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Wild Whispers

Wild Whispers is a transnational poetry film project that started with one poem and led to 14 versions in 10 languages and 12 poetry films. The films, in different languages, were all ‘whispered’ from the previous one. The project travelled from England to India, Australia, Taiwan, France, South Africa, the Netherlands, Sweden, Wales and the USA, creating poetry films in English, Malayalam, Chinese, French, Afrikaans, Dutch, American Sign Language, Navajo, Spanish, and Welsh. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chaucer Cameron explains the inspiration behind the project and how it started.

Over the last few years there has been an increasingly intense, international focus on issues of migration, immigration, borders, and freedom of movement. The June 2016 vote by the UK to leave the European Union brought this into focus. The decision has been both difficult and divisive and has given rise to many, sometimes heated debates about the nature of geographical displacement, belonging, identity, connection and disconnection.

 

On a personal and creative level, the Wild Whispers project began with an email to a potential collaborator a month before the Brexit vote, as a way to enable creative connections after I moved house. This sudden and unexpected move left me feeling temporarily displaced. So the project came into being as an antidote to the disruptive elements of moving.

 

The films, in different languages, were all ‘whispered’ from the previous one. The project travelled from England to India, Australia, Taiwan, France, South Africa, the Netherlands, Sweden, Wales and the USA, creating poetry films in English, Malayalam, Chinese, French, Afrikaans, Dutch, American Sign Language, Navajo, Spanish, and Welsh.

The original concept behind the use of film poetry was to investigate issues of translation and adaptation through film poetry and text, to explore collaborative process and to examine ideas about connection and disconnection. However, in the face of the unexpected vote to leave Europe and the ensuing political upheaval and unrest, the project seemed to take on a greater sense of urgency and significance. Other issues around the world were reflected in some of the email correspondence I received from various contributors and one in particular stood out:

“I’ve ridden, walked and played in these forests for over a decade. What it would be like if, because of war, I had to flee the forest for the cities – if I had to lose the presence of the frogs, the lakes, the woods? I let the words of the poem in their original form wash over me; they spoke to me of loss, war, and death – of the terrible, pointless ongoing tragedy that is Syria. The poem became global rather than personal. For me, however, it still held the hint of regeneration.”

 

My own desire to connect was both personal and political and certainly focused on the bigger picture. I am most passionate about film poetry, and consider it to be the perfect vehicle for exciting collaborations and for fostering strong, positive connections between countries and across the world.

 

One of the initial inspirations behind the Wild Whispers project was a single image of a Buryat Shaman performing a libation – a ritual pouring of liquid, milk or grains, as an offering to the gods or spirits in memory of the dead. I was captivated by the image, and enchanted by an almost physical manifestation of kinetic energy, and spiritual dynamic, which I felt emanated from the image. I felt an instant connection and wanted to find a way of expressing that, and translating or adapting that sense of motion, alongside the spiritual elements that libation engenders.

 

When I discovered this image I was also in the process of writing a vision statement for my creative work, and came across an article by visual artist Mary Russell and author Gerard Wozek, the collaborative duo of “Mercury in Motion”. I found we shared a belief that visual and literary art carry spiritual, political, and sociological messages. Russell and Wozek suggest that a film poem is like an “illuminated electronic manuscript that records the voice, the spirit and vision of the poet, and frames this technological intersection between visual art and literature”. So in that sense the medium of film poetry can be seen as intrinsically alchemic—magic.

 

The call-out to poets, translators and poetry filmmakers to be involved in Wild Whispers has resulted in just that: magic.

It started with 'Frog on Water', a poem by Chaucer Cameron

 

Frog on water

I used to walk through woodland and wild garlic,
watch leap of frog, gold-green on water.

Touch nose to earth, to hear the inside of the forest,
crumple leaf against a vein that carries signs

of urban concrete. Blood and brick dust
chip away like grinding teeth of children

up-starting with night terrors who in daylight
would daydream in crosshatch, shade not colour.

The used to walk; which enters into all dreams,
terrors of small children transferred across
a generation, a loss of frog on water.

"The Wild Whispers Project began with Frog on Water. The poem explores the idea of transforming loss into movement. It was chosen for its accessibility, its short length and storytelling narrative. It’s a once-upon-a-time poem which looks at the past and present, crosses borders, checks binaries, such as day/night, nature/urban, and carries the motif of repeated dysfunctions passed through generations.​"

The first film was made by Helen Dewbery in the UK. “The film uses home movie shot in c1950s juxtaposed with recent images using Polaroid cameras. The materiality of the Polaroid was important. The ‘instant party camera’ is not only there to witness events but to become the event. As the home movie revealed a child with fading confidence, the Polaroid revealed a pylon and baby x-ray, a spaceman and diver, paths and roads, a wayside picnic area, desolate farmland and dying trees. The film results in a tense fairy-tale in aptly named, ‘Joy Wood’.”

