12TH INTERNATIONAL VIDEO POETRY FESTIVAL
VIDEO ART ZONE STARTS 20:00
FRIDAY 11 APRIL 2025 – VIDEO ART ZONE
INNER JOURNEYS & MINDFULNESS
20:00 – 20:04 | BREATH (3:39 min)
Director: Lilian Robl | Germany
A YouTube video, which is supposed to help viewers against panic attacks and anxiety, serves as source material, graphically altered and filled with words, interpreted as a fleeting diagram of breath.
20:04 – 20:14 | ROSE RASH (10:00 min)
Director: Thanut Rujitanont | Thailand
O Nobly-Born, your breathing is about to cease. Listen with full attention, without being distracted. O Nobly-Born, go forward, you have been in a swoon. Inspired by the book “Tibetan Book of the Dead” (1927).
20:14 – 20:16 | POINT OF RETURN (1:22 min)
Director: Nicholas Kallincos | Australia
Watching the movie of your own thoughts can lead you back to a point of return.
20:16 – 20:19 | WHAT IF YOU SLEPT… (2:49 min)
Director: Alkistis Papa | Greece
A visual poem exploring the boundary between dreams and reality, questioning where our subconscious creations might take us if we followed their path.
20:19 – 20:24 | THE VOICE OF THE WIND (5:00 min)
Director: Duy Thanh Tran (tranduysca) | Viet Nam
This film delves into the disconnect between humanity and nature, highlighting the consequences of our growing indifference. As we turn a deaf ear to the natural world, the future looms darker and uncertain.
20:24 – 20:28 | I HAVEN’T TOLD MY GARDEN YET (3:46 min)
Director: Diek Grobler/Anne Vanschothorst | South Africa & The Netherlands
In this poetry-film of a poem by Emily Dickinson, the poet ponders her mortality. She has not told her garden of her imminent demise. She will not lightly share the news with anybody, as if death is a unique occurrence. The film was made using a pinscreen animation device.
20:28 – 20:30 | EVERYTHING AND NOTHING (2:00 min)
Director: Sally Rawhey | Egypt
A voice of the self that encompasses the emotions of a child on the lips of a senile. A momentum of self expression where all the lines meet to highlight the soul’s perception of life’s meaning in a poetic expression of rhyming verses.
FEMINIST & SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES – STARTS 20:30
20:30 – 20:38 | INTO THE BLUE (8:17 min)
Directors: Jessica Poe, Wendy Anderson | USA
A meditative poetry film exploring the relationship and parallels between the natural environment, womanhood, and finding one’s place in the world. This film was made 100% by female collaborators.
20:38 – 20:40 | WITCHES (1:31 min)
Director: Erin Poppy Koronis | United Kingdom
A film poem which explores how the label ‘witch’ has become a term of empowerment for women.
20:40 – 20:56 | ANARCHAFEMINIST DIVINATIONS (16:00 min)
Director: Işıl Karataş | Austria
An experimental documentary that reimagines the traditional Anatolian practice of coffee-ground fortune-telling, blending it with the photochemical process of chemigramm.
20:56 – 20:59 | MISTAKE MY HAND (2:57 min)
Directors: Marizó Siller, Daviel Shy | United States
A poetry film shot on super 8 with archival collage elements about water and resistance. “Mistake My Hand” explores themes of resistance, warning, and the subtle power of water to create change.
20:59 – 21:02 | SCARS DON’T FRECKLE (2:44 min)
Director: Molly Lipson | United Kingdom
A poetic exploration of the marks left on our bodies and souls, and how they shape our identities through time.
21:02 – 21:06 | WE WEEP TO THE SOUND OF SUPERNOVAS (3:48 min)
Director: Sara Mychkine | France, Tunisia
An afrofuturist embodiment of ancestral tears.
