Poetry & Film: A List

I’m teaching a poetry course again this semester, and some of my students will be making poetry films! It’s a really fun and inspiring exercise. Since I started teaching this, I have been compiling a list of poetry-related films for my students for inspiration. Thanks so much to friends and colleagues for suggestions!

Some are poets reading their own poems, there are interpretations of poems on film, films about poets, and also film-poems where the film itself is a kind of visual poem. There are a few feature films that feature poetry at the end though I need to make a more comprehensive list of those. I hope that you enjoy!

poetry films (a-z by poet/maker)

Adamson, Robert

‘The Poet of the Hawkesbury River’ (by Pamela Robertson Pearce)

Anacrista & Christopher Diaz

‘Anxiety is like…’ (by WriteNow)

Banks, Zata

‘Full Stop’

‘Palindrome’

‘PoetryFilm Blackboard’

Bell, Francesca

‘Committee Work’ (Film by Blank Verse)

Berry, Liz

‘Black Delph’ (Directed by Alastair Cook for Filmpoem, Sound by Luca Nasciuti).

Beyonce

‘All Night’ (with poetry by Warsan Shire)

Brooks, Gwendolyn

‘We Real Cool’

Calcutt, Helen

‘Naked’ (Words and choreorgaphy by Helen Calcutt. Directed by Tina Barnes. Produced by Redstorm. Composer Alan Spiljak)

Capildeo, Vahni

‘Stalker’ (film by Andre Bagoo)

Three Poems (film by Kay Martinez)

Constantine, Brendan

‘The Opposites Game’ (Blank Verse Films)

Corbett, Lucy

‘Windows’

Cutler, Amy

‘FOG/DISMAY’

Diaz, Natalie

‘Cranes, Mafiosos, and a Polaroid Camera.’ (Film by Tash Tung for Motion Poems)

Deren, Maya

‘Meshes of the Afternoon.’

Dunning, Mari Ellis

‘Salacia’ (film by Indycube Community)

Eliot, T.S.

‘The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock.’

Erdrich, Heid E.

‘Pre-Occupied’ (Film by Erdrich, Jonathan Thunder, and R. Vincent Moniz Jr.)

Ewing, Eve L.

‘I Come From the Fire City’ (film by Daniel Daly for Motion Poems)

Gironi, Francesca

‘Quattro Octobre’ (with Jack Daverio)

Howe, Marie

‘Magdalene’ (by Panela Robertson Pearce)

Iglorisa, Luisa A

‘To Unravel a Torment’ (Filmmaker: Emily Kalish for the Visible Poetry Project)

Julien, Issac

‘Paradise Omeros’

Jetnil-Kijiner, Kathy

‘Fishbone Hair’

Kennedy, Aaron

‘Bampy ‘

Kharaini Barokka

poem for r. by Khairani Barokka

Kipling, Rudyard read by Michael Cain

‘If’ (film by Peace One Day)

Lees, Janet

‘Huntress’

Lindsey, Jenny

‘The Imagined We’

‘An Invitation to Your Baby Shower or Your Child’s Birthday Party’ (Directed by Perry Jonnson and Kevin McLean)

Nye, Naomi Shihab

‘Famous’ (by Poetry Foundation and Motion Poems)

Mass, Willard

‘The Mechanics of Love’

McClure, Monica

‘Chiflada’ (with Anna Charnochan, Laura Marie Marciano, Gemstone Readings)

McIntosh, Elizabeth

‘Glass Tears’ (posted by Andrew McIntosh, voice over by Rose Peterson)

McNish, Hollie

‘Intimate Talking’ (film by Durex)

‘Winter Mornings’ (film by Durex)

‘Embarrassed’ (film by Jake Dypka for Random Acts)

Mookherjee, Jess

‘Song of the Soil’ (by Helen Dewbery and Chaucer Cameron)

Ricciuti, Cristina

‘La lluvia, el viaje, y otros pensamientos’

Roethke, Theodore

‘In A Dark Time’

Romoff, Jessica & Mila Cuda

Exes

Saunders, Anna

‘Strike’

Smith, Danez

‘You’re Dead America’ (Film by Jovan Todorovic)

Maggie Smith

‘Good Bones’ (Film by Anais La Rocca)

Stacey, Ruth

‘Viola the Virgin Queen’

Strand, Mark

‘The Poem of a Spanish Poet’ (by Juan Delcan for Motionpoems)

Stone, Ruth

Various poems (by Pamela Robertson Pearce)

Studdard, Melissa

‘To Be With Trees’

Tranströmer, Tomos

Various poems (by Pamela Robertson Pearce)

Turner, Gabrielle

‘January’

Villon, Francois

‘Villon’s Straight Tip To All Cross Coves’ (Kartel Music /Stick In the Wheel’s reinterpretation of William Ernest Henley’s translation of ‘Villon’s Straight Tip To All Cross Coves’)