About

LEARNING THE CRAFT

With a passion for poetry and film, we want to widen participation, opening doors for anyone eager to learn the craft of weaving words and images into captivating poetry films.

CONVERSATIONS

Poetry Film In Conversation: forging connections that stretch beyond the confines of our office walls, creating meaningful conversations and exchanging ideas.

SCREENING

Providing platforms where both seasoned practitioners and budding poetry film makers can showcase their creations, where the brilliance of experience can mingle with the raw talent of the up-and-coming.

Helen Dewbery

Helen Dewbery is a poetry filmmaker, editor and writer. Teaching is an integral part of her practice, and her main focus is helping people find the stories they want to tell through poetry, and turning them into enjoyable and interesting poetry films. Helen is particularly interested in enabling people’s own capacity, teaching them both the practical and technical skills of poetry filmmaking, alongside conceptual and critical engagement. She is also an internationally exhibited artist whose works have been shown at festivals and exhibitions, where she has also presented talks and curations.

For seven years she delivered a programme of poetry film events at Poetry Swindon Festival, including events in the community and an outdoor projection. Her video essay ‘In Search of the Perfect Poetry Film’, is a personal journey to discover what is at the heart of poetry film. She is currently exploring how poetry film is used to express trauma. She has worked on projects which have included the poetry film collection ‘Nothing in the Garden’ and has edited various photography and poetry books.

She is an Associate member of the Royal Photographic Society and approaches poetry film as a contemporary photographic artist, combining still and moving images.

Recipient of four Arts Council England grants to develop writing and poetry film projects.

  • Essay 'Making a Poetry Film' in Poetry Projects to Make and Do, Nine Arches Press, 2023
  • Workshop at Belfast Book Festival, 2023
  • Verve Poetry Festival, 2023, 2024
  • Bologna in Lettere 2021
  • Athens International Video Poetry Festival 2016, 2019
  • Festival Silêncio in Lisbon 2016
  • Visible Verse Poetry Film Festival in Vancouver, 2015.
  • Sadho Poetry Film Festival, New Delhi, 2015.
  • The Lighthouse Film Poem competition in Poole, 2015.
  • Liberated Words International Poetry Film Festival in 2013 and 2014.
  • Cheltenham Poetry Festival (2013, 2014)
  • Swindon Festival of Poetry (2014, 2015)
  • The University of Gloucestershire (2013, 2014)
  • The Dymock Poets Conference (2015)
  • Film Weston (2014)
  • Bristol Spring Poetry Festival (2015)
  • Writers in the Brewery (2013)
  • The Tivoli (2014)
  • Green Light at Bordeaux Quay in Bristol with Inkling Productions (2016)
  • The Masons Arms London NW10 (2016)
  • The Berkeley Square Poetry Review, Bristol (2016)

Other projects include:
Bath Fringe Festival 2014: Still Points Moving World performance writing exhibition.
Regular solo and group photographic exhibitions at The Gardens Gallery.
Photographs of Nature exhibition at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham, 2011.
Nothing in the Garden by Chaucer Cameron and Helen Dewbery, 2014, a poetry and photographic collection.
Co-edited The Museum of Light, 2014, a poetry and photography collaboration.
Co-edited Salt on the Wind: Poetry in Response to Ruth Stone, 2015.

Chaucer Cameron

Chaucer Cameron is author of In an Ideal World I’d Not Be Murdered which was published by Against the Grain Press in 2021. Her poetry has also been published in journals, magazines, and anthologies. Chaucer is creator of Wild Whispers (2018) an international poetry film project and has presented poetry film at various poetry and film festivals.

  • Poetry films screened in UK and internationally.
  • Contributor to Moving Poems: the best poetry videos on the web.
  • Poetry and monologues performed at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham.
  • Founder member of Poetry Factory, a critical poetry collective.
  • Poetry film workshop facilitator with Swindon Poetry.
  • MA in Creative writing from University of Gloucestershire.

‘In an Ideal World I’d Not Be Murdered’ can be purchased from the publisher using this link: Against the Grain Press

There will be plenty of books of poetry that grab the headlines and win prizes this year, but none of them will be as important as this one.

Richard Skinner