~ festivals and other screening events ~
News about any and all events in which poetry films/videos are prominently featured, whether or not they include an open competition. Please let us know about any we might miss. And don’t forget to check out our page of links to poetry film festivals. All festivals, events and calls for work are mentioned by MovingPoems with our best efforts and in good faith. However, do check all details yourself as we cannot guarantee accuracy, and make your own judgements because we cannot verify the things that we share. Events may fail for a variety of genuine reasons, or may be a scam to elicit fees.
Deadline extended for Art Visuals & Poetry Film Festival Vienna
Just signal-boosting some news from the latest Art Visuals & Poetry Newsletter:
The deadline of the major competition [for] German speaking countries has been extended to May 20. The next Poetry Film Festival Vienna will take place from November 29 to December 1, 2019 at Metro Kinokulturhaus. There is also a intercontinental poetry film competition called SPECIAL AWARD after a given festival poem by Sophie Reyer. The festival offers this poem as a free sound recording under Creative Commons including English translation. Check the rules & guidelines of submitting to the Art Visuals & Poetry Film Festival Vienna.
In addition to the competitions, the international programme of the Art Visuals & Poetry Film Festival 2019 is dedicated to the host country USA. The American poetry film specialist Todd Boss will travel from Minneapolis to present his production label Motionpoems. So far Motionpoems has produced 120 film adaptations of poems. The non-profit production label recently launched the largest international poetry film competition in the USA, the EPIPHANY Awards.
Alongside Todd Boss, leading German curators Thomas Zandegiacomo del Bel and Winfried Bettmer will be guests at the international Poetry Film Festival. This international get-together of important curators was made possible by the support of the American and German embassies in Vienna, for which we would like to express our sincere thanks! With its international focus, the Vienna Poetry Film Festival has once again established itself as the second largest poetry film festival in the world after ZEBRA Berlin.
We are looking forward to welcome you in Vienna!
The deadline for the Special Award is much later—August 30, according to FilmFreeway.
Motionpoems to launch 9th season on May 10 at Minneapolis Institute of Art
Motionpoems, the nonprofit organization that has been producing award-winning films with texts by American poets for a decade now, today announced that the premiere screenings of their ninth season will be held on Friday, May 10, 2019, from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm, in the Pillsbury Auditorium at the Minneapolis Institute of Art:
Motionpoems, the world’s largest producer of poetry films, will launch its highly anticipated ninth season at Mia, featuring the work of award-winning emerging poets and an international group of filmmakers in this world premiere public screening.
Season 9 poets: Dom Bury, Lyrik Courtney, D. Gilson, Jackson Holbert, Rachel Inez Marshall, Meghann Plunkett, C. Russell Price, Analicia Sotelo, Brian Spears, and Emily Jungmin Yoon; and filmmakers: Maeyen Bassey, Richelle Chen, Fergal Costello, Sean Donnelly, Kenneth Kegley, Kristian Mercado, Ged Murray, Malin Sandberg, Zanete Skarule, Helmie Stil, and Najeeb Tarazi.
Motionpoems is a small, Minneapolis-based nonprofit arts organization with a vast reach. Founded in 2008, they have produced over 120 poetry films with filmmakers, cast, and crew from all over the world. Partnering with top-quality for-profit and nonprofit publishers, film companies, and literary organizations, Motionpoems is dedicated to creating opportunities for artists to collaborate in innovative, hybrid ways. For more information, visit www.motionpoems.org.
Please join us for a night of poetry, film, and conversation!
Select one of two screening times and take in a panel conversation before or after:
6:30 p.m. Motionpoems season 9 screening
7:30 p.m. Poet and filmmaker panel discussion
8:00 p.m. Motionpoems season 9 screeningThis event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. A separate ticket is required to attend each screening as well as the panel conversation.
Reserve tickets online here, or call 612.870.3000.Please reserve a ticket to save your seat, then feel free to join us for an after party at Black Sheep Pizza on Nicollet Avenue.
