Posts By Colm Scully

Colm Scully is a Poet/Poetryfilm maker from Cork, Ireland. Formerly an engineer, now he spends his time trying to visualise poetry in film, and convincing everyone else of the genre's charms.  His poems have been published recently in Poetry Ireland Review, The Friday Poem, Cyphers. He is a previous winner of the Cúirt New Writing Prize. His films  have won The Deanna Tulley Multimedia Prize and Rabbits Heart Festival Smart Phone Prize. He is curator of Drumshanbo Written Word Poetry Film Competition and judge on The Ó Bhéal Winter Warmer Poetry Film Competition. You can see his stuff and learn more at colmscully.com

Drumshanbo Written Word: 3rd International Poetry Film Competition

L-R: Filmmakers: Anne McDonald, Eileen O’Toole, Ceara Carney, Tara Luger, Julia Galley, Mary Guckian, Csilla Toldy, and Curator: Colm Scully

At the end of last month in Ireland, poet and filmmaker Colm Scully curated the 3rd International Poetry Film Competition as part of Drumshanbo Written Word festival. Here’s his account. —Jane Glennie

Once again, this August, we gathered in Drumshanbo to screen our 18 shortlisted films. It was a miserable Friday evening and we could hear the driving rain cascade off the roof and hammer down the drain pipes of The Old Mayflower Ballroom, a thousand miles away from the baking sunshine, open doors, and coffee stand days of the two previous years. Still, the people came and Willie, along with his faithful dog, worked his technical magic, setting up screen and sound so we could cozy down to two hours of entertainment and prize giving.

This year we were chuffed to have 175 entries from 21 countries worldwide, with a huge sweep of talent present from established film makers and new names. As I said at my intro I could have easily chosen a totally different 18 and they would have been just as good. However in the spirit of eclecticism and inclusiveness I chose films from a myriad of styles and practices. The result, I think, was a selection where everyone in the crowd found something to enjoy.

Still image from Bakers Son by Patrick Gamble

We had humour and slapstick comedy from Australia’s Patrick Gamble with Bakers Son. We had black humour and collage animation from the US with Michael Mitchell’s Resume (an account of Dorothy Parkers famous poem about suicide). It was very gratifying to be able to show Finn Harvor’s excellent elegy of his late father, which contained humour and pathos in equal measure. People were very taken with the rhythms and musicality of Kenneth Karthik’s Punjabi Market from Canada. The subtle message about sexuality and how different communities and cultures adapt to a changing world really struck home. Barry Hollow’s Cap-cut created-struggles of life-piece was touching, and it was wonderful to hear the Scots of his childhood. I must say it reminded me very much of Burns with his ‘many a slip twixt cup and lip’. Eileen and her crew provided half time refreshments, wine and nibbles, then we returned to more great films.

Still from Resume by Michael Mitchell

At the end we introduced the poets/filmmakers who had travelled. Mary Guckian, from just over the road (the first lady of Leitrim Poetry) spoke of how Eamon De Burca adapted her poem Night Time, a tale of childhood memories. His two daughters starred and chose their own dresses. It was a  realistic interpretation, but the subtle film work and touching reminiscences made it very satisfying.

Tara Luger and Julia Galley from Vienna and Freiburg traveled specially for the event. They made their film as part of an Erasmus module assignment while studying in Belgium. The narration was in Japanese and the narrative had us thinking all sorts of things until the final twist explained everything. Houseplants has to be watched to be appreciated. They regaled us later in the pub with stories of their Irish connections.

Csilla Toldy, a well known poetry film maker and lecturer, came south and explained to us the story of Jewish Lithuanian poetess Matilda Olkinaite (My Dear Idealist). Csilla’s use of refrain, overlay, historical images and aged modern footage created a haunting space in which to relay the poignant poetry of the victim of Nazism.

Anne MacDonald spoke emotionally of her own mother, who was the subject of the short animated piece, Crows’ Books. Animated by her niece (Kate Hanlon—away in Australia) it was very much a family affair.

