~ Nationality: United States ~
Bells of Atlantis by Anaïs Nin
I just discovered that someone had uploaded a copy of this landmark film from 1952. Anaïs Nin’s husband Ian Hugo directed, with text from Nin’s novella House of Incest recited by the author over an electronic score by Louise and Bebe Barron. While the text may not be poetry per se, the form and style of the film anticipates modern filmpoetry/videopoetry by decades.
The Best Cigarette by Billy Collins
One of the 11 Billy Collins animations produced by New York TV station JWT in 2007. This one was directed by Will Hyde with animation by David Vaio.
Baggage Claim by Regis McKenna
This jazzy “video poem of New York City” by Jarrett Robertson, with music by Gaeland McKenna, has racked up more than 19,000 views on YouTube and close to 14,000 views on Dailymotion. I’m guessing that the Regis McKenna credited with the text is not the same as the Silicon Valley marketing expert.
Cephalo by Leah Silvieus
A live-reading-with-video – videopoem hybrid, part of an interesting (and sadly under-watched) series on YouTube by Homestead MediaJive TV called “Poets of the Unreeled,” featuring poets from the Miami area. Leah Silvieus is an MFA candidate at the University of Miami.
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Swoon‘s very abstract take on the Frost poem, with a reading by Nic S. from Pizzicati of Hosanna.
As you might imagine, there are more than a few videos for this poem on the internet, most of them depressingly void of originality. So often, it seems, this is the fate of the most popular poems — to be badly read. Apparently it takes a filmmaker for whom English is a second language to hear the poem with a more open mind. Of course, Nic S.’s reading may have had something to do with that, too.
Seatbelts Off by Kelli Anne Noftle
A poem from the new collection I Was There for Your Somniloquy, winner of the 2010 Omnidawn Book Prize, read by the author, Kelli Anne Noftle. Film by Erin Lee Smith.
When at a Certain Party in NYC by Erin Belieu
Motionpoems’ latest animation. (See the comments to that post for a quote on the process by animator Amy Schmitt, as well as the poet’s reaction to the finished piece.) This is another of the films produced in collaboration with Best American Poetry 2011.
Flames by Billy Collins
A new film by Brandon Dziokonski blends animation with recycled footage from old Smokey the Bear public service anouncements.