Those of us who can’t attend this or other screenings will have to wait for the films to appear on their website or Facebook page, usually at a rate of one a month.
REELpoetry 2019: Review and Compendium
REEL poetry/Houston TX 2019, Houston’s first international poetry film festival, produced by Public Poetry, was impressive in its inaugural year, and already promises to be back next year, and then either annually or biannually after that. The three-day event included live poetry performances, a panel discussion, and a workshop, in addition to featuring more than fifty films, ranging from documentaries and poetry films to videos extending poetry in all directions, from calligraphy and graphic design to dance and art performances, wordless narratives, concrete poetry, and abstract animation. Rather than trying to distinguish poetry films (films of poems) from film poetry (whose lineage derives from early 20th century experimental film and the “pure cinema” of dadaists and surrealists, such as Man Ray), REELpoetry advocates a big-tent approach, preferring an expansive canon rather than a narrow one.
REELpoetry’s eclectic curatorial vision produced a diverse and lively program of 36 films, some of which have already been featured on Moving Poems, or in other poetry film festivals, but also others that highlight new voices and disparate inspirations. Most of the films are available on the web, so what follows is a compendium with links, so that you can watch them in one place. When a particular film is unavailable, a link to the filmmaker/poet’s website or social media is provided instead.
The festival itself commissioned one film, which opened the cinepoetry screenings: 7 Seas, by Kyra Clegg, based on excerpts from Emily Dickinson’s poems about bodies of water.
The festival also gave out two awards with cash prizes, the judges award, which went to The Opened Field (Helmie Stills, filmmaker; Don Bury, poet), and an audience choice award, which went to I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast (Dan Sickles, filmmaker; Melissa Studdard, poet).
Houston is a diverse and eclectic city that is proud of its support for the arts, and both REELpoetry and Public Poetry benefit from that climate, enjoying strong community interest, institutional support, and grant funding. Media coverage for REELpoetry 2019 was impressive, including articles in the Houston Chronicle, Houston Public Media, and Arts and Culture Texas. The festival also provided lodging for poets/filmmakers who attended the event, and the schedule included times and places for mingling and sharing ideas. The inaugural festival set a high bar, and promises even better next year.
Cinepoetry festival program
7 Seas, Kyra Clegg, UK, artist and cinepoet
I could not locate 7 Seas on the web, but there are some short videos on her Vimeo page.
Shiver, Mark Niehus, Australia, filmmaker, composer, and poet
Watch on YouTube.
The Shadow, US, Jack Cochran and Pamela Falkenberg, filmmakers; Lucy English, UK, poet
Watch at Moving Poems.
Echoes, Finland, Hanna-Mari Ojala, cinepoet
Watch on Vimeo.
America Is Hiding Under My Bed, David Mai, director; Barbara West, performer; Julia Vinograd, poet
Watch on YouTube.
Mrigtrishna (Mirage), India, Rantu Chetia, director and poet
I could not locate this film on the web, nor much information about the filmmaker/poet, but I did learn that the film has shown at non-poetry film festivals, and located this brief write-up:
“Mumbai has been the city of dreams for ages. Millions, from every nook and corner of India, come here every day to try their luck in the film world of Bollywood. Only a handful gets their dreams realised though. The rest are left to face the harsh realities of life and the dilemma of their existence. The primary question that constantly hounds them is the motive of their life in Mumbai. The poem tries to portray this very existential query of the protagonist, who is a struggling actor and has left behind the joyous and playful life of the village,” said the director about the film.
Semechki, UK, Eta Dahlia, filmmaker; Iris Colomb, gestural drawings
Watch at Moving Poems.
Wishing Well, Canada, Mary McDonald, filmmaker; Penn Kemp, poet
Watch on YouTube.
Moments, UK, Brett Chapman, director and writer
Watch on Vimeo.
I Remember, US, Lisa Seidenberg, filmmaker
I could not locate I Remember on the web, but you can learn more about the filmmaker on her website.
