Posts By Sou MacMillan
Doublebunny Press Opens Submissions for Fifth Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival
Doublebunny Press announced on Wednesday, February 28 that submissions were open for the fifth Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival.
The Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival is a competition meant to highlight poetry and visual art at the intersection of film. The festival, due to take place in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA in October of 2018, focuses on short films that illustrate original poems, all of which are non-performance based (read: no footage of the poems being performed).
As well as a $200 prize for Best Overall Production, Rabbit Heart will be awarding $100 prizes in six other categories: Best Animated, Best Music/Sound, Best Smartphone Production, Best Under 1 Minute, Best Valentine, and the Shoots! Youth Prize. The matinee, and then the gala awards ceremony and viewing party will be at Nick’s Bar in Worcester, MA on October 20th.
About Doublebunny Press
Doublebunny Press is a small, independent press that serves the New England area through poetry design, layout, and production of fine books and posters. Doublebunny also supported Omnivore Magazine, a poetry and arts monthly which, during its three-year run, published poetry and articles by over 150 authors, and carried a national subscription base.
Doublebunny has a history of great spoken word events in Worcester. They combined forces with The Worcester Poets’ Asylum to present V Day to the city in 2002 and 2003, and the Individual World Poetry Slam in 2005. In 2014, Doublebunny brought the inaugural Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival to the city, and now for the fifth year’s festival, they plan an even more exciting show for Worcester, inviting the imagination of poets and filmmakers to once again take center stage.
About Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival
Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival is one of very few outlets in the US for poetry on film, and the only festival that asks that the author of the poem participate in the making of the production. In 2014 and 2015 Rabbit Heart attracted international attention, including not only European submissions, but also the honor of a showcase in the CYCLOP festival in Ukraine and showings in Barcelona, Spain at pro.l.e. In 2017 Rabbit Heart was thrilled to present at the Mass Poetry Festival.
Submissions are now open for the 2018 Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival, and will remain open through July 1st.
To learn more about this event, please go to www.rabbitheartpoetry.com or to www.doublebunnypress.com, and then click on the menu link to Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival.
Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival 2017: Director’s Recap
Editor’s note: All week I’ve been sharing the winning films from RHPFF 2017, so I thought it only fitting that we wrap up with director Sou MacMillan’s perspective on how things went, reprinted from her personal blog. Be sure also to visit the Rabbit Heart YouTube channel to watch all the shortlisted films (conveniently arranged into playlists by category) as well as videos of the acceptance speeches and other snippets from the festival. And I just want to say to other poetry film festival directors: I’m sure it’s exhausting to put on something like this, but please do consider trying to document your events also, as Sou does, so we can all take inspiration from them. I’ll do my part by linking or reprinting here. —Dave
Festival? How was the festival this year? you ask. Well!
Let me start here:
Behold the perfect tool for your sustenance, the humble crockpot.
No, wait – lemme start here:
Rachel dearest sent that off from the bus on her way out of Worcester on Tuesday morning, and I blubbed some happy tears when I saw it.
Nonono – wait – listen:
I think I didn’t manage to put down 2016’s show until almost a year after the fact – there was just So Much. Too much, even. Dearest Bill’s heart surgery on October 5th, the flash floods day before show that washed out Nick’s, all that focus on waiting for the power to come back & the last-minute move over to HPCC. It was a rush, for sure, but really, let’s not do it like that again, k? And even with the grant reimbursement* wrapped up and the trophies mailed & the prize payments made, and the 2017 logo set up & stickers ordered, and the new season ready to go, it still sort of dragged on as this stressful pulsing echo, like, for months.** Until about a week before festival, I wasn’t even sure I was ready. I had nightmares about being pregnant in Patagonia (which, of course, was part of Peru, whut) & stamping around about it, y‘all.
And then Rabbit Heart this year? It was AMAZING. Ah-May-ZING.
Some stuff we learned last year was that you really can’t stuff 70+ people into Nick’s without a crowbar and some mad engineering skillz.*** So, armed with that knowledge, we intentionally split the 2017 show, and put together a matinee this year – which I panicked about for a hot minute (Will people come? Will I throw a party, and will people come to it? AND WHAT ABOUT BRUNCH?!) until I realized that it gave us o,somuchmoreroom! to show more films (\o/), and that lots of people nabbed those tickets because they were stoked (!!) and wanted to see more poetryfilm! And they came! We threw a party and people came! And they enjoyed the stuffing out of it! Hello, I am over the moon remembering all the smiles and hugs.
