~ Video Library ~
“A word made Flesh…” by Emily Dickinson
A fascinating linguistic deconstruction of the poet’s lines just uploaded to Vimeo yesterday, by one Eliza Fitzhugh, for Dickinson’s 179th birthday. The multiple accents should remind us that now more than ever, with the advent of the web, Dickinson’s poetry belongs to the world. I spend some time yesterday looking up favorite Dickinson poems on popular poem-sharing sites and reading appreciative comments from places like Iran, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan — the traditional Sufi heartland. I had always thought her work would translate well to an audience weaned on Hafiz, Rumi, and Khayyam.
Here’s the text from R. W. Franklin’s variorum edition (the video repeats lines 9-10 for a conclusion):
A Word made Flesh is seldom
And tremblingly partook
Nor then perhaps reported
But have I not mistook
Each one of us has tasted
With ecstasies of stealth
The very food debated
To our specific strength –A Word that breathes distinctly
Has not the power to die
Cohesive as the Spirit
It may expire if He –
“Made Flesh and dwelt among us”
Could condescension be
Like this consent of Language
This loved Philology.
Poet’s Work by Lorine Niedecker
Excerpt from a documentary called Immortal Cupboard: In Search of Lorine Niedecker, by Cathy C. Cook, which won a Jury Award from the 2009 Wisconsin Film Festival. Cook reproduces the official blurb on her blog:
In this unconventional documentary, filmmaker Cathy Cook takes cues from Niedecker’s work and the Wisconsin heritage they share to explore the poetry and life of Lorine Niedecker (1903 – 1970). The poetry and film subjects included are: nature, history, ecology, gender, domesticity, work, culture, family and social politics. Cook gives new voice and visibility to the extraordinary works of this very private poet that some literary critics have described as the 20th century’s Emily Dickinson.
There’s a review and an interesting discussion of possible omissions from the film at The Irascible Poet.
For more on Niedecker, see the website for the poet from the Friends of Lorine Niedecker, Inc. Here’s another video, featuring Wisconsin Poet Laureate Marilyn Taylor discussing and reading from Niedecker’s work, part of the Dead Poets Society of America’s 2009 cross-country gravesite tour.
http://www.vimeo.com/8077295
Tears, Idle Tears by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Inspired by artist Eugene Atget, this student piece by Heather Kendrick and Lauren Kvedaras cleverly plays on the two meanings of “tears.” Kendrick explains:
After being given an artist and a poet at random we were asked to select a poem and use inspiration from the artist to create a motion piece under the title “Words in Motion”.
Drop’t Sonnet by Anne Carson
This is the last of six YouTube selections from Anne Carson’s Possessive Used as Drink (Me), a lecture on pronouns in the form of 15 sonnets, with three Merce Cunningham dancers and video direction by Sadie Wilcox. See playgallery.org for more on the project.
Bibliophobia by Rob Walker
http://vimeo.com/7872488
A father-son collaboration between Rob Walker, a South Australian writer and poet, and his son Ben, who blogged:
Bibliophobia is an animation I did to a poem by my father that recently won the Newcastle Poetry New Media Prize. It’s not often that you get to work on a project like this with your dad, so it was nice for it to be recognised.
Jason Nelson writes in the accompanying publication ‘The Night Road’;
“Rarely does a digital poem arrive so polished and aesthetically compelling. Using rich layering of textural and graphical imagery ‘Bibliophobia’ explores the strange place between ‘ancient’ paper and the contemporary world’s new digital story/poetic environments. Indeed the work itself seems to be directed towards the brief and portable devices, a trailer of ideas for iPhones and email sharing. Initially I was disheartened by the abrupt and all-too-soon end. But isn’t that what’s expected of media, to attract with style and mystery and ideation, then leave before interest wanes.
And like electronic candy I found myself watching this work again and again, wanting more. Perhaps what’s needed is a pause button, so readers can soak in the organic, near ‘steampunk’ visuals and archaic and experimental poetics”
The Tyger by William Blake
Joshua Casoni may not have gotten the title or all the words quite right, but this is still the most imaginative video interpretation I’ve seen of the poem. Doug Toomer stars at the homeless man. Casoni was assisted by Jake Doty on camera and sound.
“Falling ill…” by Anna Akhmatova
A 1922 poem by Akhmatova turned into an art song by Russian-Israeli composer Zlata Razdolina, who is also the singer and videographer. According to her website, “Most of her repertoire of more than six hundred romances and songs is composed of the famous Russian classical poets, A. Akhmatova, N.Gumilyov, O. Mandelstam, M. Tsvetayeva, A. Blok, I. Severyanin, S.Yesenin and others.”
The English translation used for the subtitles is by Judith Hemschemeyer.
Sea Things: poetry from the coasts of Australia
I just discovered this delightful documentary.
Free Range Multimedia followed the last leg of the 2 month coastal poetry odyssey that was Sea Things. The brainchild of Sydney poetry organisation, The Red Room Company, the project sent two duffle bags along the west and east coasts of Australia to gather poetry of the sea by those who live on and around it.
For more information, see the Sea Things section of the Red Room Company website.
Silent Years by Lois-Ann Yamanaka
“Adapted from selected poems by renowned Hawaii author Lois-Ann Yamanaka, Silent Years tells a universal story using the unique dialect of Hawaiian Pidgin English,” according to the description by Kinetic Films. James Sereno directs.
In a brief interview with the Honolulu Advertiser, Yamanaka described her reaction to the film, in the production of which she had no active role:
Q. How does “Silent Years” compare with other dramatic presentations of your work? Is there a particular performance medium that is most sympathetic to your artistic aims and concerns?
A. In a word, stunning. Its images were unrelenting. Also, the use of an adult narrator made it all the more painful as a device of point of view because it implies that the girl has not fully “recovered” from the pain of her experience.
It’s always been a bit uncomfortable for me to see my work on stage at Kumu (Kahua Theatre), and now it’s uncomfortable to see my work on the screen because whereas the characters only existed in my mind before, they take on human interpretations with the actors. It’s odd. I’m sitting in a dark theater and I feel like God must feel, or the Olym-pian gods as they watch the lives and stories of those they created unfold before them.
Q. “Silent Years” is drawn from two of your early poems. What’s it like for you to experience these poems again at this stage in your writing life? Did you feel any impulse to refine or revise?
A. It never fails to evoke the same feelings in me that were evoked in the creation of the poems when I read them again or when I see them performed. I feel a knot at the pit of myself. I experience it all over again.
I feel no impulse to refine or revise. They no longer seem wholly mine. These works exist in the world and are in constant revision and refinement when someone reads them and makes them their own.
Q. What are your impressions of the individual elements of the film? The direction and cinematography? The individual actors? The narration?
A. With regard to the individual elements of the film, I was amazed at the locations they used that were very evocative and almost accurate to the text.
The face of Julie Nagata was amazing. I think she captured the essence of the girl.
What I thought was genius was the use of the adult narrator Janice Terukina, whose voice bled in and out with the performers on the film.
Wil (Kahele) as the uncle was frightening. What I didn’t expect was the subtlety of Matt’s (Miller) character’s hesitation and reluctance at certain parts of the film. In those small moments, he gave a humanity to an inhumane character.
The soundtrack is incredibly haunting and powerful.
The Hospital by Mathias Svalina
A poem by Mathias Svalina, envideoed by Nathan Young.
The Art of Disappearing by Naomi Shihab Nye
Here’s a video slideshow adaptation that someone just uploaded to Vimeo, by Matthew Craft with the University of Baltimore’s Integrated Design MFA program.
