KRYT Film Poetry Competition Winners

As part of our commission of artist Gijs van Bon to create KRYT and to support the work Gijs van Bon is developing we are pleased to announce our winners of our film poetry competition!

We are delighted to announce our film poetry competition winner “A Dream of Ships” by Diana Taylor and Runner up “The Sea” by Pat Boran.

Winner:
Diana Taylor submitted a wonderful film poem which explores the theme of a dream which is triggered by the lapping of waves on the sea shore. It is a dream of sea voyages, ships and the dangers of the sea.
Diana has been working in Bristol, UK with local Poets making poetry films since 2009, and her films have been shown in major venues in around Bristol including the Watershed, the Arnolfini, Colston Hall M Shed and the BBC Big Screen.

Runner up:
Pat Boran’s The Sea is about: “…’Sometimes on a bad day, a wild day, the sea rears up like a solid wall you cannot see beyond …’ But never forget.”

Pat Boran is an Irish poet and poetry filmmaker living in Dublin. He has published more than a dozen books of poetry and prose.

Judge’s Statement:

Among the short films submitted for the KRYT Film Poetry Competition, a part of Mayflower 400 Southampton, two stood out for their ability to capture ideas, images and sensations that might be associated with journeys and the sea.  

Using a poem by David Punter as its springboard, Diana Taylor’s ‘A Dream of Ships’ is a highly adept, visually and sonically layered consideration of the history and legacy of voyaging. Taylor’s judicious deployment of images and sound (including Punter’s artful text, spoken in voiceover by Robin Haward) conjures the rolling rhythm and salty, wind-blown textures of the seafaring experience, as well as the notion of finding safe harbour. This work resonates.

So does Pat Boran’s The Sea, albeit in a possibly more overt and immediate way. Featuring footage of crashing waves and roiling surf, supplanted by shots of a sailboat cutting through sparklingly calm waters, this film makes a swift, slick appeal to the senses. Together, the soundtrack – Boran’s simple poem about how the sea unites us, backed by a driven musical score – and the images exert a forward momentum that can be very effective. 

Donald Hutera

Both films have been entered into the University of Southampton’s Human Worlds Festival