And then – and then – AND THEN! The awards ceremony! Our emcees for the night, Tony Brown & Melissa Mitchell, omg – these two glamorous bastards – I need a moment to get my marbles back in the jar here, because WOW.
Tony and Missy on the red carpet
Let us all fan ourselves off a minute here -whew!- Ok, steampuk became the theme for the night, Missy was armed to the teeth (check out that hawt whip, y’all), and the tone was set from the moment they stepped on the stage. So. GOOD.
The caliber of film this year made me wicked proud – I’m absolutely thrilled with the judges’ picks.† I can’t even pick the most stand-out-y of the bunch, because I kept falling in love over and over. You should go check out the 2017 Finalists Page and the R<3 YouTube page to see – grab a coffee and your comfiest hoodie, ‘cos you’ll want to be there a while <6
All that said, I need to tell you about the winner of Best Overall Production – Rachel Kann’s Dancing Lesson (Or How to Let the Words Leave You), made with Brad Cooper & Atom Smith – even just thinking about it right now makes all the little hairs stand up on my arms. Because you need to know: the women in that film with Rachel? Dancing like the queens they are? They are not professional dancers or actors. That’s Rachel’s Zumba class. (And I was told the shoot was a dream, and the hardest part of the whole she-bang was getting the colored Holi powder out of the sets three months after the fact. Which, of course, amuses me to no end.) RACHEL’S ZUMBA CLASS! Here – check it out.
There was so much dance this year! And it brought me to a place of joy I didn’t even know about. Sure, interpretive dance is an easy mark for eyeroll – we’ve all been to that one poetry reading, right? But this year, watching the subs roll in was a total game/perspective-changer – we got a ton of really good interpretive dance poetryfilms. The more interpretive dance I saw over the year, the more I realized how much I just love the stuff! And to be able to show films at the showcase matinee? Like Jeremy Hahn and Stephen Beitler’s Dances for the End of the World Ch 2, and videopoem I Am Life/ Soy Vida by Jose Alirio Rojas? It just set me soaring.
But but but! But omg, also the people! My very favorite thing about festival happened again this year – it became a gathering for some of my very favorite people. And getting to meet filmmakers and people new to the festival just leaves me bursting all over. I got to meet the winners of the WCPA-sponsored Shoots! Youth prize, Luz Emma Cañas & Ella Quinn who came in from NYC, I got to meet the producer of the Best Smartphone Production, Eduardo Guerra who came in from NY, I got to meet Nick who came out from CT for his friend Aleksandr Kirienko’s film, and the winners of The Marble Collection’s fundraiser raffle, and the folks who won the Sprinkler Factory’s raffle,†† and I got to meet director Brad Cooper and his lovely friend Linda, and I got to meet Aisha Naseem’s parents and their housemate Alex, and everyone was so lovely! And I got to reconnect with friends who traveled in from afar! Filmmakers Cassidy Parker Knight & Jeff Knight came in from Austin TX, and Rachel came in from LA, and Eric Darby came in from San Francisco, and Linda Jackson and filmmakers Aisha Naseem and Adom Balcom came in from western MA – and friends who came in from right here in town – Molly McArthur and Kerry McGurl who were our perfect ushers, Tony & Missy (natch), #TeamSalli, Sarah Meigs & Alli Jutras (our badass interns for 2017), and Birgit Straehle (who gilded our first place trophy!) & Luis Antonio Fraire, and two of last year’s exquisite judges, April & Ted Desmond, Isaac Baron and Sylvia Bagalio, and Rushelle Frazier and Jenith Charpentier and Angeline Bilotta who were judges this year, and Gary Hoare, who’s been a finalist and winner at R<3 three times now, and Angel, who’s been a judge twice, and Bob Gill (who judged our first year) & Ted Blackler, and and and and AND! It all happened in the company of family – what warm delight to share this with my dear husband Bill, and my brother Allan and my father-in-law Charlie††† who have been pulling this boat along with me for four years now (omg, fam – you are The Best).
