MIX conference is back, and this time at The British Library in London, on the 7th of July. Co-hosted this year by Bath Spa University and The British Library, the Storytelling in Immersive Media programme centres on leading practitioners in AR, VR, game design, interactivity, etc. It also includes  established poetry filmmakers such Jane Glennie discussing digital reimaging and the archive, and myself, Janet Lees and Csilla Toldy presenting on ‘Narratives of Climate Crisis: Voicing Loss Resistance and Hope Through Poetry Film’.
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There will also be a chance to see the  Digital Storytelling exhibition currently showing at The British Library, along with a guided tour and tea!
 
The Keynote Speaker is the multi-talented  Adrian Hon  ‘the co-founder and CEO at Six to Start, creators of gamelike stories and story-like games including the world’s best selling smartphone fitness game, “Zombies, Run!” with ten million players, the exhibition of which will be a highlight of Digital Storytelling.
He’s author of You’ve Been Played: How Corporations, Governments, and Schools Use Games to Control Us All and A History of the Future in 100 Objects, a columnist at EDGE magazine, and has spoken at the flagship TED conference, the Long Now Foundation, GoogleX, and Disney Imagineering. Before becoming a game designer, Adrian was a neuroscientist and experimental psychologist at Cambridge, UCSD, and Oxford.’
At the end of the day there will be a performance of An Island of Sound by Jules Rawlinson and JR Carpenter. A must see.
programme
 

AN ISLAND OF SOUND
Bookable time slots for the VR works will be available during conference registration at The British Library on 7th July.
 

REALLY THRILLED to be interviewed for a Spotify podcast by SOPHIE KAZAN (art historian and great podcaster) about POETRY FILM. A really interesting set of questions xx thank you so much Sophie xx Already I am getting really nice comments from listeners. Really rewarding.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/39R6JLvZdPYCnexHstw4bs...

Thrilled to be presenting at Women in Word in Penzance this Friday, where a really strong and vital selection of poetry films will be screened. The whole weekend promises to be really memorable so try and get to the sun!

AFTER WORDS
This event was really well attended (no seats left, in fact additional seats needed) and the introduction which included a mention of The Poetics of Poetry Film, had everyone buzzing. Many people interested in discussing it further. The next day a very special poetry reading and fascinating discussion with Penelope Shuttle and Karen Smith (what inspired, complementary programming). And in the evening a chance to dance in a 18th-century ballroom at the back of a pub/hotel. Perfect way to celebrate Women In Words! Thank you Linda Cleary for all your hard work. Memorable.

‘The FilmArte Festival returns to Madrid for an evening filled with some of the best films about art(ist)s in our Spring 2023 edition! In addition to watching the films at the amazing Artistic Metropol, you’ll also get to ask your questions to the film teams participating in our Q&A!’
 
Very proud to say that The Exhibition by Charles Olsen is included in the screening. He commissioned myself alongside a group of highly talented artists  to make short responses to his playfully ‘irreverent’ docu-journo-video essay on the art world. My work for him was about my rabbit Duchess and the importance of the environment to me (even in my small backyard) over the importance (or lifelessness) of the museum. It reflected on the way art cannot achieve the same beauty as nature itself. When Duchess died, the silent film I gave to Charles eventually became its own short poetry film – I Cannot be Human – where I added text that attempted to share my grief at the dying planet and Duchess’ death. As an autistic artist I also feel very close to animals and birds and the vital role they play in my happiness.

I hope to make it to Madrid – one of my favourite cities – and I also know this is a very special event. Buzzing to be part of it. Thank you Charles!

REELpoetry 2023 is upcoming at the end of the month – February 25th and 26th – with a wide selection of poets and filmmakers and strongly inclusive of the deaf and hard of hearing. In relation to the devastating effects of climate change, Ian Gibbins, Mary McDonald and myself are presenting a documentary discussion on Ecopoetry Films and Subjectivity on Sunday 26th. See TRAILER above.

I first presented at REELpoetry just before Lockdown in 2020, with UPROOTED curation, with films on the refugee crisis. It was memorable in that Fran organised a reading by a number of Houston-based poets interwoven with the screening which prompted a great discussion. Since then I have been involved in the organisation / judging every year, and this year I was fortunate to be one of the judges of the exciting and innovative open competition with festival director Fran Sanders and Australian filmmaker Ian Gibbins. Look out for that and the talented winners!
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Curators and presenters include: Laura Bianco (Italy), Helen Dewbery (England), Colm Scully (Ireland), Eleanor Livingstone (Scotland), Sabina England, Aarron Loggins, Jonathan Lamy (Canada), Rachel McCrum (Canada), Crom Saunders, Peter Cook, Douglas Ridloff, Estefania Diaz (Mexico), Pamela Falkenberg (USA) and Jack Cochran (USA), Ian Gibbins (Australia), Mary McDonald (Canada) and myself Sarah Tremlett (England).

Coming from three different parts of the world our discussion was a salutary lesson in the geopolitics of catastrophe poetry film and how we are addressing the news we hear every day. Also how we want to share our feelings on the subject. I have to say this was a really revealing discussion, particularly for me, as Mary and Ian had some really perceptive things to say about my work, and I seldom have such great one-to-one comments made. Mary’s films are Wishing Well (poet Penn Kemp) and Utility Pole (poet Fiona Tinwei Lam); Ian’s floodtide, and colony collapse, and mine I Cannot be Human, and Villanelle for Elizabeth not Ophelia.

artists in the symposium from left to right: Kurt Heintz, me, Heather Haley, Valerie LeBlanc, Daniel H. Dugas, Tom Konyves
seated: Adeena Karasick, Fiona Tinwei Lam, Jim Andrews, Annie Frazier Henry and Jordan Strom.

Follow Up on Poets with a Video Camera: Videopoetry 1980–2020
 
Sadly Poets with a Video Camera exhibition curated by Tom Konyves at Surrey Art Gallery, Vancouver ended on December 11th.  There have been a number of very good overviews of this leading exhibition, and I have posted them at this link on Liberated Words alongside further photos from the event.

I was very proud to have my videopoem Some Everybodies in the exhibition, and be key speaker at the related symposium on November 5th, amongst so many talented artists. Many many thanks to Tom and Jordan Strom (SAG curator of exhibitions). Life will feel a little less special after this!