Friday Review
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Poetry out of the page
NANDINI NAIR
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Sadho brings a new genre of films to India.
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Striking A still from “Tragic Story with a Happy Ending”.
People’s first reaction to a poetry film festival, is “What is that?” A weekend of poetry films, under the banner of Sadho Poetry Film Fest, at the Alliance Francaise, did not directly answer the question. Instead it chose a postmod
ern stance asserting that classifications are simplistic and meanings are always multiple.
Jitendra Ramprakash, the curator of the festival, believes that poetry films can be broadly divided into two types. “One is those directly based on poems. And the second kind is poetic films.” However, this is combining a genre with a choice. Films based on poems are a genre. However “poetic films” are a personal selection and a subjective stance.
While the selection would have benefited by narrowing the parameters, the festival did bring to surface hidden geniuses. With 50 films from 23 countries, much variety was assured. While poetry films are not a novelty, this is probably the first time it is getting a platform in Asia, feels Kavita Bahl, a key team member of Sadho.
Varied themes
The movies varied in theme, technique and treatment. Some put images to poetry. For example “Life of Death”, brought out the horrors of war alongside the narration of a poem. “Rain on the Battlefield”, however, reversed this process. First only the images told a story. And then the poem by celebrated Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai was flashed on screen. The opening movie “Poet’s Garden” made the camera the poet. The camera seemed to dance to classical music, creating a series of flower impressions, in the bargain. If some used music to tell their story, others used silence. “Prithvi” used silence effectively to tell of the earth.
Others like “Colours in the Mechanism of Concealment” used graphics and camera work to grab attention. Some movies revealed the sub-texts of poems. “Nights and Days of the Bamboo Song” threw light on the multiple meanings of Basho’s haiku.
Some of the most striking works were those which told a simple tale beautifully. “Tragic Story with a Happy Ending”, from Portugal, won favour. It told a powerful narrative with its fine-line black and white Munch like animations. With an excellent soundtrack, the story, of a girl whose heart beats unusually fast, hits home. Devoid of ornamentation, “Song of Resistance” depicted the revolutionary thoughts of Tamil women poets memorably.
“Budapest” a 54-second long movie from Canada was a representation of beat poet Billy Collin’s famous poem of the same name. The film brought to life the poem in a way the imagination never can. In “Old Fools”, recited by Bob Gendolf, Philip Larkin’s words stare at the viewer with old faces in their “hideous childhood”. These intrinsic poetry films highlighted the potential of the genre.
An abridged version of the festival will travel to Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The awards for the best films are yet to be announced.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
|
