You can read Peter Todd's comments on Film Poems, download an article by Bill Wees entitled 'Poetry-Film and Film Poems', download programme notes for Film Poems 4: Messages including a new essay by Gareth Evans, or see more information about the Film Poems programmes, available to hire from LUX. New 'Film Poems' programme now available, see 'Film Poems 4: Messages' .
'Film Poems', 'Film Poems 2: Moments/Histories/Feelings', and 'Film Poems 3' are a sequence of occasional single screen film programmes. They started from an interest in exploring the relationship between poetry and film. I see them as works in themselves and a kind of work in progress.
Part of my work that also includes making films. Showing films is important, both as a way of getting my work shown, the three Film Poems programmes have all contained one of my works, but also exploring the possibilities for exhibition and not just in cinemas. My film Diary, was at the centre of a show at Gasworks gallery, and also, in Film Poems 2 Moments/Histories/Feelings.
Film Poems was first shown as a one off screening at the National Film Theatre, London, in February 1998. A combination of, the feedback to the screening, the thought and time that had gone in to selecting it, together with the possibility of audiences for the programme elsewhere (having grown up in Leicester and studied in Newcastle I felt there would be interest outside London), moved me into promoting the programme. Negotiating deals with the two main distributors that the films in the programme came from, The Lux and bfi Collections, so the package was not too costly for venues, was also a step forward. Their support, and that of the film makers, and in some cases their estates, has been most welcome.
Attending screenings over the years, I had seen, and continue to see a range of work, so slowly new works and possibilities arrive, sometimes they are suggestions , and others are researched and sought in distributors lists, archives and from the makers. The works in the three programmes so far tend to be what is at the moment called artists works together with archive work. There is a kind of archaeology in going and finding older works and bringing them forwards again, and some more familiar films are screened in a new context.
As I come towards the end of a new film, a new programme seems to be emerging
which will take on the various dialogues. Hopefully the programmes will draw
awareness not just to themselves, but also to the works in them so they might
be shown in new and various contexts.
Peter Todd, January 2003
Download Bill Wees' article, 'Poetry-Film and Film Poems'
Bill Wees' essay 'Poetry-Film and Film Poems', specially commissioned for the film poems tour, is available to download in Portable Document Format (PDF) here. To read PDF files, you need to have Adobe's Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. Most computers have this free programme already installed, but if you need it you can download it from the Adobe website by clicking the link below.
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Bill
Wees' essay 'Poetry-Film and Film Poems' (96k) 
Download programme notes for Film Poems 4: Messages including a new essay by Gareth Evans.
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Programme
notes for Film Poems 4: Messages including a new essay by Gareth Evans
(1.1Mb)
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| Out (UK 1990 Dir. Peter Todd), from Film Poems |
William C Wees defines them as offering 'modes of communication that push
against the limits of everyday use of language (as does poetry) and conventional
forms of filmmaking (as does avant-garde film). They are, like all interesting
art, greater than the sum of their parts.'
Peter Todd.
Film Poems
• Manhatta, (US 1921), by Paul Strand and Charles Wheeler, 'the first genuine
avant garde film produced in the United States';
• Bells of Atlantis (US 1952; directed by Ian Hugo), 'first cinematic poem
worthy of that name' (Able Gance), based on Anais Nin’s 'House of Incest'
(spoken by Nin who also appears);
• Meshes of the Afternoon (US 1943) by Maya Deren, the 'trance film' -
'a web of dream events that in the final scene appear to spill over in reality';
• Hugh MacDiarmid: A Portrait (UK 1964) and Aerial (UK 1974), both by Margaret
Tait, 'touches on elemental images';
• Mile End Purgatorio (UK 1991 Dir. Guy Sherwin) 'tensions between film
and spoken word';
• Darwish (UK 1993 Dir. Shafeeq Vellani) 'a Sufi road movie';
• Out (UK 1990 Dir. Peter Todd) featuring Kathleen Byron, and Blue Scars
(UK 1994) a collaboration between students of Ashington High School, poet Matthew
Sweeney, and film maker Ian Cottage.
