~ 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/Houston TX 2020
I apologize for not sharing this back on August 15, the opening date, but videopoets and poetry filmmakers still have until December 9 to submit work for this Texas-based festival, now in its second year.
REELpoetry/Houston TX 2020 is an international poetry film festival screening cinepoetry, documentaries, performance video, plus panels, workshops & more JANUARY 24-26, 2020.
For complete guidelines and submissions:
Our first international poetry film festival took place March 22-24, 2019. You can read all about it HERE
It’s especially embarrassing that I forgot to share this earlier since I’ve agreed to be the judge. It’s a very exciting-sounding event, which filmmaker Pam Falkenberg attended last year and reviewed in these very virtual pages. She noted that “REELpoetry advocates a big-tent approach, preferring an expansive canon rather than a narrow one.” This year again
The Festival will also include workshops, live performances, talks, panel discussions, Q&A with poets and filmmakers. Come to meet international, national and local poets, film makers and artists, network and socialize, see and be seen. All screenings are centrally located and special hotel arrangements will be offered.
NOTE: Submissions in a language other than English must have an English translation of the poetry either presented in the film or as a written handout.
Awards & Prizes
Judges Award $225 Cinepoetry
Audience Award $225 CinepoetryJudges Award $225 Poetry Short Documentary
Audience Award $225 Poetry Short DocumentaryAudience Award $100 – Best Performance
Rules & Terms
REELpoetry 2020 is accepting film and video in three categories: (1) cinepoems (2) short poetry documentaries (3) spoken word videos. You are allowed up to 3 entries in each of the categories, each submitted separately, as follows:.
CINEPOEMS – 5 minutes max
Created by poets or filmmakers or artist collaborations.SHORT POETRY DOCUMENTARIES – 15 minutes max
May document the making of a poem, daily life of a poet, poetry event etc.All cinepoems and documentaries must include closing credits on the screen, and provide up to 3 stills max. You will also need to provide a short (75 word max) statement and brief bio for both the poet and filmmaker( (60 word max))
SPOKEN WORD VIDEO – 3 minutes max
Video of live performance, slam
NOTE: Attendance required. At the Festival you will perform live with your video in the background with the sound turned off.All submissions in a language other than English must have an English translation of the poetry either presented in the film or as a written handout.
By submitting to REELpoetry/Houston TX you acknowledge that work is yours, and that you have obtained permission(s) where required. You also agree to allow your work to be included in a curated series that will travel nationally and internationally.
NOTE: Public Poetry Members receive a 20% discount on the entry fee. Memberships start at $8/mo.
To join Public Poetry as a member go to: http://www.publicpoetry.net/membership-here/
Call for work: Visible Poetry Project 2020
Filmmaker applications and poetry submissions are open now through October 31 for the 2020 series of the Visible Poetry Project. As Marie noted just now in a post to the main site, VPP has been going since 2017, producing and publishing at least a video a day throughout the month of April. There’s also an off-line component to the project, with screenings in New York City and beyond. And in the first three years of its existence, more and more prominent poets and filmmakers have taken part, though as they say on the poetry submissions page, they “strive to emphasize the diversity of the global poetry community, and so encourage you to submit regardless of background or circumstance. Whether poetry is your hobby, profession, private outlet, or public expression, your work is welcome.” A similar statement occurs at the head of the filmmaker guidelines:
The Visible Poetry Project strives to emphasize the diversity of the global film community, and so encourage you to apply regardless of background or circumstance. Whether filmmaking is your hobby, profession, private outlet, or public expression, your work is welcome.
Within your application, please provide a reel and/or links to previous films you’ve created. All work samples must be original, and you must be one of the main contributors. You may submit up to three links. We recommend submitting samples that you believe to be representative of the greater styles and themes in your work. If you are accepted, this will help inform which poet you may get paired with.
You may apply as part of a team (up to two filmmakers). If you are applying as part of a team, please submit only one application. Please include links to reels for both collaborators, and send an email to visiblepoetryproject@gmail.com, CC’ing your co-director.
If you are a producer, director of photography, or editor, and are interested in being involved in the 2020 series, please email visiblepoetryproject@gmail.com.
Click through to apply. Or, if you write poetry, submit here.
