~ festivals and other screening events ~

News about any and all events in which poetry films/videos are prominently featured, whether or not they include an open competition. Please let us know about any we might miss. And don’t forget to check out our page of links to poetry film festivals. All festivals, events and calls for work are mentioned by MovingPoems with our best efforts and in good faith. However, do check all details yourself as we cannot guarantee accuracy, and make your own judgements because we cannot verify the things that we share. Events may fail for a variety of genuine reasons, or may be a scam to elicit fees.

Call for Entries: 8th Annual Ó Bhéal International Poetry-Film Competition

In case you missed the brief link in last week’s news round-up, here’s a press release from Ó Bhéal with the full call-out.

The 8th annual Ó Bhéal International Poetry-Film Competition

2020 is Ó Bhéal’s eleventh year screening International poetry-films, and the eighth year featuring this competition. Up to thirty films will be shortlisted and screened during the festival in November 2020. One winner will receive the Indie Cork / Ó Bhéal prize for best Poetry-Film.

Submissions are open from: 1st May – 31st August 2020. You may submit as many entries as you like. Films must interpret, or convey a poem which must be present in its entirety (audibly and/or visually), having been completed no earlier than 1st of May 2018.

Entries may not exceed 10 minutes in duration. Non-English language films will require English subtitles. The shortlist will be announced during October 2020.

One overall winner will receive the Ó Bhéal award for best poetry-film. Shortlisted films will be screened (and the winner announced) at the 8th Winter Warmer poetry festival (27th-29th Nov 2020).

Entry is free to anyone, and should be made via email to poetryfilm [at] obheal.ie – including the following info in an attached word document:

  • Name and duration of Film
  • Month & Year completed
  • 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.**

**If you are sending a vimeo or youtube link, etc, please ensure that the download button is enabled. All films not shortlisted by the judges are permanently deleted directly after the adjudication process.

The Judges for this years competition are poet/playwright/filmmaker Dairena Ní Chinnéide & poet/filmmaker Paul Casey

Follow the link for an outline of the submission details:
http://www.obheal.ie/blog/competition-poetry-film/

OBhealPoetryFilmFlyer2020

News Round-Up: Pandemic Edition

“Why Poetry?” Video Podcast Special on Poetry Film with Lucy English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPti3riEkh0

This is such an excellent look at the role of collaboration in poetry film-making. A very well-edited and satisfying program, focusing on Lucy English’s Book of Hours project, it ought to work well as an introduction to the genre for poets and filmmakers alike.

Ó Bhéal Poetry-Film Competition Open for Submissions

Guidelines here.

Weimar Poetry Film Award: Festival Postponed, Deadline Extended

Guidelines here.

FVPS Deadline Extended and The Symposium Postponed until Fall 2020

“The Film and Video Poetry Society will postpone our 3rd annual symposium; we are hopeful, and are committed to rescheduling for fall 2020. Submissions remain open and our deadline extended to August 3, 2020.” More here.

Newlyn PZ Poetry Film Competition Winners Announced

The 2020 Newlyn PZ Film Festival was cancelled, but we still know the winners of the poetry film competition thanks to a post at the increasingly indispensable Liberated Words website.

Cadence Video Poetry Festival, Other Film Festivals Move Online

Rather than cancel entirely, the Cadence Video Poetry Festival made the choice of screening films online in five screenings on 15-19 April. A number of other film festivals are opting to screen films online for a few days as well. It’s a shame that so many film festivals bar submissions of films that are freely available online. Otherwise it might be possible for Cadence and others to post all competition films to the web on a permanent basis, and people with dodgier internet connections (including myself) would have an easier time watching them. If the pandemic makes meat-space festivals impossible for the next couple of years, as seems possible, some festivals might end up doing a 180 and requiring all submissions to be available on the web. That would certainly shake things up!

Visible Poetry Project Films All Online

The Visible Poetry Project is one web-first, festival-like thing that wasn’t hurt by the pandemic. A film went up each day in April, and you can watch them all on their website.

New Book on Videopoetry by Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel H. Dugas

Books on or about videopoetry are a rarity, and this one is available for free as a PDF, with a print version due out later this year. Here’s Sarah Tremlett’s mini review. It’s cool to be able to read about the making of a film and then click a live link to watch it. I’ll be interested to see whether the print edition includes QR codes allowing readers with mobile phones to watch the films as they read.

