~ Swindon Poetry Festival ~
Call for entries: Film Poetry Competition from Poetry Film Live
Poetry Film Live, the UK-based online journal edited by Chaucer Cameron and Helen Dewbery, has just announced its first competition. It’s also on FilmFreeway:
The Film Poetry Competition is inviting submissions of film-poems. The film should contain all or part of a poem. The poem can be pre-existant, or created as part of the filmmaking process. The emphasis should be on a convincing poetic experience rather than simply technical excellence. We encourage poet-made films, or where the filmmaker has worked closely with the poet.
Film-poetry harmonises words, images and sound to create a new poetry experience … it’s more than spoken words, visual images and sound being in the same room together, it’s their ability to talk to one another that creates the magic in poetry film.
The Film Poetry Competition is in partnership with Poetry Film Live and Swindon Poetry Festival.
Awards & Prizes
Prizes will be awarded at Swindon Poetry Festival on 4th October, at a live screening of all shortlisted and winning films.
The following prizes will be awarded: £400 for the overall winner. Recognition will also be given in the following categories: Single author made film, Animation, Best Newcomer.
The deadline is July 12. You can submit either through the website or on FilmFreeway.
I let Chaucer and Helen talk me into being one of the judges for this, alongside Lucy English. And barring any problems with the UK Border Force or Brexit-related chaos, I plan to be in Swindon in October for the screening. So I hope to see some of you there! And I look forward to viewing your submissions.
Wild Whispers International Poetry Film Project to launch at Swindon Poetry Festival
The Swindon Poetry Festival Programme 2018 is live, and includes this event:
U.K. LAUNCH OF WILD WHISPERS INTERNATIONAL POETRY FILM PROJECT WITH CHAUCER CAMERON
5th October; 17:00 – 18:00; TENT PALACE OF THE DELICIOUS AIR.
Wild Whispers is an international poetry film project that started with one poem and led to 12 versions, 9 languages and 12 poetry films. The project travelled from the U.K. to India, Australia, Taiwan, France, South Africa, Belgium, Sweden and the U.S.A., creating poetry films in English, Malaylam, Chinese, French, Affrikaans, Belgium, American Sign Language, Navajo, Spanish, and Welsh.
Here’s the trailer:
A printed pamphlet will be available with process notes from each of the contributors as well as the ever-mutating text of the poem. It’s a fascinating project, to which—full disclaimer—I was honored to be asked to contribute. I’ve never been to the Swindon Poetry Festival, but I believe this is its tenth year, and they’ve certainly got a varied and interesting programme. Back in 2014, poet and poetry filmmaker Robert Peake called it
among the friendliest and least pretentious; rich, diverse, and encompassing; pushing past conventional views of poetry in the twenty-first century; intimately global; startlingly fresh.
Tickets are through Eventbrite.
