Poetry Film Night
Wednesday 26, 7pm – Spazju Kreattiv
Inizjamed returns to a poetical genre it helped pioneer in Malta: the poetry film. As part of Valletta 2018, Inizjamed was among the first to commission poetry films locally — and this year, that initiative comes back to life with a curated screening of poetry and poetical films from Malta and abroad.
The selection is being curated by Kenneth Scicluna, who will also lead the panel discussion, including key panelists like Elizabeth Grech (Mana Chuma Teatro), that follows the screening. The conversation will tap into the lines that blurs the poetry film and the poetical film, and how film can carry or transform or extend a poem’s language, rhythm, and meaning.
Following the film night, the evening continues with an introduction by Yanika Borg (The Data Knitters) to the exhibition In-Numri tal-Baħar (The Numbers of the Sea).
The Films
Ich will nicht laut sein müssen (I Don’t Want to Have to Be Loud, 2024, 06:19)
Eva Matz: Poet, Director (@eva.matz)
Jonas Schmieta: Cinematographer (@luxusfilmkollektiv)
The patriarchy must resign. She is defined; from birth on. The role she has to play, who she is and what she is made of is not determined by her. If one’s own body and gender are a political issue, it is about time that one’s own voice is heard.
Eva Matz is a strong political voice in the slam poetry scene and is also a filmmaker, influenced by her life experiences: after travelling widely and playing street music, she was forced into self-employment, partly because she was kicked out of her law degree. Since 2017 she has been a full-time spoken-word artist, slam poet and author, theatre and film maker, presenter and musician, workshop leader, event organiser and volunteer. Her 2021 film Zyklus, filmed by Jonas Schmieta, was screened at the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival in 2023.
Jonas Schmieta is a cinematographer with a particular interest in the interplay between people, light, and space. He has worked as cinematographer on feature films, documentaries, and experimental films, viewing his role as part of a collaborative creative process where trust, curiosity, and intuition take centre stage. He is currently reading for a master’s degree in Cinematography at Filmuniversität Babelsberg, and has had his work screened and awarded at various international festivals. Zyklus, a 2021 poetry film, directed by Eva Matz and filmed by Jonas, was screened at the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival in 2023.
The Light that Burns Us (Id-dawl li jaħraqna, 2024, 07:14)
Jazra Khaleed: Poet, Director (@jazra_k)
Silvia Tsompanaki: Cinematographer (@sylvie.co)
“GREECE, your light caught us by your E and burned us all the way to your G.” A poetry film against nationalism and the state of emergency.
Jazra Khaleed is an Athens-based poet, filmmaker, performer and translator. His most recent publications include Mein Körper ist kein Land (parasitenpresse, Germany, 2026) and The Light That Burns Us (World Poetry Books, USA, 2024). His short films have been screened at international festivals including the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Kasseler Dokfest, Entrevues Belfort, L’Alternativa, and the Cooler Lumpur Festival. He is a founding editor of the poetry magazine ΤΕΦΛΟΝ.
Silvia Tsompanaki is an Athens-based photographer, art director and filmmaker. Her work addresses issues around working-class cultures, hip hop and immigration. Her most recent exhibition titled Rap Divas received wide attention and coverage from the Greek media.
Aċitilena (Acytelene, 2015, 04:04)
Adrian Grima: Poet (@grimaadrian)
Luke Borg: Filmmaker
Just like the homonymous poem by Adrian Grima on which it is based, Luke Borg’s film shows the harbour no tourist sees. The harbour whose face is as furrowed as that of Dürer’s mother, as rough as life can force one to be, and yet, as genuine and as full of honest life, as no cruise-liner terminal could ever be.
Adrian Grima writes poetry and short stories for adults and children that have won national and international awards. He has read at literary events around the world and translations of his books have been published in Algeria, Egypt, Germany, Honduras, India, Ireland, and Italy. His passion for Mediterranean cultures may have stemmed from the fact that his great-grandfather Pietru Grima was a Corfiot whose Maltese ancestors settled in Corfu in the early 19th century. Adrian Grima teaches Maltese literature and literary representations of the Mediterranean at the University of Malta and Maltese language at INALCO in Paris. In 1998, Adrian co-founded Inizjamed, and served as coordinator of the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival until 2018. In 2022 he was one of the guest authors at the same festival. His most recent publication is Daħlet ix-Xilep: Kontralimerikki tal-Pandemija (KKM, 2023), and he is preparing a collection of short stories for adults for publication.
