"Even if they are not all good poems, you do realise how incredible the thirst is for poetry as a way of apprehending and thinking about life. It sort of deals with the same questions as philosophy does, but it builds up from the ground and from specific detail whereas philosophy comes down from above and abstract generalisation. It allows you to experience other people's thoughts in a way that other art forms just don't, and reading all these entries together you see that people are looking for a way of dealing with the other. I don't want to term it spiritual exactly, but certainly the numinous aspects of existence aren't dealt with much in our culture."
- poet, novelist and international litigator Nick Laird on poetry, in The Guardian, 4/1/2013
To me, the essence of that quote really applies to film, not poetry. To me there is no better medium than film to "experience other people's thoughts", and for dealing with "the other". It is more visceral, has more "specific detail", and is also a very familiar medium - easy to make now with cheap computing, easy on-line promotion and distribution, and widely understood within our TV and cinema centric culture. Poetry I think held this popular story telling role within our culture, but has it no longer (except, perhaps, combined with song lyrics - which are given greater power in music videos).
Recently among the collective, there has been quite a bit of film discussion and making; most of which has not yet reached fruition.
Here is a list of projects and people which I have found interesting and influential:
Elizabeth Price
Of particular interest to RC, I think, will be the winner of the 2012 Turner Prize, Elizabeth Price. She makes dense, multilayered film works. An important theme in her work is memory.
Soup Collective
Soup Collective , a group of film makers with interesting approach to story telling and structure. The music video for Andalucia seems to tell two strories at the same time, shows a joyful, but melancholic event - perhaps folk culture is dying, a man grows old, pictures fade on the wall.
Soup Collective website (cool site, though probably cooler on a very broad broadband)
NZ Book Council - Going West
a great work of animation and sound: NZ Book Council - Going West, animated by Andersen M Studio
(some interesting photography and the Andersen M Studio website as well: 'Architectural Spaces')
Sophie Fiennes - Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow
I haven't watched the complete film, just clips and interviews with the director. Still, I have thought about it often over the past couple of years.
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