Cadence 2021 – This Is How I Excavate [Online]
All Cadence 2021 film programs are pay-what-you-can, priced on a sliding scale, $5–25.
Full festival passes are also available for $50, with $35 passes for NWFF members.
* No one turned away for lack of funds; email paul@nwfilmforum.org about free community tickets!
Enter the Cadence 2021 virtual cinema to see more film programs.
About
** Co-presented with the Romanian Film Festival Seattle, curated by American Romanian Cultural Society **
How far down do we have to dig before we hit bedrock? What happens if, somewhere between the crust and core, we encounter ourselves? Sift through these video poems and you may unearth the crumbling foundations of a society, or the living artifacts of a familiar culture. This screening exhumes that which we’ve buried. Its title is extracted from a video poem Natachi Mez generated during her time as a Cadence artist-in-residence.
Image credit: return by Raluca Popa & Simona Nastac
Showcase title credit: Lineage is Not Linear by Natachi Mez
Short Film Program:
Lineage is Not Linear
(Natachi Mez, US, 2021, 6 min, in English, with hardcoded English subtitles)
Lineage is Not Linear examines migration, displacement, and heritage through poetry and dance, highlighting the intimacies and fruits of a seemingly fractured existence.
return
(dir. Raluca Popa, poetry by Simona Nastac, UK, 2019, 1 min, in English, with no subtitles or captions)
return is a lyrical meditation on the Anthropocene that mingles the intimate and the eternal, the biological and the inanimate, the domestic with a sense of deep time, as it seeks to envision transcendence. The abstract drawings originate from Raluca Popa’s ongoing preoccupation with Richard Tuttle’s work.
Sit Here (Noho Mai)
(Peta-Maria Tunui, Waitahi Aniwaniwa McGee, Shania Bailey-Edmonds, Jesse-Ana Harris, Lilián Pallares & Charles Olsen, poetry by Peta-Maria Tunui, New Zealand, 2020, 6 min, in Maori, with English & Spanish subtitles)
West coast premiere!
Symbolized in the bird’s flight, a group of Māori, Pākehā and Colombian creatives explore life’s journey, the longing to return to the nest, and the life-giving connection with our ancestors.
Butterflies
(dir. Christine Sloan Stoddard, poetry by Teri Elam, US, 2020, 4 min, in English, with no subtitles or captions)
This is dedicated to Black girls, in recognition of the violence they endure in public schools and in mass media.
This Fog
(Jeff Stern, US, 2021, 6 min, in English, with no subtitles or captions)
World premiere!
This Fog is a lyrical short film shot on the harbor islands of New Hampshire’s seacoast that attempts to capture our strange, lonely, sometimes beautiful pandemic lives.
bubblegum
(Danju Zoe Liu, US, 1 min, in English, with hardcoded English subtitles)
World premiere!
A poem about youth, bubblegum combines imagery of summer with themes regarding coming of age and nostalgia.
The 90s
(Elisabeth Flenniken, US, 2020, 2 min, in English, with English subtitles)
World premiere!
The 90s explores the American compulsion to reinvent ourselves and forget our own history.
Why Do I Write?
(Ijeoma "E&J" Eke & Ashley Nicole, US, 2 min, in English, with hardcoded English subtitles)
Why Do I Write? explains Ijeoma “E&J” Eke’s motivation to write poetry.
Comments from a Roadside Altar
(dir. Yuval Nitzan, poetry by Dimitri Reyes, Israel, 2020, 2 min, in English, with hardcoded English subtitles)
World premiere!
A poetry film that chronicles the painful and joyous life of a soul that, like many others, met a violent end in one of America’s troubled cities.
Novena
(Shirley Camia, Canada, 2020, 2 min, in English, with hardcoded English subtitles)
After a death in the family, the surviving members begin a traditional ritual as a form of honor and healing.
Melody of War
(Nadia Kal, Israel, 2021, 5 min, in Circassian, with English subtitles)
Melody of War is a short poetic film memorializing the Circassian Genocide.
starshine
(dir. David Ian Bickley, poetry by Shin Yu Pai, Ireland & US, 2021, 2 min, in English, with English subtitles)
World premiere!
This poetic film explores the possibility of life on other planets, the conditions of which are revealed by the study of starlight.
Ophelia
(Meike Redeker, Germany, 2020, 8 min, in warped English, with no subtitles or captions)
Through a monologue spoken backwards, the video deals with discriminatory depictions of women, past and present.
Crazy Black Woman
(dir. Darnell Reed, poetry by Jherelle Benn, US, 2020, 2 min, in English, with English closed captions)
US premiere!
Relle the Poet, sick and tired of being sick and tired, bands together with the men, women, and children in her community to combat the “Crazy Black Woman” stereotype.
Back to Festival Catalog:
Cadence: Video Poetry Festival 2021 Index
Cadence: Video Poetry Festival is an annual series of screenings, workshops, and discussions on the genre of video poetry, held during National Poetry Month. The festival approaches video poetry as a literary genre that is presented as visual media, cultivating new meaning from the combination of text and moving image.
In its fourth year, the 2021 festival features 80 artists from throughout the world. Cadence is the Pacific Northwest’s only festival dedicated to the form of video poetry.
Feature film:
- Huw Wahl’s The Republics
Short film programs:
- Foam to Form
- Housed But Not Homed
- Ink of the Unfamiliar Pen
- This Is How I Excavate
- Uncanny Intermingling
Live collaborations:
- Cinema Divina: Contemplative, Creative, Communal Practice with Marilyn Freeman (Apr. 21 at 5pm PT)
- Haiku You: An All-Ages Film Poetry Workshop (Apr. 28 at 4pm PT)