Online “Festival of Hope” Features Videopoetry

This is a cool festival. And it looks as if the films may remain live for a while.

Corona! Shut Down? Open Call and Ongoing Release of Videos

New Media 2020 Corona Festival banner

It’s not just for poetry videos, but this is well worth checking out — and submitting to. As they say, “Corona isn’t the plague, and not all infected people are gonna be dying. Probably, the crisis is a wake-up call – to rethink and change!?”

“Poetry and Climate” film screening at Lyra Bristol Poetry Festival

Lucy English and Sarah Tremlett of Liberated Words have organized a poetry film event focusing on poetry and climate on Saturday, March 14 in Bristol, UK. Tickets are free.

Curated by Liberated Words, these short poetry films will reflect on the current climate emergency as well as celebrate the natural world. Plus short discussion on the rising genre of poetry film and how artists and poets are responding to our changing environment. With Lucy English and Sarah Tremlett.

Arnolfini (Theatre)
Saturday 14th March 2020
1:00 – 2:00pm

There’s more information on the Liberated Words website, and it sounds like a really exciting event, with films from around the world and a panel discussion including Mark Smalley from Extinction Rebellion as well as UK ecopoets Helen Moore, Meriel Lland and Caleb Parkin. If you can’t make it to Bristol, Lucy and Sarah note that “We are also looking for further screening venues, and other poetry films on the subject, particularly including diversity within the makers.” For those who can attend, the whole festival looks pretty unmissable, with an overall theme of “climate, nature, and romantic Bristol.”

Call for entries: ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival 2020

Adapted from a press release from the Haus für Poesie
ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival stage and audience

As of today, the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in Berlin is inviting entries for its competition for the best international poetry films. Eligible for entry are international short films produced since January 1, 2018 which are based on poems and are no more than 20 minutes in duration. All languages are allowed. The competition winners will be awarded prize money. A programme committee will select films for the international competition and for all the other festival programmes from among the entries. At the festival, the winning films will be selected by a jury comprising representatives from the worlds of poetry, film and media.

In addition, ZEBRA is inviting filmmakers to submit a film interpretation of this year’s festival poem “Lethe” by the poet TJ Dema.* Text and audio of the poem together with translations come from lyrikline.org, a leading online archive for poetry. The directors of the three best film interpretations will be chosen by the programme committee and invited to come to Berlin where they will have the opportunity to present their films at the festival and discuss them with the poet.

Entry deadline is the 1st of July 2020.

Conditions of participation and entry form are here. Please submit using FilmFreeway here.

The 11th ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival will run from November 19-22, 2020 in Berlin’s Kino in der KulturBrauerei. It’s the largest international platform for poetry film worldwide. Since 2002 it has offered poets, film- and festival-makers from all over the world a platform for creative exchange, brainstorming and meeting with a broad audience. With a competition, film programmes, poetry readings, retrospectives, exhibitions, performances, workshops, colloquia, lectures and a children’s program, it showcases in various sections the diversity of the poetry film genre. In 2018, more than 1200 submissions from 97 countries were submitted for the international competition.

Follow ZEBRA at Haus für Poesie and on Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
__________

*The Festival Poem may be used only for the purpose of film interpretation within the scope of this call for entries. For any other use at other festivals or on other platforms, etc. the film makers must obtain the rights from the rights holders.

Call for work: Cadence Video Poetry Festival 2020

Cadence 2020 poster

Cadence: Video Poetry Festival is open for submissions! This annual festival at the Northwest Film Forum in Seattle, Washington will host screenings on April 16 and 17 and is looking for work ranging from adaptations to collaboration to include in the festival. Cadence approaches video poetry as a literary genre presented as visual media that makes new meaning from the combination of text and moving image. Send Cadence your video poetry through March 1 via FilmFreeway.

The foregoing is the (slightly altered) text of a social-media-adapted press release that Chelsea Werner-Jatzke emailed me this week—a good indication, I suspect, of just how well organized this festival is generally. In case you missed it, I interviewed Chelsea and her co-conspirator Rana San last July. See “How to start a major new videopoetry festival: an interview with the co-directors of Cadence.”

Film festival news: Art Visuals & Poetry program; calls for work from Carmethan Bay, At the Fringe

2020 International Screening of Experimental Films and Videopoems AT THE FRINGE

In last week’s round-up I gave the Art Visuals & Poetry Film Festival too brief a mention since I hadn’t found much in English. But I just got a bilingual press release from organizer Sigrun Höllrigl, so I can rectify that. Here’s the English portion of her email. Note that the link at the end also goes to an English-language schedule of events.

