~ Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre ~
Thoughts on Poetry & Image Symposium at MERL, Reading, UK
A month ago, in June 2022, I attended ‘Poetry & Image: a symposium’ held at the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) in Reading, UK. The event is a collaboration between the University of Reading and Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre with talks, poetry readings and discussions. It was jointly hosted by the equally welcoming Professor Steven Matthews (Reading) and Dr Niall Munro (Oxford Brookes). I attended because: a) it’s local for me, b) it’s free and c) who doesn’t still want to take every opportunity to do something in person again?
This event is coming very much from the point of view of poets and writers, so I wasn’t initially going to write anything about the event for Moving Poems. However, looking back over my notes a month later, I realised that there was one very interesting thing that I wanted to share. A common thread that ran through the presentations and discussions throughout the day was the extent to which writers are mystified by, or in awe of, images and artists. In the case of ekphrastic writing a big worry was how can a poet possibly do justice to the image/sculpture/artwork of an artist?
My response, in conversation with Niall Munro, was how all those thoughts happen the other way around as well. As a filmmaker I am thinking about how can I create something in images and am worrying about what the poet might make of what I’ve done and how dare I mess around with their work. I pass this on here because I imagine that it might help many filmmakers to realise that the poets are just as intimidated by us as image-makers as we might be by them as wordsmiths. Once we get past our fears, and in collaboration, we can create some very exciting things.
And lastly – I forget exactly how this poem was introduced on the day, but I encourage you to read ‘Why I am Not a Painter by Frank O’Hara’ As creatives we are different, but also so much the same.
Call for work: films based on poems from UK publisher Ignition Press
Ignition Press is a publisher of poetry pamphlets (which is what chapbooks are called in the UK) recently launched by the Poetry Centre at Oxford Brookes University. I’ve just learned about a cool contest they’ve set up to generate filmpoems for their initial crop of pamphlets. The prizes aren’t terribly big, but I know a lot of poetry filmmakers are mainly just looking for good texts to work with, so I expect this will be a success, and I would encourage other poetry presses to try something similar. Check it out:
Make a short film about a poem published by ignitionpress and win recognition and prizes!
The films should last 2-5 mins & be about one of the five following poems
(apart from that you have complete creative freedom):
‘//’ by Mary Jean Chan (available here)
‘reasons for leaving home’ by Belinda Zhawi (available here)
‘Moss’ by Natalie Whittaker (available here)
‘Half Measures’ by Patrick James Errington (available here)
‘We are to blame for the decline of the giraffes and only we can save them’ by Lily Blacksell (available here)
You can find the individual poems at the links above and all five here.
What is a poetryfilm? Alastair Cook, Filmmaker and Director of Film-poem Festival, says: ‘A poetry film is a single entwined entity, a melting, a cleaving together of words, sound and vision. It is an attempt to take a poem and present it through a medium that will create a new artwork, separate from the original poem.’
Inspiration & examples of other filmpoems can be found here.
Prizes: £50, £30, £20 Amazon vouchers
Major exposure: the winners’ films will be shared on our website, social media and could be shown at events organised by, or involving, ignitionpress.
Deadline: Friday 7th June, 5pm. To enter, please submit your poetryfilm to Niall Munro at p0076993@brookes.ac.uk If the file is too large to e-mail, share it via Google Drive or another file sharing service.
Winners announced: Friday 14th June.
Judges: Niall Munro, Director of ignitionpress, and interns.
ignitionpress is a pamphlet press based at Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre. Find out more about the pamphlets and the poets here. All poems are copyright, but the poets have granted permission for filmmakers to use their work.
Questions? Please contact Theodora Vida (15094967@brookes.ac.uk) or Niall Munro (p0076993@brookes.ac.uk).
