~ Nationality: United States ~
Elegy with Her Red-Tipped Fingers by Tarfia Faizullah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owN7-06smUc
A high-quality, music video-style poetry film by poet and filmmaker Jamaal May for Organic Weapon Arts, whose chapbook series “was started with the hip-hop tradition of the mixtape in mind.” Tarfia Faizullah‘s poem may be read online in Blackbird.
There Is No Word by Tony Hoagland
A poetry film by Dan Albright and Jordan Meltzer, with an original score by Meltzer. The Tony Hoagland poem originally appeared in Poetry magazine, and this video was featured recently at The Fluid Raven.
THERE IS NO WORD is the official film adaptation of Tony Hoagland’s poem of the same name that explores the subtle, impossible-to-describe experience of a good friendship changing to a mere acquaintanceship.
Here’s what Tony Hoagland has to say about the film:
“your sense of image is beautiful and intuitive, and there’s a sweet rawness to the story telling which seems brave to me; especially when talking about male friendship-so, good for you and thanks for the honor.”[…]
Made for the 2013 Evelyn Horowitz Video Poetry Competition at Emerson College, Boston, MA.
Poppies In July by Sylvia Plath
This is Little Poppies, a student work by Libby Parfitt and Paris Daley, “based on the naturalistic sculpture and black and white photography of Richard Long.”
I’m sorry but I’ve witnessed what’s under your suburban bruises by Meg Tuite
Meg Tuite reads her poem in this collaboration with Swoon (Marc Neys) for the inaugural issue of Awkword Paper Cut [auto-playing audio alert]. Marc blogged about the making of the film. A snippet:
Something in the combination of her words/voice and these sounds led me back to a movie I used in another video, FF Coppola’s ‘Dementia 13’
I picked out a few scenes and faces and started editing. Looked for the right movements that I could feature as some kind of recurring visual chorus.
In the end I added a layer of lights and colours.
Love? by Julie Gard
Words are a fugitive, ghostly presence in this film by Kathy McTavish. For more poems by Julia Gard, see her website.
Chinatowns by Boey Kim Cheng
http://vimeo.com/64731664
A very short filmpoem about exile and belonging by Laura Wu.
The Death of Me (trailer) by Howie Good
A poetry book trailer that appears to give a pretty good indication of the tone and flavor of the book. (I say that having read a number of Howie Good‘s books and chapbooks, though not this particular one yet.) Sizable chunks of text alternate with underwater footage of swimming penguins, apparently shot on a mobile phone at an aquarium. Unlike so many trailers for poetry books from micropresses, where the initiative to make a video originates with the author, this was made by the publishers themselves.
This is a video promoting the launch of Howie Good’s limited edition poetry collection ‘The Death of Me’ through Pig Ear Press. The text is from Howie’s book, the video was shot in Basel Zoo and the soundtrack was created on a ukulele. The video and audio were created by Mr [Pete] Lally.
Pig Ear Press are a (very) small press using letterpress printing and handbinding to create limited run books of quality. You can purchase Howie’s book and see information about previous publications by visiting pigearpress.co.uk.
I’m a little late in sharing this, but the press run doesn’t seem to be sold out quite yet.
Three poems by Michelle Matthees
This is the rest, another of Kathy McTavish‘s mesmerizing pieces of sound art and kinestatic imagery. Three poems by Michelle Matthees in type form—”The Gardner Hotel,” “Bouquets” and “The Rest”—scroll slowly up the screen against a background (or is it a foreground?) of shifting shapes and tones.
Couch by Jim Dine
http://vimeo.com/35179300
An animation by Alex Itin, who writes:
two months turned to two minutes talking about two years, she tells me. Well there is the words of the great painter Jim Dine and the music of the great Javier Hernandez-Miyares and the a special shout out to Steve Pacia and always Ponyo and Leo and 1000 other scans…. ummm… next.
For more on Jim Dine, see the Wikipedia.
Ode to Gray by Sherman Alexie
A charming poem followed by a brief discussion with Bill Moyers from American public television. I post this not only because I like Sherman Alexie, but because I love the color gray.
