~ Nationality: United States ~
Jayne Cortez live with Denardo Coleman: three poems
1. Find Your Own Voice
2. I’m Gonna Shake
3. She Got He Got
The recent death of Jayne Cortez prompted a post on Metafilter calling attention to her pioneering and musically compelling work with jazz musicians. Though most of the YouTube material is audio-only, the above videos were expertly filmed and recorded. They’re from a concert/reading in 2010 with Denardo Coleman accompanying his mother on drums. Andrew Lynn directed, with camera work by Elanor Goldsmith, Ira McKinley and Joshua Thorson. The description on YouTube reads:
“A Dialogue Between Voice and Drums,” live at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY on October 23, 2010. A firespitting evening with drummer Denardo Coleman, featuring a voice celebrated for her political, surrealistic, dynamic innovations in lyricism, and visceral sound. Cortez’s literary work and impassioned activism, inspired by the ideals of human dignity and social justice, have been called blues poetics, part of the foundation of hip hop and performance poetry. Denardo Coleman is a musician, composer, producer and drummer with the Ornette Coleman Quartet.
Darkroom by Erica Goss
Erica Goss should be familiar to regular readers of Moving Poems for her monthly column about videopoetry, The Third Form, but she is also a very good poet in her own right, as this new collaboration with Swoon (Marc Neys) demonstrates. This was actually a tri-national collaboration, because the cinematography was by Alastair Cook, re-edited by Marc. For the text of the poem, as well as some process notes, see Marc’s blog.
I Want To Die While You Love Me by Georgia Douglas Johnson
This mash-up by Othniel Smith is so wrong, it’s right: images from Red Detachment of Women accompany a Librivox reading of a classic poem from the Harlem Rennaissance poet Georgia Douglas Johnson. I hope her heirs have a sense of humor.
Nirvana by Charles Bukowski
A very popular poem — there are three videos for it on Vimeo alone — probably because it captures in simple language an experience most of us have felt, and also because there’s a great recording of Tom Waits reading it (which is the narration used here). It also has that wistful, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” kind of vibe, even though the holidays aren’t mentioned. And for me this poetry film epitomizes the appeal of down-home, local diners. (I worked as a short-order cook in a diner for a few years when I was young.)
The director, Patrick Biesemans, says about himself:
I currently work as head of production for a cool little company in Manhattan, and when the opportunity arises I am a freelance director of commercials, fashion films, and music videos.
The film was supported by a successful Kickstarter campaign and shot on a $4000 budget. The campaign description shows Biesemans’ thinking about the project:
We would love the opportunity to pay tribute to Waits and Bukowski by creating a short film inspired by, and complimentary to, this great poem. This video project would be visual poetry, focusing on the atmospheric qualities that Waits’ presents with his voice, and Bukowski with his words. A story revolving around the quiet moments that spark and inspire great writing. […]
Our approach would be to shoot this live action and on location, with a playful mix of practical effects and miniature elements (mainly using model railroad train elements); A surreal yet welcoming artistic representation of the world. I want the influences of the 1950’s and 60’s to shape the art direction, costuming, and mood of this project.
We have no plans to submit this to film festivals or get praise for completing such a great project. We’re doing this as a “love letter” to travelers, writers, singers, campfire storytellers, and poets.
Lastu Adri (I do not know) by Elia Abu Madi
Directed by Egyptian film student and photographer Forat Sami, with acting and narration by Yousef Bakir and sound production by Mohamed Elshazly. For background on the Lebanese-American poet Elia Abu Madi, the Wikipedia has a bare-bones bio.
His poems are very well known among Arabs; journalist Gregory Orfalea wrote that “his poetry is as commonplace and memorized in the Arab world as that of Robert Frost is in ours.”
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in… by e.e. cummings
Director/producer and editor Jacqueline Donahue was assisted by director of photography Nathan Ng and actors Naomi Khanukayev and Sami Lodi. I like the fact that the father in the poem, from whose perspective the film was shot, is never shown, and the relationship between the daughter and a boyfriend adds an interesting dimension to the text (which may be read at the Poetry Foundation website).
For a very different videopoetic interpretation, see Experimental Film: Heart by Coenraad Viviers.
Ardenter by David Tomaloff
Another fun videopoem collaboration from David Tomaloff (voice and “poem written especially for this project”) and Swoon (concept, editing and music).
Footage: ‘How to make perfect hard boiled eggs’ (Food wishes video recipes – Chef John) provided by allrecipes.com
‘undercover investigation at Hy-line hatchery’ (mercyforanimals.org)
This is part of an international project among 14 different artists, “Seven Sins / Seven Virtues,” as Swoon explains in a blog post. He used C.S. Lewis’ definition of gluttony in The Screwtape Letters as a guide.
We might complain about unimportant defects in a product, the temperature in the room, or the color of a laundry basket. There is a certain amount of discomfort to be expected in life, but the Glutton will have none of it. Instead of becoming strong by suffering the minor inconveniences of life, the Glutton insists on being pampered. No one dares to point out how petty or foolish they are. In fact, some celebrities are praised for their excessive perfectionism, as though it were a virtue.
Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986 by William S. Burroughs
According to Open Culture,
“Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986” first appeared in print in Tornado Alley, a chapbook published by William S. Burroughs in 1989. Two years later, Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, My Own Private Idaho, Milk) shot a montage that brought the poem to film, making it at least the second time the director adapted the beat writer to film.
