The Poetics of Poetry Film in FOTOGENIA – in conversation with Dr Christian Patch, 25, 11, 8pm GMT
Really LOOKING FORWARD to FOTOGENIA festival this year which runs from the 24th–27th November. There are 11 truly diverse and exceptional screenings. My film with Caleb Parkin’s visceral ecopoem I swallow will be in the first section, alongside I want to Breathe Sweet Air by Pamela Falkenberg and Jack Cochran with poem by Lucy English. I notice the third presentation Diafono is an hour-long film by Mexican Eric Ramos, so that would be very interesting to see. Each presentation includes interviews with the directors afterwards. I think this is a great format for a festival.
I happen to know something about the films this year, as I was invited to be one of THE JUDGES of the final films in line for first prize. I can only say each year, in all the festivals I am stunned by the consistently high standards and extraordinary uses of storytelling, the structural innovations in terms of the screen as canvas, the imaginations running wild and yet with such depth of control. It was a real joy to watch these films and I can’t wait to find out the winner!
But for me, personally, I am very excited to be INTERVIEWED LIVE by festival director Dr Christian Patch (Christian O. Pacheco-Cámara) about TPOPF and VOICE in poetry film, on Thursday at 2 pm Mexico time or 8 pm UK time. This promises to be a really fruitful conversation about the making of the book, and voice, with selected films, so please come and enjoy.
If you are an audiovisual maker interested in provoking the cinematographic image through the exploration of the frontiers and limits of film narrative, genre, format, and the nature of film itself, in order to converse with the viewers in innovative and critical ways to ignite a confrontation between reality and cinematic phenomenon, this is your place to exhibit your passion. We receive film poetry, avant-garde films, video art & experimental cinema.
https://www.fotogeniafilmfestival.org/ Here you can see the full programme and also check out the online films, and also on Facebook live https://www.facebook.com/FestivalFotogenia/
FIREWASH in ZEBRA – 25-28, 11, the Urania, Berlin
The mighty ZEBRA is now in its 12th edition, and is coming up at the end of the month from the 25th to the 28th at the new location of the Urania, Berlin. I am really pleased to say my geopoetic film Firewash about a mediaeval mining ancestor has been selected. It includes both my film and poem from the Earth Lines collection by Edinburgh Geological Society. The film is also from my poetry and poetry film family history project TREE. Please take a look at the website https://www.edinburghgeolsoc.org/earth-lines/ where you can see a collection of audiovisual works and poetry films adapted from poems in the book, or by authors in the book. It is a fascinating collection.
Firewash will be included in the section entitled PRISM: GAZING NATURE on the Friday evening.
There is a festival taster at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1RU_dmHd3k
Attending ZEBRA is a bit like visiting the Vatican in terms of poetry film festivals. There is a focus on France this year, the international competition and then of course screenings such as ZEBRINO competition; Prism: Ways of Relating; Gazing Nature, Dealing with Poetry etc.; a Poetry Lounge; Readings; a colloquium and many other events. Really, a very memorable festival to attend, and it will be interesting to see the new location.
FRAME TO FRAMES : YOUR EYES FOLLOW ekphrastic poetry film competition
FRAME TO FRAMES : YOUR EYES FOLLOW
Ekphrastic Poetry Film Screening & Sarah Tremlett Prize
at LYRA, Bristol Poetry Festival, 3, 4, 2022; 2:30–3:30 p.m. with a Q &A afterwards at The Viridor Theatre, Brunel’s SS Great Britain, Gas Ferry Rd, Bristol BS1 6TY and for one month on the LYRA website, then at Liberated Words online archive.
FREE admission with tickets available at https://www.lyrafest.com/#events/e72158
The finalists are: Marc Neys, Marc Zegans and Peg Simone, Colm Scully, Jutta Pryor, Eve Kalugin, with an additional film by myself (not in the contest!). The winner will be announced at the live screening.
Original Call
Following on from the publication of The Poetics of Poetry Film (Intellect Books, UK; The University of Chicago Press, USA), I am inviting poetry filmmakers to send me your ekphrastic poetry films on any artwork for inclusion and promotion on the Liberated Words poetry film website. This is an open submission without a deadline, but I will also be selecting films for screening at different festivals, with one screening annually. I will be giving a monetary prize for the winning film at each screening, and conducting an in-depth interview. There will also be invited judges for each annual prize.
