English version below.
Il-Festival u l-Films tal-Poeżija
Fi kliem Adrian Grima, wieħed mill-kittieba mistiedna tal-Festival ta’ din is-sena, “Għal udjenza dejjem iktar sajma mill-kelma użata b’mod fin, intelliġenti, imqanqal, suġġestiv, il-film tal-poeżija joffri opportunità biex ġġarrab esperjenza artistika unika, esperjenza li jaf tqanqal riflessjoni wkoll fuq ir-relazzjoni bejn il-kelma, l-immaġni u l-ħoss.”
Il-films tal-poeżija ilhom parti integrali mill-Festival Mediterranju tal-Letteratura ta’ Malta mill-bidu nett tat-twaqqif tiegħu, u din is-sena ir-rabta se tissaħħaħ b’mod dirett u tematiku.
Il-Ġimgħa 26 ta’ Awwissu
LESBIAN. hu film ta’ Rosemary Baker minn poeżija ta’ lisa luxx, poetessa Anglo-Libaniża, li tidher fil-film taqra l-poeżija tagħha stess. LESBIAN. jistaqsi għaliex il-kelma “lesbjana” saret kelma daqshekk tossika għal nisa queer. Kelma li wara deċennji ta’ konnotazzjonijiet ħżiena ħadet il-bixra ta’ lingwaġġ ostili. Il-film jagħti sens ta’ x’effett iħallu dawn is-saffi ta’ ostilità permezz tal-użu ta’ body paint dettaljat, fuq għadd ta’ atturi lesbjani. Fi żmien fejn nisa omosesswali qed jiġu attakkati pubblikament, LESBIAN. hu sejħa biex il-kelma terġa titħaddan minn dawk li jiddefinixxu ruħhom biha.
LESBIAN. kien kummissjonat minn Channel 4 (UK), u rebaħ għadd ta’ premjijiet, fosthom fiż-ZEBRA poetry film festival 2021.
Is-Sibt 27 ta’ Awwissu
Minn film li jaqta’ fil-laħam il-ħaj mill-aspett ta’ identità personali, għal żewġ films Ukreni, li wkoll jagħmlu hekk minħabba l-bidla ta’ identità li sseħħ meta ġensek jgħaddi minn trawma nazzjonali, minħabba l-gwerra, minħabba ambizzjonijiet imperjalistiċi.
Between before and after /war/, film ta’ Marichka Lukianchuk u Elena Baronnikova, minn poeżija ta’ Lukianchuk, inbeda fl-2019. F’Marzu li għadda, Lukianchuk kitbet il-kliem, u ġibded materjal ġdid, tal-waħx. Il-film jinterroga it-tifsira ta’ ‘issa’. “Fejn hu, u x’inhu, ‘issa’,” tistaqsi Lukianchuk? “X’jiġifieri tgħix bejn dak li kien ‘qabel’ — il-ħajjiet li kellna u tlifna għal dejjem, u dak li ġej ‘wara’ — it-tama għal twelid mill-ġdid, għall-ġejjieni li jista’ jkun. U l-’issa’? Dak il-’bejn’— l-inċertezza, il-biża’, ir-rabja, it-telfa, u s-sbuħija stramba tal-affarijiet imdendla f’tarf l-irdum? Il-’bejn’ li jwassalna għal dak li ġej ‘wara’, imma bl-esperjenza miġmugħa minn dak li ġara ‘qabel’?”