FOCUS USA / International film guests
The Art Visuals & Poetry Film Festival will take place for the fifth time from November 29 to December 1, 2019 at the METRO Kinokulturhaus in Vienna. In addition to four competition programmes, Poetry Live and film talks with international guests, numerous curated film programmes will be shown. This year’s focus is on poetry films from the USA. Founded in 2013 by Sigrun Höllrigl, the Poetry Film Festival has grown steadily since its beginnings and, with 101 film screenings on three days it is currently the second largest poetry film festival world-wide. In addition to Todd Boss (Motionpoems USA), film guests from Dubai, Belgium, Germany and Ireland have announced their arrival and are expected to attend. Including the domestic film scene, 40 contributing artists will join the festival.
 
FILM COMPETITIONS AND AUDIENCE AWARD
In 2019, two international competitions were announced and 170 films submitted, 63 art works came from Austria. The festival will award cash prizes to 4 films: The Main Jury Prize and Special Award (poem by Sophie Reyer) will be awarded on the recommendation of the jury. The Hubert Sielecki Prize goes to an Austrian poetry film of his choice. This year, for the first time, the Audience Prize will be awarded among international films.  Have a look at the festival and vote for the winner on Saturday night! Festival tickets can be ordered via the ticket service of the Metro Kinokulturhaus. Phone +43 1 512 18 03 daily from 14:00–21:00 or via reservierung@filmarchiv.at
 
Find the festival programme online https://www.poetryfilm-vienna.com/en/timetable/2019
 
We are looking forward to welcoming you at the festival!

* * *

My co-editor Marie Craven is currently on the road (for the poetry film cause) but alerted me to two new-to-me festivals that are still open for submissions:

Carmarthen Bay Film Festival

This Welsh festival includes a POETIC CINEMA section for the first time this year:

Poetry film is a subgenre of film that fuses the use of spoken word poetry, visual images, and sound to create a stronger presentation and interpretation of the meaning being conveyed. This fusion of image and spoken word (both independent and interdependent) creates what William Wees called the “Poetry-film” genre.
 
We are looking for Submissions that:
• Are based upon an interesting concept;
• Are innovative;
• Are well crafted; and
• Create an emotional resonance

The sidebar category dropdown elaborates:

Poets, filmmakers, and media artists are called to submit their work to this brand new category. We will accept submissions of poetry films, filmpoems, digital-poetry, poetry video, Cin(E)-Poetry, spoken word films, videopoema, visual poetry, poetrinca, media poetry, and all films that are visually driven by text. Eligible submissions must have a maximum length of 40 minutes. CBFF cannot be held liable or responsible for any claim involving copyright, trademark, credits, or royalty infringement.Entries that are not in English must be subtitled in English.

Unfortunately, it’s rather pricey to enter—currently USD $45—so I kind of doubt that they’ll get many submissions from the more avant-garde sub-genres they include in their list. This strikes me as a bunch of film industry types wanting to add a bit of experimental cachet to their program, while not actually welcoming scruffier poets and auteurs. Interesting as a possible sign of the times, though.

AT THE FRINGE International Arts Festival

AT THE FRINGE International Arts Festival will take place in Tranås (Sweden) from 27th June to 4th July 2020.
The film section of the festival is focused on screening experimental films and videopoems from all over the world and we are happy to open the new call for films!
 
Submit your film in one of these three sections: […]
 ​
GEMS – OPEN CALL FOR VIDEOPOEMS
A collection of precious stones. We are looking for videopoems, those films that stand on the border between audiovisual languages and words – written or performed. The festival is open to national and international filmmakers. Any film with no limitation of theme or duration is welcome to apply.
[…]
The videopoems submitted must have a duration of maximum 30 minutes (opening and ending credits included). They must include subtitles in English or Swedish (where the original language is not one of these two). There is no limitation for the number of works that each author can submit.

It’s great to see something like this in Sweden. And this time, the entry fee is more affordable: USD $10. The deadline is 31 March.

Poetry film festival news round-up

Poetry film festival season is now in full swing. Major festivals are just ’round the corner in Vienna, Berlin, Mexico City, and Athens.

poster featuring Motionpoems

First up is the biannual Art Visuals & Poetry Film Festival scheduled for 29 November to 1 December in Vienna. Though mainly a German-language event, this year it includes a special focus on the US-based production company Motionpoems.

