~ Videopoems ~
Videopoetry, filmpoetry, cinepoetry, poetry-film… the label doesn’t matter. What matters is that text and images enter into dialogue, creating a new, poetic whole.
The Hair of Literature by George Uallick and Zhanna Shibalo
A videopoem by the Russian Latvian collective Orbita (“Orbit”), made in 2001—I assume on videotape—and uploaded to Vimeo six months ago. Artur/Artūrs Punte and Diana Palijchuk are credited with making the video, the text is by George Uallick and Zhanna Shibalo, and The Trilobitum Coitus supplied the music. I love the fast-paced, playful energy here, making me re-play it multiple times despite not feeling that I entirely understand it. The main thing is, it’s fun and imaginatively shot and edited, and I remain intrigued.
One of my favorite poetry publishers, Brooklyn-based Ugly Duckling Presse, came out with an excellent bilingual anthology, Hit Parade: The ORBITA Group, in 2015. You can read Kevin M.F. Platt’s introduction, along with several of his translations, online at Deep Baltic. Here’s an excerpt that may or may not shed light on what exactly Uallick and Shibalo mean by “pits overgrown with ancestors” and “the hair of literature”:
Paradoxically, while they eschew nostalgia for the Soviet past, the poets of Orbita are the actual heirs to the legacy of cutting edge and experimental culture characteristic of Latvia in the last Soviet decades. Orbita is an intentionally trans-ethnic and trans-linguistic phenomenon. And this is one of the keys to its success: theirs is an avant-garde of cosmopolitan hybridity. In distinction from the majority of Russian cultural production of the Baltic region, these poets transcend marginality and provincialism by forming a literary bridge between ethnic enclaves, languages, and cultures.
Note: Long-time readers of Moving Poems may recall that I uploaded an earlier, lower-resolution YouTube version of this video back in 2011. Rather than simply edit that post, I decided to delete it and post afresh so others can enjoy re-watching it as much as I did.
Stander Under Anvils by Bronwen Manger
Set on a Melbourne tram, Stander Under Anvils is from Australian film-maker Martin Kelly, and features the luminous presence of poet Bronwen Manger, who speaks her text live to camera for most of the film. It is one of several video poetry pieces that Martin has produced in a media partnership with Ian McBryde.
As with many of Bronwen’s poems, there is an enticing sense of mystery here, perhaps even a suggestion of perversity. I find shadowy and unfamiliar meanings arising from the subtle twists of soft-spoken words, ostensibly directed towards a brother. The final, almost-not-there glance at the camera creates for me a perfectly sly ending to a piece that draws me in by being quiet.
Martin is best known in the international video poetry community as co-creator of Spree, a highly-regarded video of a poem by Ian. In Spree too, the writer appears speaking the text direct to camera, inter-cut with vivid flashes of associative imagery.
Martin says of the ongoing collaboration he has with Ian:
…We hope to provide both a window into the world of poetry for those who may otherwise pass it by, but we also aim at contributing to and developing the unique genre of video poems.
Ian makes an uncredited appearance in Stander Under Anvils, as a blind passenger sitting next to Bronwen on the tram, who suddenly turns to give her a key word.
Memory-Bridge by Shalewa Mackall
From film-maker Danielle Eliska Lyle and poet Shalewa Mackall, this is Memory-Bridge, one of the best films from the 2019 Visible Poetry Project.
The visual stream is jazzily constructed of “found footage” from various free sources. This is in sync with the sample-based hip-hop and house music referred to but never heard in the film. Narration is by the poet, who appears in the film as well, accompanied only by the warm sound of vinyl static—warm like her strong, expressive voice.
The poem is beat-driven, funky. It conveys myriad elements of cultural identity, past, present and future:
Who we are is undefined. Might be infinite. Variable. A mystery unsolved, but not yet ready to exit.
Gen.er.a.tion X, n. People born between 1960 and 1980. Some were alive with the last survivors of enslavement.
Danielle Eliska describes herself as a “black archivist”, her life’s work to tell stories of powerful women, the Black Diaspora and the state of Black culture. She is the founder of multimedia production house Meraki Society.
Shalewa Mackall belongs to a community of artists embracing Sankofa, a word in the Twi language of Ghana that translates to “Go back and get it”. The term relates to the Asante Adinkra symbol, often represented by a bird with its head turned backwards while its feet face forward, carrying a precious egg in its mouth. This symbolises moving forward in full awareness and embrace of what has preceded, historically and culturally.
Kepler’s Law by Christina Rau
From the Visible Poetry Project in 2018, this is Kepler’s Law, re-imagined as an allegorical animation by Dana Sink, and displaying a unique, graphic style.
The piece was written by Christina Rau, who describes it as “sci-fi fem poetry”. As a lover of astronomy, this possibly self-invented genre intrigues me, especially as it is expressed in this fresh poem, unusual in choice of language. As if to demonstrate the generic form in its title, Christina’s collection, Liberating The Astronauts (Aqueduct Press), was published in 2017, the year before the making of Kepler’s Law.
