Vitae summa brevis from alex mckenzie on Vimeo.
The above is another short experimental 'Poetry Seen' film.
What I'm interested in exploring with these films is finding a visual element to accompany a poem - to allow that poem a presence in the digital age.
The challenge is to find or create filmed footage - ideally with some subtle link to the text of the poem - that doesn't then bury the poem under the weight of that visual element.
Another concern I have is that poetry can and should create images in the mind of the reader - and so by attaching a visual element to a poem there is the danger of interrupting that process. I don't think there is a way around that problem other than to say the 'poem film' can only ever be a personal interpretation of the poem. The reader retains the right to use the image or images that their own mind attaches to the poem.
To some extent once you read a poem you then own your own version of it anyway. I have been to poetry recitals (one memorable occasion was by the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy) where I have listened to the poet read their own work - and be adamant that they were reading it wrongly; that the rhythm was slightly wrong, or that the emphasis had been slightly misplaced at a certain point.