As We Embrace, Taiwan, Amang Hung, filmmaker and poet
The runtime for the version shown at the festival is listed as 4:36; this longer version is available at Vimeo.
Turkey Teacher, US, David Mai, Director; Barbara West, performer and poet
Watch on YouTube.
14 Sentences, US, Carolyn Guinzio, filmmaker and poet
Watch on YouTube.
Scarce Shelter in the Red Storm, UA, Cindy St. Onge, multimedia artist
Watch on Vimeo.
Home, Ireland, David Knox, filmmaker; Erin Fornoff, poet
Watch on YouTube.
Body Language, US, Margo Stutts Toombs, filmmaker; Roslyn (Cookie) Wells, graphic artist; Lydia Hance, dancer and choreographer; Loueva Smith, poet
Watch on Vimeo.
Ice Fog, US, Vanessa Zimmer-Powell, filmmaker and poet
I could not locate this film on the web, but you can visit her Facebook page, check out her book, or hear her read a poem in Houston for National Poetry month.
I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast, US, Dan Sickles, filmmaker; Melissa Studdard, poet
Watch at Moving Poems.
A Lost Penny, France, Madeleine Clair, cinepoet
Watch on YouTube.
The Names of Trees, US, Pamela Falkenberg and Jack Cochran, filmmakers; Lucy English, UK, poet
Watch on Vimeo.
Plasticnic, Canada, Fiona Tinwei Lam, producer, narrator, and writer; Tisha Deb Pillai, animator; Tinjun Niu, sound designer
Watch on Vimeo.
The Wanderers, US, Ted Fisher, filmmaker; Aoife Lysol, poet
Watch on YouTube.
Hanging, Finland, Hanna-Mari Ojala, cinepoet
Watch on YouTube.
The Opened Field, UK, Helmie Stil, filmmaker; Dom Burt, poet
Watch at Moving Poems.
America, US, Lisa Seidenberg, filmmaker; text by Gertrude Stein
Watch at Moving Poems.
Wind and Plaster, Germany, Burak Kum, filmmaker; Nazim Hikmet Ran, poet
Watch on Vimeo.
Capricorn, UK, Eta Dahlia, filmmaker; Andrey Novikov, original score; Nik Nightingale, calligraphy
I could not locate a film with this title, but you can watch three films on Dahlia’s Vimeo page.
Silicon Valley, Canada, Mary McDonald, filmmaker; Penn Kemp, poet
Watch on YouTube.
Instructions for Soldiers Back From War, US, Jed Bell, director; David Mai, cinematography and editing; Barbara West, performer; Julia Vinograd, poet
Watch on Vimeo.
New Note, US, Ally Christmas, cinepoet
Watch on Vimeo.
Aral, UK, Eta Dahlia, filmmaker and poet
This title could not be located on the web, but the filmmaker does have a Vimeo page.
Without Distortion, Australia, Mark Niehus, director, producer, composer, and poet
Watch on YouTube.
My Cloverfield, Finland, Hanna-Mari Ojala, cinepoet
Watch on YouTube.
Untitled, US, Lisa Maione
I was unable to find this film on the web, but there is a Vimeo page, a website, and an artist’s page where you can learn more about the filmmaker.
Leisure, UK, Derk Russell, cinematographer; Al Barclay, actor; A D Cooper, writer
Watch on Vimeo.
A Family Recipe That Cannot Be Followed or Written Down, US, Elaine Zhang, Director; Tiana Wang, poet
I was unable to locate the film itself on the web, but the project does have a Facebook page.
Call for entries: Film Poetry Competition from Poetry Film Live
Poetry Film Live, the UK-based online journal edited by Chaucer Cameron and Helen Dewbery, has just announced its first competition. It’s also on FilmFreeway:
The Film Poetry Competition is inviting submissions of film-poems. The film should contain all or part of a poem. The poem can be pre-existant, or created as part of the filmmaking process. The emphasis should be on a convincing poetic experience rather than simply technical excellence. We encourage poet-made films, or where the filmmaker has worked closely with the poet.