Then it’s time for the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in Berlin, whose full programme is now online. They sent along a press release, worth reproducing nearly in full due the central importance of this festival to the poetry film genre.

Once again, Berlin becomes the centre for the poetry film. From 5 to 8 December, the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival will for the 10th time be presenting the poetry film in all its facets in the Kino in der KulturBrauerei cinema. For the first time the current poetry film from Germany is the centre piece of the festival. Poetry film creation in the United Kingdom will be given a special spot in the limelight. The programme is now online. And Tickets go on advance sale in mid-November.

FESTIVAL OPENING
THU 5 Dec | 20.00 | Kino in der KulturBrauerei

Guest of honour will be Jochen Kuhn, artist and film maker. A voice of contemporary German poetry, Özlem Özgül Dündar, is reading her latest poems. The music of the British and Berlin based multi-instrumentalist Rowan Coupland is often referring to poetry.

GERMANY-WIDE COMPETITION
Part 1: Yearned-For Places FRI 6 Dec | 19.30 (Repetition SAT 7 Dec | 14.30)
Part 2: Common Values SAT 7 Dec | 19.30. (Repetition SUN 8 Dec | 14.30)
all in Kino in der KulturBrauerei

From more than 500 submissions from all over Germany the Programme Commission has chosen the best poetry films for the Competition. The international Jury of three will be awarding the prizes to the winning films at the awards ceremony on 8 December.

AWARD CEREMONY
SUN 8 Dec | 20.00 | Kino in der KulturBrauerei

The international Jury, comprising Jana Cernik (AG Kurzfilm), Charlotte Warsen (poet) and Tim Webb (filmmaker), will be awarding four prizes: the ZEBRA Prize for the Best Poetry Film, donated by the Haus für Poesie, the Goethe Film Prize, donated by the Goethe Institute, the Prize for the Best Film for Tolerance, donated by the German Foreign Ministry and the Ritter Sport Film Prize, donated by Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG. Musical accompaniment for the evening will be provided by F.S. Blumm.

FOCUS UK
We Are Poets FRI. 6.12. | 5 pm
Very British FRI. 6.12. | 10 pm
State of the Art SAT. 7.12. | 5 pm
Stiff Upper Verse SAT. 7.12. | 10 pm
all in Kino in der KulturBrauerei

The country focus this year is on the United Kingdom. The programme ‘State of the Art’ shows the latest British productions, curated by the poets and film makers Chaucer Cameron, Helen Dewbery, Lucy English and Sarah Tremlett. The ‘Very British’ programme is a Best Of from the past few decades of the British poetry film. The documentary ‘We Are Poets’ by Daniel Lucchesi and Alex Ramseyer-Bache celebrates its German première at the festival. In ‘Stiff Upper Verse’ the British poets Simon Barraclough, Lucy English and Roseanne Watt will be reading in English, Welsh and the dialect of the Shetland Isles.

PRISM
Journey in the Mind FRI 6 Dec | 19.30
Transit SAT 7 Dec | 17.00
Parlour Games SAT 7 Dec | 19.30
Interrelations SAT 7 Dec | 22.00 | all in Kino in der KulturBrauerei

The Programme Commission has selected 35 films for Prism; three programmes present the broad spectrum of the German poetry film including animations, experimental films and features. The programme ‘Transit’ shows documentary portraits of poets.

NEW TALENTS
design akademie berlin & Hochschule Anhalt, Dessau FRI 6 Dec | 17.00
UdK Berlin & KHM Köln FRI 6 Dec | 22.00
HFBK Hamburg & Hochschule Düsseldorf SAT 7 Dec | 14.30
HFK Bremen & Hochschule Mainz SAT 7 Dec | 22.00
Bauhaus-Uni Weimar & HBK Braunschweig SUN 8 Dec | 16.00
all in Kino in der KulturBrauerei

Colloquium: The Eye of the Poem SUN 8 Dec | 11.00 | Haus für Poesie
Master Class: Between Film and Poetry FRI 6 Dec | 14.00 | Haus für Poesie

The poetry film is a popular genre at universities and film academies. Students at ten German higher education institutions will be showing poetry films made in the course of a collaboration over a year. In the Colloquium Anna Anders (UdK Berlin), Sophie Maintigneux (KHM Cologne), Ulrike Almut Sandig (poet), Tim Webb (Royal College of Art) and Sarah Tremlett (Liberated Words CIC) will be discussing the position of the poetry film in German and British higher education institutions. And the director Jochen Kuhn will be giving a poetry film master class.

