Very, very good news.  Solstice Sol Invictus selected for Zebra Poetry Film Festival 2018!! Poetry by Lucy English and myself and evocative voices by Helmie Stil, Lucy and a bit of me - see films to check it out.
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Bokeh yeah, Filmpoem and The Poetry Society present an evening of poem film in Fujairah UAE
 
About the organisations involved
           
The Poetry Society
The Poetry Society is the leading poetry organisation in the UK. For over a hundred years we’ve been a lively and passionate source of energy and ideas, opening up and promoting poetry to an ever-growing community of people. 

Our work ranges from publishing leading international poetry magazine The Poetry Review and hosting acclaimed national poetry competitions, to developing educational work and commissioning a packed calendar of performances and readings. We’re on a mission to connect people to the transformative power of poetry. 

Become a member of The Poetry Society today and you’ll join thousands of other people making a deeper connection with poetry and the poetry world. Full membership includes subscription to The Poetry Review and Poetry News, regular e-bulletins and even more poetry advice, offers and discounts: including access to our nationwide network of Stanza poetry groups.
 
The Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition
Established in 1978, The Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition is one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious poetry contests. Winners include both established and emerging poets, and for many the prize has proved an important career milestone. The roll-call of winners includes the current UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, Tony Harrison, Ruth Padel, Jo Shapcott, Colette Bryce and Philip Gross.

The Poetry Society opens up further opportunities for all winning and commended poets each year, including invitations to read at events and festivals around the UK plus ongoing support and recognition in the years ahead. Recent winners had their poems adapted into filmpoems, shown at festivals in the UK and Europe.
 
Filmpoem 
Filmpoem is an artists’ moving image project founded by British artist Alastair Cook in 2010, committed to delivering education and community projects as well as promoting the work of poets, filmmakers and composers. Filmpoem regularly collaborates with organisations such as the Poetry Society, Poetry International and Southbank. 

Filmpoem works with The Poetry Society to commission 10 filmmakers each year to adapt The Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition poems and deliver these new works. This year’s batch being premiered at The Poetry Society’s new venue in London UK in October and also shown at Depot in Lewes, East Sussex UK.


 
 
Bokeh Yeah!
Established in Manchester UK 2011, by Filmmaker and Educator Adele Myers, Bokeh Yeah! was founded to bring together emerging filmmakers, interested in developing their skills through sharing sessions, workshops, and collaborative opportunities. The group was administrated voluntarily and offers free peer-to-peer training to those who attend. As a community training and networking organisation, Bokeh Yeah! is dedicated to enabling talent to flourish.
 
The group explores the various processes of filmmaking and teaches technical skills such as camera operation, sound editing, lighting and much more. It hosts demonstrations of filming equipment, inviting industry professionals to present to the group and offer advice and guidance. It also showcases films made with DSLR cameras, and co-ordinates challenges to create short films in a variety of genres.
 
Over the years, Bokeh Yeah! Has encourages a variety of members to  create through structured challenges. The numerous short films ranging from poem-film adaptations to music videos have been exhibited in festivals across the world. The group’s skill sharing ethos has been demonstrated internationally at TIFAZ & Unfold Arcadia Zimbabwe and the Dimensions Arts Centre Chongqing, Sichuan Province China. Currently through Myers’ work in UAE the ideas will continue to be developed and film made in Fujairah UAE.
 
Past collaborations with Dimensions Arts Centre Chongqing, TIFAZ & Unfold Arcadia Zimbabwe, HOME UK, Manchester Literature Festival UK, Comma Press UK, Single Cell Collective UK, Manchester Craft and Design Centre UK, KinoFilm UK and Three Minute Theatre UK, all have helped emerging filmmaking talent to create short films. These organisations have offered assistance in multiple ways - providing venues for example, or via instructional talks, helping to nurture the peer-to-peer educational ethos of the group. Furthermore, some of the films created have screened at film festivals around the world including Zebra Poem Film Festival Berlin, Norway, Poland, Portugal and South Africa. ( A festival list can be provided on request ).
 
 
 

 
COME ALONG TO THESE EVENTS!
 

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My Eyes Like Rays: National Poetry Competition Filmpoem screening & poetry reading
Friday 13 October 2017, 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Adaptation, interpretation or illustration – how to convert a poetic image to a filmic one? Filmmakers translating the latest National Poetry Competition-winning poems into visual form answer the question with a swirling charcoal animation, a tableau of Lego men and a choreography of dancers and fallen leaves.
Filmpoem makers James William Norton, Helmie Stil and Sarah Tremlett will screen all ten NPC films at the Poetry Café this October. National Poetry Competition commended poets Sam Harvey and Laura Scott will bring the poetry – join them all for a lively reflection on the filmpoem-making process.
 