And for real, Nick’s took such good care of us – huge kudos and thank yous to Nicole & Sean & the rest of the staff on Saturday for making such good space for us and treating us like a Very Big Deal. They made sure we had the sound and projector up and running, and a place for our red carpet, and that the popcorn & drinkies & treats flowed (Have you ever had a pretzel there?? Seriously. If you haven’t, you’re totally missing out, so you should do that).
What I mean to say is that this year tore me open in all the good ways. All this to say Thank You.
xoxox,
Apple
*Thank you WAC & MCC!
**I’m 100% sure some of that had to do with the US elections. That garbage storm is still cascading horrific on the daily.
***So the basement over at HPCC actually solved that problem >.>
†It wasn’t until after festival that I realized that all our winning films were made by women \o/ There’s something here that I have been struggling to put my finger on over the last few years – what is it about poetryfilm that lends women such good license, that allows them to give themselves permission to excel? Jenith & I keep spilling coffee over and spending time on this topic, and it never ceases to keep me feeling alive in my own skin.
††You have an osm arts org that wants fundraiser tickets? Talk to me!
†††Who totally saved our bacon last year with the whole venue thing. Thank you, Charlie!
ps! Omg, guise – LITERALLY, as I was writing this, my phone chirped and told me it made a movie memory out of the bazillionty pictures (ok, 372) I took at Rabbit Heart on Saturday – oh iPhone, you amazing creature, you <6 and it’s totally darling. Here it is –
pps – that song that everyone at festival can’t get out of their head? It’s by Erin K, and it’s amazing. Here – have a listen
Doublebunny Press Opens Submissions for Fourth Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival
Submissions have opened for the fourth Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival.
The Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival is a competition meant to highlight poetry and visual art at the intersection of film. The festival, due to take place in Worcester, Massachusetts in October of 2017, focuses on short films that illustrate original poems, all of which are non-performance based (read: no footage of the poems being performed).
As well as a $200 prize for Best Overall Production, Rabbit Heart will be awarding $100 prizes in six other categories: Best Animated, Best Music/Sound, Best Smartphone Production, Best Under 1 Minute, Best Valentine, and the Shoots! youth prize. The matinee, and then the gala awards ceremony and viewing party will be at Nick’s Bar in Worcester, MA on October 21st.
Doublebunny Press is a small independent press that serves the New England area through poetry design, layout, and production of fine books and posters. Doublebunny also supported Omnivore Magazine, a poetry and arts monthly which, during its three-year run, published poetry and articles by over 150 authors, and carried a national subscription base.
Doublebunny has a history of great spoken word events in Worcester. They combined forces with The Worcester Poets’ Asylum to present V Day to the city in 2002 and 2003, and the Individual World Poetry Slam in 2005. In 2014, Doublebunny brought the inaugural Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival to the city, and now for the fourth year’s festival, they plan an even more exciting show for Worcester, inviting the imagination of poets and filmmakers to once again take center stage.
About Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival
Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival is one of very few outlets in the US for poetry on film, and the only festival that asks that the author of the poem participate in the making of the production. In 2014, 2015, and 2016 Rabbit Heart attracted international attention, including not only European submissions, but the honor of a showcase in the CYCLOP festival in Ukraine (2014) and showings in Barcelona, Spain at pro.l.e (2015, 2016).
This year, Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival has once again been recognized with a grant from the Worcester Arts Council, an agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Submissions are now open for the 2017 Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival, and will remain open through July 1st.
To learn more about this event, including guidelines and galleries of winning films from past years, please go to doublebunnypress.com and click on the menu links to Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival.
Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival 2016 wrap-up, A.K.A. the show must go on — and it did!
Thank you, Hadwen Park Congregational Church for taking good care of Rabbit Heart!
Holy cow, what a night for Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival! First and foremost, big big BIG thank yous go out to Nick’s and to Hadwen Park Congregational Church – the venue stuff was off the chain on Saturday night. Huge (HUGE!) props go out tonight to Nicole Watson and her staff at Nick’s, who stayed behind in candlelight to redirect folks over to Hadwen Park. Huge (HUGE!) props go out tonight also to Charlie MacMillan, who secured us the rainbow crepe paper festooned church basement, and made things happen.