Button Poetry 2019 Video Contest open through August 31
As usual, I missed the announcement and only remembered to search for it now, but you still have 11 days to submit to Button Poetry‘s annual video contest. The official guidelines are on Submittable:
We are thrilled to host our fourth annual open-submission video contest!
There are so many ways to record and present poetry, and we want to continue giving people around the world the chance to step up on the digital stage and share their work.
We are looking for brave work that crosses borders or effaces them completely, work that enters into larger social conversations, work that lives in the world, work with a strong, unique voice and palpable energy.
See our previous winners here and here for examples!
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CLOSELY
Submissions open on July 15th, 2019 and close on August 31st, 2019 at 11:59PM PST (US Time Zone).
PRIZE:
The winner’s video along with the videos of 5 runners-up will be featured across Button’s social media. The winner will receive a $500 honorarium. Additional entries may also be recognized and published.ENTRY FEE:
$8 per submission
$6 per submission for Young Writers (ages 18-21) and International Entrants (outside the U.S.)
Please, only one video per submission. Multiple submissions are welcome.
All entrants will receive 20% off any purchase from the Button Website.ELIGIBILITY:
- Age: You must be 18 years or older to enter (sorry!).
- Language: We welcome any poetry performance or poetry short film in any language, as long as non-English videos come with English subtitles.
- Previous Publication: Videos that have been previously published elsewhere are eligible, with the understanding that any selected video may need to be taken down from other locations on the internet.
RULES:
- Video Length: Videos must be 1-4 minutes in length.
- File Size: File size may not exceed 1GB.
- Submission Format: Videos must be submitted using the submission manager on this page. Most common video file-types are accepted.
- Rights: You MUST own the complete, transferable rights to ALL elements of the submission. This includes but is not limited to text, audio, video, and images.
- Collaborative Poems: Collaborative poems are fine!
- Video Quantity: Only one video per submission. Multiple submissions are welcomed.
Please note that submissions which do not meet these rules may be disqualified.
CONTEST PROCESS:
- Judges: Members of the Button Poetry staff and a carefully selected group of artists and judges will review all submissions to determine the winner, runners up, honorable mentions, and any other videos we may be interested in running.
- Notices: You will be notified of your submission status as the contest progress, via email to the address you used to make your submission(s) with. This will be done on a rolling basis as we move through the stages of the contest.
- Timeline: The duration of judging will depend on the quantity of entries we receive, so we’ll keep folks posted on our social media about the contest. Please expect it to take a few months, however, as we want to give your submissions the attention they deserve!
- Honorable Mentions: If you would like to be considered as an honorable mention in the following categories, please note your eligibility in your submission form. Categories include: International Entry (outside the United States) and Young Writers (ages 18-21).
- Contact: Due to the high volume of submissions and questions we receive, please refer to our Video Contest FAQ before reaching out. We cannot guarantee a timely response to all questions. Any questions not covered in the FAQ can be emailed to: contest@buttonpoetry.com
SOME TIPS & SUGGESTIONS:
- Contact Email: The email address and name you use for your submission are what we will use to contact you. This is how we will let you know the status of your submission as the contest progresses.
- Video Quality: While video and audio quality will be one factor in the judging process, the quality of the poem and performance themselves will be weighted much more heavily. That said, if possible, please use high-quality audio and video.
- Tip: If you’re filming this yourself on a smartphone or similar, then try to do it inside, somewhere that’s well-lit, and without background noise. Consider turning your phone horizontal while filming!
- Tip: If you’re using a video of a live performance, like an open mic or slam, take care with the audio. Try to be closer to the performer so they can still be heard over the audience.
We look forward to seeing your powerful and important work!
Click through to submit. Button Poetry has, among other things, the most popular poetry channel on YouTube, so winners have the chance to reach thousands of viewers/listeners. Here’s the 2018 winner, Sanam Sheriff’s “A Pulse, After Orlando”:
And here’s Elisabet Velasquez’s “Elephant”, which took top honors in 2017:
August 2019 Update on Videopoetry/Poetry Film Events
Credit: Daniel R. Strebe, 15 August 2011, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Wild Whispers project at La Rue et Toi Festival Artistes
Belgium, 10 August 2019
See wildwhispers.blog.
Women of West Wales Unearthed: Poetry, Prose and Film
UK, 10 August 2019
See llangwmlitfest.eventcube.io/events/18635/women-of-west-wales-unearthed-poetry-prose-and-film.
