VIDEO POEM: To Touch & Taste a Comet, featuring Caroline Reid in a bedroom in Melbourne
Between 2018-2021 I worked with 3 emerging film makers to create 6 video poems. To Touch and Taste a Comet was the second of those video poems.
SYNOPSIS & CONTEXT:
The poem To Touch & Taste a Comet speaks to being a late bloomer & not giving up on your
dreams/ambition despite living in a world that values youth, early (visible) success and a
particular kind of beauty (perfect/smooth). It's a world that values & rewards a particular kind of filming making too... not too complex, clear narrative, crisp focus with a young, pretty, sexy, cool protagonist. Much of what I love about this video poem is how film maker Patrick Zoerner weaves imagery that emphasises texture, pattern & mood with images of the not-so-young/not-so-cool poet (me).
When I first re-visited the video so that I could write this blog, I have to admit I cringed a little. It's tempting to
apologise for my double-chin & jowls, thick torso, my awkwardness and kind of arty-posiness. But I won't
apologise, because making these things visible is the point. By showing the cracks, the fat, the visceral textures & racing sky I believe Patrick has captured something far greater than me in this video poem, so much so that I recede as protagonist and become just one of the textures woven into time and space. I really think he's made a video poem that could read as a meditation (in the same way that Pamela Boutros did in the video poem LOST)
FUN FACT:
We filmed in Patrick's bedroom in an old house in Melbourne, Australia. But first we had to prop his bed up against one of the walls so we had enough room to film.
CAST/CREW/SPECS:
Film maker: Patrick Zoerner
Poet: Caroline Reid
Featuring: Caroline Reid
Filmed in Melbourne (Naarm), Australia 2019
PUBLICATION:
To Touch & Taste a Comet was first published in Cordite Poetry Review.
Subsequently published in SIARAD (ESPress, 2020)
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