2022 Midwest Video Poetry Fest Screening 1 | Arts + Literature Laboratory | Madison Contemporary Arts Center

2022 Midwest Video Poetry Fest Screening 1

This year's festival will be presented Friday, October 21 and Saturday, October 22, 2022 in person at ALL and features two exciting new additions—a family matinee with special short films made by and/or for kids and a live poetry reading and film collaboration. Each screening will have a unique lineup of films.

This unique film festival celebrates the amazing breadth of expression when one of humanity’s oldest art forms is interpreted through the lens of one of its newest. It has featured the best of this cutting-edge art form throughout the Midwest and from around the world, including work from 21 states and 28 countries. The featured videos range from 55 seconds to under 6 minutes long. They have all been created within the last two years, many of them within the last few months, promising a fresh, contemporary point of view. Come discover new poets from the Midwest and around the world, as well as seeing old favorites in a completely new light.

Friday, October 21

7:00 PM: Screening 1

Saturday, October 22

3:00 PM: Family Matinee

5:30 PM: Live Film + Poetry Event

7:00 PM:  Screening 2

Letters S L and A cut out of a green leaf

1) There's a Certain Slant of Light (5m)
Directed by Susan McCann
Written by Emily Dickinson
Louisiana, United States
Susan McCann Website

Leaves, shadows, and landscape reveal the words of Emily Dickinson's poem, "There's a certain Slant of light," accompanied by the notes of Schoenberg and sounds of a winter garden.

There's a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons—
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes—

Black and white simple drawing of two figures with big eyes, one frowning and one smiling

2) One Night (0m55s)
Directed by Amara Rumi Doughtery
Written by Michael Bazzett
Pennsylvania, United States

"One Night" is a commissioned poem collaboration by award-winning poet Michael Bazzett of Chicago and thirteen-year-old autistic animator Amara Rumi Dougherty of Erie, PA.

A woman's face superimposed over a building with many windows

3) If I Go Out Walking with My Dead Friends (05m21s)
Directed by Alkistis Kafetzi
Written by Ritta Boumi Pappas
Germany
Alkistis Kafetzi's Website

A visualization of the poem "If I go out walking with my dead, written by Ritta Boumi Pappas, published in 1964. The belongs to the book "A thousand murdered girls" which consists of 65 poems, each named after a woman who was sentenced to death for participating in the Greek Resistance against the Nazis. "If I go out walking with my dead friends" is a humble memorial for the female heroines mentioned in Papa's lyrics but also for those who are currently fighting for freedom and a better tomorrow.

a pattern of 5 plates with colorful flower designs held by a hand. the words "or maybe forever" are in the center of the image

4) Petrykivka (3m52s)
Directed by Anne Ciecko
Written by Anne Ciecko
Massachusetts, United States

"Petrykivka" reconjures stories of heroism, everyday artifacts and spaces decorated with floral folk imagery, remediated viral video, and footage of acts of resistance—including the Ukranian woman who confronted a Russian soldier—and survival. Using object-based and hand-drawn animation, this DIY experimental videopoem vicariously witnesses and testifies to the transformative possibilities of imagination.

Aerial shot of a man walking across pavement marked with large arcs and circles. His shadow is to the top left of him

5) It's Midnight Already (4m00s)
Directed by Starr Sutherland
Written by Tongo Eisen-Martin
California, United States

“It’s Midnight Already” is a poem by Tongo Eisen-Martin, a poet, educator and organizer whose work centers on issues of mass incarceration, extrajudicial killings of Black people, and human rights. This video poem was commissioned by UCLA Center for the Art of Performance for the 2021 Tune In Festival.

close up of an elderly man with blue green eyes and a white beard and mustache wearing a brown cordouroy jacket staring at the camera

6) Auditory (1m54s)
Directed by David Sampliner
Written by James Hoch
New Jersey, United States

A film of the poem “Auditory” by James Hoch from his collection Radio Static, featuring actor Peter Maloney.

