POETRY FILM + Poetry
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, BATH Utopia / Dystopia : 2nd June 7.30–9.30 p.m. Dance and Freedom : 9th June 7.30–9.30 p.m. Commemorating the 500th anniversary of Thomas More's Utopia and as part of our Poetry Film + special events Liberated Words is proud to present: 2nd June: Utopia/Dystopia –an international selection of films from top international poetry filmmakers. 9th June Dance and Freedom – an international screening of selected dance-‐based poetry films; also a unique collaboration between Bath Dance College, Radstock and creative writing and media students from Somervale School, Midsomer Norton. There will also be an exciting selection of films by gifted teenagers with autism from Butterflies Haven in Keynsham. Live poetry from Angie Belcher, talented local poets and Bath Spa University students will accompany both screenings.
In association with Bath Fringe Festival tickets: £5.00 / £3.00 cons available at: Bath Spa Live online, and on the door 16-‐18 Queen Square, Bath, Avon BA1 2HN : 01225 312084 http://www.brlsi.org www.liberatedwords.com info@liberatedwords.com Disabled access via lift.
POETRY FILM + Poetry
Liberated Words has been curating poetry film screenings and workshops since 2012. Poetry films are like MTV but with poetry, typically combining moving image, sound, music and often text with a spoken poem. This year as Poetry Films + we have had the opportunity to screen some wonderful films across two evenings, alongside some of the best local poets including Angie Belcher. We were invited to curate a screening for the Bath Fringe Utopia/Dystopia themed festival, commemorating the 500th anniversary of Thomas More's famous work. The resulting selection of international films (2nd June) is a showcase of poetry filmmakers at the top of their genre, bringing out topics that resonate the problems we are facing in contemporary society. On June 9th we are having a unique Dance Poetry Film screening. We have been working with Midsomer Norton Sixth Form and Bath Dance College enabling media, English and dance students to collaborate on an innovative joint dance poetry film project. As a completely new idea the results are really impressive. Finally we are very proud to present three films from Butterflies Haven in Keynsham – a highly talented and inspiring group of teenagers with some revealing and poignant films about their experiences of living with autism. Lucy English and Sarah Tremlett, co-‐directors Liberated Words CIC
UTOPIA /DYSTOPIA 2nd June, 7:30–9:30 p.m. LANDSCAPE AND THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT Matt Mullins (USA) Landmine in a Field of Flowers 3:04 (2015)
director, scriptwriter, editor, music: Matt Mullins The poem’s speaker and his ghost-‐echo juxtapose a scene of dystopian torture against a utopian domestic idyll, as they consider how to eventually tell an unborn child that the attitude of compassion is a stance one must take in a world where love and inhuman cruelty occur simultaneously.
Daniel Dugas (Canada) Apples and Oranges 3:54 (2016) director, scriptwriter, editor, music: Daniel Dugas
Apples and Oranges examines the question of boundaries. It is a video about freedom and captivity, about wilderness and confinement, about a prison existing next to a National Park.
Marc Neys (Belgium) Alle Tag 2:58 (2015)
Concept, camera, editing and music: Swoon poem and voice: Ingeborg Bachmann translation Paul Beers and Isolde Quadflieg (Dutch) / Monika Zobel, guest-‐edited by Ilya Kaminsky (Eng) Thanks: Lyrikline ‘War is never over ...’
POETRY LANDSCAPE AND ECOLOGY Valerie Le Blanc (Canada) Cultural Flotsam 2:00 (2016)
director, scriptwriter, music: Valerie LeBlanc editor: Daniel H. Dugas To give a measure of doubt in favour of human organization, we could say that what floats in the bay among the seaweed is accidental. And if the jellyfish and sea birds find value there, what does it say for our cultural legacy?
Martin Evans (UK) Numbers 2:32 (2016) director, scriptwriter, editor, music: Martin Evans During the cold war, shortwave frequencies carried sinister espionage 'numbers' stations supposedly broadcasting code to spies in the field. These all but stopped, except for a hilltop in central Wales. One transmitter continues to broadcast unknown number sequences in Welsh. Nobody knows why, who sends them or who is listening to them.
Meriel Lland (UK) small journeys skyward 3:30 (2015)
director, scriptwriter, editor, music: Meriel Lland small journeys skyward emerged during a gale on an arid, volcanic island as earth blew free from field-‐systems. Erosion and the struggle to keep the island habitable was a tension recognized in processes of representation. The impulse to engage with the world surrounding us touches ‘ritual’, ‘literacy’ and ‘art’ but is not contained by them. From cave-‐markings to display-‐screens, the focus is the hunt itself – how we seek, imagine and re-‐imagine: a dialogue with utopian ideals. Like the mythological Greek servant girl transformed into dove, as we sing from new vantage points our voices retain ghost-‐calls of what went before.
