July 2017

It wasn’t planned, but all of this month’s poetry films are what you might call poet-made. That is to say that the poet and filmmaker are the same person. This month we are also sharing the first in our article section: Filmpoetry and Phenomenology by Susannah Ramsay. Susannah is a researcher, and has a residency with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds at Loch Lomond in Scotland. The article is accompanied by two of Susannah’s poetry films: Dislocation and West of Dalabrog. Susannah demonstrates how poetry can focus on how we ‘can adopt place, as a concept and a physical presence, as a means to connect with memories’. By Loch Lomond, Susannah is connecting ‘space’ and ‘audience’ through poetry film – that’s exciting!

There are two poetry films by Charles Olsen. In The Afternoon Charles takes on the persona of someone he met in an office an ‘unblinking bespectacled character with not a hair out of place’ …. And, In Silence, is a beautiful and mesmeric film:

Leaves shine
like a flight of fish

There are also versions available in Spanish (which was the original language) and Arabic.

In Sandra’s Constellation, Cindy St. Onge has responded to crime scene footage juxtaposing the aftermath of the murder of Sandra Stotler, with Sandra’s last moments.