Programme: “PoetryFilm: Mythology and Dream” at Curzon Renoir, December 2009

Below are the details of the PoetryFilm: Mythology and Dream event at Curzon Renoir Cinema in December 2009.

The full programme description from the event is below.

Adam Alive: I, Sisyphus  (poetry film)

Condemned to carry a rock for eternity, Sisyphus continues his task today in the modern world. “Man picks up rock, carries rock to the top; rock falls, man descends, man picks up rock…” This film by Adam Alive draws on mythology, the Stoics and the work of Albert Camus.

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Heather Phillipson: In the Company of Cordwainers (poetry film)

Goddesses of sewing and weaving are plentiful in mythology. Penelope’s loom, Pandora’s web, and the three Norns (Norse goddesses whose weaving determined fates) are a few. This film is an aural and visual poem constructed of still images of unused machines in a shoe-making workshop. Their everyday usage is put aside and through their complex and alien structures coupled with strange and rhythmic names, they have a different kind of presence as objects.

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Tor Webster: The Glastonbury Uluru Crystal Bridge (documentary film)

A short experimental documentary following the film maker from Glastonbury (the earth’s Heart Chakra) to Uluru (the earth’s Solar Plexus Chakra) on a poetic crystal burying mission at the earth chakra points. The synchronicities in the journey sparked a five year pilgrimage of burying crystals all around the world: Tor discovers that a man he meets for 15 minutes in Australia takes the two crystals Tor gives him to Shaun in England, who was the man who gave Tor the crystal to take to Australia in the first place.

Stephen Sutcliffe: Said the Poet to the Analyst (poetry film)

Anne Sexton’s poem is a meeting between two people who interpret words for a living.

“My business is words… Your business is watching my words…”

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John Stiles and director John Scott: Scouts Are Cancelled (documentary film)

An intriguing documentary on the life of Nova Scotia-born writer and poet John Stiles. Stiles once worked as a telemarketer in Toronto and used colourful voices and accents while speaking to customers on the phone. He later used those voice characters in his open-mike readings and garnered a cult following, which led to two published books. The Atlantic Film Festival called it “one of the best contemporary literary documentaries of the last decade.”

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Dzifa Benson: poetry reading

Dzifa Benson writes, performs, curates and teaches. She has read and performed her prose and poetry nationally and internationally at venues such as, the London Literature Festival at Southbank Centre, Apples & Snakes, Tate Britain, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, the ICA, Glastonbury, Edinburgh Festival, Southsea Festival, the Houses of Parliament, and the Shakespeare & Company Bookshop, Paris. Her practice embraces cross art forms and she regularly collaborates with visual artists and musicians. She was artist-in-residence at the Courtauld Institute of Art from 2007 to 2009. In 2009 she was invited by Southbank Centre to be an ambassador for its Global Poetry System project.

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Simon Barraclough: poetry reading

Simon Barraclough won the poetry section of the London Writers’ Competition in 2000 and his debut book, Los Alamos Mon Amour was nominated for Best First Collection in the Forward Prizes of 2008. He has also collaborated on two pamphlets: Unfold (2002) and Ask for It by Name (Unfold Press, 2008). His poems have been published widely in journals and anthologies and he is a regular contributor to Radio 3 and Radio 4, particularly The Film Programme for which he has been commissioned to write several new pieces.

Followed by Q&A with the poets and filmmakers.