Daniel Dugas and Valerie LeBlanc (Canada) Flow: Big Waters 5:52 (2015) director, scriptwriter, editor, music: Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel Dugas FLOW: BIG WATERS is a video and soundwork project that includes 12 videos and 12 sound works. This program includes four of the videos: Things, Death in the morning, One Hour and Cumulative. Recognized as one of the largest swamp complexes in the United States, the Everglades are actually a slow moving freshwater ecosystem. Focusing on the passage of man in this River of Grass, the project examines ideas of swamps as metaphors for decay and ruin, as well as transformative agents of physical and spiritual states.
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POETRY .
IN THE CITY Dragana Nikolic (Serbia) The White Night 5:12 (2015)
director/editor: Dragana Nikolic scriptwriter/cast: Goran Zivkovic Serbian slam champion Goran Živković Gorki performs in a film by Dragana Nikolić. His poetry supports the concept of poetic performance without reading from a text. Apocalyptic lullabies, psychoslides, street prophecy, gentle as a fist in the stomach: anti-‐ poetry, graffiti poetry on the margins of culture, which is on the margin of society. The White Night, a utopian place, a hideaway and a nuthouse. A rebellion against apathy, against sitting in front of the TV and sleepiness of the spirit. Love as a rebellion; as the only salvation from meaninglessness.
Lila Randall, Ginny Evans-‐Pollard, Tara Fleur (UK) London 2:51 (2016)
director: Ginny Evans-‐Pollard, assistant director: Lila Randall scriptwriter: Tara Fleur ‘Woman of Bones’ editor: Ginny Evans-‐Pollard music: Epidemic sound cast: Tara Fleur Woman of Bones ; Lila Randall Patient ‘London’ reflects a personal view of dystopia, seen through the eyes of a nurse, living, working and now psychologically dying as the shifting landscape of the city slowly suffocates its inhabitants. Her London is changing from a city of compassion to a city of cold hearts, cold architecture and even colder politics. Her home has turned to hell, and we become witness to her distress, her mental breakdown via a distorted Alice in Wonderland filmic landscape. The horrors of the future taunt her but can she locate the familiarity of peace to keep her safe?
Diana Taylor (UK) Utopia 2:10 (2016)
director: Diana Taylor scriptwriter: Tim Burroughs editor: Diana Taylor music: Caesar Franck Sonata in A Utopia is a poetry film that blends imagery and thoughts of an ideal world.
Adam Steiner (UK) The Dreamer of Samuel Vale House 1:43 (2015)
director: Adam Steiner scriptwriter: Antony Owen (poet) editor: Brian Harley music: Alan Van Widjgerden (sound recordist) cast: Antony Owen The video is a poetry film of Coventry poet, Antony Owen performing his poem The Dreamer of Samuel Vale House. I think it displays the mixed ideas of utopia/dystopia – how people are able to love and hate the place they are from at the same time; to see the good and the bad, and accept others for what they are.
Angie Bogachenko (Ukraine) Love Mykolaiv if you dare 4:31 (2015) director: Angie Bogachenko music: Vladius Monk cast: voice Jurij Andruhovich, Zoryana Tarasyuta, Denis Shwetsov The film introduces viewers to architecture and the peculiarities of life in Nikolaev. We love our city, but over the years it loses shape. How to correct it? Imagine that you found a magic music box, which is able to change any of the drawbacks.
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PEOPLE, HISTORY AND POLITICS Helen Moore and Howard Vause (UK) Kali Exorcism 3:15 (2015) director, scriptwriter, editor, music, narrator: Howard Vause poet, narrator: Helen Moore
‘Kali Exorcism’ is a collaboration between poet Helen Moore and filmmaker Howard Vause. Inspired by the tradition of exorcism in Beat poetry, it deploys text, sound and imagery to invoke the purgative energies of Kali so as to cleanse the world of the military-‐industrial complex and the state of perpetual warfare that the system requires. The poem features in Helen’s book ECOZOA (Permanent Publications, 2015). This book offers intimations of a possible future ‘Ecozoic Era’, where we live in harmony “with the Earth as our community”, in contrast to the current period of planetary ecosystems ravaged by industrial civilization and war.