Clay hu film ta’ Oleksandr Frazé-Frazénko, li fih jiġbor għadd ta’ poeżiji ta’ Julia Musakovska. Illejla se nuru minnu l-parti li hi msejsa fuq il-poeżija, Sister. Minkejja li nħadem fl-2016, il-film jista’ jitqies profetiku għal kif il-gwerra, li għall-Ukreni bdiet fl-2014, splodiet kmieni din is-sena. Viżwalment jilgħab bit-tema tal-art, fil-forma tat-tafal, li jieħu mill-ġdid is-sura ta’ dik li tnisslet minnu, u jsir korazza — bl-istess mod kif il-poplu l-Ukren jista’ jitbiegħed biss temporanjament, mill-art li nissel, mill-art li tnissel minnha, għax l-Ukrajna se tipproteġi lill-Ukreni, bl-istess mod, li l-Ukreni jipproteġu lil arthom — it-tnejn li huma jissaħħu f’xulxin.
Fi kliem Lukianchuk, imma b’mod li jgħodd għaż-żewġ films, “fil-‘bejn’ ma nagħlqux għajnejna quddiem dak li qed jiġri, mank għal sekonda — biex ma ninsew qatt, biex ma nħallux li dak li qed jiġri jintesa. Issa, fiż-żmien ta’ bejn li kien ‘qabel’, bejn dak li ġej ‘wara’, fejn ma jħalluniex nimxu ‘l quddiem, irridu nitgħallmu ntiru.”
The Poetry Film and the Festival
Adrian Grima, one of this year’s guest authors, writes that, “For an audience ever more alien to words used precisely, intelligently, poignantly and suggestively, the poetry film offers an opportunity to engage with a unique artistic expression, one that can offer cause for reflection on the relationship between words, images, and sounds.”
Poetry films have formed an intrinsic part of the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival from its inception, and this bond will be strengthened further this year through direct thematic connections.
Friday 26 August
LESBIAN. is directed by Rosemary Baker from a poem by Anglo-Lebanese poet lisa luxx, who also performs it on screen. The film asks why the word “lesbian” has come to feel so toxic for queer women. A word which, after decades of such toxicity, now sounds like a hostile piece of language. Featuring a cast of lesbians, the film uses intricate body painting to bring to life what those layers of toxicity feel like. In an era of headline-hitting attacks on lesbians in public, it is a call to arms to take the word back.
Commissioned by Channel 4 (UK), LESBIAN. has won several awards, and was termed highly commended at the 2021 ZEBRA poetry film festival.
Saturday 27 August
From a film that hits hard in terms of personal identity, to two films, both Ukrainian, that also do so because of the shift in identity forced when your nation goes through collective trauma, because of war, because of imperialistic ambitions.
Between before and after /war/, a film by Marichka Lukianchuk and Elena Baronnikova, from a poem by Lukianchuck, was started in 2019. Last March, Lukianchuk wrote the poem, and captured new, terrifying, material. The film questions the notion of ‘now’. “What is, and where is, ‘now’,” asks Lukianchuk? “What does it mean to live between ‘before’ — the lives we had and lost forever, and ‘after’ — the hopes for rebirth and possible future. And what is ‘now’? Is it the ’between’ — the uncertainty, the fear, the anger, the loss, and the strange beauty of things balanced at the cliff edge? The ‘between’ that brings us to the ‘after’, but with the experience gained in the ‘before’?”
Clay is a film by Oleksandr Frazé-Frazénko, based on a number of poems by Julia Musakovska. Due to the length of the film, an excerpt will be shown that features the poem called Sister. Although the film was made in 2016, it is prophetic in nature for how the war, which Ukrainians consider to have started in 2014, was to explode earlier this year. Visually, the film plays with the notion of earth, in the form of clay, which takes anew the form of she who was born of the same earth, with the clay becoming a protective armour — in the same way in which the Ukrainian people can only move away temporarily, from the land which it brought into being, from the land which brought it into being, because it is Ukraine which will protect the Ukrainian people, just as much as they protect it — both taking strength from each other.
In Lukianchuck’s words, but in a manner which applies equally well to both films, “in the ‘between’ we do not close our eyes to what is happening, even for a second — to never forget, to never let it be forgotten. Now, in the time between the ‘before’ and ‘after’, in which they don’t let us take a step forward, we have to learn to fly.”