Important New Family History Poetry Film – Here I Stand – by Csilla Toldy
I am so very proud to present an important and heart-rending new addition to the family history project by Budapest-born, Csilla Toldy. The poetry film – Here I Stand – was a commission from the Executive Office of Northern Ireland, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. Quite how anyone goes about such a commission, is a challenge many would find far too difficult to face. One requirement was that she was sensitive to the more recent genocides in Bosnia, Darfur, Cambodia and Rwanda. Woven around the sacrifice a mother makes for her son’s life, Csilla’s direction has let the images speak for themselves, where long silences also serve the short, agonising interactions between a male and female voice. The film also includes the walls of photographs of those brutally taken. We will never forget every one of them, but are also reminded how human beings can turn on each other; how we can lose faith in mankind, but must make sure this never happens again.
Csilla sent me details of the making of the film, and afterwards I felt there was something more she might want to add. She then told me she had visited Auschwitz in 2018 with her 85-year-old mother who had been a child witness of the Holocaust. A deeply emotional account of this trip is also included entitled ‘Reflecting on Imre Kertész’s Fatelessness’ which was originally published in Ploughshares at Emerson College, 29/10/2018. We also learn about the enormity of a choice Csilla herself had to make, as a teenager in relation to her mother, and her country. Today such a decision requires a bravery and belief foreign to most of us. But it also explains how she was the perfect author for retelling this tragic incident during WWII. So much can be written on this subject, perhaps it is best to begin by reflecting on what this six-minute film teaches, and also brings out in each of us.
Elizabeth Bishop and the Art of Losing / John D. Scott and the Art of Winning
It is a joy to read, listen to, and watch poets and be transported by poetry films but when a poetry filmmaker takes up the challenge of working in documentary form on one of the leading poets of our times, this is clearly cause for celebration. The premiere of Elizabeth Bishop and the Art of Losing (screening and online 16th Sept to 23rd) will be at Fin Atlantic International Film Festival, Halifax, Canada*, https://www.finfestival.ca an extraordinary life’s work by award-winning Halifax-raised filmmaker John D. Scott. PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately, only those resident in Atlantic Canada can see this film online, which I wasn’t aware of a few days ago. But please hold out for another screening, it is well worth the wait!!! And I will be posting about it as soon as I can.
Since the early Liberated Words festivals (2012 on) I have been lucky enough to watch the progress of John’s mammoth poetry film labour of love, translating Elizabeth Bishop’s poems. I suppose I have an empathy with large undertakings since The Poetics of Poetry Film has taken so much time (what with life, family etc.), and really has developed since 2005. I think both projects have become richer for it, being able to cast your eye and mind across a slowly evolving landscape has its own rewards for artist and viewer, as well as capitalising on changes in technology, as well. One of my early favourite Bishop / Scott poetry films is Sandpiper (2011, revised in 2014), a bird which the documentary reveals Bishop closely identified with. More about this film and an interview with John is included in TPOPF https://www.intellectbooks.com/the-poetics-of-poetry-film
Bishop was a painter as well as a poet, which perhaps has aided Scott in his poetry films to capture heightened realist, often almost fixed-frame scenes, focusing on a turning point moment. Her known ability for an ‘eye’, seeing details so sharply through her poetry, has enabled Scott to do the same with his lens. At times we have extraordinary close-ups on objects, plants etc. and the illustrations are so perfect in feel and style, especially in that they remind you of Bishop’s own delicate and naieve work.
Scott has not only directed, filmed and edited this project, but he also delivers an intimate approach to narrative. He often talks directly to Bishop, drawing us close into the unfolding scene, and giving us the sense of his affection for her and her work. Such an approach counterbalances the isolated nature of her circumstances, and her mental terrain. This partly arose from early family tragedies, and then being (and feeling) a guest in many houses throughout her life, as well as hiding her lesbian identity under the role of an ‘ordinary’ person. Such a state of mind also parallels how she found time moved too fast in New York, of herself rushing back and forth on the edge of things like the sandpiper; and trying to understand the nature of travel. All these elements are brought out so vividly in the film and show how poetry saved her life.
