Cry of the Loon(2015)

Finding Forrester(en)

Gus Van Sant tells the story of a young African American man named Jamal who confronts his talents while living on the streets of the Bronx. He accidentally runs into an old writer named Forrester who discovers his passion for writing. With help from his new mentor Jamal receives a scholarship to a private school.

Ocean's Arrival(en)

On the winter solstice, four friends reunite at their family's beachside cabin after years apart. From the ocean, a mysterious stranger arrives seeking refuge, eventually pitting the friends against one another. Fantasy, fear, and reality blend together as the days unfold.

Luna Tune(en)

A short 1979 sand animation celebrating women's spirituality with 80-year-old lesbian poet Elsa Gidlow reading her work "What If."

Howl(en)

It's San Francisco in 1957, and an American masterpiece is put on trial. Howl, the film, recounts this dark moment using three interwoven threads: the tumultuous life events that led a young Allen Ginsberg to find his true voice as an artist, society's reaction (the obscenity trial), and mind-expanding animation that echoes the startling originality of the poem itself. All three coalesce in a genre-bending hybrid that brilliantly captures a pivotal moment-the birth of a counterculture.

Yesterday, it rained(en)

The narration of a letter which consists of themes such as the passing of time, the unexpectedness of life, the fear of death, and the fear of change.

The Voyage of Bashô(fr)

A fictionalised documentary about the great Japanese poet Bashô (1644–1694), the spiritual father of haiku poetry. A monk, portraying the poet, journeys through Japan, following Bashô's journal and writing many of his haikus. A ruminant, poetic, Zen Buddhist observation of nature – a return to the lost paradise of unspoilt nature.

Genet à Tanger(fr)

At the beginning of the 70s, Jean Genet is in Tangier, he is in his sixties and he no longer writes. He lives in the El Minza hotel, a palace, where he spends entire days reading, smoking and sleeping (he takes Nembutal, a barbiturate used as a sleeping pill). He only goes out at the beginning of the afternoon to have a coffee with milk in one of the bars of Petit Socco. He sometimes meets the young Moroccan writer Mohamed Choukri there. Their discussion is banal, friendly. Sometimes they talk about literature. Genet no longer writes, but is still inhabited by it.

De la rivière à la mer(fr)

The Beat Generation(en)

A group of beatniks unwittingly harbor a serial rapist. A cop goes after him after his wife is attacked.

I Will Dance(en)

Follows the young people of Selma, Alabama's RATCo (Random Acts of Theatre Company) as they journey to New York City to share their story of hope, resilience, and overcoming.

The Waters of the Bug River(fr)

Dedicated to the poet Paul Celan, the film traces the itinerary of the deportation of Jews from Czernowitz and Bucovina to Mikhailovka camp on the banks of the river Bug during WW2. Among them was the poet’s mother.

80000 Thoughts(da)

80,000 Thoughts is a poetic autobiographical and fictional film about testing oneself and one's possibilities—sexually, gender-wise, and bodily—conveyed through dance, music, poetry, and images. It is also a personal story about the narrator's traumas and memories, her love affair and one-time crush, God, drugs, missing her mother, and violence and abuse. Director Michele Mwikali Lauritsen deftly employs crackling prose to position her film in the impossible—and refreshing—position between the gallery-smart contemporary art of the time and a more accessible and popular format.

Alternate Spaces(en)

A short documentary on the River Ouse, following it downstream from Lewes to Newhaven, meditating on the surrounding area.

Chubai. Speaking Again(uk)

A theatrical documentary about Hrytsko Chubai, a genius of Ukrainian poetry, a connoisseur of literature, art and music and the brightest representative of Lviv underground culture of late 60s early 70s.

Some Kind of Beautiful(en)

By day, Richard Haig is a successful and well-respected English professor at renowned Trinity College in Cambridge. By night, Richard indulges his own romantic fantasies with a steady stream of beautiful undergraduates. But Richard has grown tired of the game and is looking for something more meaningful and lasting. So when Kate, Richard’s tanned, athletic, 25-year-old American girlfriend tells him that she is pregnant, Richard is thrilled. He looks forward to having a family of his own, being a father his children could be proud of, not some sex-fueled bobcat. There is only one problem. Richard’s not in love with Kate. Richard is in love with Kate’s sister, Olivia. He had been in love with her ever since he first saw her.

sucking on words(en)

sucking on words is a documentary film that features interviews with, and extensive performances by, the American poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It also features critical commentary on his intense and ground-breaking conceptualist practice from three of North America’s leading voices on avant-garde poetics. Shot on location in New York in 2007, the lively conversations featured in sucking on words are an ideal introduction to Goldsmith’s witty and provocative works, which are already regarded as hallmarks of 21st-century literature. The film showcases readings from some of his notorious books: No.111 (found phrases ending in the ‘r’ rhyme and filtered alphabetically by syllable count); Soliloquy (a transcription of every word Goldsmith spoke for a week); Day (a retyping of one day’s New York Times newspaper); Traffic (one day’s worth of hourly radio traffic bulletins); and The Weather (one year’s worth of radio weather bulletins).

Return Journey(en)

A dramatic recreation of Dylan Thomas' last tour of America, starring actor Bob Kingdom as the Welsh poet. Originally a successful stage production, the show was adapted for this recorded version by renowned actor Anthony Hopkins (in his directorial debut). Dylan Thomas was one of the twentieth century's greatest poets. He was born in the Uplands district of Swansea in 1914 and died in New York in 1953 at the age of 39. Towards the end of his life, Dylan Thomas toured America, performing his works before sell out audiences across the country. The film features the poems "Fern Hill"; "Do Not Go Gently into that Good Night"; "A Poem in October"; "And Death Shall Have No Dominion"; "A Story (The Outing)" and "Return Journey" .

Persuasion(en)

Royal Navy Captain Wentworth was haughtily turned down eight years ago as suitor of pompous baronet Sir Walter Elliot's daughter Anne, despite true love. Now he visits their former seaside country estate, rented by his brother-in-law, Admiral Croft, so the financially stressed baronet can afford a fashionable, cheaper residence in trendy Bath. The former lovers meet again on the estate, where they feel vibes again, but neither dares admit them until it seems too late.

In the Still Night(en)

Heartbroken, Matthew, an American art curator, wanders daydreaming through a maze of artworks in his hotel in Tokyo. That is, until he has a surreal encounter.

Daniel(fr)

Spooky stuff is afoot in a French school. All of a sudden, 10-year-old Daniel finds himself alone with Marthe – their encounter is both tender and troubling, and it seems to take place in a sort of vacuum. In Marine Atlan’s dream-like feature film debut, children dance tango timelessly, recite poems and do the drill for an imaginary terrorist attack.