~ News and Views ~
Juteback Poetry Film Festival 2018 is open for submissions
The Fort Collins, Colorado-based poetry film festival formerly known as Body Electric Poetry Film Fest is planning a 2018 festival.
Poetry and filmmaking converge for this unique, one night only event. Featuring films from around the globe, the Juteback Poetry Film Festival highlights the creative migration of two art forms, video & poetry, also known as Videopoetry. JPFF is Colorado’s only poetry film festival and one of only two screening in the U.S. today. Join us on Friday October 19th at Wolverine Farm Publishing’s Letterpress and Publick House, 316 Willow St, @ 7:30 in Fort Collins CO. for Juteback Poetry Film Festival 2018
And they’re open for submissions:
THE JUTEBACK POETRY FILM FESTIVAL SUBMISSION GUIDE
- All films must be submitted online. Please use the form below to complete your submission. To submit please load your film to Youtube, Vimeo or media sharing site of your choice, then provide the link in your submission. If you choose to use a privacy setting on either Youtube or Vimeo please be sure to provide us with a proper access code to view your film.
- All films must be completed before the deadline of Aug. 19th, 2018. As long as your film has been completed before the Aug. 19th deadline please feel free to submit.
- All non-English films must have English sub-titles.
- All films selected for the festival grant Juteback Productions, LLC the rights to use all video images and press materials from the film for promotional purposes.
- Juteback Productions, LLC is permitted to retain copies of each film selected as part of our festival library and for media educational use.
- You may submit more than one film, please repeat process for each entry.
- Films must be no more than 15 minutes in duration.
Call for entries: Silk Road International Poetry Film Festival
A new-to-me poetry film festival in Kazakhstan is soliciting poetry films and videos for the second year in a row. The Silk Road International Poetry Film Festival has a Facebook page, but the main English-language site for their 2018 festival is this page on sway.com.
II International Poetry Film Festival Silk Road will be held on June 21, 2018. The festival will be conducted within the frameworks of the Almaty International Literary Biennale in the National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Almaty).
Honorary chairman of the Festival Jury – a legendary, world famous poet, literary critic, diplomat, political and public figure, linguist and scientist Olzhas Suleimenov.
The purpose of the festival:
Poetry Film Festival Silk Road is a cultural and educational, nonprofit project. In the era of social media and technology people tend to read less, especially poetry. The purpose of the festival is to popularize the invaluable legacy of the poets of the East, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, and other regions among youth through visualization of the poetry by presenting it in forms of short movies and video illustrations.
Extensive research of poems for film adaptations provides the participants with an opportunity to get acquainted with poetic works of authors of different eras, cultures, and world outlook.
The festival seeks to create an intellectual platform for the exchange of ideas for the adaptation of screen versions, for identification of new poets, for cultural exchange between participants from different countries. The same functions in time fulfilled the Great Silk Road.
All the works of the participants will be posted in the public domains for familiarization and voting (one of the Prizes – Audience Choice Award).
Participation in Film Festival:
Everyone can take part. We give full freedom of self-expression. The participation is free.
Everything that’s needed:
1. It is encouraged to use poems of the Middle Eastern, East Asian and Central Asian poets (but you can use poems of any poet from any region) of any epoch and create a short film in any genre;
2. You can shoot your film with any smartphone, video camera or photo camera;
3. Film duration from 1 to 10 minutes;
4. Your film should be presented in English, Kazakh or Russian. If you use other languages, please add subtitles in one of the listed languages;
5. Post a video on youtube, vimeo or instagram (if your full video lasts up to 1 minute) with the hashtag #silkroadfestival2018 and send us a link, full name and phone number by May 15, 2018 to silkroadfestival@mail.ru
Citizenship, country of residence and the age of participants does not matter.
Prizes:
Prizes include the Grand Prix for the Best Poetry Film, Special Prize from festival’s sponsor and the Audience Choice Award. All participants will receive memorable certificates and festival laurels.
