Dear reader,
when we launched our call for entries in March this year we could not predict the direction that the discourse on our blog would take or whether there would be enough interest in the discussion about poetry film that we wanted to initiate. Even more so, we were amazed how the authors started to trace out the wide field of the relation between poetry and the moving image.
Our first magazine is an international, multifaceted document reflecting on the genre – from varied points of views. As expected, the poets themselves turned out to be more quiet than the filmmakers, curators and researchers. Many artists described their individual path that led them to their involvement with poetry film (Dave Bonta, Eleni Cay, Nissmah Roshdy, Sigrun Höllrigl, Ebele Okoye, Avi Dabach, Christine Hooper, Kristian Pedersen). Other authors approached the topic from a more theoretical point of view, tracing reasons for the genre’s fascination: the archaic fascination of the moving image (Javier Robledo), the charm of the mix of genres (Eduardo Yagüe), the suspense created by the tension between image and voice (Stefanie Orphal), the incorporation of poems into new mediscapes (Martina Pfeiler), the aspect of Mnemosyne (Robert Peake), the future possibilities of virtual reality constructions (Ram Devineni), or the accentuation of the genres didactic value (Anastasia Novikova).
It becomes clear that the raise of the poetry film genre today is not only related to the digital media and the social networks (Thomas Ziangegiacomo Del Bel), but that a thorough reflection about poetry and aesthetics has to imply the consideration of the poetry film genre (Tom Konyves, Zata Banks).
With this epilogue we close our first call for entries. Still, there are many questions that remain and new ones that were raised. This encourages us to carry on to initiate a research in this field. During the following weeks, we are going to gather the submissions for the first theme in order to publish our first Poetry film magazine. It will be published as a e-paper mag on this blog and will also be available as a printed version. Towards the end of March 2016 we will start into the second discussion round with the topic »voice-over and sound in the poetry film«.
We deeply want to thank all contributors and readers who showed a great enthusiasm in discussing the topic. Without your interest and support all this wouldn’t have been possible.
All the Best – and a Happy New Year 2016!
Aline Helmcke, Guido Naschert