REELpoetry 2021 – 24th-28th February
REELpoetry is back this year as a worldwide event online. From 24-28 February Houston-based Reelpoetry at https://www.publicpoetry.net and directed by Fran Sanders will be viewable in the US with CST, and a handy clickable link to find out the time in your part of the world. Each day has a combination of more indepth and intimate discussions, presentations and interviews, including the topic of signing poetry alongside the familiar open competition, where the audience also get to vote. Don’t miss the opening event where the main presenters each have 15 minutes to introduce themselves. They are: Fran Sanders; Matvey Rezanov; Sarah Tremlett; Mary McDonald; Helen Dewbery; Eleanor Livingstone; Sabina England; Lucy English; Chaucer Cameron; Reynaliz Herrera. I will be presenting three of my films which are very different in content and form.
I am being interviewed on Friday February 26th by Dr Meriel Lland on The Poetics of Poetry Film which is out on the 9th April available from Intellect Books and The University of Chicago Press. And Lucy English is also presenting poetry films from The Book of Hours on the Friday. We will be having a Q and A afterwards so please drop in.
For those who would like to learn a bit more about making poetry films Mary McDonald will be running a friendly, hands-on workshop on the Saturday. One novel part of the festival I have been involved in is entitled Deconstructed and Reconstructed. I quote the programme:
‘Public Poetry created a contest for REELpoetry whereby poets used 5 pre-selected short film and video clips to inspire their poems. A panel of judges selected the best ekphrastic pieces. Selected poets chose their own music, typeface, person to read, – choices normally left to the filmmaker. Mary McDonald and Sarah Tremlett used this information to create the filmpoetry & videopoems based on the poets’ choices.’
It has been a really interesting experience and I was very surprised and pleased at how this part of the festival turned out. I think the poets will now have the confidence to attempt their own poetry films. I have enjoyed being involved in various parts of the event with Mary, and I really appreciate the way that Fran opened up the discussion to really get to know what makes poetry film and filmmakers tick. This looks like being a regular event on the poetry film festival scene for years to come.