The finalists will be invited to a formal announcement of results and will be awarded the prizes on June 21 in the National Library in Almaty and International Literary Biennale. Some of the Biennale guests will include famous writers, poets, screenwriters and
playwrights from different countries.Finalist films will be shown for the jury and guests of the exhibition. Screenings will take place in the cinema of the National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan and other sites of Almaty and Astana.
Click through for information about last year’s festival and finalists.
The Film and Video Poetry Society releases its 2018 symposium selections
The Los Angeles-based Film and Video Poetry Society, while remaining a bit of a cipher where its leadership and membership is concerned, does appear to be going ahead with the planned symposium on April 26-29. Despite the $18 submission fee, they seem to have had no shortage of submissions, because their just-released list of selections is not short:
The 2018 Film and Video Poetry Symposium, presented by the Film and Video Poetry Society, has announced its official program selections for the inaugural edition of The Film and Video Poetry Symposium. The Film and Video Poetry Symposium celebrates artistic excellence found through the union of poetry, film, video, and new media. The symposium brings together cinema enthusiasts, poets, filmmakers, video artists, and media artists to discover international work that represents this dynamic field.
This year’s symposium will screen over eighty films representing filmmakers, poets, and artists from over twenty countries, along with workshops, guided panels, and conversations. The Film and Video Poetry Symposium runs from Thursday, April 26 – Sunday, April 29, 2018 in Los Angeles, Ca.
New Liberated Words website
Congratulations to Liberated Words—Sarah Tremlett and Lucy English’s videopoetry- and poetry film-promoting organization—for their brand new website overhaul. It is now much easier to navigate, not to mention better looking than its predecessor. According to a post on their Facebook page, it’s the work of Peter Hunter. He adapted a three-column WordPress magazine theme, with a top navigation bar menu of major post categories that collapses behind a three-line “hamburger” icon on mobile view. The site loads quickly on my slow internet connection.
I’m relieved to see this, because previously I think new content was being added to the front page by editing and re-publishing it, which made for an incoherent archive and provided no way to subscribe to new content. Now there’s an RSS feed and everything, so I won’t have to worry about missing new posts… such as this introduction of two new members of their team, Caleb Parkin and Ursula Billington, or this piece on their judging of poetry films for the upcoming Newlyn International Film Festival. Well done.
Free poetry film lesson plans from Motionpoems
This Instagram photo of the Motionpoems booth (with poet Eve L. Ewing) at the just-concluded AWP conference in Tampa reminded me that they’ve developed extensive lesson plans for undergraduate poetry writing and filmmaking classes — something I’ve heard several people in the larger poetry film community express a need for over the years. But other than one brief mention back in 2015, I’ve never really covered the Motionpoems lesson plans here. And they look very useful indeed! Go to http://motionpoems.org/teach/ to browse and download the PDFs.
They’ve developed two separate curricula, and I’m just going to copy and paste the text of the entire page in here so you can see why I’m so impressed:
The Motionpoems Poetry Curriculum
Made for undergrad poetry writing classes—but designed to be adaptable for other levels, courses, and genres.
Rather than create a series of lessons that you must teach in a certain order, we’ve created a flexible series of lessons, some of which come with video interviews. You can teach these in a sequence of concept and craft lessons, or you can drop them into a syllabus that you’ve already designed at the appropriate time. It’s also possible, depending on classroom hours, to fill an entire semester with these lessons! If you’re interested in setting up a Skype session with one of our artists, email Saara to see if a virtual conversation is possible.
We plan to add more, depending on audience interest, so tell us what you think and check back often!
ANOMALY, PARADOX, & IRONY
The List Poem: Anomaly, Paradox, Irony & “Cigar Box Banjo,” a lesson plan by Janet Burroway that uses “Cigar Box Banjo” by poet Kim Addonizio and filmmaker Danny Madden.
ANAPHORA
Anaphora, Ritual, & “The Tao of the Black Plastic Comb,” a lesson plan by Saara Myrene Raappana that uses “The Tao of the Black Plastic Comb” by poet Glenis Redmond and filmmaker Irving Hillman.
