The Poetry Picture Show

What we know about form
we keep governed with limitations,
so experience assumes only a certain
range of shapes, beyond which
it becomes desire - boneless,
~from 'The Limitations of Form' by Sarah Holland-Batt.

The Project

In 2006 The Red Room Company invited 10 poets from around the country to write a poem inspired by the project title - 'the picture show' - and to explore poetry's relationship to film, cinema and moving images.  

Ten moving image adaptations were produced (shot by Michael Pickelis, edited by Remi Luxford with sound by Elliott Wheeler) to accompany the poems. In October 2006 over 120 people were invited to The Old Darlington School in Redfern to see the poets perform their works, and with popcorn in hand, to watch the moving image adaptations along with an obscure 60s poetry film.

The Poets

Briony Doyle, 'The widest wide shot'

Ivy Alvarez, 'Poetry Picture Show Triptych'

Sarah Holland-Batt, 'The Limitations of Form'

Emma Jones, 'Bollywood Lyric'

Kate Lilley, 'When Ladies Meet'

Felicity Plunkett, 'The Negative Cutter: an Introduction to Editing'

David Prater, 'Karin Revisited'

Nathan Shepherdson, 'SPLICE (40 lines i wish i’d written from films i wish i’d seen)'

John Tranter, 'Paris Blues'

J S Harry, 'Journey's Digital'