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Poetry Performance Film Award                              

International Award

 

Art Visuals & Poetry Film Festival 2023

 

15th of November 2023, 18:00
Location: Factory in the Künstlerhaus, Am Karlsplatz 5, 1010 Vienna
Moderation: Katharina Wenty

 

Poetry performed for the camera. The camera as stage and audience at the same time. The lyrical moment, captured behind the lens. The performance of the poetic is embalmed in time with light, experienced by the audience through film. The challenge here is not just to film a performance, but rather to think of the medium of film as part of the performance, so that the poetry develops a life of its own through the carefully constructed interplay of text/body, image and sound. The new International Poetry Performance Film Prize is curated and designed by the viennese slam poet Katharina Wenty. The competition includes poetry films with dance, poetry films with performance/acting, as well as performance poetry films from the visual arts, spoken word and poetry slam.

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We are the Dinosaur
US | 2023 | 2:49 min
Director: Paul Moon
Poet: Bob Holman

"We Are the Dinosaur" is a street-rant lament for the state of the planet delivered to an unsuspecting public seemingly content to yawn and go about its business while the Poet bumrushes the Courthouse, whispers in the ear of the Anonymous Businessman, suggests a cannibal diet at the site of the Nation's first capital, takes flight at the Oculus near the World Trade Center, and swims against the implacable tide of humanity in Times Square. With a wrench-raucous score by Marc Ribot, energized-intrusion cinematography by director H. Paul Moon, and an over-the-top-and-then-some performance by poet Bob Holman, this poem promises to either explode the dead-soul reactions of the populace to climate crisis or become a deconstructive language bomb that blasts open the Gates to Kingdom Come.

Dictate
DE |2019 | 4:24 min
Director: Anna-Lisa Konrad
Poet: Marian Heuser

The poetry clip DICTATE is a multimedia realisation of the poetry slam poem of the same name by Peter Panisch using moving image collages and found footage as well as graphic "frame by frame" drawings. At its core, DICTATE deals with the tension between external and self-inflicted guilt in a hyper-complex world characterised by multiple crises. The clip describes the dwindling connection between man and his environment and between man and man as the cause of this. It is timeless and at the same time red-hot.

I Cast My Shadow
DE I 2021 | 2:24 min
Director: Daniela Daub and Deda Production
Poetess: Daniela Daub

White floor, white walls. White is the paper before words are written on it. White emerges when colored lights merge. The white room holds next to nothing, and yet, outlets and balls and next to everything I am. Except my shadow, that I have cast. My lyrical Self watches her shadow as it wanders through existential language.

sentences
DE | 2022 | 2:09 min
Director: Cia Rinne
Poetess: Cia Rinne

sentences is based on sentences from the book with the same title by Cia Rinne. In sentences, it is the sentence as a linguistic unit itself that reflects on its purpose and position.

---
this sentence is looking for the ideal reader
this sentences is a lifetime sentence
this sentence wishes it were written by somebody else
---

sentences was published as an artist book in an edition of 100 copies by Forlaget Gestus in Copenhagen 2019, and shortlisted for the artist book prize Prix du livre d'artiste Bob Calle in 2021.
 

I dream My dream
NL | 2023 | 4:14 min
Director: Monique van Kerkhof/Bo Oudendijk
Poetess: Monique van Kerkhof

1. Theme: Dream in a dream versus Dream and reality I dream my dream and stand in the shadow of reality. Tension field of dreaming Tension of a twilight slumber status quo, in a meditative state of mind.

2. Introduction: a clear beginning and elaboration
Clarity and Lucidity: The reality of sleeping and dreaming.
The term "lucid" is the lucid state in which the dreamer finds himself.
In a lucid dream, you know you're dreaming. The Dutch writer and psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden coined this term in the early 19th century to emphasize the clarity of this kind of dream. Compared to a normal dream, the lucid dream is much more like everyday reality. Images are concrete, colors are clear, sounds are clear, objects are tangible.

3. Love dream, my interpretation of 'my dream' in short
From a child’s point of view, you choose to hold ‘you’ in my dreams, because in my dreams you are constantly there, for a very long time. Dreams about love can reflect some things you don't have in your waking life, and you would love to have them. Love dreams are usually a reflection of your own fantasies and desires. These dreams seem to be the only way to have what you really want. In most cases, dreams about love are caused by love that you feel in your heart in real life. You are going through a period of joy and happiness, so it can also be manifested, in your dreams.

4. Concept: I’m (singing) in a dream mode / dream mood
My conscious mind: The image of my consciousness. Is it an image as a mirror image, or a dream, in which I consciously want to lose myself? A stage of saying goodbye is another image of being. I no longer get to what I have experienced emotionally and sensory, which has been so decisive for who I am. The once real lies far away at the bottom of a mirror image of my consciousness. It determines me subconsciously. An unattainable desire and I want to evaporate in a dream.

