Saturday 23rd November 2024
11.00am
*** FREE & ONLINE ***
We are delighted to present these 16 Irish poetry-films which will be screened to a live audience at the 12th Winter Warmer festival, Nano Nagle Place, Cork while being streamed live via our website festival stage, Vimeo, Facebook and YouTube channels.
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Saturday 23rd November @ 11.00am |
Poem: Cumha
Synopsis – Cumha is a personal essay on the purpose of language, and what is lost when we don’t speak our own. The short feels dreamlike and nostalgic, a feeling attributed to the film being shot on 16mm film and double exposed in camera. It explores the intersections of land, identity and language with the filmmaker Elena visiting places of her childhood and ancestors.
Director: Elena Horgan (Ireland)
Elena Horgan is a youth and community worker, as well as filmmaker, from Cork but living in Dublin City. With an interest in personal filmmaking, she believes that the arts are an amazing tool for self actualisation, understanding and reflection.
Poem: Solstice, Wonder
Synopsis – To celebrate the Summer Solstice in Ireland, ‘Solstice, Wonder’ is a meditative eco-poetry film deeply informed by the heritage of myth and meadow. Intended as a gentle invitation to ritualise mid-summer and to connect with Earth-wonder. Poem and film created by Grace Wells, with a sweet musical score by Enda Gallery.
Director: Grace Wells
Grace Wells is an award-winning eco-poet and environmental writer. Nature, spirit-of-place and humanity’s multiple environmental crises are the large themes of her writing. Grace has published three books of poetry with Dedalus Press, most recently in 2022, The Church of the Love of the World which was shortlisted for the Farmgate Café National Poetry Award and the Laurel Prize. Grace has been creating poetry-film for several years and was previously been shortlisted for the 11th Ó Bhéal International Poetry-Film Competition in 2023.
Poem: Is fada liom oíche fhírfhliuch
Synopsis – In 1704, poet Aogán Ó Rathaille was exiled to a poor cabin near the sea. There he wrote this poem.
Director: Marcella O’Connor
Marcella O’Connor is an documentary filmmaker best known for James Joyce: Framed in Cork (2020) and The Lament for Art O’Leary (2019), which won Best Documentary at the 2020 Film and Video Poetry Symposium in Los Angeles.
Poem: Mere Ducks
Synopsis – “Mere Ducks” is a film created in collaboration with international young filmmakers as part of ‘Fresh International Film Festival’s Reel Exchange 2024’. Filmed around Limerick City, this poetry-film takes inspiration from the poem and follows a young person as she learns to accept who she is.
Director: Shane Vaughan
Shane Vaughan is an artist working through Lens-Art and Letters. His written work is available to read online and print and has been published by Poetry NI, Unbroken Journal, The Pickled Body and elsewhere. His works for film have been screened at K-Fest, Indie Cork, The Richard Harris International Film Festival, The Ennis International Film Track, and elsewhere. From 2016 to 2020 he ran Stanzas: an evening of Words, a poetry and arts event with monthly meetings and an annual festival. He has a BA in Fine Art from the Limerick School of Art & Design and an MA in Fine Art from the Crawford College of Art & Design. He is currently a member of Spacecraft Studios in Limerick City and Co-Runs Big Shots, a bi-monthly film night screening short films.
Poem: Animal Heart
Synopsis – The human confronts the animal in a time of reckoning and sacrifice when a choice needs to be made between turmoil or surrender. The poem is inspired by the scapegoat ancient ritual performed in the temple of Jerusalem and by Jen’s unique relationship with her horses.
Director: Avia Gurman Murphy
Avia Gurman is an interdisciplinary artist, photographer, videographer, voice artist, and director based in East Clare, Ireland.
Poem: The Lighthouse
Synopsis – A short poetryfilm about a lighthouse created using the method of stop start animation. This is Emmett’s first attempt at this form of animation.
Director: Emmett O’Donovan
Emmett O’Donovan is 14 years old and is from Cork City. He is a 3rd year student at Coláiste Chríost Rí. His interests include art and music, with a keen interest in film. In 2023, as a 13 year old, Emmett had a short film selected for screening at the First Cut! Youth Film Festival.
Poem: An Ode to Tony MacMahon’s Den
Synopsis – In this poetic portrait of The Liberties, Stephen James Smith takes us on a summertime journey of spontaneity through one of Dublin’s oldest and most treasured neighbourhoods, culminating in a musical session in Tony MacMahon’s house.
Director: Luke De Brún
Luke De Brún is a filmmaker and playwright from Dublin. His short films include SLEEP (2021), Joyce’s City (2023) and the horror short My Brother Jeremy which is currently on its festival run. In 2023 his debut feature film Idiot Boy picked up numerous accolades including Best Feature Film at the Dark Hedges Film Festival in Belfast. In May 2024 his debut play New Era, New Éire premiered in Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin ahead of a week long run. An Ode to Tony MacMahon’s Den is his second collaboration with the New York based Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation. The film, written and performed by Stephen James Smith, premiered at the 2024 edition of the Bloomsday Film Festival and was produced in collaboration with the James Joyce Centre in Dublin.
Poem: Good Morning, Dear Students
Synopsis – Created by the deaf students of St Columbas GNS Douglas Cork over a 9 week workshop in spring 2024.
Director: Colm Scully
Colm Scully is a poet and poetryfilm maker from Cork. He gives workshops in poetry film to all age groups. You can watch his other films and read his poetry at colmscully.com
Poem: Another Summer in Ireland
Synopsis – This is a poetry film that tackles themes of displacement and identity. It directs attention towards the art of translation and explores how words and images might inhabit the screen without privileging one or the other. The loneliness of life without the everyday appearance of a shadow has come to exemplify the difference between living in Ireland and living in the writer’s native Cuba. In consequence, the writer questions who she has become, living in a different climate, in a different culture, and speaking in a different tongue.
