When Asked About My Inner Goddess by Janeen Rastall

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Two different video remixes of footage from the Prelinger Archives using a text by Janeen Rastall sourced from The Poetry Storehouse. While neither is a perfect video (both end too soon and too abruptly for my taste, for example), I think each is interesting, and together they show how approaches can diverge even when using largely the same material and techniques. Both are black and white with a 4:3 aspect ratio, last for 51 or 52 seconds with a cut every 6-10 seconds, and intersperse moments of allusiveness or departure from the text with moments of more literal illustration. But while Othniel Smith seized upon the goddess imagery in the title and first line, Marie Craven took the bursting seeds of the second line as her point of departure. They also differ in their soundtracks, Smith opting to use the poet’s own reading without accompaniment and Craven mixing Nic S.’s reading with music by SK123.

3 Comments

  1. Reply
    Dave 21 July, 2014

    I’m not sure whether the similarities here reflect an emerging standardization of poetry remix videos, or whether they simply were made in response to the same challenge at some Facebook group or other private forum.

  2. Reply

    […] possibilities for a single poem. Similarly, Dave Bonta at Moving Poems recently showcased two different treatments of a Storehouse poem by Janeen Rastall. I admit that I previously had a much narrower conception of […]

  3. Reply

    […] site: …. * Video remixes by Marie Craven and Othniel Smith for a poem by Janeen Rastall, When Asked About My Inner Goddess …. * A Nic S. video remix of a Cynthia Atkins poem, Family Therapy […]

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