~ Nationality: United States ~
Silent Years by Lois-Ann Yamanaka
“Adapted from selected poems by renowned Hawaii author Lois-Ann Yamanaka, Silent Years tells a universal story using the unique dialect of Hawaiian Pidgin English,” according to the description by Kinetic Films. James Sereno directs.
In a brief interview with the Honolulu Advertiser, Yamanaka described her reaction to the film, in the production of which she had no active role:
Q. How does “Silent Years” compare with other dramatic presentations of your work? Is there a particular performance medium that is most sympathetic to your artistic aims and concerns?
A. In a word, stunning. Its images were unrelenting. Also, the use of an adult narrator made it all the more painful as a device of point of view because it implies that the girl has not fully “recovered” from the pain of her experience.
It’s always been a bit uncomfortable for me to see my work on stage at Kumu (Kahua Theatre), and now it’s uncomfortable to see my work on the screen because whereas the characters only existed in my mind before, they take on human interpretations with the actors. It’s odd. I’m sitting in a dark theater and I feel like God must feel, or the Olym-pian gods as they watch the lives and stories of those they created unfold before them.
Q. “Silent Years” is drawn from two of your early poems. What’s it like for you to experience these poems again at this stage in your writing life? Did you feel any impulse to refine or revise?
A. It never fails to evoke the same feelings in me that were evoked in the creation of the poems when I read them again or when I see them performed. I feel a knot at the pit of myself. I experience it all over again.
I feel no impulse to refine or revise. They no longer seem wholly mine. These works exist in the world and are in constant revision and refinement when someone reads them and makes them their own.
Q. What are your impressions of the individual elements of the film? The direction and cinematography? The individual actors? The narration?
A. With regard to the individual elements of the film, I was amazed at the locations they used that were very evocative and almost accurate to the text.
The face of Julie Nagata was amazing. I think she captured the essence of the girl.
What I thought was genius was the use of the adult narrator Janice Terukina, whose voice bled in and out with the performers on the film.
Wil (Kahele) as the uncle was frightening. What I didn’t expect was the subtlety of Matt’s (Miller) character’s hesitation and reluctance at certain parts of the film. In those small moments, he gave a humanity to an inhumane character.
The soundtrack is incredibly haunting and powerful.
The Hospital by Mathias Svalina
A poem by Mathias Svalina, envideoed by Nathan Young.
The Art of Disappearing by Naomi Shihab Nye
Here’s a video slideshow adaptation that someone just uploaded to Vimeo, by Matthew Craft with the University of Baltimore’s Integrated Design MFA program.
The Language is Pronounced “Dead” by Christian Peet
Christian Peet refers to his Big American Trip videos as postcards, but they’re videopoetry as far as I’m concerned. The info at YouTube seems worth quoting in full:
Performed by Kim Gek Lin Short, directed and edited by James Short, based on the book BIG AMERICAN TRIP by Christian Peet. A diverse group of activists, actors, artists, musicians, writers, and otherwise lovely & concerned individuals from all over the US have collaborated with the author to create a polyvocal series of video readings / interpretations based on the book. Assuming the form of postcards authored by an “alien” of unknown nationality, ethnicity, and gender, addressing a variety of people and organizations (political figures, multinational corporations, people in public toilets, et al), BIG AMERICAN TRIP is a startling document of fear and loneliness in the 21st century U.S. Whether deconstructing road signs, a failed relationship, or the state of contemporary poetry, the voice(s) behind these texts is/are at once familiar and strange, determined to be free, and desperate to communicate with anyone who has ever felt at odds with the Language of a Nation.
Every Now is Everything by Rich Ferguson
The poem and music are both by Los Angeles spoken word performer Rich Ferguson. This is one of the more inspired riffs on the “I’m from…” meme I’ve heard, and the directing, by Eric Smith and Ersellia Ferron, is very good. (Thanks to Khadija Anderson for the tip.)
The “I’m from…” meme, by the way, appears to have originated in a poetry workshop manual by George Ella Lyon called Where I’m From, Where Poems Come From, published in 1999 — here’s the title poem that served as a template. It was turned into a blog meme in 2005 by Fred First at the place blog Fragments from Floyd (post no longer online).
Anne Sexton at home
I’m not sure of the original provenance of the footage, but these videos appear to have been taped from Spanish TV. According to the text at the beginning, the movie was made on March 10, 1966. Sexton reads “Menstruation at 40” in the first and “Wanting to Die” in the second, and talks about poetry reading styles, why music is better than poetry, and why death is harder to write about than sex.
Here’s another YouTube video incorporating rare footage of the poet:
The Country by Billy Collins
Another in the popular series of animated Billy Collins poems produced by JWT-NY. This one’s by Brady Baltezore. Purely as a cartoon, I think it might be the most satisfying of the lot.
Shiver & You Have Weather by Matthea Harvey
A piece by Matthea Harvey, delightfully illustrated by Joseph Kraemer for the Poetry Foundation’s Poetry Everywhere series.
The Genius of the Crowd by Charles Bukowski
I’m not a big Charles Bukowski fan, but this is a well-done animation and deserves to be included. It was evidently a collaborative effort: Stefano Internullo, Lorenzo Miglietta, Emanuele Roccucci, Enrico Tanno, and Giacomo Tessitore are the names given in the credits, and they are all evidently from a Rome- and London-based design firm called Digital Bathroom. About this film, they say:
The concept was to make the same feeling of dirt, disullusione and inevitability of events in a short film. The pencil was chosen to give an intimate tone in the project.The video was made in a week, from concept to dvd, and the illustrations have this inherent urgency that makes the tract nervous.
The Long Street by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Paul May says, “A little super8 movie I shot in college. It’s based on the Ferlinghetti poem The Long Street.” The poem appeared in A Coney Island of the Mind, and may be read via Google Books here.
Zombie Haiku
Yes, zombie haiku. There’s even a book, and a website that includes zombie haiku submitted by various contemporary authors. The twisted genius behind all this is Ryan Mecum.
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
The Simpsons read “The Raven” (with help from James Earl Jones) in the third episode of the show’s second season (1990), “Treehouse of Horror I.”
