The Twin Cities for Bookish Sorts
Motionpoems recently kicked off its third season with a fabulous screening of 12 original poem films at Open Book. There was a fun reception afterward, with activities like pulling a print of a poster on a VanderCook press. There was LiftBridge beer, root beer, free popcorn and there were even books for sale (courtesy of Magers & Quinn). This was truly a celebration of words.
What? What is a Motionpoem? You’ve never heard of Motionpoems? Don’t know what a Motionpoem is?
Well. You have simply got to see this. If you are into, oh, let’s see, animation, manga, stop-action, photography, film, poetry, writing, comics, scriptwriting, soundtracks, literary pursuits of any kind or the proliferation of art into sundry forms, this is for you.
Motionpoems is, in a nutshell, an original concept put together by poet Todd Boss and designer/animator Angella Kasube, to combine poetry with some form of animation or film. Todd and Angella met at Nina’s, and immediately hit it off and realized they each had this wish to see poems in motion. Angella says, “I told Todd I had always wanted to animate a poem, and he said he had always wanted to have one of his poems animated.” Less than a month later, they had their first animated poem, one of Todd’s. You can see a video of the genesis of the idea, and how Todd and Angella feel about the project. It’s a team effort.
At the recent screening, the film concepts were as varied and original as the poems themselves. There were live action, literal translations. There were watercolors and drawings, with animated pencils and charcoal. There were paste-up color block illustrations. There was one taken on an iPhone, narrated by a four-year-old (which was, by all accounts, a huge crowd-pleaser), which combined live action with animation (an animation of the iPhone was the film frame). One was done in film noir style, complete with bullets flying.
The beauty of this is that it takes poetry to a whole different realm. In a recent phone interview with Todd, local award-winning (Yellowrocket) poet and the curator of the three-year poetry series at Nina’s Café, to get his thoughts on Motionpoems. He said that any time he reads a poem, he enters the world of that poem. And that is the experience that he wants to relate to the audience of Motionpoems. He wants the poem and the medium to be a transportive experience.
The poems are chosen by Todd. For this season, Motionpoems has teamed up with Best American Poetry (Scribner). Todd chose his poems from the galley of Best American Poetry, selecting poems that fit the purpose. This partnership will continue for the 2013 season, so all poems will be chosen from those that appear in Best American Poetry.
Todd says it’s easier to say what he isn’t looking for in a poem than what he is looking for. A poem can’t be too long, or it’s too hard on the animator. He doesn’t like obscure references, things the audience might not understand. He might like a nice narrative arc, or the beauty of a very lyrical poem that can tell a story.
Poets included in the third year of Motionpoems include L.S. Klatt (who came to read his poem at the opening screening), Jane Hirshfield, Erin Belieu, David Lehman, the editor of Best American Poetry (who also attended and read at the opening), and others.
Todd may choose up to 40 poems, which he then sends to Angella. She might get them in batches. If they agree on these (which they have so far), she will send them on to the animators, who will choose from that batch which one they would like to work on. For this season, 14 poems were chosen to be produced (two are currently in production).
The poems are “treated as a script” and are fully produced by professionals. You may have seen this in some form, such as the Poetry Everywhere initiative of the Poetry Foundation. But nowhere will you find such a concerted effort to make poems transcend the words which compose them.
The short films might be about a minute to two minutes long each, even up to three minutes. Each animator or film artist has a different style, and they are given complete carte blanche about how they want to interpret the poem. They may consult with the poet, or they may not. At some point, they may work with someone else to mix the sound, figuring out whether or not there will be background music or what style to choose for the voiceover of the poem, or whether to have a voiceover at all. They may work with a composer or musician to commission completely new music or decide to have none.
Angella was kind enough to spell out her process in a recent phone interview. She gives the artists no parameters, except for technical information. If they want a service and they don’t know anyone to provide it, they may ask Angella for a referral and she can usually provide talent from her large resource pool. She finds her artists (she prefers that term, since these folks could be filmmakers, animators, designers or fine artists) through work she has done or contacts in the video/film industry. Angella has worked in the industry since 1995, so she knows lots of talent.
This project is purely a labor of love. Motionpoems has received donations from over 350 individual donors over the past year. They also received a grant from the MN State Arts Board. There is also income from the sale of the film DVDs, which are available at some of the events. The artists get a stipend, about $500. But some of them may put in hundreds of hours on their piece, resulting in a piece worth thousands of dollars in talent.
You can see the previous two seasons on the Motionpoems website, a total of 20 films. There are 12 new Motionpoems this season, with two more in production. Two of these from the new season are on the Motionpoem website now, and a new one will be released each month. Subscribe to get the notification in your inbox as each new one is released, and you won’t miss a thing.
If you like what you see, you can also donate to help support Motionpoems. Join over 350 others who have supported this fantastic innovative art form, that celebrates poetry and visual art in a way and on a scale not seen before. And if you happen to be attending AWP in Chicago, take a ride on the elevators and look up. Motionpoems will be playing on the video monitors in the hotel elevators. You may also see Motionpoems occasionally screened at various film festivals and other venues.
Motionpoems is constantly looking for new ways to get poetry into the lives of everybody. That’s every body, and that means you. Try a Motionpoems today.
And for more first-hand accounts of the inner workings of the literary Twin Cities, subscribe to the Minneapolis Books Examiner today! Now. Do it right now. Hit the button. Go on.
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