Posts By Dave Bonta
Three poems from Savage Sunsets by Adrian C. Louis
http://vimeo.com/45367747
The poems are “Archeology,” “Wheels,” and “Love the Distant Roar,” expertly knit together by Sky Hopinka into one of the best poetry book trailers I’ve seen. Most unusual for the genre is the choice of a reader (Trevino Brings Plenty) other than the poet, but this really works to put the focus squarely on the poems and — with the addition of two listeners — the communal reality they appear to reflect.
Adrian C. Louis is no stranger to film; his novel Skins was made into a feature-length film starring Graham Greene and directed by Chris Eyre. Savage Sunsets, his tenth book of poems, is forthcoming in September from West End Press. For more, visit his website.
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Housekeeping note: I’ve just started a Book trailers category here, thinking it might be useful to compare and contrast different approaches to the genre. I’ve retroactively added the few videos that came up when I seached the site for “book trailers,” but I know I’ve missed some. Please let me know if you can think of any more trailers I’ve posted.
Clearance by Tom Schilling
http://vimeo.com/47808467
Directed and produced by Jan Walentek, this was shown at the 2010 ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in Berlin. There’s also a version in German:
Bill Murray reads Wallace Stevens: The Planet on the Table and A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts
Actor Bill Murray reads two poems by Wallace Stevens at Bubby’s Brooklyn, as part of Poets House’s 17th Annual Poetry Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge, Monday June 11, 2012
Poets, take note. This is how a proper poetry reading is done.
ctrlC/ctrlV by Katrijn Clemer
Belgian poet Katrijn Clemer reads her poem, which, according to the note at Vimeo,
was constructed out of 100 lines taken from a diary.
Each line deconstructed into separate words, constructed back into 20 new lines.
Deconstructed those 20 again into words and then constructed the poem using the cut/up technique.
Annmarie Sauer translated it into English for the subtitles. Swoon did everything else.
Steak Night by Melissa Broder
A fun animation and text from filmmaker Daniel Lichtenberg and poet Melissa Broder. “Steak Night” appears in her widely reviewed new book, Meat Heart. The soundtrack includes original music by Diana Salier and Rob Justesen, and the poem is read by Edward Carden. Both music and animation were produced at Photon SF.
“Steak Night” originally appeared online at The Awl.
The Conqueror Worm by Edgar Allan Poe
Poe would’ve loved this! It was directed by Aurélie Godefroy with music by the band Les Pleureuses, whose keyboard player and art director, Yannis Lo Pellegrino, is the main actor/reciter here, and shares credit with Godefoy for the making of the film.
Without You (Ohne Dich) by Hermann Hesse
http://vimeo.com/47438051
A very minimalist take on the Hesse poem by Philip David Edson. It uses the classic James Wright translation for the titling, with punctuation and capitalization removed.
Martyr by Danielle Nicole Burgess
Model/actress/writer Danielle Nicole Burgess stars in this video adaptation of her poem by Austin, Texas-based filmmaker J.J. Castillo of Jose Jones Films. Castillo writes in a recent update on the Jose Jones Films Facebook page:
Really happy with “Martyr” the short poem film I made with Danielle Nicole Burgess, just need to finalize the music…Now I’m thinking about starting an entire series where filmmakers put imagery to other peoples poems. It would be great exposure for the filmmaker and the poet. More to come…
Wax Ear by Alice Lyons
A short poem by Alice Lyons made into a film by Orla Mc Hardy. As with The Polish Language, this appears to have been a collaboration: Lyons is credited with 2-D animation, and Mc Hardy with photography, compositing, computer animation and sound.
Kata by Lavinia Greenlaw
Another in the Winning Words series of poetry videos filmed by Andy Hutch. “Here professional parkour athlete Jolade Olusanya reads Lavinia Greenlaw’s ‘Kata’ in Stockwell.” I don’t have a category for parkour, but this seems close enough to some of the poetry dance videos to include in that category.
The text of the poem, which appeared in the 2011 collection The Casual Perfect from Faber & Faber, is here. For more on Greenlaw, see her website.
Quartet by Howie Good
http://vimeo.com/46184070
Another of Swoon‘s adaptations of poems from the qarrtsiluni podcast, this one by Howie Good from the Fragments issue currently in serialization. (Read the text here.) It was screened at “Filmscape” in Dunbar, Scotland on July 30. Here’s what Swoon said about it in a recent blog post:
I had a track (‘Gaze‘) that I used before for an older videopoem that I wasn’t to happy with.
But I still love the track.
‘Gaze’, by the way is on ‘Pathways’, a great sampler on netlabel NSI. You can get that just for free.I made use of some great footage I found on Prelinger from a guy Ivan Besse, who filmed everyday life in South Dakota somewhere in ’38 ’39…
I combined that footage with layers of recordings I made myself to add a ghostlike atmosphere (to fit the soundscape) and a bit of colour and depth.
The poem also appears in a brand-new collection from Fowlpox Press, Desecrations by Howie Good, available through Smashwords.
