Poetry film

I’m often asked by viewers or colleagues to define what poetry film is. For a long time, I would define it by explaining what it isn’t (it’s not a film about poetry, nor poets, etc.). Then I heard Bob Holman, an American poet, saying that there is no such thing as poetry film, but only different kinds of poetry: there is the spoken or performed poetry—the most ancient kind. The second type is written poetry, and even though it can be read aloud in public, it is more a text than a show. The third kind is the filmed poem, or since the HD era, the Video Poem—a type of visual poetry. The basis for most video poems is written poetry, but for good video poems, the written words are only an inspiration. The words become part of a new poem created by the director. The video has a strong and complex relationship with the written poem, but it is no longer the same piece of art.

An essay I wrote about the genre of Poetry film: Poetry and film can’t live together

Young David

Poetry film | 5 min. | 2005 | Based on a poem by Yehuda Amichai | Produced by Micha Shagrir

1^st Prize for Poetry films. Potenza Film Festival, Italy, 2006. Zebra Award Poetry Film Festival, Berlin 2006. "Another look" Prize – Euromedcafe 2005. Haifa Film Festival, Israel 2005.