The Sound Of Writers Forum
Tuesday 23 March, 2010A 36 min documentary made by Steve Willey.
The documentary features eleven poets that have been published by Writers Forum over a period of 50 years. The film had no budget and was made over the course of one week and was first screened at the Off The Shelf event held at the Slade/UCl on the 22nd March 2010.
The website version of the film has some fairly brutal compression applied to it in order to make it fit online. This means you have to watch it at a fairly low quality. If any publisher wants to help turn this film into, and distribute the film as, a DVD please get in touch.
The film is far from a complete account of the activities of Writers Forum and is meant as an introduction to the topic.
Thanks need to go to all the poets that gave up so much of their time to be interviewed, to the AHRC Beyond Text Program for funding my research, to the British Library for giving me tapes to film with and space to record in, to Paula Claire for allowing me to film in her archive, to the UCL Small Press and Little Magazine Store for allowing me to photograph their archive, to the Slade Word Image Forum (of which I am part) and the organizers of the Off The Shelf Event for affording me the opportunity to screen the film at the Off The Shelf Event on the 22nd March 2010.
There are plans to make a much longer film over the course of the year. If anyone wants to be included in this new film please make contact via Openned.com.
The video will be archived permanently on Openned here.
Reader Comments (6)
Absolutely brilliant and yes yes yes please to an even longer video in the future
I thought Mark Jackson was Harry Gilonis - my how he has grown his hairs...
A fine piece... and very well received at "Off the Shelf"
has there ever been an avant garde Oxford Professor of Poetry?
Not that I know of. Hope she gets it. Steve
Matthew Arnold, Oxford Prof poetry 1857-67 was a new broom. He was the first OPP NOT to be in Holy Orders; the first OPP NOT to give his Lectures in Latin but in his native tongue; AND the first poet to express profound religious doubt e.g. "Dover Beach. " A very brave man: I salute him.