The quality of the final documentary has been achieved through close attention to the mise en scene, lighting, framing, quality of acting and editing, as well as surprising almost magical effects which blend seamlessly with stills, and live and animated footage. In this way the documentary extends the same components in some of the poetry films. A very good example of this, alongside combining the importance of place with a filmmaker’s interpretation (also seen in the documentary) can be found in the sublime poetry film First Death in Nova Scotia (2012). He has noted: ‘I loved the challenge of trying to see how a highly imaginative young girl might try to understand something as mysterious as death. This adaptation of Elizabeth Bishop’s poem was shot in Great Village, Nova Scotia – the town where the poem is set. Part of it was shot at Bishop’s grandparent’s home where Bishop lived for a time as a girl and where critics believe Bishop experienced the events that happen in the poem.’ In this film, powerful and even amusing effects give a clue to the girl’s vivid imagination, in the face of being exposed to her deceased young cousin, lying in state in an otherwise ordinary and unadorned room.
You have to hand it to John in bringing to the screen poetry which has already won its place in so many hearts and imaginations. A director cannot totally re-vision such work nor be a slave to it. I know that John himself has acknowledged that the (much praised and instantly recognisable) look of the poetry films has extended his go-to style, but as it turns out if anyone was going to do it, John is exactly the right person. With a highly skilled team on both the production and acting sides his poetry film adaptations are like miniature cinematic jewels that reflect both the author’s voice/eye and the director’s eye, and give the audience a real sense of the thought and planning needed to achieve the final results.
After seeing the poetry films we have some idea what to expect in Elizabeth Bishop and the Art of Losing, which weighs in at 84 minutes. About a year ago I was privileged enough to see a rough cut of the documentary, as John had asked me for my comments, and I happily gave them; but really, this felt like teaching a ‘grandmother to suck eggs’. I also realised the full extent of research and teamwork required to make such a film and how, whilst respecting Bishop’s voice, scenarios and images, John effortlessly sheds new light on her life, (and provides a blueprint for creative adaptation), whilst revealing her battle with tragedy that ultimately propels her into her greatest work.
Without giving too much away, I just want to say that the highly crafted and sensitive construction of the narrative – its pace and audio-visual means of reveal/disclosure and momentum, are excellent. It develops organically, rather than feeling imposed, with really pertinent interviewees not only contributing to but extending the storyline. Having seen many of the poetry films already, it is fascinating, as well, to see how and where they are introduced.
In the poem ‘In the Waiting Room’ (1971) it is agreed that Bishop writes of herself as a child, and Scott thinks of this poem as an allegory for her life. Sitting stiffly in a stuffy, silent waiting room with her aunt, child actress Anneke Stroink reads about other parts of the world and their bare-breasted cultures in the National Geographic and is suddenly struck by her place in the universe. Looking around the room (the constraint of shoes, fragile hands, all set in low atmospheric light, often used by Scott) she believes ‘nothing stranger had ever happened’. Scott beautifully conveys yet another moment of realisation – that of Being itself, an existential gasp of a separate human who may not feel like others, yet is somehow connected to humanity beyond Worcester, Massachusetts.
Throughout the film the imagery, editing, timing, use of voice and register (particularly from John himself), and blending of still and moving image, all continuously contextualise and convey the poet’s state of mind. Perhaps having got to know Bishop intimately through her poetry, John already had a feeling for how to convey the trajectory of her life journey in film. It is important to say that not many filmmakers really employ the tools at their disposal for conveying emotional depths or stasis through editing. Just like the poetry films themselves the documentary also possesses gems of visual or aural genius (hammering blacksmith sounds); a playfulness that fixes and underlines a moment in your memory. Or, other images that are incidental but resonate and articulate, such as where light passes slowly over an old whisk: time and the home, still yet never still. Moments pass too quickly for the poet, caught in the throes of her own dilemmas with time and motion, with Being and being a guest, yet wearing the mask of an ordinary person.
