papers, artist/practitioner presentations and papers on pedagogy on the following topics;
- Emerging forms of digitally-mediated narrative, including projects that use artificial intelligence, machine learning, algorithmic writing practices and locative-aware narratives.
- Poetry film, including the future of poetry film, current developments in social media sharing, current developments in poetry film content and practice.
- Immersive technologies and narrative, including Extended and Mixed Reality, VR, Augmented Reality, and Ambient Literature
- Ethics of Storytelling, including accessibility and appropriation, but also issues around technology and ethics, i.e embodiment in VR, algorithmic bias in cultural works that use AI, etc.
We are looking for proposals for 15 minute papers/ presentations or 60 minute panels (composed of three 15 minute papers with time for q&a). Please submit 300 word abstracts and a 100 word biography for each paper/presentation you are proposing by Monday 4th February 2019. We will let you know whether your submission has been successful by the end of February 2019.
For further information and to submit your abstract visit www.mixconference.org
For queries email mix@bathspa.ac.uk
We hope to see you at MIX 2019.
another view of Corsham Court
Poetry Film Competition: Light Up Poole
Submissions are requested from poets and filmmakers as part of Light Up Poole, a unique digital Light Art Festival aiming to transform Poole’s town centre after dark from 15-17 February 2018.
Focussing on a theme of ‘Identity’, festival organisers are looking for films, up to a maximum of three minutes, that address the topic and consider how identity is reflected in contemporary society. What does it mean to be an individual, a member of a family, a worker in the city, in a rural setting, a person living in Britain today?
For the purpose of this submission request, a poetry film is defined as a fusion of spoken/written word with visual images where the combination of media provide a richer experience than either the spoken/written word or visual images could do on their own. In this instance, a poetry film isn’t simply a video recording of a poet reading a poem. The poetry film can also include music.
Prizes
Ten short-listed films will be shown at select venues in Poole’s town centre throughout the duration of the festival, with further screenings as a prelude to main cinema screenings at Lighthouse Poole during March/April 2018. The winning film will receive £500, to be shared between poet and film-maker in the case of collaborations.
Links to films must be received by 26th January 2018. High Definition files will be required for short-listed films.
Please send to matt@artfulscribe.co.uk
Judges
Lucy English is co-creator of the poetry film organisation, Liberated Words, which curates and screens poetry films. Lucy is best known as a performance poet who has published three novels and is currently a Reader at Bath Spa University where she teaches on the undergrad and Master’s Creative Writing courses. Her specialisms include writing for digital platforms.
Sarah Tremlett, MPhil, FRSA, SWIP, is a British poetry filmmaker, artist and arts theorist/writer, with a first-class honours degree in Fine Art and an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University. In 2012, she co-founded Liberated Words poetry film events with poet and novelist Lucy English to screen international poetry filmmakers alongside films made in the community, and co-conceived MIX conference, Bath Spa University.
Guidelines
Entry is free to anyone, and should be made via email to matt@artfulscribe.co.uk including the following info in an attached word document:
- Name and duration of Film
- Name of director
- Country of origin
- Contact details
- Name of Poet
- Name of Poem
- Synopsis
- Filmmaker biography
- and a Link to download a high-resolution version of the film.
You may submit as many entries as you like. Films must interpret, be based on, or convey the festival theme. Non-English language films will require English subtitles.
Poetry Film screenings at the MIX conference, Bath Spa University, July 2017
2017 is a year which marks many significant anniversaries; political, sociological and creative. In 1517 Martin Luther nailed his Disputation to the church door in Wittenburg. Jane Austen died in 1817. 1917 marked the start of the Russian Revolution. In 1967 Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released by the Beatles and kicked off the Summer of Love, and in 1977 everything went punk.
To celebrate the human capacity for renewal and experimentation combined with deep thought, the themes for MIX 2017 are revolutions, regenerations, reflections. We asked artists/poets and digital writers to submit poetry films/film poems/video poetry responding to these themes. Twenty films have been selected from an international cohort and they will be screened in our Viewing Theatre throughout the duration of the conference.
This selection has been curated by Lucy English, Reader in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, co-founder of Liberated Words which creates, curates and screens poetry films, and Zata Banks, founder of PoetryFilm, an influential research arts project and film screening series.
The selected films reveal the energy and commitment to the poetry film genre by its practitioners, and explore the different approaches to combining words with moving image. Some of our filmmakers are well known and have received many accolades; others are new to the field.