FESTIVAL POEM: [native vegetation a natural resource]
SUN 8 Dec | 17.00 | Kino in der KulturBrauerei

In response to ZEBRA’s call for entries, film makers have submitted their film versions of this year’s festival poem, [dieses regionale getreide] ([native vegetation a natural resource]) by Daniel Falb. Film makers Zihrong Lu, Gruppe Leuchtstoff, Holger Mohaupt and Gabriele Nugara will present their film versions and be talking to the poet about poetry and film. You can read the poem on lyrikline.org.

WORD PICTURES – A ZEBRA NIGHT OF READINGS
FRI 6 Dec | 22.00 | Kino in der KulturBrauerei

Poems by Özlem Özgül Dündar, Adrian Kasnitz, Ulrike Almut Sandig, Kathrin Schmidt and Raed Wahesh are the basis of this year’s films in the Competition and Prism. In the ZEBRA Night of Readings the poets will be reading their texts and talking to Alexander Gumz about making films based on poems.

PROGRAMM FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG POEPLE
Media Workshop: The Spirits We Conjured up
WED 4 Dec | 9.00 | Haus für Poesie
Sorcerer’s Apprentices in the Moor of Horror: Programme of Ballads
THU 5 Dec | 9.00 | Kino in der KulturBrauerei
Holes in the Head: Programme in Focus Language English
THU 5 Dec | 9.30 | Kino in der KulturBrauerei
I Made It Myself: Films by Children for Children
FRI 6 Dec | 9.00 | Kino in der KulturBrauerei
ZEBRINO Competition FRI 6 Dec | 9.00 | Kino in der KulturBrauerei
Poetry Workshop Writing Netflix! FRI 6 Dec | 9.00 | Haus für Poesie
Workshop Slam: Rucksack and a Journey FRI 6 Dec | 9.00 | Herder-Gymnasium

The Best Poetry Film for Children and Young People will be chosen by the young audience themselves in the ZEBRINO Competition. There will also be a colourful programme of workshops and films for Berlin schoolchildren with, among others, the Spoken Word artists Bas Böttcher and Nicole May.

Festival Fotogenia poster

As great as it is to see ZEBRA continuing to flourish, now to the point of becoming an annual festival, I’m equally excited to see a new poetry film festival springing up — in Mexico City. Check out FESTIVAL FOTOGENIA, I missed the call-out (sorry) but thanks to social media posts by filmmaker Helmie Stil, this didn’t escape my radar altogether. The description on their website suggests an avant-garde perspective on the genre:

FOTOGENIA, FIRST INTERNATIONAL FILM POETRY & DIVERGENT NARRATIVES FESTIVAL promotes a space with alternative conception of films, a celebration of experimentation and avant-garde framework, the love of curiosity and research of the seventh Art. Everyone is invited, taking into consideration the disruptive nature of the selected works.

We welcome you to watch films in another way!

If you are an audiovisual maker interested in provoking the cinematographic image through the exploration of the frontiers and limits of film narrative, genre, format and the nature of film itself, in order to converse with the viewers in innovative and critical ways to ignite a confrontation between reality and cinematic phenomenon, this is your place to exhibit your passion.

The +Institute [for Experimental Arts] and Void Network present the 8th International Video Poetry Festival 2019

Meanwhile in Athens, the International Video Poetry Festival will be held on the weekend of the 14th and 15th. (But submissions remain open until November 20!) Special events this year will include a screening of videopoems by my co-editor Marie Cravens as well as the touring program of videopoems from around the world that she’s pulled together, Poetry + Video, plus the Margaret Tait 100 program celebrating the first Scottish woman to make feature films, who was also a pioneer of poetry in film. And there will be a videopoetry seminar panel including film-makers, writers, performers, and musicians.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a reminder that submissions are still open for REELpoetry/Houston TX 2020 (Deadline: December 9) and the 2020 Newlyn PZ International Film Festival (Deadline: February 24) .
Newlyn PZ International Film Festival poster

Call for entries: 2020 Weimar Poetry Film Prize

As of November 1, the fifth annual Weimar Poetry Film Prize is open for submissions. And this time, it has its own festival.