21:06 – 21:08 | GOLDEN IN THE MORNING CRANE OUR NECKS (1:55 min)
Director: Matthew Thompson | United States & Ireland
CAConrad tapes the text of their shaped poem to windows and walls around Manhattan.
21:08 – 21:12 | LO QUE CUENTA / WHAT COUNTS (3:48 min)
Director: Eric Felipe-Barkin | United States
Legna Rodríguez Iglesias performs Cuban poet Óscar Cruz’s poem of dog-fighting against footage that underscores Cruz’s theme of the brutality of humankind.
MYTHOLOGY & SURREALISM – STARTS 21:12
21:12 – 21:15 | FIRESTARTER (3:00 min)
Director: Jacob Mark Shpall | United States
Very loosely based on the myth of Prometheus, this film uses ancient mythology as scaffolding to guide abstractly into feelings of anxiety, absurdity and fantasy.
21:15 – 21:21 | NAVAL ODE (6:00 min)
Director: Fu Le | France – Portugal
Performed by Magalie Lanriot and Roel Q Seeber, the poem Naval Ode (“Ode Maritima”) by Fernando Pessoa captures the movement of separation between the dock and the ship, and thus the distance between the inside and the outside, between myself and the other.
21:21 – 21:28 | NEST (6:35 min)
Director: Arwen Aznag | Belgium
A girl, alone with a house, in a nest floating around. For as long as she can remember, they have spent every minute, every hour and every day that has passed together.
21:28 – 21:32 | SOFT SHADES (4:16 min)
Director: Christos Balagiannis | Greece
When does a space wake up? Maybe only when you turn on the light. The click of the switch is enough to activate life in a room. A small apartment somewhere in the center of Athens.
21:32 – 21:38 | SIGNALS (5:43 min)
Director: HYENAZ | United Kingdom
Signals explores the notion of performativity in the form of codes, signs, drag, and masks in order to emerge from the darkness as visible. Signals become methods of translation, channels through which our voices become audible and understood. Bodies emerge into forms which are recognized and codified; modes through which we can be understood and called into subjectivity. An audio work and a video essay, Signals explores the process of emergence especially as it relates to the a/Artist into cultural spaces of power, those who hold or desire to hold the microphone.
21:38 – 21:44 | RAIN (6:00 min)
Director: Vasilios Papaioannu | United States
Rain, as circular shapes of memory imprinted on the fast paced celluloid or as liquid moving sculptures of the present in digital form, documents a verbal interaction between two people.
21:44 – 21:54 | NIGHT SHOWS (9:45 min)
Director: Anand Sapin | France
A teller of a neglected movie theater is hopeless. A man arrives and is confronted by the place and an unhealthy aura.
21:54 – 22:04 | OUROBOROS (9:45 min)
Director: ReVerse Butcher
“…we are the continuous present, but what if, we are not the only one?” The serpentine cycle of arrival and exodus. The flow of time fracturing into deltas of individual experience. Our division of cells, division of labours, divisions of selves, in constant, exhausting connection.
22:04 – 22:14 | JOHANNA AND ME (9:59 min)
Director: Shahar Marcus, Hagit Grossman | Israel
A story about a woman locked in her home during the Corona epidemic who loses her mind and dreams all day about an imaginary lover. The epidemic helps her get back to herself and be released from the outside world, but her thoughts remain uncontrollable.
22:14 – 22:24 | ALL OF GARDEN (9:49 min)
Director: Chloe Azcuy | United States
On a hot summer’s eve, a young woman takes you out on a date to the Olive Garden.
22:24 – 22:26 | OF LIGHTNESS AND HER LIGHT (2:18 min)
Director: Frances Rebollido | Philippines/Germany
A memory that resides in the distant side of an identity transition, yet the same discourse occurs in the privacy of one’s mind. In an attempt to define love, one hovers between resignation and pursuit of love.
22:26 – 22:30 | AT THE TIME TO SET THE TABLE (4:00 min)
Director: Stela Ramos, Well Darwin | Brazil
In the course of life, traces of everyday life are randomly imprinted in our memories and in our dreams. Records that seem trivial until the action of time proves us otherwise.