Among cultural involvements such as teaching and facilitation of writer’s groups, Christina serves as Poetry Editor for The Nassau Review. Dana’s animated videos are designed to appeal to his young daughter, who inspires his current creative work.
Wanting by Rich Ferguson
Los Angeles poet and performer Rich Ferguson teams up with film-maker Chris Burdick to create Wanting, a tour de force of beat-style spoken word and mashed-up old films.
Rich posts daily at his blog, RichRant. The constant stream of inspired writing is marvelous, some of it existential, some political, some funny, frequently all three, and almost always on key.
The selection and editing of archival film is the work of a master. Any film-maker who has worked with footage from the Prelinger Archives will appreciate the countless hours that must have gone into finding all the shots, that are then cut to the fast rhythms of Rich’s voice.
Chris’s virtual home is at Patreon, where can be found a blackly hilarious account of his life and aims as a film-maker/writer/human. The synopses of his short fiction are alone worth the visit.
The ongoing collaboration between Rich and Chris has produced several videos so far, of which a small collection can be found on this playlist at YouTube.
Call for work: 8th International Video Poetry Festival Athens 2019
![The +Institute [for Experimental Arts] and Void Network present the 8th International Video Poetry Festival 2019](https://i0.wp.com/movingpoems.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Athans-video-poetry-2019-call-out-1024x630-640x394.jpg?resize=640%2C394)
The +Institute [for Experimental Arts] and Void Network
present the 8th International Video Poetry Festival 2019
at Free Self Organised Theatre Embros Riga Pallamidi 2 Psirri
DEADLINE 20 November 2019 – Athens / Greece
The +Institute [for Experimental Arts] and Void Network are pleased to announce that submissions are open for the 2019 International Video Poetry Festival in Athens, Greece. The annual festival will be held at the free, self-organized theatre EMBROS this winter, with the precise dates yet to be determined. Approximately 1200 people attended the festival last year.
The 8th International Video Poetry Festival will run for two days in two different zones. The first day will be the Video Poetry Show Room, a unique zone that will include video poems, visual poems, short film poems and cinematic poetry by artists from all over the world (America, Asia, Europe, Africa). The second day will be the Live Improvisation Zone with multimedia poetry readings, concerts with experimental music, and performances.
We are inviting artists – poets, video artists, directors, producers – who want to visit the festival to present their art project at the Theatre. We can provide accommodation for three days (one day before the festival, during the festival and one day afterward).
The International Video Poetry Festival 2019 attempts to create an open public space for the creative expression of all tendencies and streams of contemporary visual poetry.
It is very important to note that this festival is a part of the counter-culture activities of Void Network and +the Institute [for Experimental Arts] and will be a non-sponsored, free-entrance, non-commercial and nonprofit event. The festival will cover the costs (2000 posters, 15.000 flyers, high quality technical equipment) from the income of the bar at the festival. All the participating artists and the organizing groups will participate on a volunteer basis.
The Institute [for Experimental Arts] invites the artists and creators of video poems to participate from their side in our effort to cover the expenses of the festival without private or state sponsorship. For this reason, we propose to the artists the suggested donation of 5 euros for the submission of their video poems.
Void Network began organizing multimedia poetry nights in 1990. Void Network and +the Institute [for Experimental Arts] believe that multimedia poetry nights and video poetry shows can vibrate in the heart of the metropolis, bring new audiences in contact with contemporary poetry, and open new creative dimensions for this ancient art. To achieve this, we respect the aspirations and the objectives of the artists and create high-quality, self-organized exhibition areas and showrooms. We work with professional technicians, and we offer meeting points and fields of expression for artists and people that tend to stand antagonistically to the mainstream culture.
HOW TO SUBMIT
- Click here to download and complete the application form
- Your participation is FREE. Please, if you can, add the suggested donation of 5 Euro (or more) to the following bank account:
National Bank of Greece 04664860451 Iban GR2101100460000004664860451 Swift (BIC) ETHNGRAA - Please, send the submission material via email as following:
+++ via email:
your video poems in mp4 or mov file, definition(720 x 576, 1280 x 720, 1920 x 1080)
the submission form and photos in .jpg file
(all these in a single wetransfer file)
Email: theinstitutecontact [at] gmail.com
*please replace [at] with @ symbol to send email
You can use wetransfer.com or any other FREE SERVICE to send us big files. - It is very important to name your files (videos and still images, photos) as it is shown below:
Title of video poem
Artist’s name
Country - Be careful, you have to send only one email with the application form, the link to download, the video poems or the video poems archives, the still images of the video poems and any website of your art work projects
- We recommend you add English or Greek subtitles to your video poems even if the spoken language is in English as it will be easier for people outside the English speaking world to understand it.
