As part of StAnza: Scotland’s International Poetry Festival, Filmpoem will perform on 16th March at StAnza. From the StAnza press release: “the impact of Filmpoem comes from a powerful interplay between the imagery of film and poetry. For StAnza Alastair Cook has brought together a collection of his films and will screen them alongside live readings from celebrated poets Colin Will, Janie McKie, Jo Bell and Jennifer Lynn Williams, and live music from composer Luca Nasciuti. This is a synthesis, a cleaving together of words, sound and vision.
‘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. A filmpoem is a single entwined entity, a melting, a cleaving together of words, sound and vision. It is an attempt to take a poem and present it through a medium that will create a new artwork, separate from the original poem. The film is a separate work from the text itself and this in turn may be able to open up poetry to people who are not necessarily receptive to the written word. Poetry often tries to deal with the abstract world of thought and feeling, rather than the literal world of things. The filmpoem is the perfect marriage of the two.’ (Alastair Cook, Anon 7, 2010)
‘Alastair Cook’s short films are beautiful.’
Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman.