After Lydia... The Movie!

After Lydia - Raoul Fernandes

Daniel took an axe to a young fir tree in the grove
behind the dance school. Trevor immersed himself
in a book on the elements of typography. Clive smashed
his mother’s favourite vase and spent the next week
painstakingly gluing the pieces back together. Rob spent
all his free time at the gym, building a coat of muscle
around his slender frame. Michael gazed at his drink
as if it were a jar of dimly glowing fireflies. Dean listened
to an old murder ballad for an entire night, becoming
more and more gentle with each repeat. Adam began
his fight for the preservation of the bird habitat in
his community. Spencer bought a beautiful motorcycle
that spoke like a lion. Billy gave up smoking. Patrick started.
David went on a pilgrimage in Spain, the Camino de Santiago.
Ian didn’t feel anything until he saw the destroyed fir tree
in the grove behind the dance school. Then he gasped
her name.



Originally published online by Geist. 
Reprinted with permission of the author.

As regular silaron readers will know, I'm a big fan of both Raoul Fernandes and video poems. So needless to say I was pretty damn excited when I learned about a video poem project based on Raoul's poem "After Lydia".

The film will feature a scene for each of the twelve guys described in "After Lydia". The first one, based on poor old Daniel, is already finished:

In order to complete the project the organizers (director Nicholas Bradford-Ewart and producers Susannah Ludwig and Bret Goldin) are trying to raise $17,000 through an Indiegogo campaign. Perks include free copies of the finished product and, if you really shell out the cash, special private screenings, dinners and executive producer credits. That's right, you can be an executive.

If the project is a success the organizers hope to build it into a "Poetry on Film" series, which would highlight the work of emerging writers. So check out the Indiegogo campaign already, ok?


p.s. At the very least please fund them long enough that they get to guy #4, Rob the weightlifter, so I can finally make my film debut.

p.p.s. Speaking of video poems, the deadline for Visible Verse 2013 submissions is August 1st. Get going!