90 mins total approx.
Film Poems 2: Moments/Histories/Feelings
• Window Water Baby Moving (US 1959) by Stan Brakhage, 'an experience like
few in the history of the movies';
• At Land (US 1944) Maya Deren, 'this brilliant visual poem';
• Words for Battle (UK 1941) Humphrey Jennings, 'he composes exactly like
a poet';
• Lady Lazarus (UK 1991) Sandra Lahire, 'a visually woven response to Plath's
own reading of her poems';
• Glass (US 1998) Leighton Pierce, 'contemplative painterly';
• First Hymn to the Night Novalis (US 1994) Stan Brakhage, 'hand painted…interwoven
with words';
• Diary (UK 1998) Peter Todd, 'layers of emotions that shape the most ordinary
of lives';
• I Am Romeo (UK 1996) Anton Hecht, 'lines from Romeo and Juliet'
90 mins total approx.
Film Poems 3
• Un Chien Andalou (FR 1928), Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, 'a subjective
drama fashioned into a poem' Jean Vigo;
• L'Etoile de Mer (FR 1928) Man Ray, 'Desnos brought me a script-like poem…inspired
by a starfish he kept in a jar by his bed';
• A Short Film About Time (IN 1999) Paromita Vohra, 'a young woman with
a broken heart, her psychotherapist and his watch';
• For You (UK 200) Peter Todd, 'an ode';
• A Colour Box (UK 1935) Len Lye, 'drawing, painting, and scratching directly
onto the surface of the celluloid';
• Colour Poems (UKS 1974) Margaret Tait, 'A poem started in words is continued
by the picture';
• Yantra (US 1950-57) James Whitney, 'an object of meditation';
• One Potato, Two Potato (UK 1957) Leslie Daiken, 'London children amusing
themselves in the streets and playgrounds'
• The Back Steps (US 2001) Leighton Pierce, 'study in folded time' .
100 mins approx.
A programme of archive and artists' work which explores how films can be letters, essays, records and poems. Curated by Peter Todd
• Eriskay, A Poem of Remote Lives
Dir: Werner Kissling UK 1935 18m
A study of Eriskay's crofting life, filmed by Kissling during a sailing holiday.
• Messages
Dir: Guy Sherwin UK 1981-3 34m
Made over a 3-year period when my daughter Maya was first learning to talk and write. Guy Sherwin • Anaemic Cinema
Dir: Marcel Duchamp Fr 1926 7m
Spiralling and multi-punning epigrams.
• Colour Poems
Dir: Margaret Tait UK 1974 12m
A poem started in words is continued by the picture. Margaret Tait
• An Office Worker Thinks of Their Love, and Home
Dir: Peter Todd UK 2003 3m
Images of home, and city, and a written message. Peter Todd
• First Hymn to the Night Novalis
Dir: Stan Brakhage US 1994 4m
A hand-painted film whose emotionally referential shapes and colours are interwoven with words from Novalis. Stan Brakhage
• Film Letter from New Zealand Boy. Travels With Stick
Dir: Gordon Brouncker NZ 1988 3m
What, I wondered, would it be like to grow up in NZ ... What would you hear? Would the nursery rhymes be the same? Gordon Brouncker
• Kokoro is for Heart
Dir: Philip Hoffman Canada 1999 7m
Features poet Gerry Shikatani ... The irregular, yet rhythmic sound of the cameras inner working echoes Gerry's phrasing, and re-phrasing. Philip Hoffman
Running time approx. 90m
Film Poems 4: Messages is supported by Arts Council England
The Film Poems Programmes are available for hire, and a programme listing is available to download in Portable Document Format (PDF) here. To read PDF files, you need to have Adobe's Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. Most computers have this free programme already installed, but if you need it you can download it from the Adobe website by clicking the link below.
If you need Acrobat Reader, click on this button to visit the Adobe website:
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