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Tickets are selling, but any more sales would be welcome, of course. Here is the Facebook link for the eventhttps://www.facebook.com/events/1565838386805628/ and here is the ticket-buying link http://poetrysociety.org.uk/event/my-eyes-like-rays-reflections-on-filmpoems/ - if you could continue to share those around, that would be most useful, thank you.
 
 
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Please could you arrive for 7pm, and we’ll start the event at 7.30pm. For those of you who have not been here before, this is where we are http://poetrysociety.org.uk/poetry-society-information/contact-us/ - the nearest tube station is Covent Garden.
 
 
FILMPOEM FESTIVAL
 
Details from organizer and sublime filmmaker Helmi Stil
 
‘The NPC films will be shown on the big screen on Saturday the 28th of October at Depot cinema in Lewes, East Sussex. There also are some amazing spoken word poets who will perform at the festival: Salena Godden, Ross Sutherland, Matt Abbott and many more.
 
I (Helmi) created a trailer mainly out of your beautiful NPC footage to promote the festival. Original music by composer Lennert Busch.’
 You can watch the trailer, see the full festival programme and you can book some tickets here:
https://lewesdepot.org/whats-on/live-events
 

​‘Exploring Contemplative Effects in Text-based Video Poems’
Abridged essay as online multi-site publication at: Moving Poems, Atticus Review and Poetry Film Kanal (June–August 2017), from the forthcoming The Poetics of Poetry Film, Intellect Books.

​UPDATE
 
Information on Liberated Words Poetry Film events www.liberatedwords.com and Home Page Screening Spring 2017
As you can see we are not having a festival this spring, mainly because we have been focusing on our own personal projects; but we are however putting in a bid for a future two-year project in the region. This will involve a series of workshops and screenings culminating in a national screening including an international call for films.  As all the pieces drop into place it is already becoming an exciting project for everyone taking part.
 
Lucy has been busy organising MIX, the conference in digital writing that we co-founded in 2012 and is currently working on a PhD in Digital Writing, creating a digital poetry film project, The Book of Hours http://thebookofhours.org/.  I am making two films for the project which will be really interesting.
 
I have had my head down for far too long now working on The Poetics of Poetry Film for submission very soon. I have had some really valuable contributions and it will provide a comprehensive overview of the genre, including some of the most exciting and influential makers today.
 
I am also excited to be working on a poetry film commission from leading poetry filmmaker Alastair Cook for one of the ten National Poetry Competition winners from 2016. The work in question Claire Climbs Everest is a beautifully understated and immediately accessible poem about love and loss by American poet Sam Harvey. As a new departure I will be working with Howard Vause who will be driving the engine and providing support with his comprehensive audiovisual filmmaking and editing skills, so I hope we can do it justice.
 
Process and Metaphor
 
In January I was invited by Dr Judy Kendall of The University of Salford to take part in the Poetics and Poetry Network (of North West universities) Symposium on the theme of Poetry Film.  I gave an overview of the subject, discussing my own work and included artists such as Meriel Lland (who by great good fortune chanced to come along and was able to answer questions on her own work without any preparation!) and naturally featured work by Marc Neys.
 
With clearly a rich research community, thought-provoking content and insightful films, discussion flowed throughout the day. Dalia Neis introduced her research into cinepoetics in relation to wind, and the authorial challenges of voicing multiple roles in solo research projects. And thoughts on such as non-metaphorical poetry filmmaking rose to the surface, following my drawing attention to the subject in Marc's work.
 
Helen Mort, Tom Jenks, Michael Symmons Roberts all gave insights into their working processes: Tom Jenks on working to a commission and how he achieved layerings of found sound and Michael Symmons Roberts interviewed by Martin Kratz revealed the intricacies of working between poetry and TV documentary – keep an eye out for one that is in production, potentially screening later this year. I was particularly interested in Helen Mort's film Dear Alison – see below – and hearing her views on the process of making a poetry film in terms of rock climbing, landscape and voice. Both Judy Kendall (writing on the influence of Eastern poetry) and Helen are included in the forthcoming book.
 
In terms of listening to discussions on process, for me, the stories about making stories – the 'what really happened' revelations of any story-makers, the happy accidents and the forced choices of poetry filmmaking are as fascinating as the final, 'finished' result. And of course what is so liberating about poetry films is that there is no absolute structure and no absolute finishing point; even if they serve as political flares or contain dramatic narrative they are often (and are allowed to be) emotional archaeology: fissures of feeling caught in mid-flight – not only a point in time and space but also a reading of the healthy functioning of the soul.