Country of production: India Lanugauges: Malayalam and Urdu Title: Vellatthinu Mukalile Thavala/ Paani Par Mendhak Filmmaker and editor: Rajesh James Translators: Malayalam, Jose Varghese Hindi and Urdu, Jhilmil Breckenridge “I was given the poem in the Malayalam and to translate that into Urdu was rather challenging. Malayalam is a highly Sanskritized language, so first, I sat with some editors and translated it into Hindi with them. Then, I translated from Hindi to Urdu. Translation is a wonderful tool that makes poetry accessible to more readers.” Jhilmil Breckenridge

Country of production: Australia Language: English Title: Shadow Lullaby Filmmaker: Marie Craven Translation: Candida Baker Marie: ” ‘Shadow Lullaby’ was a fascinating challenge to undertake. The first step in the process was receiving a poem in the Urdu language. This was a translation of Chaucer’s original poem, but I did not receive it in English, so had no way of understanding it at this stage. Thus my first task was to find a translator in Australia. I had difficulty finding someone who had skills in the Urdu language, English and a feeling for poetry. So, in discussion with Chaucer, we elected to go with a ‘technical’ translation of the Urdu text into English, and find a poet in Australia who could ‘reinterpret’ this into a poetic form. For this part of the process I approached Candida Baker, with whom I’d already made two previous poetry films, and had established a working relationship and understanding of each other’s sensibilities.” Candida: “To begin with I took a personal approach to this poem. I’d spent a lot of my life in London and Sydney, but I’d also lived my formative years in the country and these days I live in the hills behind Byron Bay surrounded by Macadamia Forests – green tree frogs are a small but constant presence in my life. I imagined these two very different landscapes, and how I felt in them both. On my daily walks I’ve often stopped to listen to the wind in the trees, to touch the leaves of the stag ferns growing on the trunks of the macadamia trees. I’ve ridden, walked and played in these forests for over a decade. What it would be like if, because of war, I had to flee the forest for the cities – if I had to lose the presence of the frogs, the lakes, the woods? I let the words of the poem in their original form wash over me; they spoke to me of loss, war, death – of the terrible, pointless ongoing tragedy that is Syria. The poem became global rather than personal. For me, however, it still held the hint of regeneration (although the wonderful videographer I worked with, Marie Craven, had her own interpretation which was perhaps not quite as ‘Pollyanna’ as mine). Gradually a mutual interpretation began to emerge, and Marie and I began the process of refining until we reached our final version. I find the words and images we’ve created haunting and I hope that the person, whoever he/she is in the poem, finds the forests again one day.” Shadow Lullaby In the forest I walk through wild garlic I see green and golden shadows As frogs jump here and there Sometimes I lie down Rest my cheek on the damp ground And listen to the earth’s heartbeat In the colour of crushed leaves A sudden glimpse of urban concrete In the children’s deepest sleep Their teeth shiver with nightmares Tiny shudders echoing collisions Of bricks and mortar and blood My days are filled With colourless daydreams Of dark symmetry They used to walk Day and night I see them I mourn their loss The disappearance of a generation As simple and complete As the sudden vanishing of frogs Into the watery shadows Candida Baker

Country of production: Taiwan Language: Chinese Title: 綠金色的陰影躍進我的眼睛 Translator, filmmaker and editor: Ye Mimi “I approached 55 strangers randomly at parks in Taiwan and invited them to read the poem, which I had translated into Chinese. For me, their facial expressions, eyes, voice, and gestures are the best interpretations of the poem. It’s very important to look at the people’s faces when they read. It’s also a way of translation. The way I translated ‘I see green and golden shadows’ is not faithful. The Chinese is “綠金色的陰影躍進我的眼睛”, which means ‘Green and golden shadows jump into my eyes.’ I also made this line as the title of the video. In the end of the video, I read this stanza myself. I added the English translation under my Chinese text. I switched the position of ‘I see green and golden shadows’ and ‘As frogs jump here and there’ because in my Chinese translation, ‘As frogs jump here and there’ comes first.” Ye Mimi 綠金色的陰影躍進我的眼睛 在森林裡 我踩過一片野蒜菜 當青蛙四處彈跳的時候 綠金色的陰影躍進我的眼睛 有時候我躺下 把臉頰停泊在潮溼的地面上 聆聽地球的心跳 驚鴻地瞥見城市的混凝土 就藏在壓扁的葉色裡 孩子們陷入深長的睡眠 他們的牙齒顫慄出許多顆夢靨 迷你的震動中 嘹響著磚頭、迫擊砲與血液撞擊的回聲 黯淡無光的白日夢 有一種勻稱的黑 我的日期被大量填補 過去我總是看見他們 不分晝夜地走著 他們遺失的那些使我悼念 一個世代就這樣滅去了 簡短且完整 彷彿墜入汪洋水影之中的蛙群 瞬間沒了蹤跡 ─葉覓覓

