~ Video Library ~
Motionpoems fundraising campaign breaks $10,000 mark
I’ve included notes about the fundraising campaign for Motionpoems in several recent posts at the main site. The donation page is now reporting that they’ve raised $5,112 from 53 donors, exceeding their goal of $5000 — but why stop there? It’s great to see poets and artists working so hard to bring compelling videopoetry to the masses, and they deserve all the support we can give them. An article at mnartists.org tells the story of how Todd Boss and Angella Kassube teamed up in 2008.
(Update) Angela tells me via email that the GiveMN fundraiser will be done next week, and pointed out that they qualified for $5,000 in matching funds — “kind of amazing that we’ve had ZERO money for 2 years and suddenly we have $10,000” to support Motionpoems! And they’ve just been accepted into the Kickstarter fundraising program, as well.
Suddenly the future is looking very bright for professionally made American poetry films.
Cairo by Yahia Lababidi
Tim Pieraccini made the video and recorded the reading, as well. Yahia Lababidi says that all his videos on YouTube illustrate poems from a collection called Fever Dreams, forthcoming from Crisis Chronicles Press.
Swimming Into Winter by Freya Manfred
Another MotionPoems production, intriguing to me because of the minimalist filming (though I liked the poem too, of course). The note on YouTube says:
A poem by Freya Manfred interpreted and filmed by Gregory Winter. Edited by Jeff Stickles and sound design and music by Tom Lecher, Ross Nelson and Echo Boys Music. Read by Freya Manfred.
How cool is it that the filmmaker’s name is Winter?! Freya Manfred is a Midwestern poet and the author of six books of poetry, a novel, and a literary memoir. According to her publisher Red Dragonfly Press, “Her half hour poem for television: ‘The Madwoman and the Mask’ appeared on KTCA-TV, Channel 2, in 1991.”
If you like what Todd Boss and Angella Kassube are doing at MotionPoems, don’t forget to send some holiday cheer their way.
The Crystal Gazer by Sara Teasdale
Film student Casey Regan directs. (For the rest of the credits, see Vimeo.)
MacAdam Takes to the Sea by Andrew Philip
A masterful filmpoem by Alastair Cook — be sure to expand it to full-screen size. Check out Andrew Philip’s website. In an accompanying note on Vimeo, Cook indicates that the film was commissioned for the Hidden Door festival in Edinburgh, where it premiered last month.
Leave It All Up To Me by Major Jackson
Another whiteboard animation for a Major Jackson poem by Bryan Hartzell (see also his version of “Migration“).
The Trees—They Were Once Good Men by Todd Boss
A stunningly beautiful animation by Emma Burghardt, who also animated “Old Astronauts” by Tim Noland. (Remember to support MotionPoems with a donation, if you can.)
Sonnet XVII from 100 Love Sonnets (Cien Sonetos de Amor) by Pablo Neruda
Julianna Castigliego notes that this was an “Emerson College Film 1 final film project. 16mm. Shot on Bolex. Edited on Steenbeck.” This is the same poem, translated by Stephen Tapscott, that was featured in the motion picture Patch Adams.
Hate Poem by Julie Sheehan
High school student Wiyaka His Horse Is Thunder recites the poem as part of the Poetry Out Loud national recitation contest, in a slickly produced video directed by Tony Brave for KOLC-TV of Oglala Lakota College. As Sheehan notes in an essay about the poem, the poem has become a favorite with students in the competition.
Death By Water (art installation)
The artist, identified only by his Vimeo handle miaoniu, explains that the installation is so rigged that when anyone approaches it, the “Death By Water” section of “The Waste Land” is dunked into a tank of water, and slowly rises when the audience departs. “As time passed by the poem will dissolve and disappear finally.”
Call me simple-minded, but I love the literalism here. I only wish the video included a time-lapse segment so we could watch the wasting of “The Waste Land.”
