Matt Mullins: Ten Notable Single-Author Videopoems
I really enjoy all forms of videopoetry, and collaborations have certainly led to some of the most groundbreaking and vital work out there, but I also have tremendous admiration for those people who work primarily as singular “videopoets.” To have the skill and talent to write a compelling poem and the ability to place that poem into an equally compelling visual and sonic context is an impressive artistic accomplishment.
But as I sat down to compile a list of ten single-author/author-made pieces that have influenced me, I quickly realized that there’s a tremendous amount of excellent work of this type out there. So I decided to narrow my list even further to focus on those poets who have demonstrated that they have the skills I mention above, and the ability to read their own poetry convincingly, and the ability to deliver the whole package in four minutes or less.
So in no particular order, here they are: Ten notable single-author videopoems under four minutes where the author also reads the poem.
Mouth
Timothy David Orme, 2012
Kleine Reise (Little Trip)
Claire Walka, 2010
The Dinosaur Book is Green Fire
Brenda Clews, 2011
the giant
Kate Greenstreet, 2009
Vowels
Temujin Doran, 2012
Where They Feed Their Children to Kings
John Gallaher, 2012
when you land in New Orleans
Ben Pelhan, 2012
Profile
R.W. Perkins, 2011
It turns out
Martha McCollough, 2012
Who’d have thought
Melissa Diem, 2013
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
Matt Mullins makes videopoems and writes poetry, fiction, screenplays, and music. His videopoems have been shown at exhibitions, galleries, and festivals throughout the world and include screenings at Visible Verse (Canada), Zebra (Germany), VideoBardo (Argentina), Liberated Words (England), Ó Bhéal (Ireland), The Body Electric (USA), CYCLOP (Ukraine), Co-Kisser (USA), The Filmpoem Festival (Scotland), Rabbit Heart (USA), The International Film Poetry Festival (Greece), REELPoetry (USA), Cadence (USA), Festival Fotogenia (Mexico) and at many other venues. His poetry and fiction have appeared in online and print literary journals such as the Mid American Review, Pleiades, Hunger Mountain, Descant, decomP, and Hobart. His collection of short stories, Three Ways of the Saw, was published by Atticus Books and named a finalist for Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year. He is the Mixed Media editor of the online journal Atticus Review and currently teaches at Ball State University where he is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing. You can find a number of his videopoems at: https://vimeo.com/mattmullins
An amazing list of videopoems, Matt. Each one is remarkable in its own often understated way. I appreciate the quietness of this collection overall, that there isn’t a lot of bright poppy snazzy editing and so on. The intent of the force or drive that produced the poem and the video is stronger when they are produced by one artist and perhaps more completely enmeshed as a unity of word and image. When the poet makes the video there is an inner cohesion to the experience of the words, the voice, the visuals and the music. Thank you. I’ve been sharing this page. – and I was truly taken back to find a videopoem of mine among them – so often one feels like one is working in a vacuum.
[…] the years I’ve shared many such videos, and Matt Mullins put together an annotated gallery of Ten Notable Single-Author Videopoems to showcase some of the best. There are many more examples of films that emerge from active […]