Bun glamour shot
What you need to know is that on Friday night here in Worcester, Massachusetts, there was a flash flood that took out big parts of our city, turning roads into canals (if you live here, you understand the irony of that), and washing away cars. Our beautiful venue on Millbury Street, Nick’s, was soaked through to the bone and lost power overnight, draining their auxiliary lighting and leaving the bar in the dark the next day, luxe velvet curtains and all. But then the power came back on right before six! And then, as our setup crew was celebrating the lights being on, there was an explosion (I am not kidding – a big BOOM and smoke and smell and panic) down the block and, unsurprisingly, the power went back off. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
So bring on the Grand Contingency Plan! Knowing early on in the day that things could turn pear-shaped if the power stayed off, we had considered moving the show, and that BOOM pretty much sealed the deal; with doors at 7:30, a little before 6:30, we pulled the cord, packed the cars and headed over to Hadwen Park. Nick’s was kind enough to not only make sure that ticket holders were received warmly and sent to the new venue with directions, but to make sure we had popcorn to bring along for the show. Three cheers for Nick’s!
Judge Sarah Guimond & her lovely husband Greg Sullivan on the orange carpet
I want to tell you I am proud and honored – the community here in Worcester took to those messy messy circumstances and swept them aside to make the festival happen this weekend: April and Ted Desmond, two of this year’s judges, made sure there were snacks, volunteers Molly and Liberty and Summi moved gear and set up tech, neighbors and house guests (including finalist and 2015 award winner Rachel Kann!) grabbed the projector, amplifier and rug* from the press office. Guests arrived in good cheer, some after grabbing pizza along the way, and the show started a whopping ten minutes behind schedule.** Doublebunny Press could not possibly be more in love with our city’s and festival’s poetry community, coming together to make sure the event happened. If you want to know why we hold the show in Worcester, and why Worcester deserves nice things, 2016’s Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival was Exhibit A: everyone, but everyone, got together and made the night spectacular.
And it really was spectacular! Packed house, a super keen listening audience, lovely guests and finalists from all over the country, and over two hours of films in with the awards and banter. Tony Brown and Melissa Mitchell emceed like pros, even without a mic.*** The place stayed packed right through to the end and then the celebration poured out to an afterparty. Texts and calls poured in through Sunday night to tell us what a good time was had, and how many people were impressed by all the great films that screened. Color us honored, color us all inspired, color us all thrilled and excited and looking forward to the 2017 festival, again planned for Nick’s next year, on October 21st.
Congratulations and thank yous also to all the winners!
Not the Stars by H. Paul Moon and John Dofflemyer took Best Overall Production and finalist for Best Sound/Music, as well as Curator’s Choice pick! Rabbit Heart fell in love with Moon last year when his poem Equus Caballus won a Here Kitty Kitty prize, and the judges fell in love with his presentation of cowboy poetry all over again.
Becoming a Landscape by newcomer Renata Davis won Best Animation. What a treat to meet this amazing woman and hear her story about the film that very almost never came to fruition! We look forward to more from Davis in coming years’ festivities.
Art Guitars by Cassidy Parker Knight and Jeff Knight won for Best Smartphone Production – and came out with Tonie, whose guitars were featured in the film, and little Harrison, all the way from Austin, TX just for the show! This family’s films has been a cornerstone of Rabbit Heart since the very beginning – it was truly exciting to see them as they brought home their trophy this year.
Hardboiled Egg by Shira Moolton was the winner of the very first Shoots! Youth Prize awarded by Rabbit Heart, and that she and her parents came in from Philadelphia made our night even more special! This was the first year that there were enough entries in the Shoots! Category to award the prize – Doublebunny is absolutely thrilled that the judges picked this dynamic young woman’s work to take the honor.
Start of Winter by Gary Hoare with gorgeous violin music from Kara Kulpa took Best Production 1 Minute or Under! Hoare won in two categories last year, in the Best Smartphone Production category with his collaboration with Joe Cronin, Cat, and took a Here Kitty Kitty for Reminiscing About the Mars Landing. Local Boy Does Good was on everyone’s lips.