BONUS: This lesson plan incorporates video interviews with Glenis Redmond and Irving Hillman. Find them here.
REPETITION, NEGATION, & IMPERATIVE
Repetition, Negation, & Imperative in “How Do You Raise a Black Child?” a lesson plan by Saara Myrene Raappana that uses “How Do You Raise a Black Child?” by poet Cortney Lamar Charleston and filmmaker Seyi Peter-Thomas. BONUS: This lesson plan incorporates a video interview with Seyi Peter-Thomas and a text interview with Cortney Lamar Charleston. Find them here and here, respectively.
RHYME
Rhyme & “I’m Over the Moon,” a lesson plan by Athena Kildegaard that uses “I’m Over the Moon” by poet Brenda Shaughnessy and filmmaker Jessica Hundley.
APOSTROPHE
Apostrophe & “The Mother Warns the Tornado,” a lesson plan by Saara Myrene Raappana that uses “The Mother Warns the Tornado” by poet Catherine Pierce and filmmaker Isaac Ravishankara.
TONE
Tone: “The Long Deployment” & “The Mysterious Arrival of an Unusual Letter,” a lesson plan by Janet Borroway that uses “The Long Deployment” by poet Jehanne Dubrow/filmmaker Nicole McDonald and “The Mysterious Arrival of an Unusual Letter” by poet Mark Strand/filmmaker Scott Wenner.
PERSONAL MYTH
Personal Myth & “Things I Carry Into the World,” a lesson plan by Saara Myrene Raappana that uses “Things I Carry Into the World” by poet Cynthia Manick and filmmakers Jamil McGinnis and Pat Heywood.
BONUS: This lesson plan incorporates a video interview with Cynthia Manick, Jamil McGinnis, Pat Heywood, and producer Claire McGirr. Find it here.
AMBIGUITY
(The Right Kind of) Ambiguity & “The Blue Black Wet of Wood,” a lesson plan by Eric Doise that uses “The Blue Black Wet of Wood” by poet Carmen Gillespie and filmmaker Malik Vitthal.
BONUS: This lesson plan incorporates a video interview with Carmen Gillespie. Find it here.
METAPHOR
Metaphor & “A Day at the Mall Reminds Me of America,” a lesson plan by Janet Burroway that uses “A Day at the Mall Reminds Me of America” by poet Sarah Blake and filmmaker Ayse Altinok.
ALLUSION
Allusions! & “The Robots Are Coming,” a lesson plan by Eric Doise that uses “The Robots Are Coming” by poet Kyle Dargan and filmmaker Julia Iverson.
BONUS: This lesson incorporates a video interview with Kyle Dargan and Julia Iverson. Find it here.
FIXED FORM/VILLANELLE
Fixed Form & “The Long Deployment,” a lesson plan by Saara Myrene Raappana that uses “The Long Deployment” by poet Jehanne Dubrow and filmmaker Nicole McDonald.
IMAGE
“Either/Or” & the Necessity for Image, a lesson plan by Athena Kildegaard that uses “Either/Or” by poet Maxine Kumin and filmmaker Adam Tow.
IDEA GENERATION
Generating Ideas & “I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast,” a lesson plan by Saara Myrene Raappana that uses “I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast” by poet Melissa Studdard and filmmaker Dan Sickles.
The Motionpoems “How to Make Motionpoems” Curriculum
We’ve found that the process of making a motionpoem has numerous educational benefits. We’ve seen student filmmakers, regardless of their major, develop:
- a deepened, nuanced understanding, not only of the poem they’re adapting, but of poetry in general;
- skills in project management, video editing software, and artistic collaboration;
- functional, productive vocabularies centered around teamwork, collaboration, and audience;
- really cool motionpoems!
We’re making our “How To Make Motionpoems” curriculum available to you for your classrooms. These lessons, which can be accomplished in 4-6 weeks depending on class hours (maybe even less if you’re pressed for time), were developed for undergraduate, cross-disciplinary classrooms of poetry, film, and music majors, but can be easily adapted for your students regardless of their majors or education level. One middle school Language Arts class even managed to complete this unit in two weeks! Not sure how to do it? Email us for help!
