Paula Harris' four poetic short films are available to watch online. Photo/ Tabitha Arthur Photography
Paula Harris' four poetic short films are available to watch online. Photo/ Tabitha Arthur Photography
It’s a case of poetry in motion with the launch of poet Paula Harris’ four poetic short films.
The films were launched in Palmerston North last Friday night, with a free screening at Palmerston North’s Square Edge Community Arts, and are now available online.
The project was six years in the making, says award-winning poet Paula. She won the 2018 Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize, received the 2017 Lilian Ida Smith Award and received a Vermont Studio Centre writing residency in 2018.
Her poetry has been published in various journals, including Passages North and Gulf Coast (US), The Rialto (UK), Poetry New Zealand Yearbook, and Aotearotica.
She says her motivation to create the films was from an off-hand comment from one of her friends.
A montage of stills from the four poetic short films. Photo / Supplied
“They said, ‘you know you’re writing small movies right?’ and that got my brain clicking over the possibilities of combining my poems with film, to make poems more accessible and less intimidating to people who might not be actively seeking out poetry books or journals.”
Paula describes poetic short films as being the result of a poem and a music video or short film having a baby. While she is an experienced poet, the film world was entirely new territory to her, she says.
“I’ve got no background or connections in the film world, so this project was a massive learning curve. I had to rely on filmmakers taking a chance on me and this project, I had to rely on filmmakers spreading the word that I was looking for people to make films.”
The project received funding from Earle Creativity and Development Trust, after two years of being turned down by other funders.
“It meant the world when Earle trust came through. They saw something in the project they thought was worth supporting. Their support definitely came at the right time, as I was giving up on ever getting anything made.”
The short films were created by four filmmakers, working with a combined budget equivalent to the money spent on a good-quality music video, she says.
To My Next Lover is one of Paula's new poetic short films. Photo / Supplied
“The key was realising that the filmmakers needed to make a film of a poem that they felt a strong connection with. That’s the secret of this project working, that the filmmaker is creating a visual version of the thing they feel in that poem. And that is the joy of poetry.”
While Paula is more than 20 years older than the filmmakers, she says each filmmaker was intrigued by the poems she had written.
“They are about depression, or about being shit at relationships, and the filmmakers were like ‘yes, I’ve lived this, I know this exact feeling’.”
The first poetic short film was made by Angharad Gladding as her final project for her film production diploma at Yoobee, while the other three films were made by new grads.
April Lampre is also from Yoobee, while William Cho and Kieran Charnock graduated from Victoria University’s filmmaking MFA.
“An important part of the project of the creative process was the process of being creative for the filmmakers as well,” saus Paula.
“It’s not me telling them what to make, it’s them creating the way they experience the poem and taking it off the page. There’s a kind of joy in knowing that they each got to have that opportunity to try something new.”
“It’s not like the filmmakers themselves are even big poetry fans. But they connected with what the poems were talking about.”
A still from the poetic short film I Want To Love You. Photo / Supplied
The four films have also been screened in England, Ireland, Australia, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands and Greece, and also at film festivals that include BendFilm, FilmBath, Dam Short Film Festival and Dublin Feminist Film Festival.
“The films ended up being beyond anything I ever expected. Now I have to cross my fingers that people watch them and share them with their mates. Haven’t we all felt this thing this film is about? The plan is that there will be more poetic short films if funding and filmmakers can be found.”
The films are now being screened as an online exhibition on the Square Edge Community Art’s website https://www.communityarts.org.nz/