Ted by Jon Constantinou was the winner for Best Sound/Music! You could hear every crackle of the fire, the scrape of the blade against whetstone, and grind of pencils being sharpened, all under a gentle and moving score Welcome to Rabbit Heart, Jon, we’re pleased as punch to meet you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hos228swHU
Road to Nowhere by Jessica Lovina Guimond was the winner for Best Valentine! Another local filmmaker took honors tonight with her very first poetry film, again highlighting the sheer force of local talent in Worcester!
Benjamin’s Brother: Story About a Broken Heart by Noam Sharon and Tal Rosenthal (under the name Too Short for Modeling) was the winner this year in the Here Kitty Kitty category with the poem that made the office staff keen when they first saw it, and left the audience enthralled. It’s more of a music video than a poetry film, but that’s one of the lovely things about this category.
*The red carpet got left behind at Nick’s in the dark – lolwhoops – so it was orange carpet to the rescue! Which, wow – totally showed off Best Valentine winner Jessica Lovina Guimond’s leaf green dress, even.
**For the record, in 2015 the show started half an hour behind schedule.
***We forgot to grab a mic and cable. It was a little frantic around moving time.
Renata Davis, Shira Moolton, and Jessica Lovina Guimond on the orange carpet – sisterhood rules \o/
Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival Releases the 2016 Shortlists
The Longlist for the 2016 Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival is now up! In addition, finalists for the Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival are now up and public — these are the front-runners in this year’s poetry movie competition, the best of the best films submitted, and the finalists whose work will be screened at the 2016 Awards Ceremony and Viewing Party.
The Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival is a competition meant to highlight poetry and visual art at the intersection of film. The festival, due to take place in Worcester on October 22nd, 2016 focuses on short films that illustrate original poems, all of which are non-performance based (read: no footage of the poems being performed). This year Rabbit Heart received over 350 submissions from 39 countries, across 6 continents – and the top of the crop will be screened right here in Worcester, MA. The shortlists can be viewed at the Doublebunny website by choosing Shortlists 2016 from the dropdown menu for Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival.
Rabbit Heart will be awarding $800 prizes in seven categories this year: Best Overall Production, Best Animated, Best Music/Sound, Best Smartphone Production, Best Under 1 Minute, Best Valentine, and the Shoots! Youth Prize. The gala awards ceremony and viewing party will be at Nick’s Bar in Worcester, MA on the evening of October 22nd.
About Doublebunny Press:
Doublebunny Press is a small independent press that serves the New England area through poetry design, layout, and production of fine books and posters. Doublebunny also supported Omnivore Magazine, a poetry and arts monthly which, during its three-year run, published poetry and articles by over 150 authors, and carried a national subscription base.
Doublebunny has a history of great spoken word events in Worcester. They combined forces with The Worcester Poets’ Asylum to present V Day to the city in 2002 and 2003, and the Individual World Poetry Slam in 2005. In 2014, Doublebunny brought the inaugural Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival to the city, and in 2016 they plan an even more exciting show for Worcester, inviting the imagination of poets and filmmakers to once again take center stage.
About Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival:
Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival is the only outlet in North America for poetry on film in 2016, and the only festival that asks that the author of the poem participate in the making of the production. Rabbit Heart has attracted international attention over the last two years, including the honor of a showcase in the CYCLOP festival in Ukraine in 2014, and in 2015 and 2016 films from the festival have been featured at the pro.l.e series in Barcelona, Spain. This year Rabbit Heart received submissions from 41 countries over 6 continents, and the judges are currently in the thick of stellar work!
Once again Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival has been honored with a grant from the Worcester Arts Council (This program is administered by the Worcester Arts Council, for the Local Cultural Council – an agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency).
Save the date for Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival 2016: October 22nd. Tickets are now on sale online at http://doublebunnypress.storenvy.com/
Tickets for the 2014 and 2015 festival sold out very quickly – Doublebunny is expecting high demand again in 2016.
To learn more about this event, please go to www.doublebunnypress.com and click on the menu link to Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival. You can also visit Rabbit Heart on Facebook to check out news about poetry in film, and fun weekly featurettes like the 100 Delightful Things in Worcester Project.
