Review 10th International Video Poetry Festival
We would like to thank all the artists, poets and filmmakers, who came to our festival. They presented and shared their art projects and their thoughts about video poetry with an international video poetry community.
On Saturday morning, the international artists who visited the festival gathered in a tea/coffee meeting and shared their views and beliefs about art and video poetry.
During all days the people were gathering outside of the theater’s venue for a break from the ocean of the video poems
Starting our review, we would like to light up the following outstanding video and film poems
Imbas Forosnai
Director: Shane Serrano
Writer: Shane Davis
It is a short film that celebrates paganism and art, ecstatic poetry and ancient poetry. The film is written by spoken word artist Shane Davis and directed by Shane Serrano, in consultation with anthropologist Dr. Billy Mag Fhloinn.
I lost the way
Director: Panagiotis Rappas
GREECE
Two men of different ages, talk about their lives and what haunts them.
One, almost middle-aged, feels he has lost his way. Full of anxiety and metaphysical agony, he desperately seeks to find the path of return that will lead him to his paternal home and the years of innocence. At the point where he started his impasse, so far, wandering. The route looks like a strange dream. People, animals, machines, change form, properties, and actions in a nightmarish cluster full of paradoxical images, charged with passions and unacknowledged guilt.
Matin Ecchymose
Director: Emilie Peltier
CANADA
Deaf people from Quebec City meet Queer artist Mo Bolduc and, using the Quebec sign language, interpret some poems written at the Maison de la littérature in March 2020. The film is the result of this encounter, between read texts and their appropriation by Karl Normand, Maritza Côté, Josée Villeneuve and Élisabeth Rhéaume, as powerful and poetic echoes.
The Human Child
Director: Lika Nadir
UKRAINE
Our life balances between internal freedom and belonging to others. The inner measure of truth never lies, like the human body. Try to live your life so as to penetrate through it the truth for those who will come to this world after you.
Yellowstone 88 – Song of Fire
Director: Jerry van de Beek, Betsy De Fries
UNITED STATES
In the summer of 1988 dry lightning sparked a fire in the parched and drought ridden landscape of Yellowstone Park, igniting a blaze that would scorch over 1.5 million perimeter acres of the park.
Song of Fire, a narrative poem, guides the animation of YELLOWSTONE 88 telling the story of this conflagration that raged unabated for months until a snow of such intense severity extinguished the flames. That winter surviving Fauna, exhausted from fire and weakened by hunger, die in greater numbers than those claimed by the fire. The cosmos turns from one season to another and another and life in the park begins anew.
They Promised us a Future
Director: Laura R. Tolentino MEXICO
An amazing experimental film poem. Laura R. Tolentino created a very strong performance video poem that comments the social and environmental issues with a unique, extraordinary way.
Exodus
Director: Guido F.G. Jeurissen
NETHERLANDS
A critical view of the 2006 Rotterdam Act, which made it possible to reject inhabitants under specific income and educational levels. City poet Dean Bowen compares this gentrification to the Biblical Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.
Shea, by Nasra
Director: Effy Adar
CANADA
A family displaced by greed searches for a new home in a foreign place. As they explore they discover pieces of themselves; old and new. “Shea” celebrates what has always remained in Black/African peoples, an innate sense of home, luxury and interconnectedness.
Due to legal reasons this Film is called Breaking Bert
Director: Anne Isensee
GERMANY
An intelligent animation based on a poem by German playwright Bertolt Brecht called “Wer zu Hause bleibt” (Whosoever stays at home), which attacks the issues of responsibility and omission.
We keep stones here too
Director: Eugenio Lima
BRAZIL
In this shor-film, the actress and poet Luiza Romão recounts the history of the Trojan War from a feminist and decolonial perspective, thinking about the violence that founded the West.
Dynamite
Director: Jim Vieille
FRANCE
A powerful video poem where a man observes the world and cannot take it anymore. He is ready to explode as a burning car in a riot.
SPECIAL MENTION
Violence Unseen
Director: Ada Pitsou
Inspired by the protests’ passion and momentum and considering that femicide is still an open wound.
GREECE
Ants walking over an armpit
Director: Juan Zadala – Yahaira Salazar
VENEZUELA
A surrealistic reflexión on love and death. Based on the award winning play. An exploration of fraternal love.
Temporal assemblages
Director: Edie Steiner
A meditation on impermanence and the transience of place, the title is inspired by assemblage art where „found‟ elements are reconstituted into a new artwork.