Film-poetry harmonises words, images and sound to create a new poetry experience … it’s more than spoken words, visual images and sound being in the same room together, it’s their ability to talk to one another that creates the magic in poetry film.
The Film Poetry Competition is in partnership with Poetry Film Live and Swindon Poetry Festival.
Awards & Prizes
Prizes will be awarded at Swindon Poetry Festival on 4th October, at a live screening of all shortlisted and winning films.
The following prizes will be awarded: £400 for the overall winner. Recognition will also be given in the following categories: Single author made film, Animation, Best Newcomer.
The deadline is July 12. You can submit either through the website or on FilmFreeway.
I let Chaucer and Helen talk me into being one of the judges for this, alongside Lucy English. And barring any problems with the UK Border Force or Brexit-related chaos, I plan to be in Swindon in October for the screening. So I hope to see some of you there! And I look forward to viewing your submissions.
“Uprooted” poetry film screening in Bristol, 23 March
There’s a brand-new poetry festival in Bristol this month called Lyra. Lucy English is one of the co-directors, so you know there’s got to be at least one poetry film screening. And sure enough, there is. Here’s the description from the full programme [PDF]:
UPROOTED POETRY FILM SCREENING
Filmmakers for these short poems include Ghayath Almadhoun and Marie Silkeberg, Jan Baeke, Alfred Marseille, Maciej Piatek and poet Hollie McNish.
ARNOLFINI FRONT ROOM
Time: 12:00 – 1:00pm
Price: FreeUprooted is a curated poetry film screening by Liberated Words co-directors, poet Lucy English and videopoet Sarah Tremlett, reflecting on the lives of refugees and migration, and how artists can illuminate and fulfill important roles. Three types of film will be shown: those centred on war zones, those in transit and the views from those both welcoming and ‘settling’ in a new country. The films show how artists can bring another view of the refugee crisis beyond how it is portrayed in the media.
These regional poetry festivals around the UK are really turning into a good venue for poetry films. If you’re able to get to Bristol in two weeks, the whole event sounds grand.
ZEBRA announces new competition for German poetry films
ZEBRA, the biannual poetry film festival, is expanding this year for the first time to include a Germany-only competition and screening in alternate years. I don’t know German, but it seems as if the main competition is for poetry films made in Germany — in any language — since 2016. There’s also a competition for films made from an official festival poem, and it’s not entirely clear, but it appears as if that film must be made in Germany also. Anyway, here’s the call for entries.
Motionpoems announces Season 9 premiere + new “Hothouse” program
Back on February 22 I shared the call-out for Motionpoems‘ new Epiphany Awards, but that isn’t all that the Minneapolis-based arts organization has going on, as their latest newsletter makes clear. For one thing, their upcoming season sounds right up my alley:
Save the Dates for Motionpoems Season 9!
Our ninth season of motionpoems is nearly complete! This season, called “Future: Earth,” features work from brilliant emerging poets and filmmakers. Want to be one of the first to see the new motionpoems? Join us:
- In Minneapolis on May 3rd at the A-Mill for a special, donors-only sneak-preview!
- In Minneapolis on May 10th at Mia: Minneapolis Institute of Art
- LA and NYC: stay tuned for dates and locations TBA!
Then there’s this:
We’re launching a new program: The Motionpoems Hothouse. Our vision for Hothouse is simple: Taking a page from the 48-hour Film Project’s playbook, we’ll challenge filmmakers to capture the raw beauty of a poem and run with it.
For our pilot program, we have selected four dynamic poets and four teams of amazing filmmakers from our vibrant literary and film communities here in the Twin Cities. These filmmaker-poet teams will meet at our premiere on May 10, and the final films will be screened at the WordPlay festival at the Loft on May 12!
To help kick-off this one-of-a-kind event, we’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign. Support local artists and take advantage of our exciting rewards–including cameos, producer credits, and undying gratitude–here!
One thing I’ll say about Motionpoems director Todd Boss: he never seems to run out of new ideas. (Also, his own poetry is pretty great.)
