The Monthly talks to poet, writer and academic, Shelley Tracey, about being the recipient of a Major Artist Award – Part 1 – Reflecting on Poetry Film

What was the reasoning behind applying for the Major Artist Award?

The Major Artist Award was a motivation for me to reflect on my practice as a writer and facilitator and to think about how I could synthesise this with my explorations of the relationship between words and images. I had experience in creating photographs and poetry films, and wanted to deepen my knowledge of the processes of creativity with regard to words and images. The Major Award provided the opportunity for sustained reflection and exploration.

And the project is looking into the creativity involved in poetry film?

Well, there are two main aspects to the project. The first one is the making of poetry films. I’m going to be making three of these as part of this project and I’m going to be exploring how poetry film can give a voice to people who are disenfranchised. So, out of the those three poetry films, one of them revolves around a poem by one of the carers I’ve worked with recently on a writing project. I think it’s a very effective poem, and I just wanted to explore how I can actually bring it to the screen in the carer’s own voice. I’ve already recorded her reciting the poem, and now I want to look at how I can  use imagery, layout, sound, her voice and so on. I want to explore how I might create something which would give carers some visibility and which would meet the criteria for an effective poetry film. By that I mean something evocative, layered, something more than a poem that is simply illustrated in a film. Something in which every element of the making of the film creates something extra special.

For the second part of my project, I am developing two courses: one for writers and the other for facilitators, on using visual poetry, art and poetry films as inspiration for writing. If anyone is interested in taking part in either or both of these courses, they can contact me at shelleyztracey@gmail.com

How did your interest in Poetry Film develop?

My interest in Poetry Film came from an opportunity I had, at the beginning of the year, to do a poetry film course with Hellen Dewberry from Poetry Film Live. It was an absolutely powerful learning experience.

I taught myself how to use iMovie to make poetry films. This was an experience in itself, working out how to coordinate the sound, the images, the voice and so on. And it was also an opportunity to draw on another aspect of my creative practice, which is my photography.

Using photographs is part of Poetry Film making?

It can be. I use video as well. I’ve been taking photographs for many, many years and I would say I’m quite a reflective photographer. Some of my photographs have been displayed in various places, nothing significant, but photography is a very important part of my practice.

I used photographic inquiry as one element of my PhD in Creativity, which involved making  a series of photographs on different themes to do with creativity and then reflecting on my understanding of the creative process.

That sounds like the film course opened up a number of opportunities for you to expand your work?

It has, and it’s given me the chance to combine my poetry, my interest in art, my photography skills, and my music skills. It’s also provided more opportunity for me to develop my video skills, and also to look at the possibilities of blending film, poetry and sound. I’m very interested in layering all of these different elements in a poetry film.

Alongside the film I began to do some reading and exploring of poetry film and there’s a pretty good text called The Poetics of Poetry Film. I have been going through this and looking up all the films which are referred to in the text, from many different countries. I am also exploring different poetry film practices, different elements of poetry films such as the placing of text on the screen and spacing and the role of silence. Every aspect really engages me.

I’m also really keen on poetry film because I have a great interest in art and art history and I have created many courses which involve responding to artworks. I’m interested in what happens when you step into that space between an artwork and language and there are things that you can’t articulate or express.

One of the things I’m doing is keeping a reflective journal where I am thinking about the making of poetry films. I’m thinking theoretically, process-wise, and I’m also writing poetry and I’m really interested in developing surreal poetry because surreal film-making and the production of surreal poetry films is to me, really, really interesting. They raise questions about the kind of vision which film-makers have, the dream vision, how objects are juxtaposed, ask questions about different levels of consciousness and so on.

After the poetry film course we were given extra tutorials by Hellen Dewberry who has been extremely generous in terms of giving some one-to-one support with software and so on and giving encouragement as well. And I have joined the organization that she directs, Poetry Film Live and the Poetry Film Collective, which is a regular meeting of poetry film-makers who share films with each other, critique each other’s work and give suggestions and so on.

And on the 18th of October, Poetry Film Live is hosting a poetry film festival in Bristol. It’s an international film festival and I have taken part in the selection panel. This has been an excellent experience of exploring the genre of poetry film.

There are many different theories about poetry film, different ways of defining it, different names for it, but I’m sticking to “Poetry Film” at the moment.