They went to Sea
UK | 2022 | 5 min
Director: Jola Kudela
Poetess: Aga Lesiewicz

THEY WENT TO SEA is inspired by Edward Lear's limerick, The Jumblies. The poem is a story of adventure and risk-taking, where a group of people sets out to explore the world in a sieve, defying conventional wisdom and expectations. The poem's themes can be seen as a metaphor for the human experience of migration, which often involves leaving behind the familiar and venturing into the unknown. Yola, a visual artist collaborated with choreographer Małgorzata Dzierzon and the dance company Fertile Ground to create an abstract composition. The dancers move to the rhythm of the music, surrounded by a symbolic sea generated by an algorithm created in Touch Designer. The algorithm uses the dancers' movements and the music's frequency to generate real-time dynamic graphic waves, which can change with each performance.The ocean is portrayed metaphorically, representing the choices we make in life. We can either sink or rise above our problems, and the journey is what matters most.

 

Learn To Swim Pt 2
SE/UK | 2023 | 5:06 min
Director: Carlos Zaya
Poet: Joshua Idehen

After learning to swim at age 42, I was determined that my daughter does not waste her life fearing large bodies of water like I did. I wrote her this poem with that mission in mind, but like all my poems, things got a little out of hand.

Imaginings
NL | 2022 | 13 min
Director: Anja Hiddinga
Poets: Kitchen's Light (Bart Koolen, Boaz Blume, Brendan Lodder, Marie van Driessche, Sam Onclin, Tobias de Ronde)

In Imaginings a group of six performers (Kitchen’s Light), address viewers directly and share, individually and collectively, their struggles and dreams in poetic self-portraits. Against a background of suppression of deaf people and signed languages, these ‘signed word’ pieces of a new Deaf generation emanate confidence and empowerment. At the same time, they evoke the vulnerabilities that go with being different, confronting viewers implicitly in their openness. In the split-screen opening sequence, the performers lead the viewer into their world, which usually remains ‘unheard’. Imaginings shows sign language in poetic form, and reveals the power and beauty of Deaf culture for signing and non-signing viewers alike.

A Tale Inscribed In The Stars
BE | 2022 | 6:51 min
Director: Sophie Soukias
Poetess: Sophie Soukias

What if, to be able to heal the world, one must look for answers in an era when rationality was not the only compass that scholars could follow? The artists Nasrine Kheltent and Abdellah M. Hassak together with director Sophie Soukias rely on the dance of elements and the music of the universe to write new narratives, but perhaps not as new as we may like to believe. With the collaboration of dancer Marah Haj Hussein.This short film is one part of a trilogy '3 Tales of Halaqat'.

uncaring* daughter
AT | 2021 | 6:37 min
Director: Judith Klemenc
Poetin: Regie: Judith Klemenc

"Daughters* disposing of the commandment of shame." A church as a performance venue where lust and consumption, power and submission are embodied as "fall of man" by a shadow figure and moving serpentine bodies. 

Lust, power and shame. What is hidden behind this? What does the "sinful", fallen serpent body hide? And what happens when one accuses? What happens when daughter* accuses against the order of the father?

A video performance about violence, guilt, shame, sexuality and gender roles with words, music and dance. The text gathers thoughts, fragments, miniatures and set pieces based on the own experiences as an uncaring* daughter.

Idle Worship
AO | 2019 | 4:22 min
Director: Ariel Casimiro
Poetess: Jaliya The Bird

This poetry film takes you into the journey of a woman's awakening, it is a visual representation that aims to cover and symbolise women stepping into a womanhood that is not built on the foundation of abuse (physical, sexual, emotional). In the end, we see a woman standing, basking in light, freedom from the burdens of existing through a womanhood that is oppressive.

Idle Worship is a spoken word piece dedicated to women who have to (re)de-fine themselves and womanhood. To you, woman: When the foundation of the woman you have built with the scripts of the patriarchy is shaken, dethroning the men you have placed at the centre of your womanhood, I hope you crown yourself as king.

What Athena Saw When Tiresias Looked
UK | 2021 | 5:46 min
Director: Douglas Tyrrell Bunge
Poetess: Ellen Renton

This contemporary re-imagining of an Ancient Greek myth, told in the languages of poetry, music and dance, is a story about consequences and their potential immeasurable reach. Athena doesn't understand how powerful she truly is, and Tiresias doesn't understand how his actions might affect others. One brief moment that passes between the two characters blows both these truths open. What Athena Saw When Tiresias Looked retells the Ancient Greek myth with contemporary relevance, exploring issues around consent, disability, and gender expectations. The film, directed by Douglas Tyrrell Bunge, weaves together poetry by Ellen Renton, an atmospheric soundtrack from Lord of the Isles, and the work of dancers Anu Walters and Douglas Reddan, to create a dynamic account of two young people bound together by their shame, and their mistakes.

English