Country of production: France and Morocco Language: French Title: Une ombre vert mordoré est entrée dans mes yeux Filmmaker and editor: bobie (Yves Bommenel) Translator: Marie Laureillard “Inspired by the strange beauty of the poem, I wanted to create a gothic atmosphere. Something weird, but without being obvious, like an old English horror movie. We don’t know what’s really happened … the images are not really scary. The soundtrack isn’t frightening, but the mix of all the media gives birth to a worrying feeling. This meeting of objects is the goal for me of film poetry, creating a new kind of artwork based on the relationships of words, sounds and pictures. This project is also an exploration of translation and intercultural links. That’s why I asked my German friend Elak to read the poem. She’s been living in the south of France from her childhood. So, her soft voice has a very special accent. Her pronunciation and her whispers also underline the fairy tale ambiance of the soundtrack. The last images of this video poem were filmed at the French School of Meknes in Morocco. It intersected the purpose of this film project and also one of the meanings of the poem. ‘Generation after generation, children vanish, replaced by adults who vanish at their turn…’ “ bobie (Yves Bommenel) Une ombre vert mordoré est entrée dans mes yeux Dans la forêt j’ai marché sur un parterre d’ail sauvage des grenouilles ont jailli de toutes parts une ombre vert mordoré est entrée dans mes yeux Par moments je m’allongeais les joues ancrées sur le sol humide pour écouter les pulsations de la terre Apercevant le béton de la ville j’ai enfoui mon visage dans le tapis de feuilles Les enfants ont sombré dans un sommeil profond les dents vibrantes de cauchemars dans un mini-choc écho de l’impact des briques, du mortier et du sang Mes rêveries sombres et sans éclat sont emplies d’un noir homogène mes jours en sont comblés Auparavant je les ai toujours vus cheminer jour et nuit ceux qu’ils ont perdus me font pleurer toute une génération s’est éteinte brève et entière comme les grenouilles tombent dans l’eau en un instant sans laisser de trace Marie Laureillard

Country of production: South Africa Language: Afrikaans Title: ’n Brons-groen skaduwee in my oë (A bronze-green shadow in my eyes) Filmmaker and director: Erentia Bedeker Editor: Diek Grobler Translator: Erentia Bedeker “The film juxtaposes the industrial world of the city with nature. The narrator yearns to be close to nature and mourns the human species separation from their roots in nature. Ultimately humans are responsible for their own destruction due to their lack of care for our planet.” Erentia Bedeker ‘n Brons-groen skaduwee in my oë In die bos Loop ek op wildeknoffel met paddas orals ’n brons-groen skaduwee vul my oë Soms lê ek met my wang teen die klam grond luisterend na die aarde se hartklop Ek sien die stad se beton en begrawe my gesig in die blaremat Die kinders verval in diep slaap Met tande-knersende nagmerries En ‘n skokgolf eggo die impak van baksteen, sement en bloed My dae word omvat deur donker drome Dag en nag het ek Hulle sien loop Dié wat hulle verloor het laat my huil ’n hele geslag wat hulleself uitgedoof het vlietend en volkome soos paddas in die water plons in ’n spoorlose oomblik Erentia Bedeker