Through the new film award, the Literary Society of Thuringia and the study field Multimedia narration of the Bauhaus University are looking for innovative poetry films. Filmmakers from any nation and of any age are welcome to participate with up to three short films of up to 10:00 mins, which should explore the relation between film and written poetry in an innovative, straightforward way. Films that are produced before 2017 will not be considered.

From all submitted films selected for the festival competition three Jury members will choose the winner of the main prize (1000 € Best Animation, 1000,- € Best Video). Moreover, an audience award of 250 € will be awarded.

In 2020, the Weimar Poetry Film Prize will be awarded for the first time as part of its own festival – the International Poetry Film Festival of Thuringia – which will take place from May to July 2020 in several cities in Thuringia. The core program (with the award ceremony) takes place from June 12th–14th in Weimar.

The competition »Weimar Poetry Film Award« is financed by Kulturstiftung des Freistaats Thüringen and the City of Weimar.

Deadline: March 31st, 2020

The Form for submissions [pdf] by e-mail to info[at]poetryfilm.de is coming soon.

The »Weimar Poetry Film Award« call for entries is international. For the submission please send with the other informations a quotable text of the related poem in German or English.

Presentation of awards: June 13th, 2020 at the Lichthaus cinema Weimar.

 

Call for work: REELpoetry/Houston TX 2020

REELpoetry 2020 logo

I apologize for not sharing this back on August 15, the opening date, but videopoets and poetry filmmakers still have until December 9 to submit work for this Texas-based festival, now in its second year.

REELpoetry/Houston TX 2020 is an international poetry film festival screening cinepoetry, documentaries, performance video, plus panels, workshops & more JANUARY 24-26, 2020.
For complete guidelines and submissions:

Our first international poetry film festival took place March 22-24, 2019.  You can read all about it HERE

It’s especially embarrassing that I forgot to share this earlier since I’ve agreed to be the judge. It’s a very exciting-sounding event, which filmmaker Pam Falkenberg attended last year and reviewed in these very virtual pages. She noted that “REELpoetry advocates a big-tent approach, preferring an expansive canon rather than a narrow one.” This year again

The Festival will also include workshops, live performances, talks, panel discussions, Q&A with poets and filmmakers. Come to meet international, national and local poets, film makers and artists, network and socialize, see and be seen. All screenings are centrally located and special hotel arrangements will be offered.

NOTE: Submissions in a language other than English must have an English translation of the poetry either presented in the film or as a written handout.

Awards & Prizes

Judges Award $225 Cinepoetry
Audience Award $225 Cinepoetry

Judges Award $225 Poetry Short Documentary
Audience Award $225 Poetry Short Documentary

Audience Award $100 – Best Performance

Rules & Terms

REELpoetry 2020 is accepting film and video in three categories: (1) cinepoems (2) short poetry documentaries (3) spoken word videos. You are allowed up to 3 entries in each of the categories, each submitted separately, as follows:.

CINEPOEMS – 5 minutes max
Created by poets or filmmakers or artist collaborations.

SHORT POETRY DOCUMENTARIES – 15 minutes max
May document the making of a poem, daily life of a poet, poetry event etc.

All cinepoems and documentaries must include closing credits on the screen, and provide up to 3 stills max. You will also need to provide a short (75 word max) statement and brief bio for both the poet and filmmaker( (60 word max))

SPOKEN WORD VIDEO – 3 minutes max
Video of live performance, slam
NOTE: Attendance required. At the Festival you will perform live with your video in the background with the sound turned off.

All submissions in a language other than English must have an English translation of the poetry either presented in the film or as a written handout.

By submitting to REELpoetry/Houston TX you acknowledge that work is yours, and that you have obtained permission(s) where required. You also agree to allow your work to be included in a curated series that will travel nationally and internationally.

NOTE: Public Poetry Members receive a 20% discount on the entry fee. Memberships start at $8/mo.
To join Public Poetry as a member go to: http://www.publicpoetry.net/membership-here/

Click through to submit.

