Nationality: Serbia

Dobre mašine / Good Machines by Ana Pantić

Poet: | Nationality: | Filmmaker:

I’m surfacing after a long hiatus to share the latest author-made videopoem by Serbian poet Ana Pantić, who included this description at YouTube:

Poetry film Good Machines (Dobre mašine)

Ana Pantić – poem, voice, film
Nebojša Anđelković – original music, sound editing
Milan Bogdanović – sound editing
Videopoezija, Belgrade 2022

This poetry film, composed of only two clips, highlights subconscious thought processes activated by everyday mechanical actions. The poem came about after the video, although this kind of creative process is considered to be the reversed one, I find it quite inspiring.

This appeals to my metalhead side as well as my poetry side, with lyrics that wouldn’t be out of place in a modern death metal album. In times like these, maybe that’s what we need? I know it’s what I need!

The Carpet by Ana Pantić

Poet: | Nationality: | Filmmaker:

This video poem is The Carpet, from Belgrade artist Ana Pantić. Ana wrote, voiced and performed in this personal piece, a film-making collaboration with Maja Djordjević, with music by Milan Bogdanović. Watching the film on high volume gave me the best experience of it.

Ana and I were at the Athens International Video Poetry Festival in Greece last December, where we met. The festival brought each of us in contact with other artists from around the world. Ana compellingly performed her work live on the last night.

She is an artist in a number of related creative modes, as well as a public speaker. Recently Ana appeared on Serbian TV, talking at length about international video poetry.

Bela noć! (apokaliptične uspavanke) / White Night! (apocalyptic lullaby) by Goran Živković Gorki

Poet: | Nationality: | Filmmaker:

Serbian slam champion Goran Živković Gorki, “the first homeless man on the Moon,” performs in a film by Dragana Nikolić. Đorđe Vić translated it into English for the subtitles. The poem appears in Gorki’s forthcoming collection Psihoslajdovi (The Psychoslides).

About a City by Aljosa Drazovic

Poet: | Nationality: | Filmmaker:

The story of the city is simple.
It eats secrets of people.
It digests whispers and
turns them into leaves, birds, fish.

Serbian filmmaker Dragana Nikolic made this arresting spoken word/videopoem hybrid in 2011 with performance poet Aljoša Dražović playing the part of a slightly crazed tour guide, extemporizing in English. (Apparently he is fluent in both English and Serbian. Here’s a video of him performing work in Serbian.) Nikolic says this about this about the film on Vimeo:

Night walk. Unusual tour guide. Improvisation. Free-style poetry.
Talking with the ghosts of the city, the shadows, the fog…
This city is full of secrets. Secret passageways, stairways. Just hidden for you to find…

Festivals: Balkan Beyond Borders, Bucharest, Romania; CologneOFF – Cologne International Videoart Festival; Timishort Romania; Clermont-Ferrand IFF France; Signes de Nuit International Festival, Paris, France; Belgrade Documentary and Short FF; Exit Festival, “Trgni se! Poezija!” Poetry an Book Festival, Alternative Film / Video Festival, Belgrade.

Nikolic also has a bilingual blog focusing on her graphic design work.