Country of production: Netherlands Language: Dutch Title: In het woud Translator, filmmaker and director: Judith Dekker “I recieved the Afrikaans version, then put it through Google translate, translating into Dutch and English. This brought very weird phrasing. I put the 3 versions together and wrote by hand in my notebook. I then looked up some synonyms for certain words. I went back to my version the next day, and also sent it to 2 people whom I trust with poetry and are honest in their feedback. They made some suggestions, some of which I used. What I found is I wanted to put poetry back in, translations sometimes make poems lose their soul. I listened to what I thought the poem was saying and tried to translate it into my native tongue. Meanwhile I recieved a second translation in Afrikaans and it was a nice surprise to me that the second version was more poetic and closer to my translation. It felt reassuring that I did right by the poem, by looking for more poetic ways of saying things. It was not about me but the poem/poetry.” Judith Dekker In het woud Stap op een bed van daslook kikkers rondom opgezwollen Een schaduw van bronsgroen vult mijn ogen Soms lig ik verankerde wang op klamme grond om te luisteren naar de hartslag van de aarde zie ik de betonnen stad begraaf ik mijn facade in het tapijt van bladeren De kinderen dalen in diepe slaap Trillende tanden van boze dromen een kleine schok impact van bakstenen echo’s cement en bloed Mijn donkere dromen zonder vonk zijn gevuld met alledaags zwart die mijn dagen omvatten Voorheen zag ik ze altijd struikelen dag en nacht degene die ze verloren doen mij huilen een complete generatie uitgedoofd vlietend en volkomen als kikkers die in het water vallen

Country and place of production: New Mexico, USA Languages: Navajo, American Sign Language and English Filmmaker and editor: Sabina England Translators: Meryl Van Der Bergh (Dutch to English translation), World Translation Center (Navajo), Sabina England (American Sign Language and improved English prose). “When I first read the poem, it made me think of Native Americans and how much their ancestors had greatly suffered through history. As a Deaf Bihari/South Asian American, I wanted to highlight the themes of suffering and refuge of the poem by showcasing Native American culture(s) and show that despite centuries of cultural genocide, settler colonialism and violence, Native people and their cultures still thrive and resist to this day. I also wanted to draw a parallel between the sufferings of Native Americans with refugees from all over, including Syria, Myanmar, Central African Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, etc. As an immigrant in the USA, I wanted to honour Native Americans by showcasing the beauty of the Navajo language and Pueblo cultures in New Mexico. Lastly, Plains Indian (Native American) Sign Language was a major influence on American Sign Language, which I used to perform the poem with Navajo voice over.” Sabina England

Country and place of production: Berlin, Germany & Austin, Texas Language: English Title: frog_poem_text.doc Filmmaker and editor: Annelyse Gelman Translator: Annelyse Gelman / Google Translate “frog_poem_text.doc began as an attempt to translate the poem I received into abstract field recordings. When Berlin’s frogs proved uncooperative, I decided to make a kind of recording of the poem in a digital field, using Google Translate to create a chain of translations from English into each available language – 103 in total, from Afrikaans to Zulu – proceeding in alphabetical order. I was interested in maintaining some of the imagery and observational eye of the original text while transforming its sensuousness and sentimentality into something cold and mechanical, and in working with a software collaborator that can produce, but not understand, language.” Annelyse Gelman frog_poem_text.doc year Solomon Rome Pakistan peritumearal sports by but support people by This means that hepi’o all glass technology news music night year year black low and the earth brown red 500 views

Country of production: Sweden Language: Spanish Title: La búsqueda Filmmaker and editor: Eduardo Yagüe Translator: Cristina Navazo-Eguía Newton “When I first read the poem, Search, I felt a little bit lost and confused. It seemed a long and chaotic poem that I didn’t know how to transform into a video. Chaucer suggested to me that I could chose some lines and/or words. I chose lines which brought to my mind some clear images. I wanted to make something dark and weird and I realized that being lost and confused is a good way to start a search, so I worked with my confusion. I decided to record all the video inside my home (except for the statue head sequence recorded in the garden of Stadhuset in Stockholm) and also, for the first time in five years, to act in it myself (previously doing this when I was recording my first videopoetry work Lucernario). La búsqueda was not an easy video to work with, I tried to be ambiguous and my intention was to provoke an intriguing emotion in the viewer, that they be able to feel the same sensation I felt when I read the poem: being lost and looking for answers in an ultra technical world, answers to some big questions: faith, love, suffering, death. At the end, the poem (or the chosen words) meant this to me. Music by Kosta T was a big helping for giving the images extra strength and the pictures by great Spanish painter Dino Valls create an strange world of confusion and solitude.” Eduardo Yagüe LA BÚSQUEDA (adapted by Eduardo Yagüe) El amor construyó una ciudad Un hombre puede ser devoto Una caída es una caída Siempre hay un muro Espero una explicación ¿Cuándo abandonas la búsqueda? Acepta tu ignorancia Una manzana que nunca lavaste Oscuridad inteligente Forjaremos universos múltiples en nuestro sueño The Search (Approximate English translation – by Sharon Larkin) Love built a city A man can be devoted A fall is a fall There is always a wall I expect an explication When do you abandon the search? Accept your ignorance An apple that you never washed Intelligent obscurity/darkness We will forge multiple universes in our dream

