Filmmaker: Marc Neys
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Swoon‘s very abstract take on the Frost poem, with a reading by Nic S. from Pizzicati of Hosanna.
As you might imagine, there are more than a few videos for this poem on the internet, most of them depressingly void of originality. So often, it seems, this is the fate of the most popular poems — to be badly read. Apparently it takes a filmmaker for whom English is a second language to hear the poem with a more open mind. Of course, Nic S.’s reading may have had something to do with that, too.
[meine heimat] by Ulrike Almut Sandig
The 2012 ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival has introduced a new contest, inviting filmmakers to
make a film of the poem [meine heimat] by Ulrike Almut Sandig. The directors of the three best films will be invited to come to Berlin to meet the poet and have the opportunity of presenting their films and talking about them.
This is Swoon‘s entry. Ulrike Almut Sandig’s webpage is here, and there’s a bio in English at the online journal No Man’s Land.
Ochtend (Dawning) by Yahia Lababidi
Swoon re-edited a video he originally posted eight months ago, making it shorter, more visually appealing and I think more effective in the process. I’m not sure why I didn’t share the original, but I love this videopoem now. The poem was written in English by the Egyptian poet Yahia Lababidi, and has been translated into Dutch by Katelijne De Vuyst for the soundrack. Swoon and his wife Arlekeno Anselmo, who reads the translation, are Belgian. This is perhaps an extreme example of a widespread tendency I’ve noticed in the online videopoetry community to ignore national boundaries and strive to overcome linguistic ones, as well — facilitated, I would argue, by the change in focus from written text to audio and visual media. We are no longer quite so locked into our separate linguistic and cultural rooms.
Howie Good: three poems from Dreaming in Red
Swoon Bildos combined three poems — “Blue Territory,” “Ghost Train,” and “The Theory of Meaningful Coinicidence” — for a videopoem in support of Howie Good‘s new collection, Dreaming in Red. Profits from the sale of the book go to the Crisis Center in Birmingham, Alabama, which works on suicide prevention and provides services to victims of sexual assault, day treatment for the indigent mentally ill, and other services.
Odds and Ends by Joseph Harker
Joseph Harker‘s poem appeared in qarrtsiluni back in October (whence the recording of his reading). Swoon blogged (in Dutch) about the making of the video here.
For a long time, I’ve wanted to make a film for my father, who died last year. Plenty of ideas. Especially ideas about how things are definitely not allowed to look. Or sound. The epitaph could not be more than a tribute to his own simplicity.
In the poem “Odds and Ends” (Qarrtsiluni Podcast 28.10.2011) by Joseph Harker, I found the words summoned up the right atmosphere for me. I was even more excited when Joseph gave permission to use his poem.
[…]
For the images I wanted a split. 2 tracks of images. Two streams of thought.
I used footage from “And So They Live,” a documentary from 1940 by John Ferno and Julian Roffman. Simplicity and warmth were the central concepts that I was looking at in these images. I also used (self-filmed) images from the train to my hometown. The contrast of the warmth and tranquility in the nostalgic images with the blurred images of the train rushing forward to my roots is, for me, successful evocation.
(Translation by Google and guesswork)
PROOF triptych: three poems by David Tomaloff
Swoon Bildos and David Tomaloff collaborated on a videopoetry triptych called PROOF, which has its own website. I didn’t want to split it into three posts since I think the videos are best watched together and in the intended sequence:
_object{-ions in the mirror
Thespianic Mythology No. 4
Proof
The first two poems were originally published (in text form) in the online magazine >kill author (here and here) while the third was written especially for this triptych.
Update (1/5/12): Swoon and Tomaloff are the featured artists of the month at CoronationPress.com for their creation of this triptych. The accompanying interview is full of fascinating details about their collaboration and methodology.
De droom van de trappen (Staircase Dream) by Michaël Vandebril
http://vimeo.com/31862171
This poem was part of BOEST back in autumn 2009,
a dynamic poetry project with nine poets: Antoine Boute, Andy Fierens, Jess De Gruyter, Els Moors, Mauro Pawlowski, Xavier Roelens, Michael Vandebril, Christophe Vekeman and Stijn Vranken … a poet show on the road from Antwerp to The Hague, with the sound of gluemaster Carlo Andriani and visuals of Jess De Gruyter. Director: Charles and Max Temmerman Clemminck … a book, an anthology of new work by nine poets … [and] a vinyl record.
(auto-translation from the Dutch by Google)
The same website also includes a bio of Vandebril:
Michael Vandebril (1972): Lawyer by training. Debuted in 1998 as a poet in the poetry & straight jazz tradition of the beat poets. In 2000, he founded the collective Le Tigre Unick with literary events which he organized in Antwerp and Amsterdam. At the end of 2002 he was appointed coordinator of Antwerp Book City, and Antwerp earned the title of UNESCO World Book Captital 2004. BOEST marked the end of a year-long break from writing poetry.
(translation prarphrased from Google)
Brian Doyle did the English translation in the video. The reading is by the author. Swoon Bildos handled everything else: concept, camera, editing, and music. I thought the shots of dancers and pigeons startling into flight made an effective pairing with the text, intermixed as they were with blurred shots of ascending motion.
