Solstice Sol Invictus news – screenings across the globe
Very excited and proud to say that Solstice Sol Invictus (a poetry film centred on light, hope, faith – regeneration and solar time) will be in the welcoming and richly varied online arts festival At the Fringe, Tranas, Sweden, available from the 9th–18th October online – see
https://www.atthefringe.org/film-2020. They say ‘The whole selection has been divided in two halves. In the evenings of the 10th and 11th of October, there will be two online “openings” for each of them, in which the selection will be presented and the films will be made accessible to the virtual public.’ Many many thanks to Laura Bianco at Spegel film and the team organizing the festival. I shall certainly be watching, but wishing I was there!
I am also really honoured to say it has also been selected for the Film and Video Poetry Symposium in South Pasadena, West Coast USA, which will run from November to December 2020. There will be three venues: an outdoor venue, an online programme and a selection on view in an art gallery. Sounds a nicely balanced format. We will find out more very soon! Again, I would like to believe I could travel across the world to be there … In the meantime, you can follow the Film and Video Poetry Society at:
https://www.facebook.com/FVPSociety
https://www.instagram.com/FVPSociety
SYNOPSIS
As the unconquered sun rises from the winter solstice, it also descends from the summer solstice to winter again; moving through two parallel equinoxes. The first four verses are by Sarah Tremlett and the second four as a response, by Lucy English. This poetry film, including the voice of poetry film-maker Helmie Stil, and experimenting with light and time, was made for The Book of Hours poetry film project by Lucy English. The choice of the footage was partly influenced, I see now, by my interest in early surrealist images of nature, for example: Black Sun 1927–8 by German artist Max Ernst (1891–1976), is one that stands out, or Ambassador of Autumn (1922) by Swiss-German artist Paul Klee (1879–1940).
SPEAKING ROCKS – GEOPOETRY 2020 1st OCTOBER
Really very honoured to be presenting at this genuinely ‘rocking’ conference organised by the Geological Society, with a strong team of geopoets at the helm and taking part. Whilst pre-COVID-19 the event would have been live, (with all that encompasses in relation to the theme), geological sites have found their online visual voice through poetry plus photographs, paintings, music and poetry film. Renowned poet John Hegley is headlining the day, with unmissable talks and readings from: Yvonne Reddick, Sarah Acton, Norrie Bissell, Nia Davies, Alyson Hallett, Ken Cockburn and more, including the Hugh Miller Writing Competition poetry winners Jack Cooper (18–25) and Claire Rinterknecht (under 18). I will be reciting the poem and showing the poetry film of ‘Firewash’, the second episode from Tree my family history geopoetry and poetry film project. To sign up to catch the conference please go to: https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/geopoetry20 where they note:
‘This event is to follow up the Geological Society’s first Geopoetry Day (held in 2011), and was due to take place at the Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh. While due to the coronavirus situation it will now take place online, we are delighted to present a programme that brings together voices from around the world while remaining firmly rooted in Scotland.
Rocks have long inspired poets (refer to Burns’ “O my Luve’s like a red, red rose”poem 2794): “Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt wi’ the sun”.
To the present day poets are similarly inspired. Michael McKimm’s Fossil Sunshine (2013) and “MAP, Poems after William Smith’s Geological Map of 1815” (2015) showed how geological subject matter from Geopoetry 2011 could inspire poets: “…the poems here make Smith’s map anew in moving and surprising ways”. The Jurassic Coast Poems (2017) by Sarah Acton, the Jurassic resident poet, showed continued inspiration: “We hear the red rock Speak in ripples”.
This event, to be held on National Poetry Day (1 October 2020), is hosted by the Geological Society (in conjunction with the Central Scotland Group), the Scottish Poetry Library and the Edinburgh Geological Society and will bring together poets and geoscientists to further encourage the rocks to speak.
Thanks to the sponsorship of the Scottish Energy Forum, registration for this event is free.’