Call for work: Visible Poetry Project 2020

Filmmaker applications and poetry submissions are open now through October 31 for the 2020 series of the Visible Poetry Project. As Marie noted just now in a post to the main site, VPP has been going since 2017, producing and publishing at least a video a day throughout the month of April. There’s also an off-line component to the project, with screenings in New York City and beyond. And in the first three years of its existence, more and more prominent poets and filmmakers have taken part, though as they say on the poetry submissions page, they “strive to emphasize the diversity of the global poetry community, and so encourage you to submit regardless of background or circumstance. Whether poetry is your hobby, profession, private outlet, or public expression, your work is welcome.” A similar statement occurs at the head of the filmmaker guidelines:

The Visible Poetry Project strives to emphasize the diversity of the global film community, and so encourage you to apply regardless of background or circumstance. Whether filmmaking is your hobby, profession, private outlet, or public expression, your work is welcome.

Within your application, please provide a reel and/or links to previous films you’ve created. All work samples must be original, and you must be one of the main contributors. You may submit up to three links. We recommend submitting samples that you believe to be representative of the greater styles and themes in your work. If you are accepted, this will help inform which poet you may get paired with.

You may apply as part of a team (up to two filmmakers). If you are applying as part of a team, please submit only one application. Please include links to reels for both collaborators, and send an email to visiblepoetryproject@gmail.com, CC’ing your co-director.

If you are a producer, director of photography, or editor, and are interested in being involved in the 2020 series, please email visiblepoetryproject@gmail.com.

Click through to apply. Or, if you write poetry, submit here.

August 2019 Update on Videopoetry/Poetry Film Events

world map

Credit: Daniel R. Strebe, 15 August 2011, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Wild Whispers project at La Rue et Toi Festival Artistes

Belgium, 10 August 2019
See wildwhispers.blog.

Women of West Wales Unearthed: Poetry, Prose and Film

UK, 10 August 2019
See llangwmlitfest.eventcube.io/events/18635/women-of-west-wales-unearthed-poetry-prose-and-film.

Call for entries, Carmarthen Bay Film Festival, Poetic Cinema section

Wales, UK
Early bird deadline: 31 August 2019
Fee US $35 standard / US $20 student
Awards given but not specified on web page for this BAFTA Cymru/Wales qualifying festival.
See filmfreeway.com/CarmarthenBayFilmFestival.

Call for entries, Maldito Festival de Videopoesía 2019

Albacete, Spain
Deadline 8 September 2019
No fee specified on the website. Prize money is awarded. Films need to have Spanish subtitles.
See malditofestival.com/plazo-de-inscripcion-iii-edicion19.

Call for entries, 8th International Video Poetry Festival

Athens, Greece
Deadline: 20 November 2019
The festival suggests a voluntary fee of 5 euros by bank deposit.
See movingpoems.com/2019/08/call-for-work-8th-international-video-poetry-festival-athens-2019.

Poetry + Video Project: July 2019 Update

Dave has kindly asked me to share news of the Poetry + Video Project, a touring program I have curated, including 25 video poems from around the world. Here is an adapted version of the latest update sent to contributors.

Our premiere screening event in Murwillumbah, Australia on 4 May went very well. It was a boutique gallery venue that held 50 people, and booked out a few days before the show. The live poets on the night, Matt Hetherington and Bronwen Manger, were awesome. It was especially great that they have both been involved in video poetry projects themselves, and were able to comment on this in the Q & A. The audience that arrived was open, curious and engaged about a form that almost none had encountered before. We couldn’t have asked for better. Here is a mini-doco of the event:

In other news, the Kathmandu screening I have been excited about will now be happening later in the year, with the exact date to be decided. Meanwhile, I will be sending the program by USB stick to Ball State University in Indiana very soon, for a screening there in the US Fall. Starting 1 November, the program will be exhibiting online as part of the huge global biennale of digital art and culture, The Wrong.

Other possible screening venues are in process of discussion. Thanks to Maria Vella, Caroline Rumley and Fiona Lam for sending through possible further leads. In other pleasing news, Jane Glennie has agreed to take on the role of UK Manager for the tour, and has very nearly secured a great venue there.

The brochure for venues now includes info on how the tour logistically works. All the videos, stills and promotional materials are ready to be sent by USB stick anywhere in the world, at a moment’s notice. As discussed previously, screening fees are entirely negotiable. For independent groups with little or no budget, fees are waived. The main thing is to share widely the fabulous films in the program.

The website has been updated with links to where all of the videos can be seen, from their individual website pages. Viewing is just one click away by hitting the film still at the top of each video’s info page. These can be accessed via the sidebar links, or from the page titled ‘The Program’.

Please contact poetryvideoproject (at) gmail (dot) com to express interest in bringing the hour-long program to your location.