CANADA
Banaras the Poem
Anjan Mitra, Aavirash Mitra
INDIA
Rediscover the ancient city of Banaras previously known as Kashi and more modernly named ‘Varanasi’, seen through the eyes of a local, born and raised in this spiritual haven but was eventually redirected away from the city due to a change of course in life.
Glass that will bend
Director: Xiao Yue Shan
JAPAN
A poem-film about the appetite for desire itself. filmed in the yanaka neighbourhood of tokyo, which is innate with small reprieves of everyday mysticisms.
Statue
Director: Luk Ho Hai My
VIET NAM
Statue is a visual poem detailing about people are becoming more and more emotionless like inanimate stones, but somewhere, there will still be a warm heart deep inside of us, or maybe it never return.
Literature
Director: Samer NOUH
FRANCE
A voice over that touches and speaks about the most enigmatic character in the world literature.
Water and more water
Director: Francesca Svampa
A dreamlike portrait of Barcelona, shot in double exposure on reversible 8mm film, is
interwoven with an intimate “I remember” voice, creating a collage of memories à la Brainard
and Pérec.
SPAIN
LIVE PERFORMANCES
P.H.A.T Girl One SingleRose – USA
A celebration of self appreciation and love for women of all body types.
Rosemarie Wilson a.k.a. One Single RoseTM is an award winning poet and playwright, spoken word artist, singer, actress, filmmaker, author of three self-published poetry collections, nice and naughty chapbooks.She is currently a featured artist and songwriter with Defected Records, the
United Kingdom’s #1 house music record label.
BINDI Mayuri Bhandari INDIA
Mayuri is a strong performer. Her BINDI is a structured poem that attracted the attention of the whole theatre.
Poems about Homing
Poet: Supermoon Blues(Drea Chuma) BOTSWANA/NETHERLANDS
In Poems About Homing, Supermoon Blues roots herself in the faces of people where she has always felt seen. Homing also speaks to the importance of returning to and homing in one‟s body as opposed to geographical spaces where we tend to seek belonging.
Virtual Body Ernesto Sarezale UK
DANCE PERFORMANCE
“Abierto al tiempo” (Open at the time)
Laura R. Tolentino MEXICO
Ritual Performance
Journey to the centre of the present – La Conirina
Constanza Carlesi
CHILE
Thrills Of Power Meri Dishnica ALBANIA
This Cinematic Poem echoes the personality distortion one faces after he gets powerful
Ques (Nesinando Nemises) Namimbia keeps us hypnotised with her spoken word while healing the deep-rooted wounds of our colonial past and present. Ques’ voice is our ancestors’ voice enacting pain and oppression, but also hope and wisdom. All Khoekhoegowab is also spoken in English accentuating the sound difference between both languages, and the timeless sounds of native languages.
RoadKill for Beginners Stephanie Chan SINGAPORE
Hanna Komar / BELARUS
We thank all the Greek poets who came up the stage and surrounding by music and optical poetic environment presented their poetry in the international audience.
Tonia Tzirita Zacharatou. Makis Moulos. Konstantinos Loukopoulos.
Elias Kourkoutas. Kostoula Maki. Tasos Sagris & WhoDoes.
Angeliki Pechlivani. Marivi Gazeta. Yannis Raouzaios.
Orestis Batakis. Brikena Gishto. Sissy Doutsiou. Poppi Delta
One of the moment of the festival were the lectures and the workshops.
We would like to give many congratulations to
Maede Jenab – Animation Director – IRAN
How to picture our emotions- Animation Creation
The participators created an animation and we will publish it very soon.Looking forward for it!
Claire Kinnen USA
Video poetry and the gift of sadness
Claire gave a 10 minute talk about a unique topic. She spoke very honestly about her personal experiences and help a lot of us to get inspiration and courage from her words.
Dr. Sophia Emmanouilidou & Ms Antonia Troullakis
Creative Cross-Pollinations: Teaching the Film Poem
An academic duet presented with love and dedication the nature of the film poetry structure. A detailed lecture with technical mentions and colorful impressions.
Mark Wasserman Academy of Art University USA – Hollywood
The influence of poetry on cinema
Mark united the favorite film directors with a special drop of systematic view through poetry. He really knows what he is doing and he teaches the connection between film and poetry.
Avigail Graetz ISRAEL
Zen Poetry
A unique workshop. Avigail invited everyone on stage to find a word that describe their self and spoke about Zen Poetry. The participators enjoyed her voice and her instructions for a nice warm zen mediation on the stage of the festival.