Country of production: UK Language: Welsh Title: Chwiliad Filmmaker and editor: Othniel Smith Translator: Sharon Larkin “I was intrigued by the Spanish poem I was invited to respond to since it seemed, swiftly and very economically, to move from the position of a loving, caring creator to a disillusionment with the thing created. Words such as “fall” and “apple” evoked Genesis; “multiple universes” suggested exogenesis. In the poem in Welsh, rather then representing Armageddon as “the End”, I therefore wanted to shift the focus out to the infinity of time and space, where there is no end to either. I sought the dynamic of rise, fall and rise again; a sowing, reaping and reseeding.” Sharon Larkin “I have made dozens of poetry films using re-purposed public domain imagery. On first reading this poem, it became clear to me that the signature image had to be that of some kind of deity. Having discovered a suitable film clip to use as a starting point (from “Hercules Unchained”), it was simply a matter of finding suitably intriguing footage to illustrate or counterpoint the intentions (as far as I could discern them) of the poet as the piece progressed.” Othniel Smith Chwiliad Dych chi’n gwylio efelychiad, yn adeiladu byd i anheddu eich creadigaethau, ffugenwau gyda phawb, tagiau gyda phopeth. Yn y dechreuad, byddwch chi’n caru eich creaduriaid a byddwch chi’n bwrw brwmstan arnyn nhw dim ond pan fyddan nhw’n anfad. Neu arllwyswch wermod i mewn i’w diodydd hamddenol pan aiff eu diwylliant yn ddieflig, eu hymddygiad yn ddirywiedig. Oherwydd gwnân nhw hynny. Gwnân nhw hynny bob tro. Neu efallai, adeiladwch ddinas gaerog ar fryn iddyn nhw, a gweithredwch eich dyfarniadau yn llechwraidd – hyfforddwch fand bach o sims i orymdeithio’r ddinas, yn chwythu trympedi, yn canu, yn gweiddi. Wedyn gallwch chi ymlacio yn eich Parker Knoll, yn gwylio brics yn crynu, yn curo dwylo wrth i’r waliau gwympo. Ond yn y pen draw, bydd chwarae yn lle uwch yn flynedig i chi. Rhediff y Lilipytiaid mewn panig fel morgrug wrth i’r nythod gael eu dinistrio. Bydd y holl peth yn ddiflas i chi. Wedyn bydd chwiliad am fyd newydd i sefydlu, a’r tro nesaf bwriadwch chi ei imiwneiddio yn erbyn yr hen ddiffyg – i grefu ffrwythau gwaharddedig – yr afal sy’n edrych yn suddus ar y goeden ond sy’n pydru yn hwyrach fel manna ddoe. Teithiwch o gwmpas nawr, cyn yr Armagedon nesaf. Chwiliwch am gornel arall y bydysodau i gychwyn arbrawf newydd. Breuddwydiwch am Eden heb neidr, wedyn rhowch hadau ffres i mewn, moldiwch clai, anadlwch. Sharon Larkin

Country of production: USA Language: English Title: Sea Change Erasure, filmmaker and editor: Dave Bonta Translator: Sharon Larkin “I call myself a videopoet rather than a poetry filmmaker, and I think this video shows why: it’s all about the concept, and (ideally) making a poem that’s inseparable from the video. The actual execution was technologically simple and only took a few hours. I was told I could do what I liked with the text, and since erasure poetry and micropoetry are what I’m good at, I decided to go that route. The poem I was given described a more elaborate apocalyptic scenario, but I saw the word “sea” in the title and started thinking about rising sea levels and the various low-lying communities that are already being impacted around the United States, including Miami. And I figured the notion of a sea change would be a fitting way to close out a project that is all about mutability. I decided to use the received text as a kind of symbolic wall, and have it gradually give way to to the figurative ruin of the erasure. When I found the free stock footage of waves on a beach at night, everything clicked into place. From there, it was just a matter of creating two jpegs for each section of text with a monospace font in Photoshop, and using the chroma key effect in Magix Movie Edit Pro to overlay them on the footage. I found the soundtrack by searching within Creative Commons-licensed tracks on Soundcloud. I thought of adding a little extra footage at the end, after the credits: the ruins of a sand castle on a beach. But I decided to keep it simple and not detract from the elemental power of the white-on-black imagery. Armageddon is, after all, a simple story. Perhaps that’s why so many people are perversely so attracted to it.” TEXT Sea: you world to house the beginning, you ill creature, come up, slip into the city. Steal the bricks, lapping as walls fall. You’ll play at destruction, their nest will become you, sea. You look juicy as an Armageddon dream. Dave Bonta

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