UK-based poets and film-makers Chaucer Cameron and Helen Dewbery wanted to create a project with Wild Whispers which would explore the concept of adaptation and collaboration through ‘poetry film’, by sending a poetry film across the world, which was then re-created into a new poetry film and then passed on. The films, in different languages, were all ‘whispered’ from the previous one with the aim of tracing how poetry film crosses language and cultures.

The project travelled from the U.K. to India, Australia, Taiwan, France, South Africa, Belgium, Sweden and the U.S.A., creating poetry films in English, Malaylam, Chinese, French, Affrikaans, Belgium, American Sign Language, Navajo, Spanish, and Welsh.

Ye-Mimi from the Wild Whispers project invited 55 strangers in the park to read the Chinese version.

The Journey

Wild Whispers first port of call from the UK was India, before going on to Australia and then Taiwan. In Taiwan, the poetry filmmaker and artist Ye Mimi, invited 55 strangers in the park to read the Chinese version, their facial expressions, eyes, voice, and gestures all interpreting the poem. There are humorous moments when the handwritten poem led to unintentional phrases.

In France, the narrator creates a whispering fairytale-like soundtrack to the idea that ‘generation after generation, children vanish, replaced by adults who vanish at their turn…’.

After receiving the Urdu version of the poem from India, Australian filmmaker Marie Craven arranged for it to be translated into English by a professional translation agency. Marie was then keen to work with the writer Candida Baker, with whom she had already made two previous poetry films, and had established a working relationship.  Says Candida: “I was honoured to be asked to collaborate with Marie.  I took a very personal approach to this poem – I grew up in the country in England, and these days I live near Byron Bay, and green tree frogs have been a small but constant presence in my life.  I imagined these two very different landscapes, and I wondered what it would be like if, because of war, I had to flee the countryside for the cities.  If I had to lose the presence of the frogs, the lakes and the woods.  The ‘original’ words spoke to me of loss, war and death – of the pointless ongoing tragedy of Syria.”  The poem became global rather than personal, and gradually the final version began to emerge.

Helen Dewbery image from the Dewbery/Cameron poetry film.

Every country involved in the project had a different interpretation – the Afrikaans version juxtaposes the industrial world of the city with nature. The narrator yearns to be close to nature and mourns the separation from their roots. In New Mexico, the poetry film combines native American Navajo and American Sign Language, showcasing the resistance of the Native American peoples against centuries of cultural genocide, settler colonialism and violence. In Sweden the poem took on the issues of faith, love, suffering and death – and of being lost and confused in a highly technical world that has created confusion and solitude.

The project has also highlighted the challenges, and richness, of translation for poetry film. In India the translator was given the poem in Malayalam to translate into Urdu. As Malayalam is a highly Sanskritized language, she first had to translate it into Hindi and then from Hindi to Urdu before it was translated in Australia into English. The text.doc approach used elsewhere was an attempt to translate the poem into abstract digital field recordings by using Google Translate to create a chain of translations from English into every available language, described as ‘working with a software collaborator that can produce, but not understand, language”.

Wild Whispers was launched in the UK in early October.  You can view it here:   https://elephantsfootprint.com

The project is also available for touring: https://elephantsfootprint.com/contact.

The project premiered at the Swindon Poetry Festival in the UK.  The Australian poetry film is viewable to the public: https://vimeo.com/187257017

________________________________________________________________________________The Participants

Country of production: UK

Language: English

Title: Frog on Water

Filmmaker: Chaucer Cameron/Helen Dewbery

Editor: Helen Dewbery

Country of production: India

Language: Malayalam/Urdu

Title: Vellatthinu Mukalile Thavala/ Paani Par Mendhak

Filmmaker and editor: Rajesh James

Translators: Malayalam, Jose Varghese. Urdu, Jhilmil Breckenridge

Country of production: Australia

Language: English

Title: Shadow Lullaby

Filmmaker and editor: Marie Craven

Translator: Candida Baker

Country of production: Taiwan

Language: Chinese

Title: 綠金色的陰影躍進我的眼睛

Filmmaker and editor: Ye Mimi

Translator: Ye Mimi

Country of production: France and Morocco

Language: French

Title: Une ombre vert mordoré est entrée dans mes yeux Filmmaker and editor: bobie (Yves Bommenel) Translator: Marie Laureillard

Country of production: South Africa

Language: Afrikaans

Title: ’n Brons-groen skaduwee in my oë

Filmmaker and director: Erentia Bedeker

Editor: Diek Grobler

Translator: Erentia Bedeker

Country of production: Belgium

Language: Dutch

Title: In het woud

Filmmaker and director: Judith Dekker

Translator: Judith Dekker

Country and place of production: New Mexico, USA Language: Navajo, American Sign Language, and English Title: Wild Whispers: New Mexico

Filmmaker and editor: Sabina England

Translator: Meryl Van Der Bergh (from Afrikaans to English rough translation), World Translation Center for Navajo, Sabina England for American Sign Language and improved English prose.

Country and place of production: Berlin, Germany & Austin, Texas

Language: English

Title: frog_poem_text.doc

Filmmaker and editor: Annelyse Gelman Translator: Annelyse Gelman / Google Translate Music: Annelyse Gelman

Country of production: Sweden

Language: Spanish

Title: La búsqueda

Filmmaker and editor: Eduardo Yagüe

Translator: Cristina Newton

Country of production: U.K. Language: Welsh

Title: Chwiliad

Filmmaker and editor: Othniel

Translator: Sharon Larkin

Country of production: USA Language: English

Title: Sea Change

Filmmaker and editor: Dave Bonta

Translator: Sharon Larkin/Dave Bonta

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