Into Animated Poetry

Direction: Leeseul Oh

Text: Hye-mi Lee, Mi-ok Ahn, Heeyeon An

Republic of Corea 2021, 5:20 min

– DIVER Written by Hye-mi Lee
– Question and Answer Written by Mi-ok Ahn
– Dehiscent Fruits Written by Heeyeon An
Into Animated Poetry series, based on three contemporary poems with the voices of poets.

An Evening in Golconda/गोलकुण्डा की एक शाम

Direction: Teena Amrit GILL

Text: Kunwar Narain (1927–2017)

Indien 2022, 10:00 min

An Evening in Golconda / गोलकुंडा की एक शाम, is based on a poem by renowned Indian poet Kunwar Narain, written and filmed at the Golconda fort in Hyderabad. The poem works at multiple layers: of history, human behaviour, grandeur and conquest, the rise and fall of empires, modern communal harmony, development and poverty, across complex movements of time, memory, history and rhythm.

Just Once

Direction: Zuhair Lokhandwala

Text: Maryam Imogen Ghouth

United Arab Emirates 2023, 2:00 min

Inspired by Rumi’s timeless words, “Gamble everything for love if you are a true human being,” Maryam, the writer and narrator of ‘Just Once,’ ponders the idea that losing one’s dignity may be worth it in the pursuit of true love. But how can such an unconventional thought be expressed in a way that is both dignified and poignant? The answer comes to her unexpectedly while watching a Kushti wrestling match, captured on film by Dubai-based cinematographer Zuhair Lockandwala.

Transparency of the sole

Direction: Diek Grobler

Text: Antjie Krog

South Africa 2022, 3:50 min

A poetry-film about adaptation for the sake of survival. The poet uses the Sole (flatfish) as a metaphor: The fish transforms into a grotesque distortion of fish in order to survive in the ever-hostile environment on the food-chain.

Music composed and performed by Anne Vanschothorst.

 

 

Summer sonata about my city

Direction: Marija Shakleva

Text:  Andrej Al-Asadi

Macedonia 2022, 1:55 min

This is a movie based on the poem Summer sonata about my city by Andrej Al-Asadi.

Andrej Al-Asadi

Summer sonata about my city

In my city
Only the Sun has no cost
And the air that reeks of stale milk
When you return home on foot
At four in the afternoon
Workers dig
Under each clump of city mold
As if looking for an ice-cold drink
Тo fill the holes where their teeth have fallen out.

In my city, in the summer
The white dream wanders the deserted streets
And gets to drop a scent of yeast in your ears
So you may never think again
To sing about this city … which mourns the living.

Beneath the Dance

Direction & Text: Atiye Noreen Lax

Germany 2021, 4:45 min

A video Poetry and a Fairytale.

She is the Daughter of Wind and Dust

An existence between the Elements

A souls longing for  its heart

Torneremo - We will be back

Direction: Gabriele Nugara

Text: Salvo Nugara

Germany - Italy - USA 2022, 1:58 min

“I saw a sun
rise and fall halfway…”
“Torneremo” (We will be back) is a short journey inside the soul of my sick father crossing the corridors at the hospital, reaching the doctors. Starting from his poem I caught some images of my visit there.

A Supermarket in California

Direction: Marc Neys

Text: Allen Ginsberg 

Belgium 2022, 3:27 min

“A Supermarket in California” is a poem by Allen Ginsberg. He wonders whether America has grown too preoccupied with consumerism and a money-orientated way, and in doing so if the country has lost its way and its capacity to love. The poem then concludes by intensifying its sense of futility and isolation: Whitman is pictured alone on the shores of the underworld, the speaker walking home from the supermarket—and neither of them in the America they desire.
But it is the reference to Lorca that made me use the footage of a demonstration. Federico García Lorca was murdered by his government in 1936. This was in part because of his homosexuality, and in part because, with his leftist sympathies, he presented an idealistic threat to the Fascist, Nationalist forces ruling Spain at the time.

To Be Two

Direction & Text: Kate Sweeney

Great Britain 2022, 3:00 min

To Be Two is an origin story of becoming – a mother, a son, a family. Through memory it explores how we, as families formed through adoption, make our physical bonds.
It brings together the moments and the materials from the everyday to focus upon the way emotions, feelings and bonds that originate within and between bodies are transferred and shared. It is a collage of hand-painted and animated frames drawn from, and combined with video recordings, poetry, and sound recordings and is painted using my own inks, dyes and stains, made out of the materials gathered and adapted from my immediate and intimate surroundings such as plants, mud and household detritus things within my arm’s reach.
To Be Two seeks to create a new myth of motherhood; water and colour – instead of blood or DNA – become the metaphor and material for describing how we imagine and manifest our selves through each other.

Iktsuarpok

Direction: Marius Grose

Text: Nora Nadjarian

Great Britain 2022, 3:12 min

Iktsuarpok is a visual realisation of Nora Nadjarian’s poem. The word Iktsuarpok is from the Inuit language and does not directly translate into English. It is a word that expresses the restlessness of waiting for someone’s visit. Anticipation and expectation do not quite encapsulate the meaning. However I expect many of us have returned to a window time and again hoping to see the visitor approaching.

To visually express this feeling of restlessness and waiting I used images of clocks, pendulums and a woman standing looking out of her window. These images are often layered together.

For me sound is an important feature of this film. I employing heartbeat rhythms and clocks ticking and other sounds to bring out the sense of tension and anticipation expressed in the poem.

 

Immigrants Open Shops

Direction & Text: Pat Boran

Irland 2022, 5:00 min

Despite the concerns expressed by some communities, immigration brings many benefits to the host society – new energy, new talent, and new perspectives that expand our shared understanding of the world and what it means to be human. The title of this short film derives from an observation made by a friend of the filmmaker – the late Iraqi poet Sargon Boulus—an observation that captures a fundamental truth of trade and world history: immigrants open businesses.

Nomad Palindrome

Direction & Text: Kai R Carlson-Wee

USA 2022, 2:27 min

Nomad Palindrome captures a transient lifestyle that moves both forward and backward at once. The entire poem is a palindrome.