~ Nationality: South Africa ~

read these roads by Kai Lossgott

On 12 September, 2011 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Animation, Author-made videopoems
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A very interesting approach to stop-frame animation by South African videopoet Kai Lossgott, who also organized, directed and curated the City Breath Festival of Video Poetry and Performance last year, and is currently searching for experimental films about climate change for a new exhibition called Letters from the Sky. (See the Moving Poems forum for more details on the latter.)

Kai’s notes about this film at Vimeo are worth quoting in full:

The evaporating water puddle images in this stop frame animation hint at the living systemic relationship between Table Mountain’s hydrology systems, the City of Cape Town’s water system and the biological systems of the human body. This is a video poem of unfulfilled desire for the lost personal bond with the natural world. The soundtrack of the video is taken from Adderley Street in the Cape Town CBD, above the underground storm water drain where the now forgotten Varsterivier, among others, (3 million cubic tons of untapped fresh spring water) runs into the sea daily. Fresh water is one of South Africa’s scarcest resources.

The Forty Elephants (with poetry by Gérard Rudolf)

On 15 April, 2011 by Dave Bonta with 2 Comments - Videopoems
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A new film by Alastair Cook “developed around a narrative commissioned by Alastair, written and read by Gérard Rudolf,” with cinematography by James Norton.

The project takes its lead from the Victorian street gang, of women and their children, who plagued the Elephant and Castle; it draws in the current landscape and it’s deteriorating edge, a farewell to the Heygate and Aylesbury estates; this is a dark trawl through threat and desire, driven by Gérard’s incredible words.

The Forty Elephants premiered on 8th April at Alastair’s fine art photography show at The Howden.

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

On 8 December, 2010 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Author-made videopoems
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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!

Emily Melting by Gérard Rudolf

On 19 April, 2010 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Videopoems
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A collaboration between Scottish filmmaker Alastair Cook and South African poet Gérard Rudolf. The poem is from his new collection Orphaned Latitudes. Cook writes, “This film is the beginning of a series of work with Gérard, and we plan to write, produce and direct a feature length film in due course.”

Winding by Christine Swint, Jo Hemmant, and Michelle McGrane

On 14 August, 2009 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Author-made videopoems
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This video poem was the result of a unique intercontinental collaboration between Christine Swint in Atlanta, Jo Hemmant in England, and Michelle McGrane in South Africa, and was published in Qarrtsiluni’s collaborative-themed issue Mutating the Signature earlier this year. Go there for the text of the poem and a detailed description of the process.