For 2022, I have an opportunity to screen at LYRA, Bristol Poetry Festival in April, where I will be selecting 6-8 films. For the actual screening the films should be ideally around 3 minutes long, and no longer than 5 minutes and all copyright needs to be cleared. Please include English subtitles if English isn’t the original language. Please also complete an entry form & release form for each submission. Each entrant can submit up to 3 films. I would need the films by mid-March for the LYRA screening, but please get in touch to confirm.
An ekphrastic poetry film is based on a work of art, usually a painting. The film can be directly from an artwork to film, or via an ekphrastic poem written on an artwork and then made into a poetry film. I am very interested in ones where there is a written poem, as well. Although direct reproductions are fine, I would encourage works that also follow Jorie Graham’s maxim: ‘It is not trying to describe the painting, it is trying to speak from it’; or ‘a painting run through an imagination’.
I would like to take this opportunity to announce the fantastic judges for the ekphrastic poetry film prize. I am so pleased that they have taken on this onerous but rewarding task. A heartfelt thanks to all of you.
ANNA SAUNDERS
Gloucestershire poet, Anna Saunders. Picture by Clint Randall www.pixelprphotography.co.uk
Anna Saunders has been described as ‘a poet who surely can do anything’ by The North, ‘a modern mythmaker’ by Paul Stephenson, and Tears in the Fence said of her ‘Anna Saunders’ poetry is reminiscent of Plath – with all its alpha achievement and radiance’.
She is the author of Communion, (Wild Conversations Press), Struck, (Pindrop Press) Kissing the She Bear(Wild Conversations Press), Burne Jones and the Fox (Indigo Dreams), and Ghosting for Beginners (Indigo Dreams). Anna’s new book is Feverfew (Indigo Dreams). The collection has been described as ‘rich with obsession, sensuousness and potency’ by Ben Ray, and as ‘a beautiful and necessary collection’ by Penny Shuttle. She is also the Executive Director of Cheltenham Poetry Festival and works as a creative writing tutor and mentor, communications specialist, journalist, broadcaster and copywriter/editor.
Anna is often inspired by painting in her poetry and Burne Jones and the Fox was made into a poetry film by Diana Taylor of Redcliffe Films.
CHARLES OLSEN
Charles Olsen (Aotearoa New Zealand, 1969) moved to Spain in 2003 drawn by his interest in Velasquez and to study flamenco guitar. His paintings have been exhibited in Madrid, Barcelona, Oporto, Paris, Wellington and the Saatchi Gallery, London. His short film The dance of the brushes won second prize in the I Flamenco Short Film Festival, Madrid, 2010, and he has published the poetry collections Sr Citizen (2011) and Antípodas (2018). His poems and translations are included in NZ Poetry Yearbook, Landfall, Cordite Poetry Review, Blackmail Press and Neke. Charles contributed two essays, Poetry Film in Portugal and Spain, and Poetic Sound to ‘The Poetics of Poetry Film’ (Intellect Books 2021) and his essay, Poetry and Film in Colombia, is included in The London Magazine, 2021.
In 2017 he was awarded the XIII distinction Poetas de Otros Mundos by the Fondo Poético Internacional and he received the III Antonio Machado Poetry Fellowship of Segovia and Soria in 2018. Together with poet Lilián Pallares, flamenco pianist Pablo Rubén Maldonado and flamenco dancer Selene Muñoz, he created the performance Agita Flamenco which was presented in the New Zealand pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 2011 and the Sala Manuel de Falla of the SGAE, Madrid, 2012. Charles and Lilián direct the audiovisual producer antenablue ‘the observed word’ and their poetry films have been included in international festivals and featured in Moving Poems, Poetry Film Live and Atticus Review. Their collaborative Māori language film Noho Mai, won Best Poetry Film in the 8th Ó Bhéal International Poetry Film Festival, Cork.
Charles Olsen in Segovia, 2018. Photo Lilian Pallares.
MARY MCDONALD
Mary McDonald is a Canadian writer and multimedia artist whose work explores word through sound, image, and movement. McDonald’s multidisciplinary practice encompasses text, photography, poetry film, music and immersive sound, interactive AR (augmented reality) installations, and community participatory arts projects. Her poetry films and AR installations have been exhibited widely in Canada and internationally. McDonald’s poetry film and AR installation, On the Margin of History was awarded first prize in Digital and Performative Multimedia Art at Arts 2019, Surrey City Art Gallery, BC, Canada.