Director: Jennifer Redmond
Jennifer Redmond is a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker whose work spans moving image, literature, and visual art. Her work probes the moral fictions, myths and biases that permeate language based architectures. She creates artist/poetry films that explore the connection between words, visual expression and sound. Her films are experimental in tone and creative strategy and they challenge conventional narrative structures while offering meditations on human experience and emotions.
Poem: Sub Rosa – a Cold War Lullaby
Synopsis – Sub Rosa is Latin for secrecy. The poem describes a personal experience of the poet, when she sneaked through the Iron Curtain. She had to hide and pretend to be dead when she heard dogs approaching. The horrific nightmare of being caught and taken to prison is described in the poem, then the sleep and finally the waking up and sneaking through.
Director: Csilla Toldy
Csilla Toldy is a writer and translator. Her writing appeared in literary magazines and anthologies and in book form in three books of poetry: Red Roots – Orange Sky (2013), The Emigrant Woman’s Tale (2015) and Vertical Montage (2018), as short fiction in Angel Fur and other stories (2019) and as a novel with the title Bed Table Door (2023), the winner of the Desmond Elliot Residency. Csilla creates film poems as a visual artist. Her award-winning work has been screened at international festivals. For more visit www.csillatoldy.co.uk
Poem: The Residents of 49
Synopsis – What appears to be an overgrown urban garden is actually home to a plethora of flora and fauna. Here is a poetic journey through this densely populated residence: a haven in the midst of a biodiversity crisis.
Director: Ceara Carney
Ceara is an actor by trade, having graduated from the Full Time Programme for Screen Acting at Bow Street Academy in May 2019. Following her training in Bow Street, she has added some screen credits to her belt, such as playing the romantic lead in John Hogan’s cover of All I Want Is You, and featuring in Sky TV’s Bafta nominated Dublin Narcos (2023).
Ceara is also an avid environmental activist and channels this passion through her poetry and writing, as is evident with her directorial debut: The Residents of 49.
Poem: Settle Yourself
Synopsis – A poetic micro short about the ongoing tensions of the Irish societal landscape. Be it lack of housing, inflation or relations with the North, everything is on the table over a pint.
Director: Sean Walsh
Sean Walsh is a writer & director from Dublin making his poetry short film debut. Sean has written and produced a number of plays as well as finding recent success in the spoken word scene. Sean while be representing Leinster at the All Ireland Spoken Word grand slam.
Poem: Black Triangle
Synopsis – Black Triangle is a poem written after a dream – about how a nostalgic memory can leave the narrator damp, gloomy, and conflicted. A stream of consciousness, written in two parts, Mandarin and English. The charcoal illustrations are the dreams trying to reincarnate into reality.
Director: Phil Spillane (Ireland)
Phil Spillane is a writer, musician and filmmaker from Co Cork, Ireland. In 2024 he performed spoken word at Brigid Reawakened in Celbridge, Kildare, and at Elizabeth Fort for the Cork World Book Festival. His poetry films were exhibited at the Ó Bhéal Winter Warmer Festival in Cork and the Stanza International Poetry Festival in Scotland.
Poem: Gougane Barra
Synopsis – This is a sonnet written by James Harpur about the significance of the sacred site of Gougane Barra in West Cork, and especially its “wishing well”.
Director: Felix Morgan
Felix Morgan is an upcoming Irish filmmaker with an interest in the arts. He did a Double Honours degree in History and Film at the University of Kent, Canterbury and continued further with an M.A in Film. After his studies, he returned back to Ireland to begin filmmaking. Felix has a passion for the arts and believes film can be used to enhance and promote other art forms such as poetry through the medium of film. He is delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate with poet James Harpur and adapt his work into film. He is curious to explore new aesthetic and narrative devices within film and see how film can shed new light.
Poem: Winter Solstice
Synopsis – An eco-poetry film to celebrate the Winter Solstice, December 21st, the longest night and the shortest day in the Northern hemisphere. A day that has been loved, celebrated, honoured century after century across the human eons. Poem and film created by Grace Wells, with a sweet musical score by Enda Gallery.
Director: Grace Wells
Grace Wells is an award-winning eco-poet and environmental writer. Nature, spirit-of-place and humanity’s multiple environmental crises are the large themes of her writing. Grace has published three books of poetry with Dedalus Press, most recently in 2022, The Church of the Love of the World which was shortlisted for the Farmgate Café National Poetry Award and the Laurel Prize. Grace has been creating poetry-film for several years and was previously been shortlisted for the 11th Ó Bhéal International Poetry-Film Competition in 2023.
Poem: Achainí
Synopsis – The inspiration for this poem was conceived at Cuas in West Kerry, the place from which Saint Brendan allegedly departed on his famous sea-voyage to the New World. The account written about this journey, the Navigatio Sanctii Brendani, was one of the most famous manuscripts throughout medieval Europe, and was an inspiration to those who looked westwards over the Atlantic in later centuries, including Columbus. The poem addresses Brendan at Cuas, beseeching him in the name of humanity and ‘saintly’ values not to undertake his fateful voyage.
Director: John Kennedy
John Kennedy is a filmmaker from Dingle, Co. Kerry. He makes short films, documentaries and artistic films. He has worked as cinematographer, director, director of photography, editor and on camera for a wide range of great projects including award-winning short film Procession and documentaries and Oscar-nominated short, Detainment. A selection of his most recent work is available to view on his website www.centreofthelineproductions.com
