~ Videopoems ~
Videopoetry, filmpoetry, cinepoetry, poetry-film… the label doesn’t matter. What matters is that text and images enter into dialogue, creating a new, poetic whole.
An Anna Blume (To Anna Flower) by Kurt Schwitters
“An Anna Blume,” says the Wikipedia, is “a poem written by the German artist Kurt Schwitters in 1919. It has been described as a parody of a love poem, an emblem of the chaos and madness of the era, and as a harbinger of a new poetic language.” This film adaptation, a German-Bulgarian production, won the the Ritter-Sport Prize at the 5th ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in 2010. Here’s the description at Vimeo:
Anna Blume is a visual poetry about the lust of a man chasing a woman. The story takes on surreal journey dictated by the mind of the poet. Lust and ingestion, disguised in love, drive the two characters to an end where love turns to be a very lonesome and strange place. The film is based on and inspired by the emblematic love poem from 1919 “An Anna Blume” by Kurt Schwitters.
CREDITS:
director Vessela Dantcheva
art director Ivan Bogdanov
screenplay Vessela Dantcheva & Ebele Okoye
main animator Ebele Okoye
music composer Petar Dundakov
sound designer Emil Iliev
compositing & edit Ivan Bogdanov
storyboard & layouts Vessela Dantcheva
produced by Ebele Okoye & FINFILM
supported by Robert Bosch Stiftung & National Film Center
Day is Done by Johan de Boose
Swoon‘s latest videopoem features a text, reading and English translation by Belgian author Johan de Boose. As Swoon wrote in a blog post introducing the film:
For poetry day & week (here in Belgium & The Netherlands) Johan de Boose wrote a poem.
The ‘Provincie Oost-Vlaanderen‘ and ‘Het Poëziecentrum‘ gave me a commission to make a videopoem for it.During these days filled with poetry, Johan is visiting schools, showing the video, reading the poem and talking with the students…
Some things speak for themselves.
Loud and like crystal.[…]
It was clear from the beginning that I wanted someone young to feature in this video. And I found the perfect one. Filming and editing was made easy with her natural expression and Johan’s strong words.
Dutch and Flemish Poetry Day is the fourth Thursday of January (January 24th this year).
Click through to the post to read the poem in both languages.
Kliniken (The Clinic) by Annelie Axén
A newly subtitled animation by Kristian Pedersen for Gasspedal Animert. Words and voice are by Annelie Axén. There’s also an unsubtitled version.
According to the Gasspedal website (with the help of Google Translate), Annelie Axén was born in 1975 and is an author and critic. Raised in Falun, Sweden, she graduated from the Author Program at Telemark University College in Bø, Norway, and went on to the University of Copenhagen where she studied journalism. Her book Langz was published by Gasspedal in 2005.
All Tangled Up: children’s filmpoetry from Scotland
http://vimeo.com/84665976
The result of the first Filmpoem Children’s Workshop led by Alastair Cook for North Light Arts. The film includes five poems read by their authors: Kitty, Alasdair, Andrew, Ben, and Nancy. Ben Dorin James was the cinematographer, and Filmpoem is credited as the director.
Suddenly by Tim Verdinek
I wasn’t able to ascertain anything about the author, but I’m guessing he’s Slovenian like the kids who made this film. ZVVIKS, “institute for film and audiovisual production based in Ljubljana, Slovenia,” seems to regularly sponsor animation workshops. Here’s the complete video description from Vimeo:
Short animated film based on a poem by Tim Verdinek.
“With some assistance from their mentor, the complete film was created by attendees of the animated film workshop for children, students & youth.”
Story, designs, animation and music: Urša Halilovič, Aleksa Milovanović
Mentor: Simon Hudolin – Salči
Producers: Matija Šturm and Kolja Saksida
Sound Borja Močnik
Colour corection: Teo Rižnar
Production: ZVVIKS 2012
Co producer: Kulturni dom Slovenj Gradec
Financier: Maribor 2012 – Evropska prestolnica kulture, Slovenski filmski center – javna agencija Republike Slovenije
A Tree is Everything by Manasvi Bantawa
Manasvi Bantawa was a 3rd Grade student, so 8 or 9 years old, when this animation was made two years ago by Alex McClelland, working from a poster design by Zack Montrunecs. It’s part of the Healing Stanzas project:
Healing Stanzas is a collaborative project between Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center and Glyphix design studio. This series combines the creative talents of KSU Visual Communication Design students with student writers (grades 3–12), health care providers, medical students, patients, and veterans to encourage dialogue about the connection between art and medicine, writing and healing.
Giant by Orianne Breakspear
A film by Luca Dicorato and Takanori Yoshiro. Dicorato notes:
Giant is a poem written and performed by 12 years old Orianne Breakspear.
We decided to animate this piece by employing a mixture of techniques, mainly cutout animation. We favoured images from old books and magazines as well as from the web in order to establish the vintage look.The music is from Kevin MacLeod
In 2011, Orianne Breakspear won the Brit Writers Award for poetry in the Under 16s category.
Poem About Big BIGMOUSE by Ludmila Ulanova
I’m spotlighting children’s poetry films and videos this week, a diverse collection of works by children as well as film-poems made by adults for children. This is an outstanding example of the latter. About BIGMOUSE (Про Мыху), animated by Constantin Arephyeff (or Arefiev, in a more standard Romanization) won the award of the children’s jury at the 5th ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in 2010. This is the English version narrated by Stephen Coates, who collaborated with the author and a couple of other people on the translation. There’s also a Russian version.
As in many Eastern European poetry animations, the text is used as a jumping-off point for a different, more elaborate story-line. However, this also feels very familiar in the context of children’s literature, where the artwork in illustrated books often does much more than just illustrate.
What is Life? by John Clare
https://vimeo.com/57929732
This is the work of Sao Paulo-based writer Juliana Mendonça. According to her description at Vimeo, it was
Inspired by New York City fall and John Clare’s poem.
This was my first time in the city and my first time shooting with a Go Pro only.Made 100% with a Go Pro Hero 3 Black Edition.
Poem: What is Life by John Clare.
Music: Hægt, kemur ljósi› by Ólafur Arnalds.
