Cadence Video Poetry Festival 2022

When I'm not asking for permission

Expired May 2, 2022 6:59 AM
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13 films in package
It's Midnight Already
Tongo walks and talks.
our glorious bodies
Enter into a liberating and intimate space that reclaims the poet & filmmaker’s body from the shame placed on it by ableist expectations and celebrates disabled community, joining one disabled voice with community-sourced images of and by disabled artists.
Closed captions available
tethered
Life as seen through the eyes of a bell buoy, tethered to the ocean floor and held in place year after year as the seasons come and go.
Closed captions available
Stabat Mater
In an exercise in structured formal repetition, a portrait, a recorded dialogue, and the first movement of Giovanni Pergolesi’s "Stabat Mater" become a meditation on maternity and divorce.
Barbed Song (Canción de púas)
There is a world of sounds and another of silence. Without headphones, silence wraps me in a blanket of spikes, and with headphones the noise haunts me. Where do I belong if I can partially hear?
Asking for permission (Pyydän lupaa)
Permission can both substitute for and reaffirm our own agency. This poem depicts that for which we ask permission, from whom, and why, creating an expansive interpretation through a cast of five performers who each improvise their own responses to the text.
Closed captions available
The Kettle (La bouilloire)
In a letter to her aggressor, a young woman describes all the abuses she would, in turn, inflict on him. Authenticity and violence reverse the victim-culprit relationship in this autobiographical work.
america (i wanted to...)
Allen Ginsberg's poem "America" re-imagined in the 21st Century.
Letters to Lost Loved Ones
Animations and archival footage transform the letters, journal entries, poems, and reflections ofnine incarcerated people during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic into a somber reprieve on injustice, mourning, loss, and healing. Produced in partnership with the Illinois Death in Custody Project team.
Closed captions available
life is a gift
what does it mean to be liberated? to be free? for yourself and those you love? in life is a gift, mu knowles (born & raised on the hilltop in tacoma, wa) takes us on a journey through these questions.
Closed captions available
Stepping Stones
An introspective reflection on personal lessons learned over time, exploring the messiness of growth.
Ankle Weights
A collaborative video poem by participants in the festival workshop, Animated Poetry with Neely Goniodsky, set to Janae Johnson’s poem Ankle Weights featured in her new book LESSONS ON BEING TENDERHEADED.
Three Part Meditation
Inspired by the Northwest rain and wind, captured on days that were reportedly "the most" something in local Seattle weather, this video poem aims to ease the viewer into a calmer mood by the end.

The in-person screening of this program will take place on Apr. 21 at 7pm at Northwest Film Forum.


Cadence Video Poetry Festival 2022 will be held both virtually and in-person. VIRTUAL, IN-PERSON, and HYBRID Festival Passes are available here!


Stepping up to the audiovisual megaphone, these artists deliver interpersonal and socio-political truths on their own terms. They dare to dream liberated futures into existence by reclaiming pasts that no longer serve, thus demonstrating what more is possible. Through repetition and juxtaposition, tonality and silence, each is an act of resistance—a declaration of self-determination by any poetic means necessary.

Letters to Lost Loved Ones is a documentary short created in collaboration with the Illinois Deaths in Custody Project and several incarcerated people in Illinois prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic. Compiled from many correspondences, the film traces nine incarcerated individuals’ experience of the lockdown, untimely deaths, and institutional neglect. Animations and archival footage transform their letters, journal entries, poems and reflections into a somber reprieve on injustice, mourning, loss, and healing.

  • Year
    2022
  • Runtime
    18 minutes
  • Language
    English, with English closed captions
  • Country
    United States
  • Premiere
    World Premiere
  • Director
    Jose Luis Benavides
  • Cast
    Lamonte Dixon, Tammy Englerth, Nia Frazier, Phillip Hartsfield, Kenneth Key, Angie Oaks, Ricky Patterson, Erika Ray, and Devon Terrell
  • Animator
    Andrew Grant
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