19 November 2015

Film Poems, Poetry Films

I've been getting quite interested in multimedia presentations of poetry recently, in particular what has become known as the 'filmpoem' or 'poetry-film'. This is not just a video of someone reading a poem (the like of which I also enjoy watching), but the creative use of film and image to accompany the text and/or a recording of a poem.

Here is a film created by Alastair Cook, with the wonderful Ian McMillan reading his poem 'The Water Doesn't Move, The Past Does', from The Poetry Society:



The Water Doesn't Move, The Past Does from The Poetry Society on Vimeo.


The poet Robert Peake has several excellent film poems on his website. Here he has collaborated with sound artist Valerie Kampmeier to make a film of his poem 'Treatment in Outline'. I think this is an example of how, as Alastair Cook says on his website,  a film poem 'may be able to open up poetry to people who are not necessarily receptive to the written word', or indeed poetry as a genre. It uses visual image and music to enhance the meaning of the spoken word, the different media all intertwining, reflecting and echoing each other.



Robert Peake: Treatment in Outline

'Innocent Beat' by Martha McCollough goes a step further than both of these. In this film text, spoken word and image are all inextricably linked. It is hard to imagine them being separated out into their component parts - the film is an organic whole. The viewer has to pay attention at all levels to fully access the poem: text weaves across the screen in counterpoint to spoken words, and the way these interact with each other and the soundscape adds even deeper levels to the experience. This, I think, is extremely innovative poem-making - the poem as film, rather than the poem through film.



Martha McCollough: Innocent Beat

I think I'm going to have a go at making some film poems myself - but don't hold your breath, they may be some time coming. The last time I tried doing something on Windows Moviemaker my son told me it was like something made by a ten-year-old. So I've quite a way to go before I can even hope to produce something as sophisticated as these!

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