Posts By Dave Bonta
Directional Geometry 101 by Janet Marie Rogers
Dan Kahan says on Vimeo:
I shot a field of sunflowers with my Canon 7D, then invited Victoria’s poet laureate, Janet Marie Rogers, to share one of her poems.
For more on Janet Marie Rogers, see her website.
Moving Poems co-sponsors Greece’s first International Poetry Film Festival
Moving Poems is proud to be a co-sponsor, with +the Institute [for Experimental Arts], of Greece’s first International Poetry Film Festival, to be held this Saturday, November 10. It’s part of a larger event, EROS or NOTHINGNESS! International Solidarity Night for the 15 Antifascist Arrested Demonstrators // EΡΩΤΑΣ ή ΤΙΠΟΤΑ: 10/11/2012 ΜΗΧΑΝΟΥΡΓΙΟ ΠΟΛΥΤΕΧΝΕΙΟ: ΔΙΕΘΝΗΣ ΒΡΑΔΥΑ ΑΛΛΗΛΕΓΓΥΗΣ ΓΙΑ ΤΟΥΣ 15 ΣΥΛΛΗΦΘΕΝΤΕΣ ΤΗΣ ΑΝΤΙΦΑΣΙΣΤΙΚΗΣ ΜΟΤΟΠΟΡΕΙΑΣ, organized by the Void Network.
Sat. 10 / 11 / 2012
in Athens Polytechnic School
starts at 21.00
with participations from artists (poets, directors, video artists) from Europe, Asia, Africa and Americas. The show will create a historical line from 1830 to 2012 based on counter-culture poets.Will be presented Audio visual archives from William Blake , Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Charles Bukowski, Jack Kerouak, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Κaterina Gogou, Κostas Kariotakis, J.Hope Stein, Martha McCollough, Ye Mimmi, Valerie LeBlack, Shabnam Piryaei, Dave Bonta, Alper Yildirim, Swoon, R.W. Perkins, blocsdelletres, immprint ltd and young poets from many different countries. The first International Film Poetry Festival will be hosted at the EROS or NOTHINGNESS Audio Visual Poetry Live Concert organized by Void Network and is dedicated to the international solidarity movement for the 15 arrested Greek Antifascist demonstrators of 30/9/2012. More than 4000 people expected to attend the festival.
Click through for the full program (which includes links to all the films for those unable to attend).
I’m pleased that my efforts to curate and index videopoetry from around the world at Moving Poems have helped the organizers of this festival. Here’s the poster they made [PDF] to advertise the event.
Haciendo Apenas la Recolección by Tino Villanueva
Another collaboration between Chicano poet Tino Villanueva and filmmaker Alberto Roblest makes visual poetry of Villanuava’s childhood, which was spent following the crops with his migrant farmworker family in Texas.
New reviews of recent poetry film festivals
Shannon Raye at reviewVancouver shared some impressions of the Visible Verse Festival of Video Poetry, which was held on October 13 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
I have attended the last five years of the video poem festival, and this was my favorite year because of the diversity and quality of the work presented. Curator Heather Haley did a remarkable job bringing a full roster of culturally and artistically diverse video poems to the festival, which made for a fun and eclectic evening. Videos ranged from quirky anime and sci-fi fantasy to beautifully filmed short films with a narrative structure. I enjoyed the way the 38 video poems were presented, with funnier work following sentimental pieces, and experimental images following work that had more of a short-film feel.
One of the highlights for me was the number of international video poems. This year had a very global feel, with many European countries represented. In addition, there was a sizable selection of video poems exchanged from Argentina’s Video Bardo Festival.
Erica Goss travelled to Berlin for the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival held October 18-21, and this month in her Third Form column at Connotation Press offers the first of a two-part review of the event.
Watching poetry films as part of an audience is a new experience for me. Before the festival, I had only watched them at home on my computer, and usually alone. Sitting with other people in a dark theater while a series of intense, image-rich films rolled by on the big screen allowed me to examine them critically; for every film, I asked myself these questions: was it interesting? Did it create an alternative world? Was there a social, cultural, emotional, or intellectual message? Did the video enhance or detract from the poem? Was I startled, amazed, frightened or bored?
Bones Will Crow: selections from ten Burmese poets
This tantalizing introduction to the contemporary Burmese poetry scene offers a rare (for Westerners) glimpse into the country’s intellectual life. Here are the details from Vimeo:
Images: Craig Ritchie.
Animations: Brett Biedscheid/State of State.
Animations Commissioned by English Pen.Images of Burmese poets taken in their writing spaces in Yangon, Burma during 2011/2012.
Poem excerpts from the anthology of Burmese Poetry, ‘Bones Will Crow’, by Arc Publications, 2012.
The excerpted poems include “The Sniper” by Pandora, “A Letter for Lovers and Haters” by Ma Ei, “Aung Cheimt Goes to the Cinema” by Aung Cheimt, “A Bunch of 52 Keys” by Maung Pyiyt Min, “Moonless Night” by Moe Zaw, “Slide Show” by Zeyar Lynn, “Redundant Sentences” by Thitsar Ni, “Gun and Cheese” by Khin Aung Aye, “The Heart Bearer” by Maung Thein Zaw, and “If You Need to Piss, Go to the Other Room” by Moe Way. Translators are ko ko thett, James Byrne and Maung Tha Noe.
Far Away by Kate Marshall Flaherty
A poem about Alzheimer’s by Toronto-based poet Kate Marshall Flaherty. Filmmaker Mark Korven notes that this was “Shot in one take at Guildwood park in Scarborough, Ontario during the last days of winter.” Korven also plays the cello in the soundtrack.
Revenant by Jane McKie
Jane McKie reads and Rebecca Joy Scharp plays the clarsach in this filmpoem by Alastair Cook. It was commissioned by Absent Voices, “a group focused on the celebration of the vast and semi-derelict Greenock Sugar Sheds,” according to Alastair’s note on the previous film in the series, “How Well It Burns” by Brian Johnstone.
Hay Otra Voz—A Chicano Poem by Tino Villanueva
A collaboration between Chicano poet Tino Villanueva and filmmaker Alberto Roblest.
Gable by Brian Johnstone
A video by John Birdsong of Panman Productions. His decision to combine audio of a reading with the poet’s still face was kind of an interesting departure from the norm, I thought.
Johnstone was a co-founder of the StAnza international poetry festival held each March in St. Andrews, Scotland.
What I Say When You Ask What I’m Up To by Diana Salier
San Francisco-based writer and musician Diana Salier collaborated with the animator and director, Daniel Lichtenberg, on
A paper cutout-style animated video adapted from Diana Salier’s poem WHAT I SAY WHEN YOU ASK WHAT I’M UP TO, from her new book LETTERS FROM ROBOTS.
Diana builds a couch fort to hide herself from a former lover.
LETTERS FROM ROBOTS is out now on Night Bomb Press.
Salier stars in the film (along with Leiandrea Layus), composed the music and did the voice-over. Additional credits include assistant animator Max Berry and gaffer Matt Rome. (One doesn’t see nearly enough poetry films crediting gaffers.) It was produced at Photon SF.