Black woman with a dark head wrap on and black dress with silver necklaces hands cupped in front of her standing in a parking lot with industrial buildings in the background

7) The Beckoning (3m18s)
Directed by DeMar Walker
Written by Destinny Fletcher
Wisconsin, United States

“The Beckoning” is a dance short film that addresses the historical & political violence of displacement/dispossession inflicted on the Black body in hopes of signifying the inherent virtue of Black life within American society. The film features choreography by DeMar Walker, original poetry by Destinny Fletcher, and original music by Kellen “KLASSIK” Abston. 

Black space with reddish textured rock and light shaped like wings and an underwater plant

8) Nobody but the world (02m39s)
Directed by Maxime Coton
Written by Jahan Malik Khatun, translated by Paul Smith
Belgium

“Nobody but the World” features the work by the great female Sufi poet Jahan Malik Khatun who was a contemporary of Hafez. It weaves together footage from contemporary Iran, simple text, and audio of Jahān’s prayer-like poem with English subtitles. 

A slate grey clock with two gold hands and one red rhombus. There are no numbers just illustrations of three tables in the 2, 3 and 7 o'clock positions

9) The moment the sleeper knows he is dreaming (4m14s)
Directed by 嘉文 吴 (Wu Jiawen)
Written by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Stephen Kessler
China

This is a video poem created for shift workers with sleep disorders. It recreates the state of insomnia and asks how do we reconcile body ethics with biological capital? The poem is based on Borges's “Break of Day.”

Man on a pile of mulch wearing a large round cardboard head with a yellow outline under a gray cloudy sky and with a green far horizon

10) Advice for Live Bait (3m27s)
Directed by Patrick Moser
Written by Patrick Moser
Florida, United States
Patrick Moser's Website

A video work exploring mimicry, performance and the anxiety of parenthood. 

poet in black t-shirt and blue jeans reading a journal sitting on a boulder with greenery

11) Crepuscular Inkling (3m10s)
Directed by Niko Sb
Written by Niko Sb
Wisconsin, United States

a love poem to midwest forests

black screen with drawing of an old-fashioned television set with rabbit ear antennas and a pink cross in the middle of it

12) Desire for Tranquility (1m00s)
Directed by Nikolaus Jantsch
Written by Nikolaus Jantsch
Austria

This short video poem animates the words of Austrian writer, essayist, and dramatist Antonio Fian, illustrating the desire for peace and quiet in a hectic, very fast-paced time, where the breathers are often neglected. It reminds us that our resilience depends, among other things, on the time off we take from the turmoil of everyday life. 

Words "It's fun falling with a friend" handwritten in yellow over a titled blue screen of a dark figure in front of mountains

13) Kissing Just Ain't Fun When You're Saying Goodbye (4m22s)
Directed by Griffith Charles Williams
Written by Griffith Charles Williams
Indiana, United States

The video about the end of a secret relationship was gathered on the road between Nebraska and Utah, as the creator helped a close friend move across the country. Footage captured from the viewfinder of a broken RCA VHS camcorder, DIY colorful film techniques, and a muffled recording of Hasil Adkins’s “Your Memories” contribute to the haunting and improvisational feel of this piece. 

a woven basket with green and red mangos

14) every diapsora poem is about mangos (2m50s)
Directed by Eden Sabolboro
Written by Jeni De La O
Michigan, United States
Jeni De La O's website

This poem is an erasure by replacement that uses the diasporic symbol of a mango to interrupt and interrogate what we bury and what we grow, in language.

Full text of the poem available on the website. 

young woman with long hair and bare shoulders holding a corded phone upside down away from her face behind a beveled drinking glass that obscures her face

15) Barbed Song (Canción de púas) (4m33s)
Directed by Abril Iberico Mevius
Written by Abril Iberico Mevius
Peru

At age 15, Abril Iberico found out that she was losing hearing in both ears. Sometimes it felt like a death sentence. When she started using hearing aids, she discovered sounds she’d never experienced before. Iberico uses self-portraits and decontextualized moving objects to invite people into her world—a space where sound turns to dust.

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