Poetry Films All Sizes
YouTube is full of poetry videos based on the filmmakers’ favorite classic poems (we’ve seen comments on Emily Dickinson as “the queen of YouTube poetry”), there are a growing number of Web centers for new collaborations between contemporary poets, filmmakers and visual artists (our videopoetry links will lead you to the best ones), and every few months there seems to be a new film biography of a well-known poet (or sometimes a too-little-known poet). This summer, the film is Gregory Corso: the Last Beat—and it’s more than just a poet bio-pic. The filmmakers began to put together a documentary on Corso’s life and poetry and place among the Beats, and ended up following him on the road trip he took after the death of Allen Ginsberg, seeking creative renewal and the mother whom he believed had gone home to Italy after abandoning him as an infant. The filmmakers actually found her, living in Trenton, New Jersey, and filmed the reunion between Corso and his mother—something to see, indeed.
More on Gregory Corso:
Gregory Corso, 1930 - 2001, Bob Holman’s memories and stories of Corso after his death
Blowing Up the Last Beat, a memoir of Corso by Bob Timm
Poems, books and recordings by Corso online
More on Film and Video Poetry:
Why I Love Making, a meditation on media with poems, by Mike Hazard aka Media Mike
Links to online poetry film and video poetry archives
Our articles on films about poets and poetry
Comments
I blog and podcast poetry as well as post short readings on YouTube. It is a great way to share your work with readers who may especially enjoy the audible qualities of poetry when it is spoken aloud….maybe even better than when it is on the printed page or on a website. In any case, from where I am standing, it sure beats collecting rejection slips!!!