Tag Archives: Visible Verse Festival

Visible Verse Festival 2013 programme!

from "Something" by Keith Sargeant

Whew! Alright, announcing the 2013 Visible Verse Festival programme! As with last year, we recieved a record number of entries, over 200. The little festival that could keeps growing and like we always say, we’re proud to remain the sustaining venue in North America for artistically significant videopoetry and film. This year will be our 14th!

We received stellar works from South Africa, Thailand, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Canada, the U.S, Ireland and the UK. With only one night of screenings, I am unable to include a lot of video poems I like.

Fortunately the program does include Literary Movement, a discussion with R.W. Perkins on the process of creating videopoems and the integration of modern filmmaking techniques, Q&A to follow. We will be screening his videopems Morning Sex & Blueberry Pancakes and Small Talk & Little Else. R.W. Perkins is a poet and filmmaker from Fort Collins, Colorado. His work has been published in the Atticus ReviewMoving PoemsThe Denver EgotistThe Connotation Press, and The Huffington Post Denver. Perkins’s work has been featured at film festivals all over the world, including an 18-state U.S. tour with the New Belgium Brewery’s Clips of Faith Beer & Film Tour in 2012 and at the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in Berlin, Germany. Perkins is also the creator and director of The Body Electric Poetry Film Festival, Colorado’s first poetry film festival, which held its inaugural event in May of this year. For more information on Perkins and his work, visit www.rw-perkins.com. We’re thrilled to have him!

The festival is Sat, Oct. 12 at the Cinematheque in Vancouver. My son has promised to edit a trailer for me, I’ll post it asap. *See* you there!

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Underground No One Famous/Blair Dykes Vancouver, BC 2011

Language of Desire Kathryn MacLean Edmonton, AB 2013

When Walt Whitman Was a Little Girl Jim Haverkamp Durham, NC 2012

Lapis and Centaurs Frank Müller Hamburg, Germany 2013

Something Keith Sargeant/Charles Bukowski poem London, UK 2012

Day Is Done Swoon Bildos Mechelen, Belgium 2012

Textual Assault Placards Wally Keeler Cobourg, ON 2012

Last Words of the Condemned Diane Arterian Los Angeles, CA 2013

‘1-poem-6’ Pablo López Jordan/Vangelis Skouras    London, UK & Murcia, Spain

Like So Alan David Pritchard   Isle of Wight, UK 2011

I thought I was more memorable James O Leary   Cork, Ireland 2013

Camel Matt Robertson Vancouver, BC 2013

Suburban Sylph of Crying Owls Gavin Jones North Yorkshire, UK 2013

PDA Kal Estrel   Kingston, UK 2012

Onion of Love Kirk Ramdath   Calgary, AB

Covered In Grass Aaron Samuels    Cranston, Rhode Island

expect something and nothing at once Michelle Elrick   Winnipeg, MN

Morning Sex & Blueberry Pancakes R.W. Perkins   Fort Collins, Colorado

INTERMISSION

On Meeting A Fox Janette Ayachi Edinburgh, Scotland

Full English Christopher Stewart Middlesbrough, UK

Not Death but Love: Tracing the Heart of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Gerard Wozek/Mary Russell
Chicago, IL

With Only My Hands Sergej Bezuglov/ Zakaryia Amatoya/Cece Nobre Bangkok, Thailand

Crow Morphologies Tara Flyn/Daniela Elza/Soressa Gardner Vancouver, BC 2013

Through The Eyes of the Wind Adam Jacobs/Forrest Casey Golden Valley, MN 2012

Futures of the Past Ray Hsu/Michael Parks/Chloe Chan Vancouver, BC 2013

To This Day Shane Koyzan Pentiction, BC 2013

Requiem for Lithium Jason Staggie Capetown, South Africa 2012

Small Talk & Little Else R.W. Perkins Fort Collins, Colorado 2013

Thief Behind The Mask CR Avery Vancouver, BC 2013

Love Gang Tara Evonne Trudell Las Vegas, NM

The Poet Is Artificially Removed Jordan Abel Vancouver, BC

I Love The Internet Kevin Barrington Dublin, Ireland

Rhythm of Structure John Sims New York, NY

Appraisal Melissa Diem Dublin, Ireland 2013

From Within Alexandre Braga Lisbon, Portugal 2013

Orange Taien Ng-Chan Montreal, QC 2005

Innisfree Don Carey (based on the WB Yeats poem) Dublin, Ireland 2013

OUR GRASSROOTS ARE SHOWING!-Visible Verse 2012 Festival post-mortem

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Earthquakes. Hurricanes. End times? Well, I’m high on a ridge, icing a sprained ankle, trying to focus on a post-mortem of this year’s Visible Verse Festival at Pacific Cinémathèque. Fortunately far-flung friends and relatives have all assured me they are safe, so I will proceed.

“The best year yet!” is what I was told repeatedly. Good turnout, a bit of press coverage, and wonderful new staff to work with, the festival is definitely entering a fresh and exciting phase. Era. Changing the date from November to October, immediately following the Vancouver International Film Festival helped raise our profile, and get more bums in the seats. I’ve never understood how filmmakers and cinephiles could not be curious about a fusion of verse and the moving image. Wouldn’t that work to inform one’s own work?