Jack Wake-‐Walker (UK) A Coat in Tarevci 1:30 (2016) director, editor, music: Jack Wake-‐Walker
In the misty village of Tarevci, Bosnia, a coat swings eerily in the wind. Bodyless and moving aimlessly, it presents a striking image: an analogy of both the rejection and consequent emptiness experienced by a recent failed love conquest, and the overarching dystopian feeling of a world full of disappointments. This is particularly symbolic with regards to the film’s setting: Bosnia is a country racked by countless broken promises and betrayals by those in power; Tarevci itself a Muslim enclave in the Serbian stronghold of Srpska – a misfit, outsider, begging to be worn and looked after.
Ryan Kiggell (UK) An Heroic Death 2:53 (2016) director, scriptwriter, editor: Ryan Kiggell, Olivia Rose music: Jamie Misselbrook A fool, marked to die by a capricious king, is made to perform for the last time. A re-‐ working of the prose poem by Charles Baudelaire; a modern parable on the place of art within the landscape of power and wealth. Both film and theatre, the piece was devised and filmed on a single evening in a public square in Paris.
Edward Kulemin (RUSSIA) Lullaby for the Valkyries 3:42 (2016)
director, scriptwriter, editor: Edward Kulemin music: Richard Wagner -‐ Ride of the Valkyries, Vlad Makarov – cello, Michael Davydov -‐ voice, harp, Nick Rubanov – saxs, Ludmila Ischenko-‐Michaylova -‐ vocal A perfect space is a UTOPIA. Total chaos is a DYSTOPIA. The metaphysical front line passes between UTOPIA and DYSTOPIA. Here in the chaos of ideas is created the space of poetry. Valkyries are a metaphor of war and heroic death. The heroic act is freedom of choice. The dance-‐flight of the Valkyries over the battle of the senses is a metaphor of eternity. The dream of the Valkyries is a metaphor of peace.
Kyrylo Polischuk (Ukraine) Kafka 2:06 (2014)
director, music: Kyrylo Polischuk scriptwriter, editor: Victoria Netrebenko The poem reflects the author's understanding of the image of Franz Kafka. Visuals complement the poem and create a peculiar atmosphere. The poem in its original language is built on wordplay, so the video is like a game, as well.
POETRY PEOPLE AND RELATIONSHIPS David Richardson (USA) Normalisation of Deviance 2:22 (2015)
director: Dave Richardson scriptwriter, poem and reading: Charlotte Pence A woman reflects upon her childhood and on her dysfunctional relationship with her disturbed father when she was growing up: a family trip in 1986 to Florida to see the Space Shuttle being built, and the subsequent explosion of the billion dollar marvel.
Pol Turrents (SPAIN) My Tactics 1:00 (2015)
director: Pol Turrents / Helena Jurado scriptwriter: Mario Benedetti editor: Damian Munoz music: Victor G De La Torre cast: Virginia Garcia Film adaptation of the popular poem "Táctica y Estrategia" by Mario Benedetti.
Susanne Wiegner (GERMANY) Kasper Hauser Song 3:15 (2014)
director: Susanne Wiegner scriptwriter: poem by Georg Trakl cast: voice by Christian Reiner The poem "Kaspar Hauser Lied" by Georg Trakl was written in 1913. Kaspar Hauser (1812 (?)–1833) was a German youth who claimed to have grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell. Hauser's claims, and his subsequent death by stabbing, sparked much debate and controversy. In the film the three-‐dimensional typeface builds a sequence of spaces that are traversed by the camera. Images are projected onto the letters that light up in the dark, like kaleidoscopic smithers of memory, reflecting an abstract path through Hauser's life.
Angie Belcher (UK) Buy a Dog 2:43 (2016) director, scriptwriter: Angie Belcher editor: Matt Gillett music: Bluegrass cast: Angie Belcher and Seren the Spaniel
The title speaks for itself!
POETRY -‐ ANGIE BELCHER Angie Belcher is a stand up poet. Equally at home on the stand-‐up circuit as in a posh tent at a literature festival, Angie presents dirty stanzas and awkward stories. “Like Pam Ayres but with attitude and an adult audience” Bristol Evening Post. • Finalist What the Frock Best Female stand-‐up comedian 2015 • Best Spoken word show 2015 Finalist-‐ North East Theatre Review • Winner, Spokes Amaze poetry slam 2015, Exeter. Finalist • Finalist Cheltenham Festival of Literature All Stars Slam, finalist Bristol King of Comedy award
DAY TWO
Dance and Freedom June 9th, 7:30-‐9.30 p.m.