Ceara Carney, actor and tour guide, came from Dublin. There were fewer environmentally driven films submitted this year, I hope that is not a symptom of climate change fatigue. Ceara’s film Residents of 49 represented the cause well, her spoken-word mastery energising with rhyme the beautifully filmed (on super 8) goings on of nature in her back garden.

There were other great films, such as Olaf Boqwist’s Pained Flowers/Printed Leaves from Germany, Jane Glennie and James Kenward’s Dark, Mersolis Shone’s Repeat from Austria, Andre Chiaradi’s My Son, Diek Grobler’s – I haven’t told my garden yet, Brent Walbilligs – Ad Hominem from Canada, a film of post imperial introspection.

But there had to be winners, and Eileen O’Toole, our Chairperson, awarded, in absentia, a lovely set of handmade Drumshanbo pottery to Marcella O’Connor from Kerry, for Best Irish Poetry Film. Her film, Night Drags, touched me. It was an interpretation of a poem by Aogán O’Rathaille (the Gaelic Bard of the 17th Century). I am forever intrigued by old Ireland and this piece, filmed so beautifully around the west coast, capturing rutting stags in Killarney and keening heard of seals on a Blasket beach, seemed to reach deep into the past to that time of desolation and dispossession.  Also it was nice to have an Irish language poem in the set.

Still from Blink Once by Jim Haverkamp

But our winner, this year for the first time from outside of Ireland, was Jim Haverkamp’s Blink Once. A film he made when paired with the fine American poet, Karin Gottshall as part of the Filmetry Project in Michigan. Jim gave us his acceptance speech via video, humouring us with his jibes about Jameson Whiskey while explaining how he made the film by combining the  discovery of an old book about metal detecting with Karin’s poem of childhood memory. Many people asked me why I picked it. Put simply, it worked for me. It brought the magic out. The magic of the poem, the magic of the story.  It’s all the little things that make it work. The old-style, low-definition camera work, the stark colours (blue, brown, white). The pacing and  dramatic intent in the narrator’s voice. The lack of connection between the visual and the words, and yet paradoxically, the perfect symmetry between them. And of course the perfect words; words about gender, sexuality maybe, or just about dreaming and hope, longing. Whatever it was, it was beautiful.

Watch the full shortlisted programme:

Drumshanbo 2023: A brief report

The second Drumshanbo Written Word Poetry Film Competition was a great success with nearly a hundred entries from sixteen countries. This was up 15% on last year. We shortlisted down to 16 films, after a rigorous review process. This included five Irish films and films from the UK, Germany, US, Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands. Films were of a very high production quality, varying in theme from the wr in Ukraine to women’s rights in Iran, mental health, and familial tenderness.

An audience of fifty or more arrived at the Mayflower Ballroom Drumshanbo on Friday 26th August, despite the cool weather, to watch and appreciate the magical intertwining of language and light. The feedback from the audience was fantastic, especially when I interviewed two film makers on stage. The up-and-coming poet Liz Houchin, recently in residency at the Scottish Poetry Library, told us how, when she had a little grant money left over she decided to ask poet and filmmaker Luke Morgan to create something out of one of her favourite poems, “If my mother had a retrospective at the V&A” (see below). Have fun, she told them, and by God they did, creating a virtual exhibition space on screen where her mother’s knitting and sewing enterprises were playfully laid out for all to see. A surreal experience, where the ordinary is catapulted onto the halls of one of the great museums, in so doing exploding the whole idea of the ordinary. Made, Liz said, for all the quiet needle workers in the homes of Ireland.

We also talked to the very talented Grace Wells from County Clare. Grace has been making poetry films for many years out of her own poems. Mostly with an ecological slant, advocating for nature and the environment. Grass was a beautifully filmed eco-poetryfilm where the narrator addresses that most important of natures flora as it meanders through its seasons. All in all a great night. Roll on next year. You can view the shortlisted films on YouTube.