Poetry + Video: a new touring program of international shorts
This week, Australian filmmaker Marie Craven launched Poetry + Video,
a new touring program of shorts from around the world. This hour-long collection surveys diverse contemporary expressions of poetry in video. A wide range of approaches includes: screen adaptations of page poetry, prose poetry, animations, poetry from found text and media, poetic cinema, text-on-screen, and spoken word.
The program is designed to be highly portable, and easily obtainable on request to screening spaces in any location. It is available for small to medium-sized venues in Australia and other places during 2019/2020.
The premiere screening will be on 4 May, 2019 at Garden Gallery, Murwillumbah, Australia. See the program itinerary for more details, including the outstanding live poets performing on the night. If you are in the vicinity of Murwillumbah, we hope to see you there to celebrate the launch!
The website is admirably complete, with bios of authors and filmmakers as well as descriptions of each film, all indexed in the right-hand sidebar. There’s even a trailer. Check it out.
Call for entries: Cadence Video Poetry Festival
Chelsea Werner-Jatzke recently contacted me to let us know about a videopoetry festival that she’s helping to organize in Seattle, and due to a snafu in communications, I’m a little late in getting this news out. But there’s still time: the deadline for submissions is March 1. Chelsea wrote:
Verse meets visuals in motion at Northwest Film Forum (NWFF) in April 2019. Cadence: Video Poetry Festival, presented by NWFF, programmed in collaboration with Seattle author Chelsea Werner-Jatzke, is a series of screenings, workshops, and discussions on the genre of video poetry, throughout National Poetry Month. Entering its second year, Cadence is growing considerably to fill a gap in the presentation of video poetry in the Pacific Northwest. Featuring four screenings, one each Thursday of the month, the festival’s inaugural Artist in Residence, generative workshops for youth and adults, and a juried selection of open submissions, Cadence fosters critical and creative growth around the oft overlooked medium of video poetry.
Cadence approaches video poetry as a literary genre presented as visual media that makes new meaning from the combination of text and moving image.
The website adds:
Video poetry is language as light. As an art form, video poetry is lucid and liminal—on the threshold of the literary and the moving image. It articulates the poetic image visually, rather than metaphorically—it shifts words from page to screen, from ink to light. A video poem makes meaning that would not exist if text was without image, image without text. It is language-based video work or a video-based poem. Video poetry is a literary genre presented as visual media.
Which is a damn good definition, I thought.
Cadence Call for Entries
NWFF is accepting video poetry submissions for inclusion in the April 18, 2019 screening of Cadence Video Poetry Festival. We are looking for works no longer than 5 minutes that fit within the following categories of video poetry:
- Adaptations/Ekphrasis: Videos created to bring new meaning and dimension to pre-existing poetry. Any poems used for this purpose must be in the public domain or else used with written consent of the author.
- Collaboration: Video poems created in collaboration between a videographer or video artist and poet.
- Video by Poets: Poets creating video from, or as, their writing.
- Poetry by Video Artists: Video artists using text visually or through audio intrinsic to the poetic meaning.
Cadence Video Poetry Festival proudly accepts entries via FilmFreeway.
Submission deadline: March 1Please direct questions regarding submissions to NWFF Artistic Director Rana San at rana@nwfilmforum.org.
The screening of selections from this open call for entries on April 18 is just one of four Cadence screenings, and the two workshops also sound very worthwhile, one on April 6th, and another on April 13 for teenagers. See the website for details about all those events.
This is actually the festival’s second year. In 2018 there was a call (which I missed) for entries from filmmakers in the northwest region.
Newlyn Film Festival deadline extended to February 28
The deadline for submission of poetry films and other shorts to the 2019 Newlyn Film Festival, originally set for December 30, 2018, has been extended to February 28. Visit FilmFreeway for all the details.
