Bologna in Lettere 10th
BĂBÉL
stati di alterazione
International review of poetry
videopoetry and video-art
a cura di Enzo Campi
Helen Dewbery – UK
Woman Running Alone
Woman Running Alone’ is a poem by Maria Taylor which is the closing poem in her collection Dressing for the Afterlife. The collection starts and ends with poems about running. ‘Woman Running Alone’ is essentially about women’s freedom, although “the wolf whistle becomes the wolf” also picks up on the vulnerability of women alone. But by the end it becomes clear that running is also a way of transcending these threats too. I took still images from two very different but local urban areas and combined them with an overlay of running feet. These pavements are in Swindon town centre and Bath City. The images from these pavements flash onto the screen to match the cadence of the runner – 156 steps per minute – which also suited the timing and rhythm of the poem. Every other one of the images was converted to black and white and the overall visual effect, together with the intermittent sound of running shoes, created elements of poetic form.
Written by Maria Taylor
Filmed by Helen Dewbery
Biography
Helen Dewbery established Poetry Film Live, the online poetry film journal. Her poetry films have been shown at poetry events and festivals in the UK and internationally. She provides online and face to face training, as well as curating and talking about poetry film at festivals. Helen is co-director of The Big Poetry Weekend in Swindon, UK. Metaphysician was created with poet Gregory Leadbetter as part of an ongoing collaborative project with poets published by Nine Arches Press.
Helen Dewbery is Co-Director of The Big Poetry Weekend in Swindon and co-edits the online poetry film journal Poetry Film Live. Helen Dewbery I s an Associate member of the Royal Photographic Society and approaches poetry film as a contemporary photographic artist, combining still and moving images. Helen has worked collaboratively with a number of poets and has been screened regularly in poetry festivals. She has also exhibited in solo and group photographic exhibitions.
Recipient of four Arts Council England grants to develop writing and poetry film projects.
Films shown at:
- Bologna in Lettere 2021
- Athens International Video Poetry Festival 2016, 2019
- Festival Silêncio in Lisbon 2016
- Visible Verse Poetry Film Festival in Vancouver, 2015.
- Sadho Poetry Film Festival, New Delhi, 2015.
- The Lighthouse Film Poem competition in Poole, 2015.
- Liberated Words International Poetry Film Festival in 2013 and 2014.
- Cheltenham Poetry Festival (2013, 2014)
- Swindon Festival of Poetry (2014, 2015)
- The University of Gloucestershire (2013, 2014)
- The Dymock Poets Conference (2015)
- Film Weston (2014)
- Bristol Spring Poetry Festival (2015)
- Writers in the Brewery (2013)
- The Tivoli (2014)
- Green Light at Bordeaux Quay in Bristol with Inkling Productions (2016)
- The Masons Arms London NW10 (2016)
- The Berkeley Square Poetry Review, Bristol (2016)
Created collaborative poetry films with Martin Malone (editor of The Interpreter’s House), Anna Saunders (Director of Cheltenham Poetry Festival), Lucy English (Reader in Creative Writing, Bath Spa University), Hilda Sheehan (Director of Poetry Festival Swindon).
Poetry film workshop facilitator.
Bath Fringe Festival 2014: Still Points Moving World performance writing exhibition.
Regular solo and group photographic exhibitions at The Gardens Gallery.
Photographs of Nature exhibition at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham, 2011.
Nothing in the Garden by Chaucer Cameron and Helen Dewbery, 2014, a poetry and photographic collection.
Co-edited The Museum of Light, 2014, a poetry and photography collaboration.
Co-edited Salt on the Wind: Poetry in Response to Ruth Stone, 2015.