Though I had help from family members, the at-home transferring process was laborious. Brutal. I will have to figure out a way to expedite matters next year and I’m determined to find an intern. Or two. There has been much talk of producing a trailer for promotional purposes but so far, it’s all talk. *sigh*  Maybe next year. I’m glad the festival is growing but it’s becoming too much for one person, director. Our grass roots are showing.

I should refine my instructions after receiving all manner of file formats, many so huge they took far too long to download. Getting them onto disk was exacting and time consuming. I went to the theatre several times for run-throughs with a very capable and charming Aussie projectionist. With 38 selections, things can get a bit hairy, but everything looked and sounded fantastic. All the hard work was worth it.  I received many compliments on the programming as well, which was gratifying, as it’s the toughest task.

My dear friend and comrade-in-music Julie Vik put us up at the Holiday Inn across the street so I was able to go back and forth to attend to duties, despite several formidable distractions. At 3:30 I helped Alberta artist Phillip Jagger, AKA Satoreye Dreamtime, set up for his Reigning In Chaos: Words Into Video hands-on workshop, demonstrating the Kaos pad, iPod and video jamming software. And demonstrate he did! Wild man Phil performed his work, then shared much useful information about his process in an engaging manner, encouraging participants to come up and try out his gear.

I returned to the hotel to change, got back to the theatre lobby, nervous, happy to greet artists and poets as they arrived. It’s always very exciting to see and hear my selections on the big screen at last. We kicked off year 13 of the festival at 7 PM. With a full program, due to the record number of entries, I kept my introduction brief but took time to thank Jim Sinclair and the rest of the staff and volunteers at Pacific Cinémathèque, proclaiming our pride as North America’s sustaining venue for artistically significant videopoetry and poetry film.

We opened with the big, bombastic and sublimely funny stream of consciousness Continue reading

BUENOS AIRES OR BUST!

I hope. I’ve been so swamped with the Visible Verse Festival I haven’t had much time to devote to fundraising. I’ve set up a Let’s Send Visible Verse to VideoBardo IndieGoGo campaign and raised a little dough but still have a long way to go. I hate to beg but please make a donation if you can.

A great professional opportunity awaits in Argentina! I have been invited to present a keynote address at the 4th VideoBardo Festival/Conference in Buenos Aires on the theme of “Videopoetry; New Perspectives on an Interdisciplinary Practice.” I will be presenting a paper called “Seeing The Voice: Beyond Media.” Material from the symposium will become part of a theoretical publication with academic and cultural purposes.

Since 1999, and as founder of the Vancouver Videopoem and Visible Verse Festivals, I have worked hard to provide a venue for the genre, contributed vigorously to the theoretical knowledge of the form and on Aug. 24th, will be honored for my work with a Pandora Literary Award. This is from their press release: “Stimulating and directing cultural fulmination is as natural to Haley as manipulating media. She is an innovative programmer with a history of staunch commitment to the arts community and cultural awareness. With a strongly held conviction that artists, especially poets, needed to be represented on the World Wide Web, she founded The Edgewise Café in 1994, one of Canada’s first electronic literary magazines, along with the non-profit arts organization, the Edgewise ElectroLit Centre. The EEC facilitated the Vancouver Videopoem Festival and Telepoetics, a videoconferenced reading series. The Edgewise ElectroLit Centre’s populist mandate and innovative programs effectively made poetry accessible to all and assisted Canadian artists in expanding both their audience and potential.”

VideoBardo is one of the few international events acknowledged for its comprehensive exploration and dissemination of information related to videopoetry. My participation in the festival/conference will contribute greatly to my development as both a curator and practicing artist.

It’s a wonderful opportunity in so many ways; I will meet like-minded artists with whom to exchange ideas and information, helping to raise the profile of a rather obscure but emerging art form, though it seems there are new videopoetry festivals and sites popping up all over the world every day. While at the festival/conference, I will be attending screenings, lectures, workshops, performances and will also participate in a poetry reading.

As much as I love what I do, I am a struggling artist and cultural work sadly doesn’t pay much. I need to raise the airfare—an expensive, long trip to Buenos Aires from Vancouver—a per diem, inner city travel and accommodations. Having never been to South America, I’m excited at the prospect of making new contacts and becoming immersed in the city’s culture, fortunate to have festival organizers as guides.

My work in the genre may be viewed here at Vimeo.

I just established my own company with my teenaged son as editor called Visible Verse Productions.

These links were provided by VideoBardo director Javier Robledo and contain pertinent information about the conference’s venues and scheduled events:

•27th Nov -> Palais de Glace
•28th Nov -> CCEBA (Centro Cultural de España en Buenos Aires plus Malba plus Biblioteca Nacional
•29th Nov -> CCEBA + Fundación Hampatu
•30 th Nov-> CCEBA + Biblioteca Nacional
1st Dec -> Microcine IMPA Oracio Campos
•2nd Dec -> Club Pejerrey de Quilmes
Creo Producciones