~ ReVersed Poetry Film Festival ~

Address to the Amsterdam ReVersed Poetry Film Festival Symposium by Tom Konyves

On 4 May, 2014 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - Miscellaneous, Videopoems
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As the founding father of videopoetry, Tom Konyves is often asked to present at conferences and symposiums, but the ReVersed Poetry Film Festival in Amsterdam last month was the first to ask him to do so with reference to his own life and works. The film that he and Alex Konyves put together in response blends theory with reminiscences of some fascinating moments in avant-garde history, and includes a number of excerpts from Tom’s videopoems, some not otherwise available on the web — which is why I decided to share this here on the main site. Tom also provided the text of his talk at my request, which we’ve posted over at the forum (with added links to the full-length versions of a few of the referenced videopoems).

My favorite part is the bit about the role of chance, illustrated by a videopoem composed using the I Ching. Echoing Louis Pasteur (“Chance favors only the prepared mind”), Konyves says:

One has to be open and prepared for chance events to occur. On a perfect summer day, I decided to bring my equipment to nearby St. Helen’s Island. I found a spot to set up and began searching for an image that in retrospect I would call having a collaborative property, or at least collaborative potential. After about an hour of shooting windsurfers, I found three sailboats floating on the water. It was like a picture postcard. Suddenly I realized that behind the sailboats and a land mass there was a large ship moving across the screen.

“Collaborative potential”: yes. The world can be like that sometimes.

Anyway, the talk is full of such stories and insights. Enjoy.

Address to the Amsterdam ReVersed Poetry Film Festival Symposium, April 4, 2014

On 4 May, 2014 by Tom Konyves with 0 Comments - conferences, festivals and other screening events, opinions, theory

Here’s the full transcript of Tom Konyves’ address; see the main site for the video shot by Alex Konyves. Tom gives a very personal introduction to the concept of videopoetry, using examples of his own work as a videopoet to illustrate some of the points he’s long been making as a critic and theorist. I have added just a few links. —Dave

Thank you Yan, Linda, Anne for the opportunity to address the ReVersed Poetry Film Festival Symposium.

I was asked to introduce the genre of videopoetry with my own work.

I won’t be able to talk about the meaning of my videopoems, as it’s always subjective, always in the eye of the beholder. What I can talk about is their structural form and how I came to discover the process of assembling, the strategies I employed, specifically in my early works.

You may not be able to tell, but I wear two hats. The first is for the poet who can mix text, image and sound and design a new condition for the poetic experience. The other is for the observer-critic who reflects on what is being seen and can tell us about these works, how they relate to the world they are presenting as a new world. It is the critic who asks, What makes this work different from a really good printed poem? or Will you always associate the images on the screen with the words you heard or read? and Where is the poetry in this work?

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ReVersed Poetry Film Festival 2014 set for first weekend in April

On 29 March, 2014 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - festivals and other screening events

Working at break-neck speed, the organizers of the brand-new ReVersed Poetry Film Festival slated for April 4-6 in Amsterdam have scheduled a full program of screenings and events — it looks great. They even found time to make the above trailer. Timo Geschwill is the filmmaker, with text and voiceover by Daniel Vorthuys and sound design by Sinan Guven.

In other poetry festival-related news, Filmpoem has a slick new website — check it out.

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Poetry films sought for ReVersed Festival in Amsterdam and VideoBardo in Buenos Aires

On 8 March, 2014 by Dave Bonta with 0 Comments - calls for work, contests, festivals and other screening events

ReVersed Poetry Film Festival, scheduled for April 4-6 in Amsterdam, is the newest videopoetry festival on the international scene. They’re operating on a somewhat accelerated schedule, so interested filmmakers should not delay in submitting work — the deadline is March 24. Let me paste in some of the text from their call for entries.

Re-Versed Poetry Film Festival is launching its first edition, inviting artists, poets and filmmakers to explore the intersection between poetry and film. With its scope encompassing screenings, performances and talks, Re-versed is the first festival in the Netherlands to focus on the poetry film genre. Co-hosted by Perdu, Kriterion and OT301, it seeks both to illuminate the growing field of poetry film as well as to broaden it by providing an opportunity for filmmakers to participate in an open call for submissions.

What is a Poetry Film?
A filmic equivalent of poetry, poetry film is distinct from a poetic film in its aesthetic: it incorporates text, whether written or spoken, within its frames – a poem taking shape on screen. We invite you to explore the emerging field of poetry filmmaking: although most notably outlined by Tom Konyves’ manifesto and Alastair Cook’s Filmpoem project, it remains an open-ended area, an opportunity for experimentation. The works carried out in most innovative and creative ways will be screened and awarded at the festival. A jury will select the prize-winning films.

Entry guidelines:

• All entries must be submitted by March 24, 2014.

• All entries must conform to the poetry film aesthetic: text, spoken, written or animated must be incorporated.

• Entries longer than 12 minutes will not be accepted.

• Entries may be submitted by Dutch and international artists. Please provide English subtitles for your film if English is not the language of the film.

It’s exciting to see new poetry film festivals like this continuing to spring up all over the world. Please support them by sending in work, and of course attending if you can. Click through to download a submission form. (Another version of the call for entries, on the Perdu site, includes guidelines in Dutch.)

One of the longest-running poetry film festivals in the world, VideoBardo, also recently released a call for entries for their 2014 edition.

VideoBardo, founded on 1996, calls artists to participate in the V International Videopoetry Festival, which is composed by Preliminary Events along 2014 in different cities and places, and by a Central Week in November in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

We understand Videopoetry as all audiovisual work where verbal language (word, letter, speech, speaking, writing, sign) is protagonist or has a special transformer treatment. Therefore these three fields: Image in movement, Sound and Verbal language, dialog with each other in order to create a fourth reality which is the Videopoetic Work. So in videopoetry the verbal language is experienced in visual, sound, corporal and physical dimensions.

The deadline is August 15. Click through to download the bilingual guidelines and entry form.

Don’t forget that the main Moving Poems links page includes, as its last category, a nearly complete list of international poetry film festivals. For recent festival news and call-outs, browse the “festivals and other screening events” topic here at the forum.

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