DOWNLOADS:
- Read first: Notes for teachers.
- Day 1 Handout
- Motionpoems Best Practices
- Storyboard Template
- Phase 1 PowerPoint
- Phase 2 PowerPoint
- Phase 3 PowerPoint
- Phase 4 PowerPoint
- Phase 5 PowerPoint
Check out some motionpoems made by students here!
(Again, all of the above was lifted from the Motionpoems website; lengthy blockquotes are cumbersome to read. Kudos to Saara and the other authors for writing and compiling such a tremendous resource for students and educators.)
Call for essays: Poetry Film Magazine
Aline and Guido at the Weimar-based website Poetryfilmkanal have released a call for contributions to the fourth issue of their digital and print magazine. The theme this year: Poetry film as art.
We are calling for contributions that deal – exemplary or in general – with the fine art aspects of poetry films. They can discuss individual installations or performances, focus on individual artists or events, investigate traditions of the film and art history or follow up on theoretical discourses. Possible questions could be: Are poetry films works of art or can they rather be regarded as media events in the first place? Is the work or the event character paramount? How is the performativity of the lyrical performance integrated into the closed form of the short film? (Performativity is characterised by the impossibility of repetition. Does this category apply to the medium of film at all?). In how far is the filmic level cracked open in order to go beyond its audio-visual unity? How do installations or interactive works deal with the connection of text, sound and the moving image? Which role does the spectrum of possible associations play when it comes to text-image-relations? We are looking forward to contributions that investigate the realm between performativity and mediality as exemplified by the poetry film.
Essays (10,000 characters long and no footnotes if possible) can be submitted until the end of July.
There’s a lot more to the call than that, so do click through (here’s the German version).
Doublebunny Press Opens Submissions for Fifth Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival
Doublebunny Press announced on Wednesday, February 28 that submissions were open for the fifth Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival.
The Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival is a competition meant to highlight poetry and visual art at the intersection of film. The festival, due to take place in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA in October of 2018, focuses on short films that illustrate original poems, all of which are non-performance based (read: no footage of the poems being performed).
As well as a $200 prize for Best Overall Production, Rabbit Heart will be awarding $100 prizes in six other categories: Best Animated, Best Music/Sound, Best Smartphone Production, Best Under 1 Minute, Best Valentine, and the Shoots! Youth Prize. The matinee, and then the gala awards ceremony and viewing party will be at Nick’s Bar in Worcester, MA on October 20th.
About Doublebunny Press
Doublebunny Press is a small, independent press that serves the New England area through poetry design, layout, and production of fine books and posters. Doublebunny also supported Omnivore Magazine, a poetry and arts monthly which, during its three-year run, published poetry and articles by over 150 authors, and carried a national subscription base.
Doublebunny has a history of great spoken word events in Worcester. They combined forces with The Worcester Poets’ Asylum to present V Day to the city in 2002 and 2003, and the Individual World Poetry Slam in 2005. In 2014, Doublebunny brought the inaugural Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival to the city, and now for the fifth year’s festival, they plan an even more exciting show for Worcester, inviting the imagination of poets and filmmakers to once again take center stage.
About Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival
Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival is one of very few outlets in the US for poetry on film, and the only festival that asks that the author of the poem participate in the making of the production. In 2014 and 2015 Rabbit Heart attracted international attention, including not only European submissions, but also the honor of a showcase in the CYCLOP festival in Ukraine and showings in Barcelona, Spain at pro.l.e. In 2017 Rabbit Heart was thrilled to present at the Mass Poetry Festival.
Submissions are now open for the 2018 Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival, and will remain open through July 1st.
To learn more about this event, please go to www.rabbitheartpoetry.com or to www.doublebunnypress.com, and then click on the menu link to Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival.
