~ Nationality: U.K. ~

Flowers by Tim Cumming

On 7 March, 2013 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Author-made videopoems
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Tim Cumming‘s description at Vimeo is worth quoting in full:

A new film poem by Tim Cumming written on a walk from Hampstead Heath station to the Steeles in Belsize Park where he was offered snuff laced with cocaine and heard the story of Moll King, good mixer of Georgian London, a famous bawd and the inspiration for Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders. Includes footage of witch dolls, amulets, mandrakes and more from the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle, birds on the wire at Bodmin, Lord Byron and the waters of the Thames from Woolwich Dockyard, the paintings of Austin Osman Spare from the 2010 exhibition at the Cuming Museum in south London, 8mm archive film of The Towers in Corfe Mullen in the 1960s and wooden figurines carved in the 1980s by the hand of Peter Cumming.

I Have a Secret Servant by Felix Dennis

On 20 February, 2013 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation
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A “melting painting animation” by Italian video artist Elena Chiesa. For more of Felix Dennis’ poetry, see his website.

Another Slow Day by Henry Stead

On 19 February, 2013 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Videopoems
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http://vimeo.com/57190458

London-based poet, translator and classicist Henry Stead supplied the words and voice for this videopoem by Swoon, who has blogged some process notes:

To go with the almost languid reading I wanted images that expressed some kind of restlessness, boredom and even sulk. Once I had those, the video practically made itself…

They met for a live performance (Stead reading while the film was projected) last week at the London Poetry Systems 5th anniversary celebration.

Every Memory by Sheree Mack

On 15 February, 2013 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Videopoems
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http://vimeo.com/55172122

This is #6 in Alastair Cook‘s Absent Voices series “celebrating the legacy of the Greenock Sugar Sheds, vast Category A listed hulking relics of the sugar trade, a dark and sweet slice of Scots history.” Sheree Mack reads her poem as part of a soundtrack by Luca Nasciuti, with cinematography by Swoon (Mark Neys). This is one of several filmpoem collaborations between Cook and Neys, and you can catch both men along with Nasciuti live in London tomorrow night, February 16, as part of the London Poetry Systems anniversary bash.

Alastair Cook, Mark Neys and Luca Nasciuti are also all directors — along with yours truly — of the first Filmpoem Festival to be held in Dunbar, Scotland in early August. We’ve just posted the call.

To A Young Poet by R. S. Thomas

On 13 February, 2013 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Videopoems
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Othniel Smith notes:

An interpretation of a poem by Welsh writer R. S. Thomas (1913-2000), made entirely using material taken from the public domain Prelinger Archive. Contains brief nudity.

See Smith’s Vimeo channel for many more classic poetry mashups with Prelinger films and Librivox recordings.

B Movie by Luke Wright

On 11 February, 2013 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Performance Poetry
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A wildly entertaining performance video, augmented by visual text drawn by Sam Ratcliffe. This is from British poet and broadcaster Luke Wright, found via Viral Verse. Here’s the description at YouTube:

BARRY vs THE BLOB – a B Movie set in Brentwood, Essex.

Poet Luke Wright felt bad that Brentwood had the singular reputation of being the home of TOWIE. So he’s set another cinematic event in Brentwood — Essex’s first B movie. On a budget, like all the best B movies, the only special effect he had at his disposal was ALLITERATION. This is literally a B movie.

All Tangled Up: children’s filmpoetry from Scotland

On 1 February, 2013 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Videopoems
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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.

Giant by Orianne Breakspear

On 29 January, 2013 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation
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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.

What is Life? by John Clare

On 25 January, 2013 by Dave Bonta with 1 Comments - Videopoems
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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.

Danebury Ring by Tim Cumming

On 22 January, 2013 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Author-made videopoems
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Another video from U.K. poet-filmmaker Tim Cumming, this one uploaded to YouTube, whence the following description:

A film poem shot by poet Tim Cumming at Danebury Ring on the Hampshire-Wiltshire-Dorset borders. Danebury Ring is a stunning Iron Age hill fort where sheep graze in the centre of the rings, and the rings are circled by huge old trees. Tim Cumming’s poem, Danebury Ring, appears in the forthcoming anthology of British and Irish poetry, Identity Parade from Bloodaxe Books.

That anthology is now available (scroll down for a well-produced video of the launch reading).

The Lab Aquaria by Colette Bryce

On 11 January, 2013 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Videopoems
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This was the first of the three films Kate Sweeney made in collaboration with poet Colette Bryce for her residency at the Dove Marine Laboratory. (The other two are Ballasting the Ark and Turbines in January.) Sweeney wrote:

‘The Lab Aquaria’ seeks to capture a tone, a feel of the lab; a sort of visual mood or reflection that leaves an after-image of the poem. Colette wished to include one site-specific piece about the Dove laboratory and we visited together to collect imagery in photography and video.

Though there are a couple of direct matches between text and film image, the film as a whole escapes the trap of excessive literalism, and comes across as a lyrical meditation on marine life and the work of science.

[UPDATE] The three films were shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Prize for new works in poetry in 2013.

Radio Carbon by Tim Cumming

On 4 January, 2013 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Author-made videopoems
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Tim Cumming is a major British poet-filmmaker whose work I’ve just recently learned about. Radio Carbon was especially interesting to me since I’ve been watching a lot of archaeological documentaries in which radiocarbon dating features heavily. Here’s the description from Vimeo:

When cosmic rays strike the atmosphere they create the radioactive isotope carbon 14, which can be detected in living matter and decays at a fixed rate over many millennia. Radiocarbon dating is the method by which we measure prehistoric time, and with which our own detritus will one day be measured.
The filmpoem Radio Carbon takes this transient yet permanent record of time as a personal metaphor, fashioning a hypnotic journey into the human past, from the neolithic to the present moment.
It’s a film with eternity at its centre, the vastness of space at its core, and a reverie of images clustering to the lens like the flashing in a stranger’s eye.

This is in 24 numbered sections, and may be viewed as a sequence of separate, interlocking filmpoems with recurring motifs. Cummings shot the film’s 8mm footage in addition to doing all the editing — a major undertaking for a film of this length. His profile at Salt Publications says that Radio Carbon “was premiered at the Renoir cinema in 2009 and at Port Eliot Festival in 2010.”