If you get the regular e-news from the Poetry Foundation in Chicago you will
have already noticed this:
NOVEMBER 9, 2009
Poetry Foundation and Chicago International Children’s Film Festival Award
$10,000 Poetry Film Prize
CHICAGO — The Poetry Foundation and Facets Multi-Media are proud to announce
that Fear of Snakes, by filmmaker Andreas Mendritzki, is the winner of the
second annual Poetry Film Prize. The prize awards $10,000 to a filmmaker whose
use of verse in film opens new artistic vistas and inspires children to
appreciate poetry.
Mendritzki’s film is based on the poem of the same name by Canadian poet Lorna
Crozier. Unique to the field of poetry as well as to the film industry, the
Poetry Film Prize celebrates the best film based on a poem or poet while also
recognizing excellence in language and cinematography. Jury-selected from among
more than 90 entrants, the award was presented on Sunday, November 1, at the
closing night ceremony of the 26th Annual Chicago International Children’s Film
Festival (CICFF).
The Poetry Film Prize was created as part of Reel Poetry, a larger initiative
between the Poetry Foundation and CICFF that highlights the possibilities of
poetry in films, especially those directed to younger audiences. Based on a
young girl’s memories of a summer day when she overcame her fear of snakes,
Andreas Mendritzki’s winning film Fear of Snakes (Canada, 2009, 6 minutes)
artfully depicts a reflective and intimate poem.
As the filmmaker describes it, “For me, the film—and Crozier’s poem—remind me of
what ‘adults’ often forget: Children are much more aware of their surroundings
then we give them credit for. They are every bit as attuned to the gravity of
events as their older kin—in fact, probably more so.”
Nicole Dreiske, founder and artistic director of Facets, underscores the
significance of such a prize as it relates to children’s learning: “Creating
films based on poems gives children a special opportunity to connect to poetry
in ways that are richly layered and deeply meaningful. The music, the images,
the cinematography, and the poetry reading itself open new sensory and emotive
paths in children’s minds, and create a unique tapestry of experiences from each
poem. By encouraging excellence in this highly specialized area of filmmaking,
the Poetry Foundation has created a visionary bridge for children in our digital
age to enjoy and appreciate poetry.”
etc etc
I paste below the Crozier poem, a pleasant enough piece of writing.
But I really wonder how much visionary bridging can be done along the lines
mentioned above.
Fear of Snakes
The snake can separate itself
from its shadow, move on ribbons of light,
taste the air, the morning and the evening,
the darkness at the heart of things. I remember
when my fear of snakes left for good,
it fell behind me like an old skin. In Swift Current
the boys found a huge snake and chased me
down the alleys, Larry Moen carrying it like a green torch,
the others yelling, Drop it down her back, my terror
of it sliding in the runnell of my spine (Larry,
the one who touched the inside of my legs on the swing,
an older boy we knew we shouldn't get close to
with our little dresses, our soft skin), my brother
saying Let her go, and I crouched behind the caraganas,
watched Larry nail the snake to a telephone pole.
It twisted on twin points of light, unable to crawl
out of its pain, its mouth opening, the red
tongue tasting its own terror, I loved it then,
that snake. The boys standing there with their stupid hands
dangling from their wrists, the beautiful green
mouth opening, a terrible dark O
no one could hear.
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