The combination of film and poetry is an attractive one. For the poet, perhaps a hope that the filmmaker will bring something to the poem: a new audience, a visual attraction, the laying of way markers; for the filmmaker, a fixed parameter to respond to, the power of a text sparking the imagination with visual connections and metaphor.
Alastair Cook

Join us at Laugharne Castle this June for an innovative programme of poetry films from around the UK, featuring new commissions, specially curated selections and introductions from artists and curators.

Poetry Films: daytime programme (Sat 7 and Sun 8 June)

11:00 – 11:20am
Poem in October: a new series of digital media projections based on Dylan Thomas’s work, from three local schools.

11:20am – 12 noon
Filmpoem selection by artist and filmmaker Alastair Cook. This screening includes the following films: Every Memory, The God of Sugar, Emily Melting, Better Days, Jonah, The Forty Elephants, Born to Die, After the Robins, The Black Delph Bride and Bernard and Cerinthe.

12 noon – 12:30pm
Dylan Thomas commissions: NEW short films by artist filmmakers Emma Bolland, Alastair Cook, Hondartza Fraga, Gemma Green-Hope, Brian Lewis and Jean McEwan and Brian McEwan, with introductions by curator and artist Paul Evans. Each of these films has been specially commissioned for the Laugharne Castle Poetry and Film Festival. This screening includes the following films: How to be a Poet (Alastair Cook), Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines (Jean McEwan and Brian McEwan), That Good Night (Hondartza Fraga), Swansea (Gemma Green-Hope), East Wind (Brian Lewis) and Spells and Bone (Emma Bolland). Click here for more information about each of the commissioned films.

12:30 – 1:00pm
Flight and Return (part one): a selection of Longbarrow Press films (curated by Brian Lewis). This screening includes the following films: Murmuration, Fugue #3, Season Below Ground, The Burbage Valley, Cortège and To a Grandchild.

1:00 – 1:40pm
Filmpoem selection by artist and filmmaker Alastair Cook (repeat screening). This screening includes the following films: Every Memory, The God of Sugar, Emily Melting, Better Days, Jonah, The Forty Elephants, Born to Die, After the Robins, The Black Delph Bride and Bernard and Cerinthe.

Break of 20 minutes

2:00 – 3:00pm

PoetryFilm screenings with curator Zata Kitowski
PoetryFilm is a living research project initiated by Malgorzata Kitowski in 2002, celebrating films based on poems, poems turned into films, collaborations, text-based films, and other avant-garde text/image/sound material. It has resulted in over 50 events at cinemas, galleries, literary festivals and academic institutions featuring avant-garde films based on poems, art films, text-based films, live performances and talks. The project originated from an interest in the experiencing, creation and perception of emotion and meaning.

3:00 – 3:30pm
Flight and Return (part two): a selection of Longbarrow Press films (curated by Brian Lewis). This screening includes the following films: Cells, Aseptic Technique, Skin and Cave Time and Sea Changes.

3:30 – 3:50pm
Dylan Thomas commissions: NEW short films by artist filmmakers Emma Bolland, Alastair Cook, Hondartza Fraga, Gemma Green-Hope, Brian Lewis and Jean McEwan and Brian McEwan (repeat screening). Each of these films has been specially commissioned for the Laugharne Castle Poetry and Film Festival. This screening includes the following films: How to be a Poet (Alastair Cook), Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines (Jean McEwan and Brian McEwan), That Good Night (Hondartza Fraga), Swansea (Gemma Green-Hope), East Wind (Brian Lewis) and Spells and Bone (Emma Bolland). Click here for more information about each of the commissioned films.

Watch the trailers for Emma Bolland’s ‘Spells and Bone’ and Gemma Green-Hope’s ‘Swansea’ (two of the new festival commissions):