~ calls for work ~
All festivals, events and calls for work are mentioned by Moving Poems 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.
Call for work: REELpoetry/HoustonTX 2023
REELpoetry/HoustonTX 2023 is accepting submissions on FilmFreeway.
POETRY combined with film and video propels “REELpoetry/HoustonTX” 2023, an international, curated, hybrid poetry film festival taking place online and in person FEBRUARY 24-26, 2023 We explore this genre with poets, videograpers and filmmakers working solo or collaboratively, on a cell phone or in a studio, with new or remixed or previously created work. We’re inviting open submissions, and also featuring screenings from invited guest curators, deaf poetry, films about poets or a particular poem, as well as Q&A with poets, videographers and filmmakers, networking, live readings, panel discussions, and more.
This year’s poetry film/ video festival is not themed. Everyone is invited to submit their best work, created in the past or the present, up to a maximum of 6 minutes. Prizes will be awarded in two categories: poetry film/ videos under 4 minutes and poetry film/ video 4 to 6 minutes. See Guidelines for additional details.
REELpoetry/HoustonTX is a project of Public Poetry (publicpoetry.net).
Public Poetry director Fran Sanders elaborated in an email:
In 2023, in addition to juried open submissions, programs by curators/presenters, trio talks on craft and a panel discussion, we will be significantly expanding our offerings for the deaf and hard of hearing, with ASL poets and poetry and English/ASL interpreters so it is accessible to everyone. We have an outstanding all-deaf committee doing the programming, including Peter Cook, Sabina England, Crom Saunders among others.
Given the way the world is, I don’t feel comfortable asking people to travel to Houston if they live any distance away, so the 2023 Festival will be largely online. However, there will be multiple opportunities for interaction on Zoom in real time each day of the festival. For local audiences here will be some in-person events that feature Houston and Texas makers. Everything will be streamed to accommodate international time zones.
Huge kudos to the organizers for taking accessibility so seriously, and best of luck to everyone who enters. Visit FilmFreeway for complete rules and guidelines.
Call for work: International Migration and Environmental Film Festival, Toronto, Canada
Still time to submit to the International Migration and Environmental Film Festival (IMEFF) – a not-for-profit cultural organization, that raises awareness about migration and environmental issues. They say that:
“IMEFF is dedicated to presenting the best of international film, documentary, photo and artwork that captures migration, trafficking, refugees, pollution, habitat loss, climate change, to educate, entertain, inform and encourage conversations, provokes debate about changes, innovation, sustainability and how to make the world a better place for every creature.”
The event takes place 10-16 October 2022 in Toronto, and last date for entries via FilmFreeway is on 31st August. There are a range of categories for entry in the festival, but includes a specific poetry category.
Call for work: World Poetry Slam Championship – Brussels, Belgium
A big poetry slam championship is announcing that they are looking for poetry films to showcase alongside the poetry slam which takes place in Brussels, Belgium from the 26th to the 29th of September 2022. It sounds as if they are exploring a variety of ways to screen films alongside the live event in Brussels.
“… we are going to collaborate with one of the most beautiful libraries in Brussels, Muntpunt, where we will have most of our side activities and a box for projections where people can enter and watch video poetry and spoken word video performances from around the world. We also collaborate with Cine Ritcs where we will screenplay the documentaries and some of the videos selected. Moreover, we will have various points in our venues with small screens where people will be able to stop and watch the videos selected. We are still looking for more spaces to project these videos.”
More details on their website https://www.worldpoetryslam.org/open-call-video-poetry
And on the FilmFreeway submission page https://filmfreeway.com/WorldPoetrySlamChampionship
Deadline is 10th August for films of 7 minutes or less, but really important to note is the requirement for subtitles for inclusivity:
“All films should be subtitled either in English, or Dutch or French or Spanish. The film can be in any language as long as there are subtitles in one of these languages. Even the videos in English should have subtitles, as this is an inclusive festival.”
Call for work: Nature and Culture, Denmark
Det Poetiske Fonotek – a festival in Copenhagen, Denmark, is open for entries:
“poems in every language, from every nation and in all poetic / performative styles, with the theme of CLIMATE CHANGE, environment, nature, and in connection to this how we envision the future.”
The organisers also operate an online archive:
“… the poetry videos submitted will be also added to the Poetic Phonotheque, an online archive that aims to document the poetry being created all around the world.”
More information on their website https://poeticphonotheque.com/ where you can also explore other films and listen to poetry. Entries to the festival can be made on FilmFreeway. Regular deadline 20 July, latest deadline 20 September. The event is planned for 21–30 October 2022.