There is so much to take away in this film about Bishop’s life, and it is delivered in a way I think she herself would have appreciated. This is a documentary that, rather than simply document, provides a personal, yet well-researched response to her from another creative artist, whilst adding to the existing literature on the subject. With all the storytelling powers of film, Scott sensitively expands our understanding of the vagaries of Bishop’s mind and world, providing a valuable resource for all lovers of her work.
* I have heard that the festival will geofence the screening for only their region, but that the film will be screened at another festival soon.
Frame to Frames: Your Eyes Follow – a new poetry film initiative
For some time I have been thinking about introducing a new initiative for poetry filmmakers.
Following The Poetics of Poetry Film publication, I would like to introduce the Sarah Tremlett Poetry Film Award, which celebrates and revisions art through ekphrastic poetry + film. This will be a wholly inclusive, internationally eligible award, funded by a cash prize. There will also be an in-depth interview showcasing the artist’s work. As someone who is/has been variously an arts journalist, textile designer, and painter as well as poet, theorist and filmmaker, I am keen to support artist filmmakers who both write poetry and make poetry films but also have a deep interest in the art world itself. More to come soon.
Earth Lines: Geopoetry and Geopoetics Zoom book launch and films – 1 October 2021, 6–7.30 pm
Launched on Zoom as part of the Scottish Geology Festival, I am really delighted to introduce this exciting, innovative and valuable publication Earth Lines, with a central focus on geopoetry and geopoetics (they are different), or ‘the stratigraphy of poetry in rocks and stones’. As one of the editors (primarily a copy editing /proofreading role) and a poetry contributor (‘Firewash’), it has been a joy to work with the other editors and all the varied poets and essayists involved: poets, scientists, scientist-poets, all roundly connected to planet Earth.
The publication couldn’t come at a better time. With the world in an increasingly perilous state, we need to pool our understandings and eco/geological value systems, to share and elucidate. Poetry can open our eyes, be poetry and inform. As we walk, climb, go bird-watching, or landscape painting, we might stop for a second and apprehend in the blue horizon something more-than-human, the vastness of time (Deep Time) itself. The ‘lines’ in this book have evolved from just such a connection.
For me, the combination of poetic engagement with scientific knowledge and hands-on experience has opened up the field (literally and metaphorically). To give you an idea of the type of mix, our central editorial ‘keystone’! has been geoscientist (with a particular interest in reservoir geophysics), poet and ‘student of poetry’ Professor Patrick Corbett whose energy and vision has driven the project to what it is today. Simply, the book wouldn’t have existed without him. Equally, working with (learning from) leading geopoet Norman Bissell (The Scottish Centre for Geopoetics), Trondheim-based geoscientist adjunct Professor Philip Ringrose (research leader at The Centre for Geophysical Forecasting) and Brian Whalley (Emeritus Professor of Geomorphology) with an interest in ‘glacial geology and fieldwork education’, has been truly enlightening. And, as a poet and theorist but non-scientist, it is not hard to imagine a poetic interpretation of, for example, glacial geology; especially an informed interpretation. Expanding poetic frontiers, this book is at the forefront of breaking down barriers between poetry and the sciences.
Whilst Earth Lines has already garnered wonderful reviews (a highlight being from Kenneth White himself), I would just like to add that I believe it to be unique in providing different approaches to the subject, whilst also offering wider understandings of the themes. Setting a historical context with essays such as ‘Auden’s “In Praise of Limestone”’ (Corbett), the book covers areas that include: geoidentity, stratigraphy, geological processes, climate change, geologists at work, and environmental psychology as well as geopoetry and geopoetics. It is impossible to cite individual contributors, but poets range from: John Bolland, whose writing and films give us an arresting perspective on climate change, to prize-winning poet of the rocks Alyson Hallett, to leading poet Yvonne Reddick, to Dorset scribe Sarah Acton, to award-winning US-based ecopoet Lynne Goldsmith, to Scottish poet and artist Rachel Tennant, to famed broadcast poet John Hegley to Dr R.M. Francis on place and ancestral genius-loci, close to my own heart.
