Suzie Hanna
Suzie Hanna
Proem- To Brooklyn Bridge (Hart Crane)
Dir.
Suzie Hanna &
Tom Simmons & Producer Sally Bayley
Copyright 2013
3m 18s
'Proem' is a short animated representation of Hart Crane's iconic 'Proem' from his epic work 'The Bridge'. Suzie Hanna animated the film using hand cut stencils imitating some graphic aspects of contemporaneous 1920s New York artists who were in Hart Crane's coterie, such as Joseph Stella and Marsden Hartley. She also referenced Vorticism to capture vertiginous aspects of the verse. The voice of Tennessee Williams, who was an ardent admirer of Crane, is taken from a 1960 recording. Tom Simmons has built this into a resonant dramatic soundscape which interprets the materiality of the bridge, the surrounding land and waterscape and the 'prayerful' qualities of the Proem. He embeds sonic references to Hart Crane's 'shamanic process' in which the poet played records on his Victrola, including Ravel's 'Bolero', loudly and repeatedly, whilst drinking heavily and typing phrases in manic bursts. The film is part of ongoing research into representation of poetic metaphor, between Sally Bayley, Tom Simmons and Suzie Hanna: their recent article Thinking Metaphorically and Allegorically: A Conversation between the fields of Poetry, Animation and Sound was published in Spring 2014 in the Journal of American Studies.
In 2014 the film has been selected for screening at Filmpoem Festival Antwerp
Belgium, Laugharne Castle Poetry & Film Festival Wales, Zebra Poetry
Film Festival, Berlin, Sound & Vision Festival, Norwich UK, and for Official
Competition in Ottawa International Animation Festival Canada, FLEXIFF
Sydney Australia, Liberated Words Festival, Bristol (won first prize for
music and sound and second prize for best
editing), Visible Verse Festival, Vancouver, Canada, and Ó Bhéal
Poetry-Film Competition at IndieCork Film Festival, Eire. In 2015 it has
been selected for the 12th London Short Film Festival, the 8th British
Short Film Festival in Berlin, the Panorama programme at Melbourne
International Animation Festival, PoetryFilm 2 at Kosmopolis CCCB Barcelona,
Marathon screening at Athens Animfest, New York Short Film Fridays Festival,
and Best of Zebra 2014 at the POETRY festival Munster, Germany 2015.
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