~ Nationality: U.K. ~
Another Slow Day by Henry Stead
http://vimeo.com/57190458
London-based poet, translator and classicist Henry Stead supplied the words and voice for this videopoem by Swoon, who has blogged some process notes:
To go with the almost languid reading I wanted images that expressed some kind of restlessness, boredom and even sulk. Once I had those, the video practically made itself…
They met for a live performance (Stead reading while the film was projected) last week at the London Poetry Systems 5th anniversary celebration.
Every Memory by Sheree Mack
http://vimeo.com/55172122
This is #6 in Alastair Cook‘s Absent Voices series “celebrating the legacy of the Greenock Sugar Sheds, vast Category A listed hulking relics of the sugar trade, a dark and sweet slice of Scots history.” Sheree Mack reads her poem as part of a soundtrack by Luca Nasciuti, with cinematography by Swoon (Mark Neys). This is one of several filmpoem collaborations between Cook and Neys, and you can catch both men along with Nasciuti live in London tomorrow night, February 16, as part of the London Poetry Systems anniversary bash.
Alastair Cook, Mark Neys and Luca Nasciuti are also all directors — along with yours truly — of the first Filmpoem Festival to be held in Dunbar, Scotland in early August. We’ve just posted the call.
To A Young Poet by R. S. Thomas
Othniel Smith notes:
An interpretation of a poem by Welsh writer R. S. Thomas (1913-2000), made entirely using material taken from the public domain Prelinger Archive. Contains brief nudity.
See Smith’s Vimeo channel for many more classic poetry mashups with Prelinger films and Librivox recordings.
B Movie by Luke Wright
A wildly entertaining performance video, augmented by visual text drawn by Sam Ratcliffe. This is from British poet and broadcaster Luke Wright, found via Viral Verse. Here’s the description at YouTube:
BARRY vs THE BLOB – a B Movie set in Brentwood, Essex.
Poet Luke Wright felt bad that Brentwood had the singular reputation of being the home of TOWIE. So he’s set another cinematic event in Brentwood — Essex’s first B movie. On a budget, like all the best B movies, the only special effect he had at his disposal was ALLITERATION. This is literally a B movie.
All Tangled Up: children’s filmpoetry from Scotland
http://vimeo.com/84665976
The result of the first Filmpoem Children’s Workshop led by Alastair Cook for North Light Arts. The film includes five poems read by their authors: Kitty, Alasdair, Andrew, Ben, and Nancy. Ben Dorin James was the cinematographer, and Filmpoem is credited as the director.
Giant by Orianne Breakspear
A film by Luca Dicorato and Takanori Yoshiro. Dicorato notes:
Giant is a poem written and performed by 12 years old Orianne Breakspear.
We decided to animate this piece by employing a mixture of techniques, mainly cutout animation. We favoured images from old books and magazines as well as from the web in order to establish the vintage look.The music is from Kevin MacLeod
In 2011, Orianne Breakspear won the Brit Writers Award for poetry in the Under 16s category.
What is Life? by John Clare
https://vimeo.com/57929732
This is the work of Sao Paulo-based writer Juliana Mendonça. According to her description at Vimeo, it was
Inspired by New York City fall and John Clare’s poem.
This was my first time in the city and my first time shooting with a Go Pro only.Made 100% with a Go Pro Hero 3 Black Edition.
Poem: What is Life by John Clare.
Music: Hægt, kemur ljósi› by Ólafur Arnalds.
The Lab Aquaria by Colette Bryce
This was the first of the three films Kate Sweeney made in collaboration with poet Colette Bryce for her residency at the Dove Marine Laboratory. (The other two are Ballasting the Ark and Turbines in January.) Sweeney wrote:
‘The Lab Aquaria’ seeks to capture a tone, a feel of the lab; a sort of visual mood or reflection that leaves an after-image of the poem. Colette wished to include one site-specific piece about the Dove laboratory and we visited together to collect imagery in photography and video.
Though there are a couple of direct matches between text and film image, the film as a whole escapes the trap of excessive literalism, and comes across as a lyrical meditation on marine life and the work of science.
[UPDATE] The three films were shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Prize for new works in poetry in 2013.
Writing Behaviour by Rosemary Norman
Stuart Pound describes this on Vimeo as
a poem set to images and sounds. The image foreground is made up of the lines, words and letters of the poem, floating and twisting in the light, as the incarcerated writer writes his escape.
Some very interesting kinetic text effects bordering on concrete poetry, especially with the light-hearted musical accompaniment provided by James Cordell and Frances Wright.
I feel a bit abashed at not having discovered Pound’s work until now. His Vimeo profile says,
Stuart Pound lives in London and has worked in film, digital video, sound and the visual arts since the early 1970’s. He hopes to return to painting. Since 1995 he has collaborated with the poet Rosemary Norman. Work has been screened regularly at international film and video festivals.
Rosemary Norman says on her page at poetry pf that she and Pound “began by using spoken poems and have experimented with digitally processed recordings and with putting text on screen.” There’s a website devoted to their collaboration at stuartpound.info with texts, stills and clips.
Jump Into Air by Guinevere Glasfurd
Alastair Cook’s Filmpoem 25 features the text and reading of Guinevere Glasfurd. The description on Vimeo reads:
Jump Into Air is a poem by Guinevere Glasfurd on the subject of the deathly decline of the British fishing industry, commissioned by North Light Arts. Guinevere, as well as being an exceptional author and poet, has written for the Fishing News, the industry paper, and drew both on this and her stay with the fishermen of Dunbar during this Summer. Jump Into Air has sound commissioned from Luca Nasciuti and was filmed by Alastair Cook using Kodak Ektachrome.