Call for work: filmmakers in NW England for HOME
HOME is Manchester’s centre for contemporary theatre, film, art, music and more. FilmedUp is their regular quarterly night for filmmakers local to their area. They are looking for films of under 20 minutes of “all genre fiction, animation, documentary, artist film…all are welcome!” old or new. I think I would place poetry film firmly in that dot, dot, dot …
To be local to Home, the director, writer or producer must live in the North West region of England: which includes Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. Entry is free – which is lovely to discover once in a while!
More information and submissions https://homemcr.org/opportunity/want-your-short-film-screened-at-home/
The next deadline is 14 July for the event on 28 September, but submissions will continue on to the next quarterly event.
Also to be found on FilmFreeway.
Call for Work: Breaking the frame: resisting technology in the digital age – Cambridge, UK
The Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge are looking for submissions of “feature films, documentaries and experimental art films that engage with resistance to digital technology and ideas for alternatives to the current digital monopoly system”. This is a follow-up event to a successful festival held in 2021.
They say that they:
“… are keen to engage a broader audience in a dialogue about the neo-luddites, non-believers and critical minds that reject today’s technological fantasies to imagine a better world without the all-powerful techno monopolies that have privatised our communication, desires, and everyday lives. While most recent tech critique ends up with suggestions on regulation, in this film festival we would want to explore creatively two other modes of critical engagement with technology that sometimes go together with regulation but often go far beyond it: resistance and recoding.
What have been the key recent and not-so-recent thinkers and activist movements to resist computational capitalism? Who inspires neo-luddites, strike leaders, and free software champions? What are their principles? And equally importantly: how do they fight to achieve their goals? Is there an AI underground?”
Deadline is 15 July 2022. More information and submission details https://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/call-for-submissions-crassh-film-festival-2022/
Call for work: Filmetry – a Festival of Poetry and Film
Now entering its 4th year, FILMETRY is a festival in Michigan, USA. The organisers are inviting filmmakers to create a film of their choice from a collection of 32 poems on the theme of ‘Home’ from Michigan State University Short Edition Press into a film of five minutes or less. The poems to choose from (and full rules and details) are available via their website https://filmetry.org/
Submissions of films are open between 21st May and 27th August for the festival happening on 30th September. Submissions can be made via FilmFreeway.
Call for work: Maldito Festival de Videopoesía 2022
Held in Spain since 2017, the Maldito Video Poetry Festival is open for submissions for 2022. The festival takes place in the city of Albacete (screening date yet to be determined).
The festival is organized by non-profit Association Cultural Maldito; formed by a small team of professionals from the film industry, poetry and culture in general. They explain their festival and their name:
“MALDITO seeks to vindicate video poetry as an art that connects people, transmits feelings and stimulates different ways to see the world. It is also a tiny contribution of enormous people to empower visual art, stopping it from being marginal and damned*.
* The Spanish word for damned is MALDITO.”
Poetry films must be 5 minutes or less, and films in languages other than Spanish must have Spanish subtitles. The deadline for entry is 25 September 2022, full details on submission is available on their website: https://malditofestival.com/registration-video-poetry-contest-medium-full-length-film/
Calls for work: four possibilities for poetry film-makers
Four possibilities for entry … two dedicated festivals, a festival that includes poetry film within a category, and something that doesn’t mention poetry film at all (but could have potential).
In Ireland there is the Ó Bhéal 10th Winter Warmer poetry festival. The festival will happen 25th-27th November 2022 in Cork and will include the 2022 Poetry Film Competition.
Submissions are open from now until 31st August and are free, and open to all for films of up to 10 minutes. Full guidelines on entry are available on their website: https://www.obheal.ie/blog/competition-poetry-film/
Meanwhile Arts + Literature Laboratory are running their third Midwest Video Poetry Fest on 7-8th October 2022 in Wisconsin, USA, and submissions to this event are open until 1st July for films of up to 7 minutes. More about the event and previous festivals are on their website: https://artlitlab.org/programs/literary-arts/midwest-video-poetry-fest
Full details and entry are on FilmFreeway.
MicroMania FilmFest exists for films of up to 5 minutes. This festival is not specifically aimed at poetry film but the freestyle category description includes poetry film as one of the areas of interest and has options for films under 2 minutes and 2-5 minutes. I could also imagine some films from our genre fitting into the experimental category too. The event will be in person and online from 3–24 September 2022. See FilmFreeway for more details and entry
And finally a more left-field possibility: Sensoria 2022. This is a festival of film, music and digital happening in Sheffield, UK from 30 September to 8th October 2022. The organisers say:
“The festival team are on the hunt for exciting new work in the realms of music, film and digital.