I should also mention that there’s an excellent interview on the Liberated Words website with last year’s winner, Dave Richardson, conducted by Sarah Tremlett: “Unchartered Terrain: The Personal Within.” I was especially interested to learn that Richardson’s first poetry video gig was making Flash animations for the late, great online magazine Born. It’s an influence that persists in his videopoetry to this day:
DR: My journalism training in college told me to cut and cut to what matters. When I started to do that with the more poetic stuff, it felt more authentic, like my real voice. I try to keep it simple so that I am not trying to over-write. Many times I stop with the second draft of the text, just to not over-think.
ST: In relation to that, often you have different text on screen to the voice-over – is this something deliberate and is there a point behind this? It is difficult to get this right and quite an art.
DR: I did some experiments with Flash years ago, where I was randomly coding phrases to interact with randomly loaded images, and I was enthralled with the endless results and connections that were unexpected. That randomness, just a quality of unexpected relationships between image and text — I try to recreate that in my work for fun, for the pleasure of seeing what might surprise me. It makes new meaning for me. And then I edit.
Read the whole thing. A genuinely illuminating conversation.
Call for work: 2019 Art Visuals & Poetry Film Festival
The Art Visuals & Poetry Film Festival is a biennial, multi-day celebration of German-language poetry film held in Vienna. The next one will be 29 November to 1 December, 2019. The organizers issued a call for entries on 1 January. The main competition is only open to entries from German-speaking countries (residency or nationality), but there’s also an international award:
We know that there is a great interest from the international community to participate. Therefore we have created a second competition called “SPECIAL AWARD” after a given festival poem. This competition is open to film makers from all over the world. For the next Poetry Film Festival we have chosen a poem by the Viennese writer and composer Sophie Reyer. You can download the spoken version of Sophie Reyers’ “Zuerst/First” in German for free. We also provide you with a licensed English translation of the festival poem under creative commons. It’s very interesting, that this kind of competition attracts many professionals who like to experience different versions of films based on the same text. On the other hand, it offers people a easy chance to make their first poetry movie in their life.
Click through for more details, guidelines, and the FilmFreeway submission link. The deadline for the Special Award competition is August 30.
Call for entries: Hombres Videopoetry Award 2019
Proving once again that the world of videopoetry and poetry film is too large for one person to keep track of, here’s a somewhat specialized contest and festival I just found out about that appears to be in its 15th year: the Hombres Videopoetry Award.
PLEASE WE ACCEPT ONLY VIDEOPOETRY THAT FOLLOW THE THEME BELOW!
The award is in collaboration with the Italian Association “Borghi autentici d’Italia”, that put together small and medium communities, local authorities for local development. The shared objective is a sustainable local development model, respect of places and people and attention to the enhancement of local identities.
The videopoetry must develop the following theme:
“Images, perspectives and ideas about the suburb of the future. It can be also a part of an old village contest that has to maintain a well-defined identity. The concept of old village can go separately from historical, temporal and geographic aspects”.
The component of the jury are: Dimitri Ruggeri (poet, videopoet and performer ), Marco Di Gennaro (filmmaker), Alessandra Prospero (poet and publisher), M° Roberto Bisegna (musician) and Ilio Leonio (Professor and member of the organization).
The jury will select the best ten videos for the finals which will be presented in the final evening, scheduled in Carsoli (Italy) in the month of July 2019.
Awards & Prizes
The best ten videos will be screen in the “Hombres Videopoetry Festival” 2019 and the winner will be announced in the night of the festival.
BEST VIDEOPOETRY:
Hombres Videopoetry AwardSPECIAL AWARDS:
Best poem
Best Original Music
Best Photography
Best PerformancePRIZES:
Local craft productsRules & Terms
RULES
Only one videopoetry for author
Age of the author of the video: up 18 years old
Duration of the video: minimum 1 minute, maximum 15 minutes
Date of production : after 01/01/2016
Language: italian and english. Other languages must be subtitled into italian or english
Fee: no
Deadline: 1 April 2019
The text in the video can be read, performed or put as subtitle.
Please don’t sent slideshow of photos with subtitles.
