Film Poetry Festival at Millfield, June 2016

by PoetryFilm on July 10, 2016

I was delighted to return to Millfield for a third time in June, this time to judge the student Film Poetry Festival. Thank you to James and the team at Millfield for the invitation – this was an exciting project and it was thrilling to see the range of creative approaches. The quality of the film poems was astonishingly high and extremely impressive, and the students’ enthusiasm and passion came across. Also impressive was the subject matter explored in these films – challenging personal emotional topics, and active engagement with political issues and the big questions. An introduction written by James Baddock (Head of English, Drama and Media) is below, and the winning films have been uploaded to the PoetryFilm website for viewing.

Film Poems

Always ready to embrace innovation and experimentation, this year the English and Media teaching teams at Millfield School in Somerset took their students down an exciting new path, that of film poems. In April, Zata Banks visited Millfield to introduce the art form to an appreciative audience of A Level English Literature and Media Studies students. Subsequently, film poems became the theme of our summer Poetry Festival; pupils in Years 9, 10 and the Lower Sixth were invited to make their own film poems, individually or in groups. Many used smartphones and tablets to film, edit and present their work, and several made good use of our media studio and equipment to realise their ideas. The results were diverse and inspiring! Submissions included delightful stop-motion animations, time-lapse mood pieces, striking text-on-screen films and performances of original poetry.

This venture was an experiment for Millfield, and one we are keen to repeat and develop! Film poems unlocked our students’ imaginations, and gave them an opportunity to express their ideas in exhilarating combinations of words, images, sound and music. My thanks go to Zata for inspiring and championing our students’ work, some of which is presented here. All of the pieces were created from scratch by the students themselves. I hope you enjoy them.

James Baddock

Head of English, Drama and Media

Millfield School, Somerset

Winners

Year 9

Summer by Tamara and Eloise

Year 10

Depression by Grace and Elenice

Fear of the Unknown by Igor Ledecky

Audience Award: A Love Story by Cameron, Matt, Will and Max

Lower Sixth

Exposed by Alice and Jessica