2015 October | PoetryFilm

Oct 20

Zata Banks and Roxana Vilk at The Scottish Poetry Library, 3 December 2015

SPL

Enjoy a curated selection of short film artworks, chosen for their alignment with poetic structures and experiences, and with the visual, verbal and aural languages of poetry in various forms introduced by Zata Banks, Director of PoetryFilm, plus a new short film by Roxana Vilk. Award-winning British-Iranian filmmaker Vilk has over the past few years made films about poets from both Britain and the Middle East, not least her acclaimed Poets of Protest series made for Al-Jazeera in 2012. PoetryFilm is the influential research art project founded by Zata Banks in 2002, to explore and exhibit experimental text / image / sound material.

3 December 2015 at 6:30pm

Scottish Poetry Library

5 Crichton’s Close EH8 8DT Edinburgh

£5 / £4

Book via Eventbrite

Call the Scottish Poetry Library on 0131-557-2876

Oct 20

Ruth Sackner R.I.P.

I was very sad to hear that Ruth Sackner passed away last week. When in Miami last year, I was delighted to receive an invitation to visit Ruth and Marvin Sackner to see their extraordinary Sackner Archive of Visual and Concrete Poetry. It was a phenomenal experience. I remember Ruth was wearing alphabet earrings and an alphabet jacket, and she was especially delighted to show off her walk-in wardrobe containing an enormous collection of fabulous letter-clothes. An article from The Miami Herald is pasted below*. Ruth Sackner R.I.P.

*Ruth Sackner didn’t only collect art. She lived it.

Every inch of the Miami condo she shared with her husband, Marvin, was covered with pieces from their art collection, which was all about words.

“I love living in a museum,” she said a few years ago in a short video about the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry. “In fact when we drive up in our driveway we always say, ‘Home, sweet museum.’”

The collection wasn’t confined to their condo. In 2013, hundreds of pieces from the Sackner collection were put on display at the just-opened Pérez Art Museum Miami in an exhibition called A Human Document: Selections from the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry.

Ruth Sackner, along with her husband, amassed more than 75,000 pieces of word art, making it the largest collection in the world. She died in her sleep Saturday at 79.

Oct 20

PoetryFilm in Cork (documentation)

Photographed in Cork in October 2015. Many thanks to the Festival team for the invitation.

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Oct 8

National Poetry Day 2015: PoetryFilm lecture

Happy National Poetry Day 2015!

To mark the occasion of National Poetry Day today (8 October 2015), I will be presenting a PoetryFilm lecture and screening at Millfield in Somerset.

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Oct 6

3 Comments

PoetryFilm at the O Bheal Indie Cork Festival (Ireland), 10-11 October 2015

I will be presenting a curated PoetryFilm screening from The PoetryFilm Archive at the O Bheal Indie Cork International Film Festival on Sunday 11 October at 4pm in the Smurfit Theatre, Firkin Crane, Cork (Ireland).

IndieCork2015

Oct 6

PoetryFilm at “Art Language Location” art festival, Cambridge, 17 October 2015

I will be presenting a PoetryFilm screening at the Art Language Location art festival in Cambridge on Saturday 17 October at 1pm in the cinema.

*Art Language Location (ALL) is an art festival taking place from 15 October – 1 November 2015 in locations throughout Cambridge, featuring innovative and experimental contemporary artists from across the UK and beyond who use text in their work.

ALL

Oct 6

BBC Radio 3 interviews Zata about PoetryFilm

Many thanks to BBC Radio 3 for coming to PoetryFilm Equinox at The Groucho Club, and for interviewing me about the PoetryFilm project.

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Oct 6

“Palindrome” by Zata Banks screened in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

I am delighted that my palindromic poetry film Palindrome was screened in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) at the Cinepoema outdoor screening on 20 September 2015 at Casa da Glória.

Palindrome – and a reflection of Palindrome on the ground.

Oct 6

PoetryFilm Equinox at The Groucho Club (documentation)

Below is documentation from the PoetryFilm Equinox event at The Groucho Club on Sunday 4 October 2015, featuring colourful sofa-armchairs.

Many thanks to BBC Radio 3 for covering the event.

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Oct 1

PoetryFilm Equinox at The Groucho Club, Sunday 4 October 2015

Groucho

A screening of short poetry films curated by British artist Zata Banks.

To mark the autumn equinox, Zata Banks will introduce a curated selection of film artworks, chosen for their alignment with poetry, with poetic structures, with poetic experiences, and with the visual, verbal and aural languages of poetry in various forms.