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Midwest Video Poetry Fest Day TWO
Video poetry gives creators an opportunity to use one of our newest art forms--film--to transform one of our oldest art forms—poetry. This emerging and exciting format is adding to the rapidly growing audience for poetry in America. MVPF will be the first of its kind in Wisconsin and will present the work of local, national, and international poets and filmmakers. Our curators screened over 1600 videos totaling nearly 160 hours to bring you the very best in video poetry.
Please note: dates have changed. The festival is free and open to the public and will be live on ALL's YouTube channel. Subscribe now for this and other great content.
Midwest Video Poetry Fest is presented by American Family Insurance DreamBank, with additional support from FilmFreeway, New American Press, the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, and Willy St. Co-op. The festival is also supported in part by a grant from Dane Arts, with additional funds from the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation, The Evjue Foundation, Inc., charitable arm of The Capital Times, the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation, and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation.
1) Conversation (4m49s)
Directed by Star Bazancir, Carl Hedsved
Written by Star Bazancir, Carl Hedsved, Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Sweden
A delightful animated poetic video created by students in Sweden and based on a poem by Wisconsin poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox. A man asks God what it means to possess and lose, to grow up, to age and die.
2) Where I'm From (1m30s)
Directed by Rebecca Vickers, Dennis Vickers
Written by Rebecca Vickers, Dennis Vickers
Wisconsin, United States Rebecca Vickers' Website
Dennis Vickers collaborated from his home in White Lake, Wisconsin with his daughter in Bangkok to create this homage to George Ella Lyons's poem "Where I'm From" during the pandemic.
3) Las Personas Que Recuerdan (People Who Remember Too Much) (5m)
Directed by Eduardo Elli
Written by Eduardo Elli
Argentina
Haunting lullaby sung in Mapuche provides the background for a domestic worker, a laborer and a child--each alone--showing the fragility of our presence in each other’s lives.
4) Shiver (2m10s)
Directed by Mark Niehus
Written by Mark Niehus
Australia Mark Niehus Website
“Shiver” celebrates the triumph of a woman over the fragmentation that can result from absue.
5) Listen to the Poems I Will Whisper (4m16s)
Directed by Elvert Bañares
Written by Karla Quimsing (poetry), Elvert Bañares (film)
Philippines
An interpretation of the Hiligaynon-language poem "Ang Ilongga Nga Nagsakay sa Habal-Habal" (“The Ilongga Who Rode a Motorcycle Taxi”) by Filipino poet Karla Quimsing. The video contrasting the jovial tone of the poem with a solemn contemplation of the role of nature in relationships.
6) Glitter Gutter (37s)
Directed by Cristina Vila Nadal
Written by Fausta Jolly
United Kingdom Cristina Vila Nadal's website
A quarantine cross-nation creation between Fausta Joly and Cristina Vila Nadal. One filmmaker, one poet, one lens, one screen— lots of glitter.
7) Backwards God (5m 57s)
Directed by Natalie Cook
Written by Natalie Cook
New York, United States
Backwards God tells the story of how man made God in his image. The film interweaves elements of ecology and spirituality to retell the book of Genesis through a womanist lens.
8) Portrait of the Family as a Definition (2m57s)
Directed by Adriane Little
Written by Kerrin McCadden
Michigan, United States Adriane Little's Website
This video poem was inspired by Karen McCadden’s poem "Portrait of the Family as a Definition.” The video translates the brief and lyrical exchanges between loss, family, addiction, trauma, and that which otherwise haunts.
9) Unborn Rivers of Sky (3m16s)
Directed by Brian Ratigan
Written by Daniel DeVaughn
New York, United States Non-Films Website
A collaborative work between filmmaker, musician and poet. Work created separately is combined to create this poetic video. The passing of time in an exquisite corpse.
10) A Piano: A Poem by Gertrude Stein (3m10s)
Directed by Kathryn L. Darnell
Written by Gertrude Stein
Michigan, United States
An animated interpretation of "A Piano" by Gertrude Stein from her collection: Tender Buttons, originally published in 1914.
11) Light's Backbone (52s)
Directed by Vangelis Bekas
Written by Eftychia Panayiotou
Greece Vangelis Bekas's Website
Stunning visual imagery accompanies this translation of Greek poet Eftychia Panayiotou’s poem about the toll of being human in the world’s fever for progress.
12) "Value": boolean (2m50s)
Directed by Stuart Pound
Written by Stuart Pound
United Kingdom
A found poem within the algorithms of Boolean operators in facial recognition technology that highlights the fraught intersection between identity and big data.
13) Rotten Fruit (6m32s)
Directed by Chessa Casper
Written by Chessa Casper
Washington, United States
Found footage, tarot cards, and personal footage are combined in this poetic video exploring location and identity.
14) Novena (1m58s)
Directed by Shirley Camia
Written by Shirley Camia
Canada
This short film, inspired by videos created by Filipinx artists of the diaspora who integrate their cultural heritage into their work, transforms one of Shirley Camia's written poems into a multimedia artistic collaboration, incorporating elements of music, voice and motion design.
15) Rolling Poe... (4m10s)
Directed by Edward Kulemin
Written by Edward Kulemin
Russian Federation
An animated poetic video that simulates the handwriting of the great poet A.S. Pushkin. As a result of computer manipulations and animations poetic lines undergo a number of changes, curl up into a ball, are woven into the verbal vortex, and split into separate syllables and letters.
How many blissful revelations The spirit of enlightment hides, Experience, the son of painful errors, and genius - friend of paradox, And chance - almighty god-inventor...
16) The Eagle Tattoo (1m06s)
Directed by Roesmary Norman, Stuart Pound
Written by Rosemary Norman
United Kingdom
Short poem that meditates on the resilience and ultimate fragility of skin, life, and hope.
17) Hide Your Name (3m33s)
Directed by Aninda Rahman
Written by Nazia Afrin
Bangladesh
Based on "Genocide", a poem by Nazia Afrin, this is an unusually progressing collage film presenting typographic animation, erasure poetry, and the exploration of assimilation and “otherness.”
18) We Take Back Mountains (7m50s)
Directed by Hind Shoufani
Written by Hind Shoufani
Lebanon
This poetic- revolution film is inspired by the popular uprising across Lebanon, which started in October 2019. This short poetic film commemorates a nation finally on the road to reclaiming public space, rights and dignity.
PLAN YOUR VISIT
Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.
Our galleries are normally open Tuesday through Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday noon to 5pm, and other programs take place throughout the week. Please check the events calendar and education section for details.