SATURDAY 12 APRIL 2025 – VIDEO ART ZONE
NATURE & ENVIRONMENTAL REFLECTIONS – STARTS 20:00
20:00 – 20:03 | METAMORPHOSIS – AT THE FOOT OF VOLCANOES (3:15 min)
Directors: Pascale Chau-huu, Thomasine Giesecke | France
New scientific research has revealed what could have been the earliest forms of life: it germinated at the foot of volcanoes triggered by a correlation of water and basaltic rock.
20:03 – 20:15 | EVICTION (11:39 min)
Director: Ian Gibbins | Australia
“We have been ordered to leave. They told us our lease has expired.” As human-induced global climate change threatens ecosystems, small refuges may provide safe havens for organisms that can successfully survive there.
20:15 – 20:18 | THE STILT (2:45 min)
Director: Eray Demir | Turkey
Inspired by Stilt Fishing, the legendary fishing concept of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). This ancient tradition carries deep lessons about being content with little, seeing greatness in simplicity.
20:18 – 20:19 | THE ENERGIES: NO WAR (1:00 min)
Director: Finn Harvor | Republic of Korea
A minute haiku about the resilience of peace. Shot in Seoul near Hyeontong Temple. The Korean Peninsula has a long and bloody history of conflict, yet Korean society is noticeably peaceful.
20:19 – 20:22 | DISAPPEARING SILENCE (2:42 min)
Director: Sarah Seené | Canada
The silence subtly disappeared sometime in mid-January 2019, following a traumatic event that occurred one year before. Since then, white noise and scintillating sounds have been with me every moment.
20:22 – 20:25 | SCRAMBLED TRANSMISSION #3 (3:11 min)
Director: Matt Mullins | United States
Based on a poem by Matt Mullins, this film leads with an interesting soundscape reflecting the title through a fuzzy, mechanical radio-out-of-tune loop. The black and white found footage highlights a compelling fusion of insect and machine, making direct connections with the silent film era through its visual themes and intertitles.
20:25 – 20:35 | CROW (9:44 min)
Director: Mir Anabil | Bangladesh
A poetry film about crows and our society.
IDENTITY & HUMAN CONNECTION – STARTS 20:35
20:40 – 20:42 | THE HISTORY OF PROXIMITY (1:39 min)
Director: Mersolis Schöne | Austria
When two human bodies touch, a silent, unwritten “history of proximity” emerges – a dance through time, fleeting yet enduring.
20:42 – 20:45 | BESIDE MYSELF (3:00 min)
Director: H. Paul Moon | United States
A poem/film that engages the viewer to trade places with the poet. Step outside yourself, look back at yourself, whom do you see. That’s the question Bob Holman asks in “BESIDE MYSELF.”
20:45 – 20:48 | VICE VERSA (2:40 min)
Directors: Lotte Wang, Zehua Shao | China, United Kingdom
A visual exploration of duality and perspective, examining how our viewpoints can be reversed and reconstructed.
20:48 – 20:54 | MY EYES (6:00 min)
Director: Karlis Andzs | United Kingdom
One history, one reality, looked at by many eyes through different times. A tender reflection about displacement, disempowerment and the struggle to preserve cultural roots through emotional memory.
20:54 – 21:02 | DEAR YOU, (8:26 min)
Director: Tanya Bozhinova | Bulgaria
Fighting words and feelings, a man embarks on an emotional journey to confess his love.
21:02 – 21:05 | LOST PIECES OF HER (2:30 min)
Director: Sofie Jo Lebow | Czech Republic, Portugal, & United States
Animator: Ana Cuco
A haunting 16mm visual poem that explores a woman’s identity as it distorts, fractures, and stitches itself back together. Through the destruction of the film image using mixed media animation, this piece examines how stories, mythology, and symbolism shape identity in ways that can be confusing and harmful. This isn’t a film about loss, but rather a meditation on why we mourn certain versions of ourselves.
