The combination of film and poetry is an attractive one. For the poet, perhaps a hope that the filmmaker will bring something to the poem: a new audience, a visual attraction, the laying of way markers; for the filmmaker, a fixed parameter to respond to, the power of a text sparking the imagination with visual connections and metaphor.
“So we are on this island, sunshine bleaching our hair, driving some piece of shit hire car. Following this tractor, which is hauling this trailer, big red fucker. Beautiful puppy leashed onto the back of this open bed…”
Dog was shot on location in a series of now demolished industrial buildings at Spittal, Berwick upon Tweed and on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. Dog is a telling of a true story, which happened on a small sunny Island, a long way away.
Dog screens as an installation as has been exhibited at Meme (Bermondsey), Trace (Hastings) and Hidden Door (Edinburgh).