Call for entries, Carmarthen Bay Film Festival, Poetic Cinema section
Wales, UK
Early bird deadline: 31 August 2019
Fee US $35 standard / US $20 student
Awards given but not specified on web page for this BAFTA Cymru/Wales qualifying festival.
See filmfreeway.com/CarmarthenBayFilmFestival.
Call for entries, Maldito Festival de Videopoesía 2019
Albacete, Spain
Deadline 8 September 2019
No fee specified on the website. Prize money is awarded. Films need to have Spanish subtitles.
See malditofestival.com/plazo-de-inscripcion-iii-edicion19.
Call for entries, 8th International Video Poetry Festival
Athens, Greece
Deadline: 20 November 2019
The festival suggests a voluntary fee of 5 euros by bank deposit.
See movingpoems.com/2019/08/call-for-work-8th-international-video-poetry-festival-athens-2019.
Call for poetry films: 2020 Newlyn PZ Festival
Submissions are open for the third Newlyn PZ International Film Festival, to be held April 24-26, 2020, with a Poetry Film category judged once again by Lucy English and Sarah Tremlett. There’s a submissions page on the website with the rules and guidelines.
Call for essays: Poetryfilm Magazine
Poetryfilm Magazine, the print and electronic annual comprised of articles first published at the Weimar-based Poetryfilmkanal website, has a new call-out for essays. This year’s theme: Das Kino der Poesie, The Cinema of Poetry.
Dear readers,
At the beginning of May Cinema, a new anthology about the history of cinema, was released by the publisher Elif. Gathering a wide range of texts, authors like José Oliver or Ulrike Almut Sandig express their fascination for cinema in a captivating way. The Poetryfilm Magazine’s new edition wants to address this matter, just in reverse: we would like to dig deeper into the fascination for poetry, addressing the filmmakers’ and directors’ point of view. This direction of looking at the relation between poetry and film seems to have gained significance lately.
We would be neglecting the influence that poetry had on the development of the visual language of film, if we reduced poetry film to a mere translation of a poem into a film. Since the beginning of the 20th century, filmmakers took inspiration from poets and poems, using them as an inspiration, guideline or challenge for creating moving image work.
This “Cinema of Poetry” – the title refers to an influential yet critical text from 1965 by Pier Paolo Pasolini – ranges from independent experimental film to commercially successful authors’ cinema productions, from Stan Brakhage to Jim Jarmusch.
In the endeavor to investigate film making and the film language from the perspective of poetry, directors as well as theoreticians pointed out the differences between the two art forms: the poeticity of written poetry does not in itself make the poetry film poetic. The latter gains its poetic value not only through the simple fact that a poem is part of it or that it refers to or illustrates a poem.
Poetry films can acquire poetic texts by referring closely to or operating far from the text they work with. Films which work close to the text reach their limits once the visual illustration of it seems to double its meaning, making the visuals seem redundant. Films which are inspired by poems lose touch when the reference to the text is too vague or completely absent and the filmmaker’s final aim seems solely to be aimed at creating a poetic visual language.
Our current edition can be understood as a plea to direct our attention to those films inspired by poetry which do not declare a 1:1 translation from the written text to the moving image as their goal. The poetry film is on a quest for its own poeticity. The poetic author’s cinema should be seen as a guidance in this field.
CALL FOR ESSAYS
For our next magazine’s edition, we are looking for contributions which might ask: Which impact do the language of film and author’s cinema aesthetics have on the poetry film? Which elements or strategies of using the visual language of film can be adapted to the recitation of a poem? What is the relation between filmic and poetic poeticity? In this regard, are there specific differences between live action and animated films to be found? When does the poetry film reach an original, independent form of poeticity and when is it just a sum of different poeticities? We also encourage studies that examine the importance of written poetry for parts of film history or a certain filmmaker/director and describe the complex transformation process(es) which happen while aquiring a poem in conjunction with moving image making.
We cordially invite any contributions in written form (10.000 characters long, including blanks, avoiding footnotes wherever possible) until Oct 31st.
We are very much looking forward to interesting and inspiring submissions!