DIGITAL AGE & TECHNOLOGY – STARTS 21:05
21:05 – 21:08 | THE GLASS MENAGERIE (2:50 min)
Director: Dmitry Kemell | United States
An allegorical 3D animation that muses on the notion of “humanity on display” in a world that is increasingly polarized and fractured. The virtual representation of glass takes on the uncanny.
21:08 – 21:11 | ART VIDEO POEM 7 (2:34 min)
Directors: Dwayne Jahn, Ebba Jahn | Germany
This video poem consists of an exploration of the human mind in a text combined with art created in collaboration with artificial intelligence. The AI-generated voice “Mr. President” recites the poem.
21:11 – 21:16 | SCAN OUT (5:33 min)
Director: Karina Bush | Italy
Is technology a reach for communion?
21:16 – 21:19 | WHEN PEOPLE TALK ABOUT THEIR DEAD, THEY LOOK UP (2:55 min)
Director: Anna Halbleib | Spain
An essay film with entirely AI-generated imagery about the human quest for transcendence against a backdrop of declining religious affiliation.
EXPERIMENTAL & POLITICAL – STARTS 21:19
21:19 – 21:27 | THE TRAJECTORY OF MELANCHOLIA (8:16 min)
Director: Andrea Erre | Mexico
A conceptual audiovisual piece divided into five acts, each representing the five stages of grief. A dreamlike dimension where fantasy and memories interweave to create a poetic story about the survival of domestic violence, forgiveness and the rebuilding of the soul.
21:27 – 22:07 | TO BEND THE EAR OF THE OUTER WORLD (39:37 min)
Director: Giancarlo Semeraro | United Kingdom
Hymn to life, a collage of people, thoughts and things, extraordinary moments of the vibrancy of life through imagery, poetry and music.
22:07 – 22:12 | ANIMAL HEART (4:35 min)
Director: Avia Gurman Murphy | Ireland
Photography: Daniel McLarnon
Performance: Jen Maynard
In this poetry film, humanity faces the animal in a moment of reckoning and sacrifice, forced to choose between turmoil and surrender. Inspired by the ancient ritual of the scapegoat in the temple of Jerusalem.
22:12 – 22:20 | FOUND POETRY. FOUR VERSES (8:20 min)
Director: Dmytro Bondarchuk | Ukraine
Four significant poems were written by four authors. They were broken into lines and hidden in hundreds of films until they were found and restored.
22:20 – 22:26 | 5-CENT AMERICAN FLAG (6:15 min)
Director: Vito A. Rowlands | United States & Belgium
A cryptopolitical forensic investigation of the JFK assassination through acoustic ballistics and signs embedded into 1963 5-cent American flag stamps.
22:26 – 22:35 | NINE MOONS (9:09 min)
Director: Janet Lees | United Kingdom
A collaborative video poetry triptych, with original score by Mablanig, born out of a shared belief in the need to embrace our personal and collective sorrows and fears, and to honour the particular quality of light and power that results.
22:35 -22:37 ILLEGAL (1:33) Director: Bairbre Flood | Ireland A lament which links the Irish history of exile and loss with present-day drownings of migrants who are trying to cross to Europe.
22:37 – 22:50 | ARRESTED TO DEATH – THE BALLAD OF GEORGE FLOYD (12:37 min)
Director: Kevin O’Neill | United States
This film elegy bears witness to the death of George Floyd, confronting the historical context in which he was summarily executed in broad daylight. The film builds slowly through a triad of talent: the master bard argot of a legendary urban griot, turntable artistry of a legendary Philly DJ, and the solemn benediction of a legendary Soul/Gospel recording ensemble.
Video Art Zone is located in the theatre foyer. Visitors are welcome to enter and exit the viewing space at any time throughout the festival.
