Can Poetry Change the World? asks Pam Falkenberg & Jack Cochran in Screening Texas Poets
Back in April I took part in REELpoetry online which was a full week-long festival, directed by Houston-based Fran Sanders and rich with poetry filmmakers, discussions, and important work. I have been a judge for REELpoetry for quite a few years, though not recently, and the festival has grown, through COVID too, to become a really significant date in the calendar. The live event this year happened on April 12th, at the University of St Thomas in Houston.
Outlier Moving Pictures – Pamela Falkenberg and Jack Cochran were part of both the live and online festivals, with their large-scale project – Screening Texas Poets. Pam and Jack work tirelessly in the field, as many of you will know. They are fuelled both by (often dangerous) activist filmmaking, revealing atrocities in the chemical and oil industries, and also a commitment to producing highly detailed work with both images and sound.
Screening Texas Poets involved Jack and Pam working with four important Texas poets to make incisive poetry films based on their political poems. With a beautifully constructed documentary, we are firstly treated to the poets reading their poems, then the poetry films based on the poems and finally the poets are asked two questions: ‘Can Poetry Change the World? And ‘What is Poetry?’
All four poems hit hard, confronting real-life humanitarian crises, injustice and the (everyday) fallout of the right-wing, authoritarian, totalitarian politics we are being forced to live with and witness at this time.
Wall by David Bowles
You might think that this type of filmmaking might be quite straightforward but if you take, for example, ‘Wall’ by Mexican American poet, professor and President of Texas Institute of Letters David Bowles, you can see that this isn’t exactly the case. Centred on Trump’s horrific, despotic Mexico-US border wall, this particular poem required exactly the skills that Pam and Jack possess – poetry filmmaking as investigative journalism. They literally drive out into the landscape and find those images that are striking and politically damning: living symbols of hatred and abuse of power.
Facing US, Amanda Johnston
This is echoed in ‘Facing US’ (Black Rights and police brutality) by 61st Texas Poet Laureate Amanda Johnston, and “Kel-tec PF-9” (the auctioning of the gun used to shoot Trayvon Martin) by Houston’s First Black Poet Laureate Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton. On a worldwide platform, Houston’s Fifth Poet Laureate Outspoken Bean gives voice to the unending nightmare of the current war in Ukraine (which is now in its third year, having begun in 2022).
Kel-tec PF-9, Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
The responses to Can Poetry Change the World are very revealing, often enlightening and also inspiring. A few years ago I was part of a panel presenting poetry films on Climate Change at The British Library. I was asked if I really thought it would make any difference in making the film. I said yes, that every viewing can prompt further action; and that collectively I believe we can work for change. Every voice counts today. You must believe you have a voice, and that you can take a stand. This is, after all, the poet’s calling. We have social media and film festival platforms – use them. Do not stand back and do nothing.
Outspoken Bean – Can Poetry Change the World?
This documentary confronts the major questions that are being asked about the corruption and fascism in governments today. Here, poets speak about their role and its efficacy in a political climate that is literally destroying the planet. The message is: we are not silent, nor impotent, though they try to make us so. And as petitions rise daily, and legal projects take on government despotism there is something you can do as a citizen – speak out.
I urge you to take the time to read the process notes and watch this wonderful documentary…. In the following link you will find Notes on the event and at the very end on the final image, the video of Screening Texas Poets.
CLICK HERE FOR NOTES AND THE VIDEO OF SCREENING TEXAS POETS
https://www.Outliermovingpictures.com
https://www.outspokenbean.com/
https://www.amandajohnston.com/
