Portugal

Um fiapo de homem (An excuse for a man) by Nereu Afonso

This is FIAPO, a short poetry film available in multiple languages and with its own Facebook page. The poet, Nereu Afonso, is credited with the screenplay and also stars in the film. Alexandre Braga directs. The description at Vimeo and Facebook reads,

Um homem só, palavras de um homem só…
O que dizer? Como dizer e para quem dizer quando o silêncio à sua volta lhe parece portador de mais sentido?
O que é mais lúcido? O que é mais absurdo? Falar ou calar?
Esta é a terceira experiência criativa de Alexandre Braga e Nereu Afonso. Talvez não trará respostas. Contentar-se-á em lançar perguntas. Perguntas presas num último fiapo… no qual poderíamos nos agarrar.

Google Translate renders this as follows:

A man, a man only words …
What to say? How to say and who to tell when the silence around him seems to carry more meaning?
What is more lucid? What is more absurd? Speak or be silent?
This is the third creative experience of Alexandre Afonso Braga and Nereus. It may not bring answers. Content will be to launch questions. Questions lint trapped in the last … in which we cling.

(Hat-tip: the Video and Film Poetry group on Vimeo)

Eu (não) me resigno (I (don’t) give up) by Fernando Pessoa

Alexandre Braga directed this film for BASE Comunicação Audiovisual, who uploaded it to Vimeo:

From the poetry of Fernando Pessoa, this visual message proposes a moment of introspection and places us in a universe of thought: The man, once again trying to reach the divine.

All this happens in a kind of sanctuary: The top of the highest mountains in a small island in the middle of the Atlantic.

Of particular interest to me here was the way the filmmaker went beyond the usual subtitle approach for the English translations of each line, and integrated them into the film as text animations, resulting in one of the more thoroughly bilingual poetry films I’ve seen.

Voz, sempre a mesma (Voice, always the same) by Catarina João

Catarina João includes an English translation in her description at Vimeo:

Traditional animation, charcoal on paper

Short animation based on a poem:

Voice, always the same
Semi-open window
Fly feet

This is wonderfully mysterious, but i think the translation could stand to be tweaked a little:

Voice, always the same
Half-open window
The feet of a fly

At the time to set the table, we were five, by José Luís Peixoto

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.

Urgentemente (Urgently) by Eugénio de Andrade

A poem by Portugal’s greatest living poet, Eugénio de Andrade. This was uploaded by Bloqs de Lletres, so I’m assuming the video is by Josep Porcar, as their others are.

Here’s an English translation by Alexis Levitin:

URGENTLY

It’s urgent — love.
It’s urgent — a boat upon the sea.

It’s urgent to destroy certain words,
hate, solitude, and cruelty,
some moanings,
many swords.

It’s urgent to invent a joyfulness,
multiply kisses and cornfields,
discover roses and rivers
and glistening mornings — it’s urgent.

Silence and an impure light fall upon
our shoulders till they ache.
It’s urgent — love, it’s urgent
to endure.

(from Forbidden Words)