Luke Borg is passionate about creative filmmaking and has worked in media for the last 12 years. Luke studied media production at the MCAST Institute for the Creative Arts, and has worked on various television productions and international projects. Indeed, for the last two years, he has led the video production department at a key PR company, in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Un ardente desiderio di primavera (A Burning Wish for Spring, 2026, 08:19)
Maria Teresa Rosu: Poet (@ro.mate53)
Marta Massa: Filmmaker (@marta.m.film)
Marked by the spirit of Rosa Luxemburg’s letters from prison, carried by sensitive poetry of Maria Teresa Rosu, Marta Massa’s film reflects on Sardinian identity, now and in the future.
Maria Teresa Rosu lives in Lula, and serves as her town’s long-time librarian. She writes both prose and poetry, debuting with Ad Lùmina in 1995. Maria Teresa has written books for children and adults alike, in Sardinian and Italian. As librarian she has introduced and managed poetry-oriented initiatives for young people. Arvores, her 2025 collection of poetry in Sardinian, is her latest work.
Marta Massa is a Sardinian documentary filmmaker and cinematographer, based between Hungary and Sardinia. A DocNomads alumnus, she holds an MA in Documentary Directing from Edinburgh College of Art. Her latest short film, The Trials, was officially selected at Festival dei Popoli. In 2021, she was selected for the New Voices programme, established by the Scottish Documentary Institute and dedicated to emerging documentary talent.
Éspiritos e Rochas: Um mito Açoriano (Spirits and Rocks: An Azorean Myth, 2020, 14:11)
Aylin Gökmen: Filmmaker (@aylin__gokmen)
On a volcanic island, inhabitants are caught in an unending cycle: the threat of impending eruptions and earthquakes, and the burden of past traumas loom over them. Some draw upon myth and religious beliefs to interpret their precarious situation, while others demonstrate resilience, rebuilding their villages from the volcanic rocks. Mirroring the ethereal atmosphere of the island’s landscapes, the film gradually takes on the appearance of the stories it recounts.
Aylin Gökmen is a Swiss-Turkish artist, producer, and activist, with an MA in Documentary Filmmaking from the DocNomads programme. Her films combine documentary and fictional approaches, often revolving around themes of memory, imagination and landscape. Spirits and Rocks: An Azorean Myth (2020) is her graduation film; it had its world premiere at the prestigious Locarno Film Festival and has screened internationally at over 60 festivals, including Sundance and Telluride. Aylin is a member of the Executive Committee of SWAN (Swiss Women’s Audiovisual Network), a curator for Docs in Orbit (a transnational podcast that supports independent documentary filmmakers), and is currently reading for a PhD at Concordia University, where she coordinates the Cinema Politica series of screenings.
The Panel
Adrian Grima is a poet, professor with the Maltese department at the University of Malta and at INALCO in France, researcher, Inizjamed cofounder and until 2018, Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival (FMLM) coordinator, and one of its guest authors after that. Adrian has written the only academic paper on poetry films in Maltese, is the poet behind one of the films to be shown at the poetry film night, and actively pushed to have poetry films screened at the Literature Festival, and also initiated, in collaboration with the Valletta 2018 Foundation, a programme of poetry-film making that ran between 2014 and 2019.
Photo by Virginia Monteforte.
Elizabeth Grech is a poet, translator, cultural organiser, and former guest author of the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival. Earlier this year she was involved in a short-film project by French-Canadian filmmaker Mathilde Capone called Widnet il-Baħar (Les oreilles de la mer / The Ears of the Sea). Elizabeth lives between Reggio Calabria and Paris.
Photo by Virginia Monteforte.
Erika Lanzafame is a budding filmmaker and newly-minted Creative Media Production graduate from the MCAST Institute for the Creative Arts. Erika possesses insight and maturity which are rare among peers. Last year, Erika co-directed Searching for My Own Body, a poetry film based on the homonymous poem by Yesenia Montilla (and lauded by the same poet), and this year finished her degree programme with a poetic, auto-ethnographic film called Se ci sei, dammi un segno (Give me a sign, if you’re here). Erika was born and raised in Sicily, and lives in Malta.
Caldon Mercieca is a poet, cultural organiser, philosopher, and former poetry film coordinator at the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival, curating the screenings held during the festival. Later, through his involvement with the Valletta 2018 foundation, also helped launch the poetry-filmmaking initiative, the results of which were also screened yearly at the Literature Festival.
Kenneth Scicluna (screening curator, panel moderator) has made films, takes photos, and lectures on cinema at the MCAST Institute for the Creative Arts, and also at the University of Malta. For Inizjamed he directed Eleġija, 2014, inspired by two poems by Doreen Micallef, and co-directed, with Clare Azzopardi, a poetry film called Kafè in 2018, from a poem by Achille Mizzi. Since 2019, Kenneth has served as a member of the Inizjamed board, and has curated programmes of poetry films, screened during the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival. His poetry, in Maltese, has been published in anthologies by Għaqda tal-Malti – Università, Inizjamed and Kotba Calleja.