Bo Lee An international screening of selected dance-‐based poetry films alongside a unique collaboration between Bath Dance College, Radstock and creative writing and media students from Somervale School, Midsomer Norton. There will also be an exciting selection of films by gifted teenagers from Butterflies Haven in Keynsham. Live poetry from talented local poets and Bath Spa University students will accompany both screenings.
In association with Bath Fringe Festival tickets: £5.00 / £3.00 cons available at: Bath Spa Live online, and on the door 16-‐18 Queen Square, Bath, Avon BA1 2HN : 01225 312084 http://www.brlsi.org www.liberatedwords.com info@liberatedwords.com Disabled access via lift.
Midsomer Norton Sixth Form Poetry Films
Poems were written during a poetry workshop with Helen Moore by pupils in years 7, 8 and 9 at Somervale School. Films were created by Yr.13 Media students. Consultant editor was Howard Vause. Dancers are from Bath Dance College. Special thanks to Helen Moore, Howard Vause, Sarah Tremlett and Liberated Words, George Hill and Bath Dance College for your contributions to this project. Not everything has freedom Running time: 1:15 Poem by Ryan McDowell, Aaron Stock Directed, filmed and edited by Alfie Blanchard, Tom Hale, Alex Nineham, Charlie Tomlinson
My Freedom
Running time: 2.43 Poem by Megan Parker-‐Bastable Directed filmed and edited by Poppy Chambers and Nathaniel Stinchcombe Actor: Jude Pegler-‐Webb Dancer: Jody Larcombe
The Four Walls Running time: 1:09 Poem by Charley Durbin Directed filmed and edited by Steve Rogers and Mike Wootton Dancer: Chanice Cooke-‐Khan
Driving Running time: 1:42 Poem by Tori Collins Directed filmed and edited by Charlie Greenhead, Connor Maggs, Harry Pearson Dancer: Hannah Edwards
Girl in white Running time: 3:00 Poem by Chloe Kurek Directed filmed and edited by Jed Hillier, Sophie Perkins, Esther Rowland Actor: Louise Thomas
POETRY
DANCE AND FREEDOM INTERNATIONAL POETRY FILMS Sonority Turner (UK) Show Me 5:13 (2015) poet: Sonority Turner dancer/filmmaker: Yana Seidl Inviting viewers to face their fears by revealing insight into a tentative dancers mind, Show Me is the first collaboration between poet/writer Sonority Turner and dancer/filmmaker Yana Seidl. Show Me was the recipient of the Online Film Fund, a bi-‐ annual competition generously supported by the Ex Animo Foundation. The award provides three filmmakers with a £400 production budget, equipment, facilities and mentoring from the Roundhouse.
Barbara Bernardi (Italy) Pasolini died in Ostia where my Mum went to the Sea 3:41 (2016)
director, editor: Barbara Bernardi scriptwriter: Flaminia Vendruscolo music: speaking voice Flaminia Vendruscolo, singing voice Barbara Bernardi cast: Flaminia Vendruscolo The story takes place in a space between presence and absence. An angel, who does not want to be an angel anymore fell down, she is looking for her place, she is looking for the source. She cannot fly, she cannot leave, she plays with the sand. The landscape, the nature cannot be enough. The angel shows and expresses the invisible part of the human being, the essence, like a little wind flowing inside. The words, the sounds are memories and at the same time a chant to find the source that is just inside her. The poetry is the ‘path’ to recollecting and connecting our lives. Is this angel the woman that she is protecting, is my angel me?
POETRY
Curmiah Lisette (St Lucia) Great 6:00 (2015) director: Samantha Bryant & Fiona Compton scriptwriter: Curmiah Lisette St Catherine editor: Samantha Bryant music: Urahara Mitchell Piano cast: Poet – Curmiah Lisette Male Dancer – Dickson Amos Female Dancer – Armani Lewis Male Child – Zephane Kahlell Lennox-‐Daley Female Chidren – Sarae Akomeah, Neveah Clarke
‘GREAT’ documents the culture of disvaluing the worth of the black woman and how we must rise above it. In conversation, a female voice narrates the growth of the black man, who is often raised in a broken household and fed misconceptions of himself and his purpose as a man. The title ‘GREAT’ speaks to both sexes, encouraging women to value their worth, and for men to step into their greatness through retelling their own stories. It touches on the idea of matriarchy and how men who are often raised in such environments face the struggle against conforming and submitting to patriarchal traditions. Ultimately, ‘GREAT’ is a celebration of those who know and own their greatness and call to action for those who have yet to discover it.