Earth Lines Online: Poetry Films
Following my suggestion, I feel the Edinburgh Geological Society has gone the extra mile in including poetry films on its site, and my tentative request for a ‘geopoetry map’ showing all the geolocations of the poems around the world has been fantastically implemented by Angus Miller, Chair of the Scottish Geodiversity Forum. This kind of blending of technology with theme (doubling up the geo aspect, as it were) is so very exciting! A stone or site catches the eye and becomes a poem that ultimately reappears to viewer-astronauts looking down on the planet. The macro and the micro shift ineluctably, echoing the dynamics of these two perspectives in poetry itself. As Blake reminds us: ‘To See a World in a Grain of Sand’.
In terms of Earth Lines Online, the audio-visual works, like the page poems themselves, have a varied approach in subject matter, length, poetic style, visual art etc. and each one deserves much greater study. To date these include: Sarah Acton, Andrew Abraham, John Bolland, Ken Cockburn, Patrick Corbett, Yvonne Reddick, Phil Ringrose, Brian Rosen, Rachel Tennant and myself. I will be looking at these works in more depth in due course. Just to say for now that poetry films can inspire and inform us as individual art forms, but in conjunction with a publication they perform a dual role. In Earth Lines the reader can experience the page poem as one iteration of an author’s thinking (beyond the content, to also include the layout on the page, any illustrations, the feel of the book etc). Then, as viewer, they rediscover the text like unchartered terrain, a new understanding of a landscape altered by constantly changing elements, bringing perhaps an unexpected but unforgettable revisioning.
For further information on the book and links to the online films please go to:
https://www.edinburghgeolsoc.org/earth-lines/
Earth Lines: the online launch
1 October @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Join Patrick Corbett and other contributors online to celebrate the launch of Earth Lines: Geopoetry and Geopoetics published by the Edinburgh Geological Society, organised by the Scottish Geology Trust and part of The Scottish Geology Festival. This is a book that explores the stratigraphy of the poetry in rocks and stones.
The Earth Lines book launch programme will include:
- Patrick Corbett on the background to Earth Lines: Geopoetry and Geopoetics
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- Readings from poets: Elizabeth Wong, John Hegley, Alice Major, Alina Hayder, Stuart Graham, Mark Cooper, Neil Hodgson, Sila Pla-Pueyo, Jack Cooper
- Round Table discussion with Norman Bissell, Yvonne Reddick, John Bolland, Brian Whalley, Rob Francis
- Sarah Tremlett will introduce Earth Lines Online, with a reading from Ken Cockburn
- Q&A from audience
“A pleasure to hold, a delight to behold.” Kenneth White, Founder of the International Institute of Geopoetics.
“Earth Lines is a delightful outcrop of poetry and prose.” Elsa Panciroli, Scottish Geology Trust.
Free, booking required: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launch-of-earth-lines-geopoetry-and-geopoetics-tickets-167240469747
An event in the Scottish Geology Festival, organised by the Scottish Geology Trust.
Please support us: Join – Volunteer – Donate.
photo: kind permission of Patrick Corbett
new process notes for Dad by Numbers from poet Carolyn Masel
Back after the summer break – a new addition to the Family History Poetry Film Project from Australian poet Carolyn Masel. So good to have more information on this film. A revealing account of her poem and process notes, written many years after the events described – a feature of many family history poems.
In-depth Interview with ST by Genia Daniels of Artlitlab and the Midwest Video Poetry Festival
Very big thanks to Genia Daniels – Director of the Midwest Video Poetry Festival for her in-depth interview on my work, for the ALL Review section https://artlitlab.org/all-review of the online arts magazine https://artlitlab.org. It covers questions on video poetic practice, background and Selfie with Marilyn (with poem by Heidi Seaborn from the prizewinning collection). Good to have the opportunity to share all the way markers on the long and winding journey. 
@rtlitlab @moving_poems @poetryfilmkanal @ZebraFestival @poetryfilmlive@filmpoem @sarahtremlett
