Video haiku by Rollo Hollins

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“Video haiku” is a somewhat inchoate genre that overlaps with videopoetry but isn’t wholly contained by it: some filmmakers, for example, use the term for short, poetic films with three scenes reminiscent of the three lines of conventional English-language haiku (Japanese haiku are written in one line). Those that do include text often adhere rigorously to the 5-7-5 syllable pattern, but otherwise are barely recognizable as poems. This short film, however, seems based quite organically on the haiga tradition: the text is very well integrated with the single image, and the author/filmmaker — a London-based director — knows enough to disregard the three-line and 17 syllable conventions when they don’t suit their purposes. Though this is closer to a slide than a film, I think it’s worth featuring here because of the possiblities is suggests for contemporary haiku video.

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