Posts in Category: Videopoems
At the time to set the table, we were five, by José Luís Peixoto
Update: this video is on longer online.
A simple yet affecting video for the poem “Na hora de pôr a mesa, éramos cinco” by the contemporary Portuguese novelist and poet José Luís Peixoto. Gustavo Santos has uploaded two versions, the other without English subtitles.
Ram’s Head by George Anderson
George Anderson, a Canadian living in Australia, reads his poem in this video by Laww Media, filmmakers from Wollongong, Australia.
Mutability by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Just your standard Shelley zombie flick. Rather heavy on the bogus production company credits but otherwise a memorable addition to the videopoetry corpus, I thought. Joseph Blackwell directs and narrates. Oh, and here’s the poem in case you need a refresher:
We are the clouds that veil the midnight moon;
How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver,
Streaking the darkness radiantly!–yet soon
Night closes round, and they are lost forever:Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings
Give various response to each varying blast,
To whose frail frame no second motion brings
One mood or modulation like the last.We rest.–A dream has power to poison sleep;
We rise.–One wandering thought pollutes the day;
We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep;
Embrace fond foe, or cast our cares away:It is the same!–For, be it joy or sorrow,
The path of its departure still is free:
Man’s yesterday may ne’er be like his morrow;
Nought may endure but Mutability.
At the Qunite Hotel by Al Purdy
http://www.vimeo.com/7857979
An excerpt from the poem by Al Purdy, brought to life by Bruce Alcock and Global Mechanic.
A fluid, vibrant and kinetic riff on one of Al Purdy’s best-known poems, recalling the experimental, interpretive work of Norman McLaren. It’s not a literal adaptation, but something more free-associative that visually accompanies the text while staying true to the playful, erudite spirit of the poem and Al Purdy’s imagination. We used oil paint, acrylics, graphite, charcoal, wire, cut paper, a beer mug, linoleum, bottlecaps… you name it, we art-worked and animated it. Almost all the animation was done in-camera, except for a bit of compositing after the fact.
What Bee Did by Julie Larios
Update: video may be watched on Vimeo.
An animation by Jessica Lawheed. The text of the poem is available at The Cortland Review. Julie Larios blogs at The Drift Record.
My one criticism of the animation is that it shows a honeybee entering a paper wasp nest — why not a hive box or a skep? Then again, it also depicts a bee making love to a human being, so perhaps I shouldn’t get too literal.
No Road by Philip Larkin
A piece called “Type in motion,”
designed by Joseph Allison and Sophie Tanat-Jones. The piece is inspired by the design ethos of Lazlo Moholy Nagy. The work features a poem by Philip Larkin called ‘No Road’.
This is just the first stanza of the poem, which may be read in its entirety at ilikethispoem.
The Dead by Billy Collins (McDonalds remix)
Lauren Adolfsen spliced together some footage from old McDonald’s commercials to make a new video for Billy Collins’ poem. This uses the same audio as the animation by Juan Delcan, which was one of the 11 videopoems authorized by the poet. I am not sure he’d approve of this one, but it definitely changes the way I think of the poem.
