~ Nationality: Scotland ~
Prodigal by Kona Macphee
Alastair Cook‘s 11th filmpoem. His description at Vimeo is worth quoting in full:
Prodigal is a film of Kona Macphee‘s poem, which was born from Andrew Philip’s project for the second Hidden Door festival, held in Edinburgh in October 2010: I was asked to record a reading of the poem. As I read it, I felt its power and resolved to make a filmpoem. I commissioned a cello piece from Rebecca Rowe and we performed this live at the Poetry Association of Scotland‘s meeting on 9th March 2011, at the Scottish poetry Library. A new direction for these perhaps, the addition of live performance… but the work is as dark and mercurial as ever.
MacAdam Takes to the Sea by Andrew Philip
A masterful filmpoem by Alastair Cook — be sure to expand it to full-screen size. Check out Andrew Philip’s website. In an accompanying note on Vimeo, Cook indicates that the film was commissioned for the Hidden Door festival in Edinburgh, where it premiered last month.
Currie by Dorothy Baird
This new collaboration for the This Collection project features Anna Dickie, who also contributed a poem to the project (see “Same Place, Different View“), in charge of camera and editing, joined by Stefanie Tan for the sound editing. As Stefanie explains on Vimeo,
With the help of the local butcher, traffic lady and sporting residents, Dorothy Baird and Anna Dickie bring to life the portrait of Edinburgh’s unassuming suburb, Currie.
The bus 44 links Anna’s stomping ground, Haddington to Dorothy’s neighbourhood, Currie and this intimate collaboration adds to the magical mysterious connections the poems from thiscollection continues to unearth.
Anna used only photographic stills to piece together the concept for the film.
For more on Dorothy Baird, here’s a bio and interview.
-ed by Mairi Sharratt
Scottish artist and filmmaker Alastair Cook’s latest filmpoem (and in my opinion his best to date). Here’s what he says about it at Vimeo:
-ed is my film of a poem by Mairi Sharratt, from her as yet unpublished (nudge) collection This is a Poem. You can read more of Mairi’s work on her excellent blog, alumpinthethroat.wordpress.com.
It took a long time for me to begin this filmpoem for two reasons: I have been busy with this summer’s solo film and photography show as part of the Edinburgh Festival; also the poem is dark and yet meditative, lifting to a powerful crescendo and as a result I felt that I needed to introduce a figurative element. So I ruminated…
Mairi says in a blog post that the film will be screened at Edingbugh’s Hidden Door Festival, which runs from October 22-24.
Same Place Different View by Anna Dickie
I’m glad to see This Collection continuing to broker and upload innovative films for its Edinburgh-centered poetry project. Oliver Benton and Stefanie Tan did the camera work and editing respectively, and “thiscollection.org was proud to collaborate with Rocio Jungenfeld to adapt Poet Anna Dickie’s work ‘Same Place Different View’ into a bricolage installation on the shores of Aberlady.”
Anna Dickie is a Scottish artist and poet now blogging at it’sabouttime. You can read the poem at thiscollection.org.
A Lifetime by Ron Butlin
A complete short film spun from a brief poem by Ron Butlin, part of the This Collection project of poems by Edinburgh poets. This was written, produced and directed by CP Lucas Kao and Charmaine Gilbert; see all the other credits on Vimeo.
Landlocked in the Port of Leith by Samuel Jackson
A collaboration between Scottish poet Samuel Jackson and filmmaker Ali Hayes, produced for the This Collection project of videopoems set in Edinburgh, which now has a cool new website. You can read the poem here.
Stealing by Carol Ann Duffy
Update: this video is no longer online.
Directed by Gerard Docherty. Aside from the sloppy spelling, this is a fine video and seemed worth sharing. Duffy is, of course, the current Poet Laureate of Great Britain. I assume this video was made without her permission, and thus represents a kind of stealing itself — and/or an homage and act of generosity, depending on your view of intellectual property rights.
I’m going back to posting five videos a week here, at least until I can shrink the current queue of draft posts. So much good stuff coming out these days!
Adrift by Juliet Wilson
It’s not often I get to see a new videopoem for the work of a poet whose blog I’ve been reading for years. This is a poem from Juliet Wilson’s debut collection, Unthinkable Skies, from the Scottish Calder Wood Press. The film is by the indefatigible Alastair Cook, who adds that this is the “the first of a series of films with Juliet, which will be premiered at my upcoming solo show at the Drill Hall in Leith on 29th July this year: outoftheblue.org.uk“
Portobello by Morgan Downie
Another film by Alastair Cook for the This Collection project of 100 videopoems about Edinburgh, and his second in collaboration with Morgan Downie — the first was Scene.
