Posts By Dave Bonta
New paper/videopoem on “Videopoetry: The Hegemony of Image or Text,” by Alison Watkins
Via a link from Tom Konyves on Facebook, I was delighted to discover this presentation, which takes the form of something quite like a videopoem (rather than using the dreaded Powerpoint). It includes one of the most thorough responses to Konyves’ Videopoetry: A Manifesto that I’ve seen. While Alison Watkins acknowledges the effectiveness of poetic juxtaposition between textual and filmic images, she also argues that it isn’t always sufficient or even appropriate; sometimes a more literal match might well better serve the viewer.
Diversity of viewpoint is of course essential if this nascent field of what might be called videopoetry studies is to really get off the ground. Watkins made the presentation for NYSVA Annual Conference on Liberal Arts and the Education of Artists, 2012. Her description on YouTube frames it as follows:
This video takes a look at what’s become of word and text in a visual world. The power of image, in particular moving images, in collaboration with words has unleashed an avalanche of new media artists, and videopoets who have let loose a jumble of poetic text, sound and images on our omnipresent computer screens. Have words and text been turned into mere accessories?
Syrinx by Norbert Hummelt
A very successful example of a poem used as dialogue between characters in a familiar movie set-up — a surprisingly uncommon tactic for videopoem makers. This was uploaded to YouTube by the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival folks, who solicited it for this year’s festival:
For the 6th ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival Polish film makers Maciek Majewski, Łukasz Twarkowski and Wiola Sowa have collaborated with German poets Norbert Hummelt, Nico Bleutge and Christian Filips to make film versions of poems of theirs. Together they chose the poems and worked on turning them into scripts. In the run-up to the festival the pairs of artists were meeting up in Berlin to turn their ideas into films within six days. The short films that have been created in this way were premièred in the fesival. This is Maciek Majewski’s film-version of Norbert Hummelt’s poem “Syrinx”.
The translation is by Christina Hales and the poet, who is also known for his translations.
a little black strap by George Bowering
Director Pamela Bentley took a fascinating approach to this poem from George Bowering‘s chapbook of the same title (Unarmed press, St. Paul, 2009). This was screened at Visible Verse 2012 — thanks to festival organizer Heather Haley for the link in her detailed post-mortem account. She called it “a most delightful adaptation of legendary Canadian writer and our first poet laureate, George Bowering’s poem.”
Visible Verse Festival organizer posts detailed “post-mortem”
Heather Haley, indefatigable organizer of Vancouver’s Visible Verse Festival, has just blogged a detailed account of this year’s festival, complete with descriptions of, and links to, each poetry film in the lineup.
“The best year yet!” is what I was told repeatedly. Good turnout, a bit of press coverage, and wonderful new staff to work with, the festival is definitely entering a new phase. Changing the date from November to October, immediately following the Vancouver International Film Festival helped raise our profile, and get more bums in the seats.
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.
