ART FILMS & POETRY FILMS

Art Films

Min Tanaka Dancing: b&w video 60 mins (1982) with Derek Bailey on guitar.

Reflections on Space: 16 mm colour 20 mins (1983) with Meret Oppenheim + Markus Raetz.

IMAGO Meret Oppenheim: 16mm colour 90 mins (1988/1996), film by Pamela Robertson-Pearce & Anselm Spoerri. IMAGO Meret Oppenheim is an award-winning film about the major Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim, whose fame rests on the surrealist masterpiece, the Furlined Teacup. This feature-length documentary creates a moving portrait of this inspiring woman through a poetic presentation of the themes that dominated her life and art. Beautifully narrated by Glenda Jackson, a two-time Academy Award-winner, the film explores her creative crisis & transformation, Paris of the Surrealists, Jungian psychology, Nature, feminism, the playful and the androgyne. Excerpt available on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/3894796

Gifted Beauty: video colour 50 mins (2000) other women artists in the Surrealist movement, including Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini, Frida Kahlo, Lee Miller Meret Oppenheim and Remedios Varo, along with contemporary Norwegian artist Vilde von Krogh. My interviews with Leonora Carrington and other Mexican footage can be seen in this excerpt on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/10760131

Borderline: video colour 30 mins (2009), a work in process: "By this I mean that Borderline is still evolving as I continue using video to respond to my new environment, the remote Tarset valley in rural Northumberland." First shown at Northumbria University's conference Northernness: Ideas and Images of North in Visual Culture in June 2009. The whole of the present version of Borderline can be seen on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/5348645

Poetry Films

Poets on Film: showcase video for Pamela Robertson-Pearce's poets on film work has excerpts from five of her films: John Agard Live!, Marie Howe: Magdalene, Ruth Stone (1915-2011), Robert Adamson: Poet of the Hawkesbury River and Benjamin Zephaniah: To Do Wid Me. See Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/375398542

In Person: 30 Poets: video colour 6 hours (2008) with 30 poets reading their work at home, DVD book edited by Neil Astley published by Bloodaxe Books. Excerpt on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/1021958

Life is Immense: visiting Samuel Menashe: video colour 50 mins (2009), documentary of a visit to an engaging octogenarian poet in his New York apartment in which he recites over 40 poems from memory. Published by Bloodaxe Books on DVD with New and Selected Poems by Samuel Menashe. Excerpt on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/4791273

John Agard Live!: video colour 100 minutes (2009), featuring two live readings by the Guyanan poet. Published by Bloodaxe Books on DVD with Alternative Anthem: Selected Poems by John Agard. Three excerpts on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/1055802 and http://vimeo.com/2759722 and http://vimeo.com/28503868

Jean 'Binta' Breeze: Third World Girl: video colour 142 minutes (2011) featuring two live readings and an interview with the Jamaican 'dub' poet. Published by Bloodaxe Books on DVD with Third World Girl: Selected Poems by Jean 'Binta' Breeze. Excerpt on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/23262101

Benjamin Zephaniah: To Do Wid Me: video colour 103 mins (2013), full-length feature film biopic. Film portrait of Benjamin Zephaniah drawing on both live performances and informal interviews. Released by Bloodaxe Books in the DVD-book To Do Wid Me: Benjamin Zephaniah live and direct. Complete film only available online on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/274377665 Also a trailer on Vimeo and YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojSbvgPr9wI and http://vimeo.com/59861543

In Person: World Poets: video colour 14 hours (2017) with 60 poets reading their work at home or live, DVD book edited by Neil Astley published by Bloodaxe Books. Excerpt on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/191778181

Ruth Stone video colour 36 minutes (2009/2017), film portrait with poems of extraordinary American poet living in backwoods Vermont who died in 2011 aged 96. Published by Bloodaxe Books on DVD with In Person: World Poets. Full film on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/4130827

Robert Adamson: Poet of the Hawkesbury River: video colour 24 minutes (2010/2017), film portrait with poems of Australian poet whose life and work are inspired by fishing, birds, nature and life on the river. Published by Bloodaxe Books on DVD with In Person: World Poets. Full film on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/263246301

Marie Howe: Magdalene:video colour 22 minutes (2018), filmed reading and discussion by the American poet of her book Magdalene in the setting of Hellens Manor in Herefordshire during her visit to Ledbury Poetry Festival. Full film on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/313799792