Poet: Al Rempel

We Have Become Children by Al Rempel

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so we too open our lips
to mouth our prayers
like water over stones

This recent videopoem by Erica Goss incorporates a text by Canadian poet Al Rempel, voiced by Annelyse Gelman, herself a videopoet. As Erica’s Vimeo description notes, “This is the second collaboration between poet Al Rempel and me. […] I used some of my photographs from years ago and video I took last summer.”

Their first collaboration came out last spring: I’ve in the Rain. This new one has a certain New Year’s flavor to it, I thought — a good way to kick off 2021 at Moving Poems.

I’ve in the Rain by Al Rempel

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A new poetry video from Erica Goss uses text by Canadian poet Al Rempel. She told us that

Al wrote the poem, and his friend Sandro Pecchiari translated it and recorded it in Italian. Al sent me Sandro’s recording and the poem in English. I asked for the Italian translation, and when I received it, I matched it to the English poem, line by line, to get the right pacing for the video.

Some of the images in the video are mine and some are from Pexels and Videezy. My son did the music.

Erica has been part of the international videopoetry community for the better part of a decade, first as author of a monthly column on the genre for Connotation Press, then working with Belgian filmmaker Marc Neys to make one of the most ambitious videopoetry series up to that time (2013-2014), Twelve Moons. In 2016 she began making poetry films herself, taking her time with each as her skills developed. I admire this cautious, deliberate approach because it’s so different from my own slap-dash, “git ‘er done” approach of turning out a huge volume of average-quality videopoems, hoping for the occasional gem.

This is I believe Erica’s first video collaboration with another poet. For Al Rempel, this marks a return to videopoetry after a series of collaborations with filmmaker Stephen St. Laurent from 2012 to 2016.

Is this Beulah Land? by Al Rempel

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A new videopoem by filmmaker Stephen St. Laurent featuring the words of British Columbia-based poet Al Rempel. It came about in a uniquely collaborative fashion, according to the YouTube description: “It started with a musical piece by Jeremy [Stewart]. Al then took that music and wrote a poem to accompany it. Steph then sculpted the video and directed Teresa [DeReis] in the voice work.”

He Talked in His Sleep by Al Rempel

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A great use of Prelinger material — in this case, family movies from 1929 — by Canadian poet Al Rempel, working with his usual editing assistant Steph St Laurent.

Right Through the Earth by Al Rempel

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An intriguing, experimental videopoem filmed and directed by the author, Canadian poet Al Rempel. From the description on YouTube:

Right Through the Earth is a video-poem taken from the poem in my book, This Isn’t the Apocalypse We Hoped For. Steph St. Laurent of VideoNexus helped with post-production work & Isaac Smeele composed the original music for the sound-track.

This Isn’t the Apocalypse We Hoped For is due to be published this month by Caitlin Press.

Bring Me My Sky-Canoe by Al Rempel

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Al Rempel’s description on YouTube is so thorough, I’m just going to reproduce it in its entirety, minus the text of the poem (click through to read).

The Sky Canoe is a collaboration between four artists: Phil Morrison, Al Rempel, Steph St Laurent, and Jeremy Stewart. Phil is a sculptor who works mainly in concrete & metal, and often incorporates text into his work. Al is a poet and teacher; his first book is understories. The poem in this piece is from This Isn’t the Apocalypse We Hoped For, which is forthcoming with Caitlin Press in spring, 2013. Please visit http://alrempel.com for more info. Steph is a filmmaker as well as an actor. His site is http://www.videonexus.ca. Jeremy is a musician and a poet; his first book of poetry is called (flood basement and he can be found at http://www.jeremystewartmusic.bandcamp.com

The Sky Canoe has been accepted into the Visible Verse festival, 2012! Details can be found here: http://www.cinematheque.bc.ca/visible-verse-festival-2012

The festival’s coming up on October 13 — that’s this coming Saturday! So if you live anywhere in the Pacific Northwest, be sure not to miss it.

eloise by Al Rempel

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British Columbia-based poet Al Rempel made this film with post-production help from Steph St. Laurent of VideoNexus Productions. The text is from Remple’s collection understories.