FRIDAY 31st JULY, 7.45 (BST) TIMES IN SOUND, LETTERS OF WAR
CANADIAN WAR LETTERS
Join Canadian Mary McDonald, Program Delivery Lead for Pinnguaq (a not-for-profit organization based in Lindsay, Ontario), for the premiere of her mammoth, geo-located sound project, Times in Sound, Letters of War. Drawing from the Canadian Letters and Images project of Vancouver Island University, Mary has composed and mapped letters written to and from WWI soldiers and their families who were located in Southwestern Ontario; (within 150 km radius of her home in London, Ontario). Uncovering poignant and historically revealing statements, or often heart-rending final words, Mary explores the power of sound and place with this mapped and geo-located sound work, where fragments from the letters serve as both lyric and note.
This is part of the Maskwacis Cultural College Microlearning Series and is open to the public. Registration link: https://forms.gle/cg16M8BxZfsT2hcf6
Still thinking of you!
The Power of Language – Roxana Vilk interviewed by Rebecca Hilton
‘The Power of Language’: Interview with Roxana Vilk, for Liberated Words
Interviewer: Rebecca Hilton, June 2020
We are very excited and pleased to showcase Liberated Words’ first podcast interview, ‘The Power of Language’ (a quotation from Roxana Vilk), which delves into the exhilarating world of British/Iranian artist, Roxana Vilk. Roxana’s multidisciplinary art practice explores migration and identity; spanning across the Middle East and the UK.
Our interviewer, Rebecca Hilton, also shares Iranian heritage. This prompted a deeper conversation into Roxana’s childhood memories of her life in Iran, celebrating ancestry and the importance of song and storytelling as the inspiration behind her practice.
Roxana’s work is offering a platform to voices, that we would otherwise never hear from. Check out the links below, to discover more about her current theatre project, Lullabies, her music within Vilk Collective, and her work within TV, film and poetry films.
Podcast Interview:
https://soundcloud.com/or-dio/roxana-vilk-interview-with-rebecca-hilton-02062020-1000
‘The Power of Language’ is also available as a transcription, see: http://liberatedwords.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Transcription-Roxana-Vilk-Interview-for-Liberated-Words-by-Rebecca-Hilton-2020.pdf
Links to Roxana Vilk’s work
Main website:
Music:
https://vilkcollective.bandcamp.com
spotify:artist:1Pw55Rfi90ebMun8a9XOTS
Current Project, Lullabies, with Trinity, Bristol:
http://roxanavilk.com/lullabies
https://www.trinitybristol.org.uk/activities/lullabies
Iranian song, Mara beboos, cited in interview:
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/mara-beboos-kiss-me.html
About the interviewer
Rebecca Hilton is a young British artist and arts journalist. She graduated from Central Saint Martins, achieving a First-Class BA Honours in Fine Art. She is based in Bristol and recently exhibited her live event, Seven Films, at Fringe Arts Bath 2020.
Artist Website:
https://rebecca-hilton.wixsite.com/rebeccahilton
Instagram:
@rebecca_hilton_
Solstice Sol Invictus selected for Versopolis, Festival of Hope and At the Fringe festival, Sweden, 27 June-4 July
Very pleased to hear that Solstice Sol Invictus – with first four verses and direction by myself, and final 4 verses by Lucy English (and additional voice by Helmi Stil), has been selected for At the Fringe, a very interesting festival in Tranås, Sweden. This poetry film (a pair to Summer Solstice), has been popular at festivals, and centres on the rising of the sun from winter solstice to summer and back again. It is a poem about faith and hope; perhaps beliefs we are all calling on more in these difficult times. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the festival will be held online, I am told, so I am looking forward to catching it later this month. Hoping to make the real event next year!
Solstice was also selected in April for the FESTIVAL OF HOPE organized by the Berlin-based organization Haus für Poesie in cooperation with Versopolis Review, mining social and political questions https://www.versopolis.com with online events t/out the year.
‘Versopolis, a platform of 30 European international poetry festivals, and the Versopolis Review, a platform that publishes self-reflexive opinions of a range of authors on urgent social, political, ecological and cultural questions concerning Europe, aim to create a unique transnational opportunity, where hope can be reflected about, steered, demonstrated, poeticised, questioned and addressed. This opportunity will emerge as the„FESTIVAL OF HOPE“, subtitled as The Versopolis Global Virtual Poetry Festival. The festival will take place online and simultaneously with numerous international partners and contributors, all coming together at the Versopolis Review website and other Versopolis channels, such as social media.’
