~ Author-made videopoems ~

Seasonally Affected by Hannah Stephenson

This film, called “Seasons,” was made in response to a poem Hannah just wrote and posted to her blog last Thursday. The anonymous filmmaker grow365 says, “This is part of my 365 project to do something creative every day. You can see other experiments at http://grow365.posterous.com […] It’s the first time I’ve ever done this sort of thing.” The soundtrack incorporates Erwin Schulhoff’s Sonata for Solo Violin, Second Movement, performed by Daniel Hope, which means of course that she’s in risk of YouTube stripping it out.

The poet herself also posted a video of the poem, also her first such effort. It’s extremely lo-fi, made with the camera on her laptop, but more imaginative than at least 90% of poem videos made in that fashion.

(The poet moved to Columbus, Ohio in December, and I keep wanting to shout, Put on a damn coat and hat, Hannah! You’re not in L.A. anymore!)

Earth Eaters by Marc Atkinson

http://www.vimeo.com/19103267

Leslie Deere posted the video with this intriguing description of the process:

Collaboration with filmaker marc atkinson. i did the sound design

originally a science fiction poem by marc atkinson.

turned into a film and a book with illustrations by roisin dunne.

we buried the 16mm film and unearthed it two weeks later.

screened at the whitechapel gallery in london for dee sekar’s decasia late night event.

The credits also note the use of archive and home movie footage from the Prelinger Archives. The video appears to be a short for a 15-minute film, judging from Leslie’s website.

Here’s Mark Atkinson’s website.

Vinyl Poesie by Christoph Bruns

An interesting found-videopoem experiment. I’m guessing the maker is German, but I’m not really sure.

This is a stop motion video i created around summer last year. It is a selfwritten poem created out of my vinyl collection. i looked out for interesting words and formed this little passages.

Del vacío de la voz (Of the Emptiness of the Voice) by vanvelvet

Vanvelvet is an Argentinian filmmaker currently living in Barcelona. For this videopoem, she had assistance from Federico Rasenberg and Florencia Peitrapertosa. The English translation is O.K.; the only egregious error is “whom” for “womb” (vientre), the final word of the poem.

The Space Between Burned Out Suns by Emily Kendal Frey and Zachary Schomburg

Zachary Schomburg’s film for a poem from Something Should Happen at Night Outside, a collaboration with Emily Kendal Frey.

Ghost Haiku by Susan Cormier

Susan Cormier A.K.A. queen of crows is both author and director. In the notes at YouTube, she says:

The guys in the foreground seemed kinda creeped-out by me and my camera — obviously, they couldn’t see what I was actually watching. If anyone knows who they are, please send them a link. I generally don’t use people’s images without their permission, but this shot was too precious to discard.

All This Day Is Good For by Tom Konyves

A spam lit videopoem! Tom writes,

In this ode to the simultaneous, true and false perceptions collide in a 360-degree panoramic sweep of a moment in time, rendering life and art in equal measure.

The text in this videopoem was assembled from hundreds of spam/scam e-mails I have been collecting over the years, representing the lies we are confronted with every day; yet the random phrases extracted from these passion-laden letters cannot help but also contain unintentional glimpses of truth. In between mundane and altered reality lies that precious essence of life I see as poetry.

Alex Konyves assisted with — well, almost everything, it seems. And Robin Pittman helped with the motion graphics.

Jannetjie se Skuld (Jannetjie’s Debt) by Valente Bosch

http://vimeo.com/17468386

I don’t know if the poem is any good or not, but it’s a powerful one-minute film. South African director Valente Bosch (Trike Films) says,

Shot on 2perf 35mm Film. When my cousin was raped I wrote this poem. It’s written in Afrikaans, but once you’ve seen the film you will fully know what I mean. I decided to do this film soon as I became a Film Director. It took lots of favours from lots of very special people.

This is what happens to soo many mothers and daughters all around the world, and we as men are not even ashamed of ourselves!

The World by Zachary Schomburg

Another videopoem by Zachary Schomburg in support of his collection Scary, No Scary.

Kinetic type poem by Zach Lieberman

Self-referential in the grand tradition of concrete poetry. The music is also a perfect fit, I thought.

Poem by Zach Lieberman. Code by Zach Lieberman & Kimmo Kallio. Performed live by Kimmo Kallio. Built with Processing. processing.org

Soundtrack: Caveman lament by Chris Clark.

For My American Lover, Upon My Leaving by Holly Karapetkova

http://vimeo.com/6501098

“A digital version of a poem of mine, first published in The Crab Orchard Review,” the author says.

Purple Lipstick by Heather Haley

A poem about domestic violence, on YouTube courtesy of a magazine called Shattered Thought which appears to be no longer online. Heather Haley, however, is very much still online — in fact, the annual videopoetry festival she organizes in Vancouver, Visible Verse, will be celebrating its 10th anniversary on November 19-20. This is the premiere videopoetry event in North America. Go if you can.

The Videopoems page of her personal website says about this film, in part:

Heather’s videopoem Purple Lipstick still garners kudos having been an official selection at the VideoBardo 2nd International VideoPoetry Festival in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the 3rd Zebra International Poetry Film Festival in Berlin, Germany and the Women in Film Festival in Vancouver where she was a guest speaker. Purple Lipstick also screened at Commfest, Wildsound, Female Eye in Toronto, Northwest Projections and Reel to Real in Seattle.

Purple is the colour of a fresh bruise and domestic violence the single greatest cause of injury to women in Canada. Purple Lipstick confronts its insidious nature through compelling juxtapositions. A disembodied female voice employs vivid language, absurdist against a backdrop of banality, images of *normal* family life. Numb in her isolation and still in her nurse’s uniform, a wife and mother prepares dinner. The inherent terror of her home life is invoked with excruciating tension. Its brutality can only be alluded to.

Shot on Bowen Island near Vancouver, Purple Lipstick features actors Bazil Graham, Ripley Ferguson, Cairo Ferguson and slam poetry star Alexandra Oliver-Basekic.