Call-out for Instagram poetry (including short films)
The Poetry Library at London’s Southbank Centre posted a Call-out for Instagram Poetry back on the first of February — but there’s still plenty of time to enter:
A whole new generation has taken to Instagram to create and share poetry. Often described as an underground culture, some of the most successful Instagram poets have millions of followers and post over a dozen new poems a day.
That’s why we are asking poets and Instagrammers alike to share their work on Instagram, by tagging the library @nationalpoetrylibrary and using the hashtag #instapoetrylib. We are also looking for short poetry films which should be submitted using the same hashtag.
The best of these will be displayed in an exhibition at the National Poetry Library. From striking typographic design, to social comments and emotional confessions, this exhibition provides the perfect introduction to this emergent form of poetry.
How to enter
Participants can start publishing their Instapoems and short films right now, and can continue to do so until Wednesday 21 March.
All entries must be posted on Instagram using #instapoetrylib and tagging the library too (@nationalpoetrylibrary). Make sure you do this otherwise we might not see your entry! Only one entry per person.
By submitting your poems you are agreeing for your entry to be shown in the exhibition at the library.
We welcome you to play around with the form using images, illustrations, different typefaces or anything creative you want to explore – there are no limits! We are looking for interesting designs as well as strong poetic content.
There are no restrictions on location – this is a global competition so please share far and wide.
What you get
A selection of the library’s favourite poems will be displayed in an exhibition at the National Poetry Library, Southbank Centre. Three of the selected poets will be invited to read at the opening event and will receive a £100 performance fee.
If you’re new to Instagram, here’s how to post a video (note the maximum length: 60 seconds). You can of course create a video on a desktop computer, but it must be transferred to a mobile device and uploaded via the app. (User agent switcher plugins make it possible to post still photos from a web browser, but not video.) Note that Instagram videos play in a loop, like GIFs, so it might be fun to take that element of the user experience into account.
Instagram is of course the epitome of a web-hostile app — so much so that it doesn’t even permit links in posts — so if you’re an idealist who believes in the open web, and you’re not already on Instagram as I am, you’re probably better off not joining just to enter this contest. In any case, you don’t have to join to browse the web version, which is a far pleasanter experience than attempting to watch a video on a goddamn phone. Here are all the posts tagged #instapoetrylib so far. It looks as if at least one user has ignored the instruction to only enter once, and is busy spamming the hashtag with utter dreck. Yep, that’s Instagram.
But OK, being able to view all the other submissions is pretty cool, I’ll give them that. I’d love to see contests on other platforms practice this kind of openness.
Hat-tip: the Poetry Film Live group on Facebook.
Call for videopoetry: Langue Festival della Poesia di San Lorenzo
A student-run poetry festival in the San Lorenzo quarter of Rome will include a videopoetry section, and they’re open for submissions. Langue – Festival della Poesia di San Lorenzo (Facebook page) will be held on May 26. From their call for participants:
Per la categoria Video Poetry, la durata dell’opera dovrà essere massimo di 25 minuti. Qualora il file fosse troppo pesante per una mail, inviaci il tuo lavoro tramite WeTransfer e noi penseremo al resto. Ricordati anche in quel caso di indicare la categoria nell’oggetto della mail.
(For the Video Poetry category, the duration of the work should be a maximum of 25 minutes. If the file is too heavy for an email, send us your work via WeTransfer and we’ll do the rest. Remember also in that case to indicate the category in the subject of the email.)
(Translation via Google.) There’s also a bit in English:
World Wide Poets
If you are not Italian, it doesn’t mean you cannot contribute to our festival. Indeed, you can send us your proposal (an unpublished collection of poems, for example) per mail (festival.langue@gmail.com), indicating if you already have a translation of your work in Italian or at least in English. You can contribute with everything you prefer: readings, video poetry, performances, and so on. The deadline is May 2
I asked the organizer, Giorgio Papitto, if they had preferred languages or file formats. He said they were happy to discuss these matters with submitters “and arrange what suits at the best for the author and for the festival. The language is not a problem, if there are subtitles (either in English or in Italian).”