We’d also love to hear from potential partners, co-promoters or anyone who wants to make a suggestion – do get in touch.”
If you explore the Sensoria website you will glean that the festival is heavily aimed towards music. But if your poetry film includes music in an exciting way, particularly if it has original music – then I think you may have what the organisers are looking for: “short films with innovative soundtracks or scores”. Read more about the event on their website: https://www.sensoria.org.uk/news/sensoria-2022-call-for-submissions/
I love to see poetry film crossing over into other worlds and while some opportunities may be long shots, the more that poetry filmmakers enter into wide-ranging events, the more we can hope to bring what we do to wider audiences. Selection for events can be less about the definition of a genre and more about the little thing that captures the imagination and excitement of the selector – and who knows which film might just do that …
Call for work: ZEBRA 2022
The ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival is inviting entries for the 2022 International Poetry Film Competition. Entries open on 1st May.
The event is long-running and very big in the world of poetry film. The organisers describe this year’s event:
“The 13th ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival runs from 3rd to 6th of November 2022 in the Kino in der KulturBrauerei and in the Haus für Poesie. It is the largest international platform for poetry film worldwide. Since 2002 it offers poets, film and festival makers from all over the world a platform for creative exchange, brainstorming and meeting with a broad audience. With a competition, film programmes, poetry readings, retrospectives, exhibitions, performances, workshops, colloquia, lectures and a children’s programme, it presents in various sections the diversity of the genre of poetry film.”
For full details about the call out, please see: https://www.haus-fuer-poesie.org/en/zebra-poetry-film-festival/zebra-poetry-film-festival-2022/call-entries/
Or look out for them on FilmFreeway
FESTIVAL POEM
As well as the international competition open to all poetry, the event also has a ‘festival poem’ – this year THE HAIRCUT by Georg Leß. Filmmakers are invited to make an interpretation of this film for the festival. The three best film adaptations’ directors will be invited to Berlin, where they will be able to present their films and speak with the poet.
Travel and accommodation in Berlin for the three selected directors will be paid for by the Festival.
Call for work: La Poesia che si vede Poetry Film Festival
Italian festival La Punta Della Lingua (or in English ‘Tip of the Tongue’) announces their 2022 poetry film competition as part of their ‘total poetry festival’ …
The organisers say:
“La Poesia che si vede is an international competition for poetry films based in Ancona, Italy. It is the product of the collaboration between two important festivals: La Punta della Lingua International Poetry Festival and Corto Dorico Film Festival. The first edition of La Poesia che si vede was held in July 2021. Its second edition will take place in June 2022.
The competition’s mission is the challenge of researching, promoting and supporting new gazes, poetics, visions. From the kinetic text to the sound text, from the visual text to the cin(e)poetry up to the filmed performance, the videopoetry for La Poesia che si vedo is total poetry, without discrimination of genre or format.”
The FilmFreeway page for the competition is: https://filmfreeway.com/LaPoesiaCheSiVede where you will also find further details and rules for entry. Deadline for submissions: 18th of May 2022.
More information about the wider festival is at: https://www.lapuntadellalingua.it/
Call for work: Living With Buildings festival
A festival of films exploring how people interacts with buildings and urban spaces in the public realm. We aim to screen short films/poetry film that investigates how we experience the build environment.
[LIVING WITH BUILDINGS is brought to you by the Disappear Here poetry film project]
We’re looking for work up to 5 mins in length, anything between the poetry-film, experimental, short-documentary strands of film-making. The project is rooted in the UK city of Coventry, famed for its ringroad, modernist architecture and reinvention as a city rising from the ashes and ruins of arial bombing in World War Two – we are happy to consider work from citizens all around the world.
The psychopathology of underpass and overground.
Floating towers holding up the sky.
Living With Buildings.
Finding our way(s) through the subterranean culture and dead roads with no ending.
Exploring internal tensions between regeneration and gentrification.Remaking and remodelling urban spaces as forces of commerce or gentle revolution take hold and fight for ownership.
Where does the citizen fit into these processes; and how do we interpret or express their experiences of the ground shifting beneath their feet.
Find out more about the Disappear Here project – http://www.disappear-here.org
VENUE
LTB SHOWROOMS (above the Litten Tree pub) – COVENTRY – CV1 1EX – 1 Warwick Road
Rules & Terms