Marcia Pelletiere (USA) Pianos in the Lamps 3:28 (2015) director, scriptwriter, editor, music: Marcia Pelletiere cast: Lanny Harrison – Dancer/Movement ; Caitlyn Klum -‐ Vocal This piece is about confronting a profound sense of disorientation and disconnection after an injury has changed the speaker’s state of mind and state of being.
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Butterflies Haven Project
Poet Helen Moore and filmmaker Howard Vause worked with Butterflies Haven in Keynsham to produce three extraordinary poetry films expressing how this gifted group of teenagers felt about autism from their own perspective. The results are insightful, imaginative, overwhelming and touching. We would like to thank all involved and particularly Trisha Williams for being so open and encouraging and having the vision to take the idea onboard. We are also thrilled that the group is now making huge strides forward with a new building and facilities in the pipeline. No one could deserve it more. ‘The Liberated Words partnership was a triumph. The team understood the importance of not having any preconceived ideas about autism and to simply get to know the young people.’
Trisha Williams, Butterflies Haven, 2016
Berti Bert Danni's Film Smudgem group
Eleni Cay (UK) Sun/Moon Diglossia 3:48 (2015) poet, director, editor, sound, dancer: Eleni Cay choreographer, dancer: Chris Bradley As part of my work-‐in-‐progress project Heteroglossia, I had a vision of a dancepoem which would be a discussion of the two arts, bringing together a dialogue between The Moon and The Sun, between the male and female force. I was very fortunate to work with the dancer Chris Bradley on this project, who produced a beautiful choreography to accompany the Diglossia poem I had written for this. The dance was filmed with iphone 5S on a self-‐made tripod (using an old broomstick attached to the phone :) The video was initially edited in Windows Media Maker. We then added the sound and the filter using iMovie. If you would like to find out more about my work, please have a look at my Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/elenicay
POETRY
Cindy St Onge (USA) Memaloose Island 2:07 (2015)
director: Cindy St Onge Geographically Memaloose Island was a burial ground used by the Chinook people and is situated in the Columbia River between Mosier, Oregon and Wishram, Washington. The poem and its video remix are about departure from this life on to the next, the spirit being like a crow, its wings beating for release from the dying body. The Chinook tradition is to lay the body out for four days before placing it in above-‐ground housing, and tended to be by a man whose title is (loosely), ‘turner of bones’. Cindy St Onge is an award-‐winning multimedia poet in the Pacific Northwest, with poems published in numerous print and online publications.
Sarah Tremlett (UK) Dance 5:00 (2016) director, concept, filmmaker, poetry, sound: Sarah Tremlett cast: Georgina Rees editing: James Symonds and Sarah Tremlett You watch daughters grow up, learning the steps, mastering or faltering, but also praying no one will crush their independent imaginations. This film is about the camera as mirror, a tap class and makeup. It merges two time frames: a reminder of a time that seemed timeless, when my daughter wasn't so self-‐aware (and my bitter-‐sweet realization that every refined, corrected step that I was party to could potentially overpower playful instinct), and her present day self skilled in putting on a face to go out, as well as using the camera as a surrogate mirror. But maybe makeup is also part of our dream lives?
Payson Stevens (USA) Stars Setting 2:18 (2016)
director, scriptwriter, music: Payson R. Stevens website: VideoTonePoems editor: Pankaj Yadav cast: Shadows: ‘Wife and Self’ A video poem on the gift of persistence, union, and love. Symbolist imagery, including water at sea, shadows dancing, and human hands permeate the piece.
POETRY
Leah Thorne (UK) Shhh 4:00 (2016)
Director/editor: Clare Unsworth Sound: Daniel Battersby Writer and producer: Leah Thorn Choreography: Elle Payne, Kristin Bacheva and Vanessa Owusu Performers: Elle Payne, Kristin Bacheva, Leah Thorn and Vanessa Owusu Shhh! is a choreographed poem that explores the litany of ways abuse and objectification damage women and calls for an end to silence and denial.
Bo Lee (South Korea) Recycled Movement 3:49 (2016)
director /scriptwriter: Bo Lee editor: Aine Juarez Contreras music: Wonji Lee cast: Collins Mahindi, Steve Ongeri, Mercy Mahiga filmed in Nairobi, Kenya Three Nairobi dancers tell us their own stories through movement. Their dance moves, recycled from everyday gestures, will embrace the abandoned world. End of Screening We would like to thank everyone who has supported Liberated Words especially Banes and Bath Spa University, and all the talented poetry filmmakers who have sent in their films. Please keep in touch.