Poetry film festival news round-up
Weimar Poetry Film Award extends deadline
If you thought you missed your chance to submit to the Weimarer Poetryfilmpreis (original deadline: January 31), you’re in luck: the new deadline is March 31. Here are the guidelines.
Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival open for 2018 submissions on February 28
I’ll share the full announcement next weekend, but for all you eager beavers, gird your loins!
Motionpoems Season 8 Premiere (take 2)
If you missed your chance to attend Motionpoems’ Season 8 premiere screening in New York on February 8 (which was sold out), you’re in luck: they’re holding a second Season 8 premiere in Minneapolis on April 13! You might’ve thought that “second premiere” is a logical impossibility, but that’s the magic of poetry film for you.
Motionpoems Season 8: Dear Mr. President is screening in Minneapolis! Two screenings will be held at 5:30 and 7:30 with a panel discussion in-between. Admission is free, but a $10-20 donation is encouraged to support Motionpoems Season 9. Beer and wine will be available.
Led by Executive Producer Claire McGirr, this year Motionpoems has decided to tackle issues that affect everyone.
Pairing filmmakers & poets to make creative content, Season 8 features 12 short films 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, Susannah Nevison, Danez Smith, Maggie Smith, Lee Ann Roripaugh, and Nomi Stone.
Their poems were adapted to film by directors Daniel Daly, Kate Dolan, Mohammed Hammad, Anais LaRocca, Savanah Leaf, Monty Marsh, Jane Morledge, Ty Richardson, Ryan Simon, Tom Speers, Jovan Todorovic and Tash Tung.
Light Up Poole winners and shortlist
The overall winner of this new UK competition was Kneading Language by Celia Parra Diaz. Here are the shortlist, the judge’s statement, and the winning film.
Lucy English shares lessons from The Book of Hours poetry film project
The latest issue of Poetry Film Live includes an extremely interesting new paper by Lucy English, “WRITING POETRY FOR POETRY FILMS: an exploration of the use of spoken word poetry in poetry films“. It joins a growing section at the magazine of essential papers on poetry film and videopoetry by the likes of Sarah Tremlett, Tom Konyves, Fil Ieropoulos, and Susannah Ramsey. The paper is much too long to quote in its entirety, but here’s how it begins:
The Book of Hours is an online collaborative poetry film project, which forms the creative component of my PhD in digital writing. I am making forty eight poetry films to correspond to four different times of day for all the months of the year. This structure has been based on the Medieval Books of Hours, highly decorated and beautiful collections of prayers and readings which followed the Christian calendar. My book of hours is secular but is meditative in nature and intends to create a reflective mood. All the poetry films have been made in collaboration with international film makers. (English, 2016)
For the critical component of my Phd I chart the development of the project and the collaborative process. I also examine what has informed the writing of the poetry for The Book of Hours. Although the poetry exists in a poetry film form it also exists as printed text, a collection of poetry, which will be published by Burning Eye in 2018. In this article I have tried to unpick my understanding of the writing of the poetry, from initial inspirations, to its development as a cohesive collection, and what sources I have looked to for guidance.
English goes on to talk about her background in the spoken word poetry scene, how she’s had to adjust her writing style “to find a contemplative form of spoken word that can be translated to poetry film”, why she chose to pattern her work after Medieval books of hours, and the challenges of writing ecopoetry in modern Britain, among other topics. I found her mix of academic and personal discourse engaging and her arguments persuasive. Do go read… and then visit The Book of Hours to catch up on new additions.
Major competition for UK poets includes “Poetry in Film” category
It was recently brought to my attention that the Out-Spoken Prize For Poetry 2018 includes Poetry in Film among its three categories (the other two being Page Poetry and Performance Poetry).
This category is for those who wish to submit poetry films. Pieces must not exceed the ten-minute time limit and the film must include the poem either being read by a narrator or have it featured as subtitles.
Note that this contest is only open to poets residing in the UK. The deadline is March 2 and the judges are Inua Ellams, Selena Godden, Akala, Caroline Bird, and Caleb Femi. Click through for complete guidelines and a submission form.
