Film-poem
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The film-poem (also called the poetic avant-garde film, verse-film or verse-documentary or film poem without the hyphen) is a label first applied to American
avant-garde film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...
s released after
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. During this time, the relationship between film and poetry was debated. James Peterson in ''Dreams of Chaos, Visions of Order'' said, "In practice, the film poem label was primarily an emblem of the avant-garde's difference from the commercial narrative film." Peterson reported that in the 1950s, overviews of avant-garde films "generally identified two genres: the film poem and the graphic cinema". By the 1990s, the avant-garde cinema encompassed the term "film-poem" in addition to different strains of filmmaking. Film-poems are considered "personal films" and are seen "as autonomous, standing apart from traditions and genres". They are "an open, unpredictable experience" due to eschewing extrinsic expectations based on commercial films. Peterson said, "The viewer's cycles of anticipation and satisfaction derive primarily from the film's intrinsic structure." The film-poems are personal as well as private: "Many film poems document intimate moments of the filmmaker's life."


History

David E. James and Sarah Neely are two academics who have sought to explore the relationship between poetry and film. James writes of the idea of the poet ‘In the modern world, ''poet'' designates a preferred medium; but the word also implies a mode of social (un)insertion. It bespeaks a cultural practice that, in being economically insignificant, remains economically unincorporated, and so retains the possibility of cultural resistance.’ Of Stan Brakhage, David E. James writes ‘The installation of the filmmaker as a ''poet'' had, then, both theoretical and practical components. It involved the conceptualization of the film artist as an individual author, a Romantic creator-a conceptualization made possible by manufacturing a tradition of such out of previous film history; and it necessitated a working organization, a mode of production and distribution, alternative to the technology, labour practices, and institutional insertion of Hollywood.’ In his essay ''Poetry-Films and Film Poems'' in ''Film Poems'', William C. Wees differentiates between poetry-film using a film to ‘illustrate’ a poem, and film poems in which ‘a synthesis of poetry and film that generates associations, connotations and metaphors neither the verbal nor the visual text could produce on its own.’


Examples

Examples of a film that fits in to the first is ''
Manhatta ''Manhatta'' (1921) is a short documentary film directed by painter Charles Sheeler and photographer Paul Strand. Production background ''Manhatta'' documents the look of early 20th-century Manhattan. With the city as subject, the film consist ...
'' (1921) by
Charles Sheeler Charles Sheeler (July 16, 1883 – May 7, 1965) was an American artist known for his Precisionist paintings, commercial photography, and the avant-garde film, ''Manhatta'', which he made in collaboration with Paul Strand. Sheeler is recognized ...
and
Paul Strand Paul Strand (October 16, 1890 – March 31, 1976) was an American photographer and filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century. ...
using the poem by
Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...
, while in the second is ''
Meshes of the Afternoon ''Meshes of the Afternoon'' is a 1943 American short experimental film directed by and starring wife-and-husband team Maya Deren and Alexandr Hackenschmied. The film's narrative is circular and repeats several motifs, including a flower on a lon ...
'' (1943) by
Maya Deren Maya Deren (born Eleonora Derenkowska, uk, Елеоно́ра Деренко́вська, links=no;
and Alexander Hammmid.  ''Film Poems'' was a touring programme of films exploring the relationship between films and poetry curated by film maker Peter Todd and screened at the National Film Theatre London in February 1998 and which screened the following year as a touring programme at various venues supported by The Arts Council of England and the BFI Touring Unit (and would be followed by a further three Film Poems programmes). This programme included two films by film maker and poet
Margaret Tait Margaret Caroline Tait (11 November 1918 – 16 April 1999) was a Scottish medical doctor, filmmaker and poet. Early life and education Tait was born and raised in Kirkwall, in the Orkney Islands in the north of Scotland, before being sent to ...
which displayed the range and texture of her work with one film ''Hugh MacDiarmid A Portrait'' (1964) featuring the poet MacDiarmid reading his own work, while the other ''Aerial'' (1974) is without words and which author Ali Smith described as ‘a tiny poem’. Sarah Neely also writes of this film ‘For this film, Tait moved away from the inclusion of spoken word on the soundtrack: instead the film’s poetry comes wholly from image and sound’ emphasising ‘''Aerial'' seems a perfect distillation of Tait’s idea of a film poem. Sophie Mayer in ''How British Poetry Fell In Love With Film'' said Margaret Tait created her largely self-made films where she lived and would be described as ‘the only British artist truly making film poems’.


Other notable film-poems

*The
Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...
film ''
Stark Electric Jesus ''Stark Electric Jesus'' is a 2014 short film inspired by the poem ''Prochondo Boidyutik Chhutar'' or ''Stark Electric Jesus'' written by Malay Roy Choudhury. The film has won the official selection as the only Indian film at the Trinidad and T ...
'' (2014) *''
The Blasphemers' Banquet ''The Blasphemers' Banquet'' is a film-poem created in 1989 by English poet and playwright Tony Harrison which examines censorship arising from religious issues. It was created in part as a response to the Salman Rushdie controversy surrounding ...
'' (1989) *''
The Gaze of the Gorgon ''The Gaze of the Gorgon'' is a film-poem created in 1992 by English poet and playwright Tony Harrison which examines the politics of conflict in the 20th century using the Gorgon and her petrifying gaze as a metaphor for the actions of the elit ...
'' (1992) *''
Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, know ...
'' (1998)


Notes


References

* {{Film genres Experimental film Film styles Poetry