We recommend you send your video poems over the internet. But if you prefer, you can also mail your DVD file to the following address:
INTERNATIONAL VIDEO POETRY FESTIVAL
TASOS SAGRIS
159 KREONTOS
SEPOLIA ATHENS
GREECE 10443
Please post it no later than November 20, 2019 (date of postmark) to the International Film Poetry Festival, Athens.
+ the Institute [for Experimental Arts] will inform you about your participation in late November 2019.
Documentation of previous events
Review of the 7th International Video Poetry Festival by Michael Mantas, Film Director
Photos of previous poetry nights organized by Void Network and + the Institute [for Experimental Arts]:
International Poetry Festival London Financial Consequences Festival- 9/2/2019 at LSE- Reviews & Photos
5th International Video Poetry Festival
SPEAK NO EVIL / poetry event in WEN. 21/10/2015 Thessaloniki
More photos from Void Network art, events and actions
Make America Great Again (Slogan) by David Hahn
A video collage by multi-media artist, Donna Kuhn, set to composer David Hahn‘s piece, “Make America Great Again”, addressing the contemporary political and cultural landscape of the USA, while alluding to historical ideologies of identity that have led to its present condition.
In a rhythm reminiscent of beat poetry, Hahn voices his own text in a rapid stream of hackneyed national slogans, turned upside-down and inside-out to powerfully convey the deranged zeitgeist experienced by so many US residents, and by masses around the world. His feverish mantras climax in the distilled and obsessive chant, “America, America, again, again, again, America, again, again”.
The video is made up of a kinetic array of visual elements including animated text, digitally-drawn art, abstracted numerical sequences, cartoon images, and superimposition of iconic movie clips with footage from World War II.
Hahn has been composing for 30 years, beginning as a performer on lute, guitar, and mandolin with groups such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony and Opera Orchestras, Boston Musica Viva, the Seattle Symphony, Musica Nel Chiostro in Florence, and the City of London Festival. He served on the faculty at the New England Conservatory, where he co-founded the Boston Renaissance Ensemble, which toured extensively in the US and Europe.
Donna Kuhn’s experimental videos have exhibited internationally since 2004 at film festivals, museums, art galleries and online on literary and poetry sites.
The title of the piece is given on its Vimeo page as “Make America Great Again”, with the titles on the video itself suggesting the alternative name, “Slogan”.
Song of the Soil by Jessica Mookherjee
Jessica Mookherjee‘s poem “Song of the Soil”, from her collection, Tigress (Nine Arches Press, 2019), is given heartfelt filmic treatment by Helen Dewbery and Chaucer Cameron, under the auspices of their production house, Elephant’s Footprint. According to the book’s webpage,
Jess Mookherjee is of Bengali heritage and grew up in Swansea. She has been widely published in magazines, including Under the Radar, Agenda, The North, Rialto, Antiphon and Ink, Sweat & Tears. She is author of The Swell (Telltale Press) and Joyride (Black Light Engine Room Press) and Flood (Cultured Llama). She was highly commended in the Forward Prize 2017 for best single poem. Jessica works in Public Health and lives in Kent.
The poem expresses a deep connection to the Earth in an elegy of lost origins and disappearing ground. Giving further voice to these themes, the film is imbued with overexposed images of a natural world scorched yellow and burnt brown, and a soundtrack made ominous by ambient bass. Mookherjee’s solemn, rich narration rounds the elements of this powerfully organic piece.
The film is part of a series Helen and Chaucer have been doing for Nine Arches Press. They note that “The film-poems are not only viewed by Nine Arches’ existing readers and online audiences, but are a tool for their poets to engage more easily with their existing and new audiences.” The press, however, does not appear to embed any of the videos on the books’ pages, which is kind of baffling.
L’homme et la mer (Man and the Sea) by Charles Baudelaire
German film-maker Patrick Müller here adapts to the screen Charles Baudelaire‘s poem, “L’homme et la mer (Man and the Sea)”, from the poet’s most famous collection, Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), first published in 1857. This is his second adaptation of a Baudelaire poem, after Le Chat (2013).
The piece displays a distinctive approach by the film-maker, who shot it on the tiny and mostly obsolete super 8 celluloid format, popularised as a home movie medium from the time of its release by Eastman Kodak in 1965. Müller’s artisanal work includes hand-processing the film himself, then transferring it to the high-quality 4K video format for completion. This combination of analogue and digital creates uniquely beautiful images, with the sensuality of the film grain rendered in uncharacteristic clarity, and the choices in colour grading adding further to the poetry of the visual stream.
The softness and quiet passion of Müller’s voice entices us inwards to the text and the film. As with Caroline Rumley’s, Open Season, shared on Moving Poems yesterday, the soundtrack of L’homme et la mer is punctuated by sudden breaks to silence, as if to give moments of contemplation before beginning anew with the next fragment of the film.
The French-English translation of the poem in the subtitles is by Lewis Piaget Shanks (1878-1935).
Müller’s detailed process notes on the film may be read at filmkorn.org.
