i swallow – new poetry film with poem by City of Bristol poet Caleb Parkin

Very pleased to reveal latest poetry film with poem by Caleb Parkin.   Really enjoyed editing and selecting footage whilst battling flies this summer!

Description from Vimeo:
Dadaist bike ride, swallowing flies and being part of the world’s ecosystem.

Poet: Caleb Parkin

Director, editor and selection of footage (2019) and music: Sarah Tremlett

Music: ‘Isaac the Syrian’ courtesy The Anchorites

Footage: ‘How the Fires of our Body are Fed’ Maurice Ricker, 1926 – Prelinger Archives; Yevgen Rychko, Erstudio5 – pond5.com; Miguel A. Padrinan – Pexels.com; Oleh Slepchenko – istockphoto.com. All under Creative Commons licence.

I first encountered i swallow when Caleb sent it to me to make a poetry film. That was in July 2019. Working on other things, time elapsed, but in November 2019 I found the perfect footage for the film – ‘How the Fires of our Body are Fed’. I was finishing a large reference work on poetry film The Poetics of Poetry Film (Intellect Books) and so only finished the film in July 2020. But then the film came together pretty quickly! I love Caleb’s visceral, visually evocative language that concerns itself with deep issues - crises within society and our ecosystem. I also echo the idea of turning the spotlight on insects and other forms of what have been termed ‘lesser life’ beyond the human. I was also very lucky to find the unique sound of the ‘postmodern’ band The Anchorites and will definitely work with them again.