Aline Helmcke, Guido Naschert
It appears as if they’ve already posted the first new essay in this vein: “From The Cinema of Poetry to The Poetry of Cinema” by none other than Tom Konyves. Check it out.
Call for entries: 7th Ó Bhéal Poetry-Film competition
I’m pleased to see that the Ó Bhéal Poetry-Film Competition is back for another year. Submissions opened on May 1 and close on August 15. The 7th Ó Bhéal International Poetry-Film Competition is organized as usual in association with the IndieCork festival of independent film and music, which will be held on October 6 to 13 in Cork, Ireland.
2019 is Ó Bhéal’s tenth year screening International poetry-films, and seventh year featuring this competition. Up to thirty films will be shortlisted and screened during the festival in October. One winner will receive the Indie Cork / Ó Bhéal prize for best Poetry-Film.
2019 Judges: poet/filmmaker Colm Scully & poet Stanley Notte
The submission deadline is August 15th, 2019.
Guidelines
Entry is free to anyone, and should be made via email to poetryfilm@obheal.ie – including the following info in an attached word document:
- Name and duration of Film
- Name of director
- Country of origin
- Contact details
- Name of Poet
- Name of Poem
- Synopsis
- Filmmaker biography
- and a Link to download a high-resolution version of the film.**
** If you are sending a vimeo or youtube link, etc, please ensure that the download button is enabled.
You may submit as many entries as you like. Films must interpret, or convey a poem which must be present in its entirety, having been completed no earlier than 15th August 2017. They may not exceed 10 minutes in duration. Non-English language films will require English subtitles. The final shortlist will be announced here during September.
Shortlisted films also appear in Ó Bhéal’s poetry-film touring programme, at a number of film and literary festivals, to date including the Clare Island Film Festival, Belfast Film Festival, Stanzas in Limerick, the Cyclops festival in Kiev, Poemaria in Vigo, the Madeira Literary Festival (2018), Salerno Letteratura (2018) and Cadence: Video Poetry Festival in Seattle (2019). Shortlisted entries are also screened throughout the year from Ó Bhéal’s competition shortlist archive (in random), at the start of each Ó Bhéal poetry evening.
Best of Luck!
Call for work: films based on poems from UK publisher Ignition Press
Ignition Press is a publisher of poetry pamphlets (which is what chapbooks are called in the UK) recently launched by the Poetry Centre at Oxford Brookes University. I’ve just learned about a cool contest they’ve set up to generate filmpoems for their initial crop of pamphlets. The prizes aren’t terribly big, but I know a lot of poetry filmmakers are mainly just looking for good texts to work with, so I expect this will be a success, and I would encourage other poetry presses to try something similar. Check it out:
Make a short film about a poem published by ignitionpress and win recognition and prizes!
The films should last 2-5 mins & be about one of the five following poems
(apart from that you have complete creative freedom):
‘//’ by Mary Jean Chan (available here)
‘reasons for leaving home’ by Belinda Zhawi (available here)
‘Moss’ by Natalie Whittaker (available here)
‘Half Measures’ by Patrick James Errington (available here)
‘We are to blame for the decline of the giraffes and only we can save them’ by Lily Blacksell (available here)
You can find the individual poems at the links above and all five here.
What is a poetryfilm? Alastair Cook, Filmmaker and Director of Film-poem Festival, says: ‘A poetry film is a single entwined entity, a melting, a cleaving together of words, sound and vision. It is an attempt to take a poem and present it through a medium that will create a new artwork, separate from the original poem.’
Inspiration & examples of other filmpoems can be found here.
Prizes: £50, £30, £20 Amazon vouchers
Major exposure: the winners’ films will be shared on our website, social media and could be shown at events organised by, or involving, ignitionpress.
Deadline: Friday 7th June, 5pm. To enter, please submit your poetryfilm to Niall Munro at p0076993@brookes.ac.uk If the file is too large to e-mail, share it via Google Drive or another file sharing service.
Winners announced: Friday 14th June.
Judges: Niall Munro, Director of ignitionpress, and interns.
ignitionpress is a pamphlet press based at Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre. Find out more about the pamphlets and the poets here. All poems are copyright, but the poets have granted permission for filmmakers to use their work.
Questions? Please contact Theodora Vida (15094967@brookes.ac.uk) or Niall Munro (p0076993@brookes.ac.uk).
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.
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.
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.
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.