Mary McDonald
Mixing the Arts
The prize will be announced on the 3rd of April at the screening. This is an annual prize so submissions that have missed the deadline for this screening will be held over for next year. I am VERY EXCITED to find out who has won!
Please contact me if you need further details, otherwise send a good quality (ideally around 100 MB per min) MP.4 downloadable file link (via We Transfer etc. and an entry and release form with the subject header Frame to Frames to sftremlett@gmail.com
CLICK HERE FOR OPEN CALL DOWNLOAD
CLICK HERE FOR ENTRY FORM DOWNLOAD
CLICK HERE FOR RELEASE FORM DOWNLOAD
LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR WONDERFUL IDEAS!
Sarah
I Swallow in Fotogenia, Mexico City and Absurdah, Art House Film Festival, Sheerness
A big thank you to the judges at Fotogenia, Mexico City and Absurdah (Absurd Art House Film Festival) for selecting the poetry film of Caleb Parkin’s visceral ecopoem i swallow in their screenings. Fotogenia will be online from the 24th to the 27th of November and I will be revealing more later on their innovative and experimental programme. Absurdah will be screening in Sheerness! on Saturday 23rd, at the restored Criterion Music Hall, Blue Town, (once termed the Palace of Varieties) so if you are in London or anywhere near the Isle of Sheppey it will be a memorable experience!
Midwest Video Poetry Festival selects i swallow with poem by Caleb Parkin
Really delighted that i swallow with visceral ecopoem by Bristol City Poet Caleb Parkin, film by me Sarah Tremlett, and surreal soundscape by The Anchorites, has been selected for inclusion in the 2021 Midwest Video Poetry Festival. As a dadaist bike ride, swallowing flies and being part of the world’s ecosystem the screen ‘bodies forth’ the battle between androcentric environment and our ideal position within the biosphere.
Only 36 films were chosen for the two-day festival, which will take place on October 8th and 9th, 2021. Well done also to everyone taking part and a big thanks to Genia Daniels at artlitlab.org (they have an amazingly rich website). This year it looks very interesting as the festival is taking place over two locations: at Arts + Literature Laboratory in Madison, WI and at Woodland Pattern in Milwaukee, WI. Both locations will have limited capacity and masks are required for audience members. Please check websites for regular updates about our COVID-19 policies at www.artlitlab.org and www.woodlandpattern.org. We will also stream the festival for two weeks on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/ArtLitLab starting on Monday, October 11th and ending on Monday, October 25th.
i
Selfie with Marilyn WINS FIRST PRIZE at Maldito Video Poetry Festival, Albacete, Spain
Totally blown away – Selfie with Marilyn has won First Prize at Maldito festival, Spain! Congratulations to the wonderful poet Heidi Seaborn, and to the shining lights Hatti (Marilyn) and Georgie (stills) Rees xxx Marilyn is over the moon!!! She purrs
‘Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.’
The film was initially a commission from the New York-based Visible Poetry Project, and is from the poem in the prize-winning collection An Insomniac’s Slumber Party with Marilyn Monroe (PANK books 2021) by leading US poet Heidi Seaborn. I recommend the book to anyone for an extraordinarily eloquent, nuanced and poignant read. The poetry film (with British artist Hatti Rees playing Marilyn) is about representation, learning the lines of a poem / script and how we assume a persona, even/especially Marilyn, when she must have longed to just ‘be herself’. In the poem a Marilyn who has been around the block a few times talks to her younger self, whilst revealing small, human incidents that she holds close. It is also about the screen image itself, and how repeating the same triple image can create a different screen in terms of identity, meaning and rhythms.
The films were screened on site, on October 6 at 8:30 p.m. at the Teatro Circo de Albacete (Spain). They are also available online on their channel – the FILMIN platform – from October 7. Finalist works will remain continuously on FILMIN, along with the finalist works from past editions that are already on the platform.
A professional jury was in charge of choosing the 1st, 2nd and 3rd. prize. The Special Public Prize was also voted on October 6 via the on site pass, by the participant audience.
For more about the making of the film go to an earlier post on this site:selfie-with-marilyn-in-zebra-2020-representation-who-makes-the-image/