Revolution
Othneil Smith, If We Must Die
Tommy Becker, Song for Disobedient Youth
Lemar Barrett, Electric Roses
Jordan Caylor, Untitled
Helen Dewbery, The Goose
Manuel Vilarinho, No Pais Dos Sacanas
Regeneration
Jim Pomeroy, Words
Marie Craven, Anatomy
Cindy St. Onge, Road to Damascus
Dave Bonta, Grassland
Matthew Griffith, Pain in Colour
Reflections
Damon Moore, The Multi Storey Car Park in Trenchard Street
Shuhei Hatona, Seventh Window
Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel Dugas, Illumination
Sophie Seita, Objects I Cannot Touch
Angie Bogachenko, Oracle of a Found Shoe
Cheryl Gross, Shop
Fin Harvor, The Carpet 1
Andrew Demirijan, I Tremble with Anticipation
Kate Flaherty, A Mouse’s Prayer
More information about the films and the film makers/poets will be posted on the MiX conference website.
Update on The Book of Hours project; more collaborators sought
My PhD is now half way through! Last week I passed the half way assessment and I am on course to finish by 2018. There are now nineteen films for The Book of Hours and my target is 48 films in total.
Four new ones were uploaded this week, made by Janet Lees, Carolyn Richardson, Maciej Piatek and Claire Ewbank. Please have a look at the site and see how it is progressing! I am now experimenting with voices other than mine and innovative approaches. Janet’s film used a ‘mix’ of five of my poems from the Poetry Storehouse.
Loki continues to develop the site and its final appearance will be more elaborate. For now we are gaining content and making sure the films play smoothly.
Seven more are in production, to be made by Shane Vaughan, Katia Visconglesi, Lori Ersolmaz, David Richardson, Eduardo Yague, Sarah Tremlett and Kathryn Darnell. Hopefully these will be finished by the end of year.
So far ‘Postcard From my Future Self’ was screened at Visible Verse. ‘Shop’ was selected for Lisbon. ‘Aubade’ is due to be screened in Athens and ‘What is Love’ was voted poetry film of the month!!!! I am delighted that these films are finding new audiences!!! Sarah Tremlett is going to interview me for her forthcoming book on poetry film and I will discuss the challenges of creating such a large curated collection.
I am looking for more collaborators to make more films and I would also like to hear about other curated collections of more than twenty films.
Filmmakers needed for a digital Book of Hours
Call for collaborators!!!! I am creating a contemporary digital re-imagining of a Book of Hours. I will be making forty eight poetry films to represent four times of day for each month of the year. Loki English, from Berlin, will be building the site. I have made five films with Marc Neys and one of these, A Postcard From My Future Self, was screened at Visible Verse in Vancouver. Helen Dewbery, Carolyn Patricia Richardson, Eduardo Yagüe and Maciek Piatek have also made films. I would be interested in hearing from other film makers. Let me know if you would like to be part of this project. Here is a link to the website.
I am exploring different approaches to making poetry films. With Marc Neys we started with the sound. With Helen Dewbery and Maciek we started with the images. I also have a selection of poetry and I am keen to write more. Please contact me for further information: Lucy English, slamlucy@hotmail.com.
Call for poetry films: Liberated Words at Bath Fringe Festival 2016
CALL FOR POETRY FILMS
Utopia / Dystopia
Dance and Freedom
Liberated Words at Bath Fringe Festival 2016
Entry submission deadline 31st March, 2016.
The Utopians wonder how any man should be so much taken with the glaring doubtful lustre of a jewel or a stone, that can look up to a star or to the sun himself; … who hide (a precious stone) out of their fear of losing it … If it should be stole the owner … would find no difference between his having or losing it, for both ways it was equally useless to him … or how any should value himself because his cloth is made of a finer thread; for how fine soever that thread may be, it was once no better than the fleece of a sheep, and that sheep, was a sheep still, for all its wearing it. (Thomas More, Utopia, 62–64)
To commemorate the 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s Utopia, Liberated Words will be hosting two poetry film screenings alongside exciting performance poetry on 26th May and 2nd June at Walcot Chapel, Bath. These events will be part of The Utopia/Dystopia-themed Bath Fringe Festival, 2016. We are requesting poetry film submissions of up to three minutes in length for two categories: Dance and Freedom and Utopia/Dystopia. The dance poetry films will include a unique collaboration between Bath Dance College, Radstock and creative writing and media students from Somervale School, Midsomer Norton. The Utopia/Dystopia screening will include breakthrough films by gifted teenagers from Butterflies Haven in Keynsham.
For further details and entry form please follow this link: http://liberatedwords.com/call-poetry-films-2016/
