Visual Cavafy
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Introduction
C. P. Cavafy continues to speak to us individually, sometimes in a whisper, sometimes in a roar. Visual Cavafy, a series of visual poems / film & videos conceived by Elena Park, offers a range of creative responses to his haunting and powerful words, unfolding in different forms.
“C.P. Cavafy continues to speak to us individually, sometimes in a whisper, sometimes in a roar,” commented Elena Park. “From readings and performances to dreamscapes featuring imagery, painting, and video, Visual Cavafy offers a range of creative responses to his haunting and powerful poetry, reflecting the singular way his words and spirit engage and move us. It was a joy to collaborate with artists like Laurie Anderson and Carl Hancock Rux who have long admired Cavafy’s poetry, but also to see others like Jad Abumrad and Mac Premo, Taylor Mac, and Julianne Moore deeply embrace his work for the first time.”
- Elena Park, Creative Director & Executive Producer
Read by Julianne Moore | Director: Elena Park | Cinematographer & Editor: Pete Scalzitti
Though images of the Mediterranean Sea must have often filled Cavafy’s view, it was not often mentioned in his poetry. The arresting voice of Julianne Moore is set to dreamy colorful visuals and sounds, bringing to life two of his quiet gems. “Far Away” (1914) draws us into faded recollections from days long past and the ineffable play of memory, while. “Morning Sea” (1915) beckons us to pause and take in his musings and evocative imagery. Moore commented, ”What's interesting to me about these poems is that Cavafy posits an idea about memory, and then kind of quickly focuses it into a reality in both of them. He allows himself to sink into an experience and then also pull out further to frame it as not a reality, which I think is really compelling. It's wonderful to participate in this because this is not the kind of work that I generally do, but it's great to be involved with other artists and to have an opportunity to pull something apart and investigate it.”
Performed by Taylor Mac | Director: Elena Park | Cinematographer & Editor: Pete Scalzitti
It’s easy to imagine a kinship between the Greek poet and protean artist Taylor Mac, whose work never fails to challenge, delight, and provoke. For Visual Cavafy, this riveting performer delivers two of Cavafy’s immortal poems, “Ithaca” (1911) and “Waiting for the Barbarians” (1904), filmed at ClearLight Performance Space in New York City. “Getting this book of poems by Cavafy was like getting a Pushkin or Whitman for the first time,” said Mac. “It's like when somebody shows up with somebody who should have been hanging out in your life from childhood, and they're new to you, it both feels tragic and like the greatest wonder – like discovering the ocean or a whole new country with a whole new language.” Mac initially thought of "Ithaca" as a poem for "young" people to teach them how to be in the world. Then I thought of being in the dressing room during A 24-Decade History, when I was about to do this big, long, twenty-four hour performance. And I thought, ‘Oh, I wish I had this poem at that time to just say, ‘you're good, slow down, that getting to the end is not the thing. The actual hours and the hours and the hours of this takes, that's the thing.’” As he prepared to film “Barbarians,” contemporary resonances grew over time: “When I first started, I wasn't really thinking of the barbarians as the January 6th insurrectionists. I was thinking of it more as that thing that we tell people to be afraid of, like immigrants or something – we've got to change all of our laws, we've got to protect ourselves. I was interpreting it kind of cynically, but then as I kept doing it, I was like, ‘oh, no, this is actually about the insurrectionists as well. It's very expansive - it's a metaphor for all of the ways in which we fool ourselves.”Featuring Carl Hancock Rux, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Bora Yoon & Jeffrey Zeigler | Director: Elena Park | Cinematographer: Justin Ervin | Sound Designer: Garth MacAleavey | Editor: Steven E. Mallorca
“The Footsteps” (1909) taps the alchemy of four powerhouse performers: Carl Hancock Rux joined by Daniel Bernard Roumain, Bora Yoon, and Jeffrey Zeigler in their first-ever joint collaboration. Created in collaboration with National Sawdust, where the richly dramatic poem was filmed, dynamic camerawork and cinematic editing capture the poem's arc from quiet languor to eerie danger. Rux first became acquainted with Cavafy while studying comparative literature at the American University of Paris. “He belonged to something I understood within myself—something lonely and beautiful and destined to live unexplainable and full of mysteries,” Rux explained. “I chose ‘The Footsteps’ by Cavafy because initially, upon reading it, it reminded me of something I wanted. It reminded me of everything that this country had been through in the last few years,” referencing the Trump administration, recent Black Lives Matter protests, and the Me Too movement. “And so something about this poem, when I first read it was a reminder that things end because they're supposed to, and that there is an awareness that we can all have of the ending of a thing, if we choose to see beyond the place that we are in.” “As a composer, I live in a world of rhythm, and space,” said Daniel Bernard Roumain. “And I think this particular poet, and these particular words, occupy a very special rhythm and encompass a very special space.” Bora Yoon added, “There’s so much sonic imagery and a lot of sensory phrases and things that evoke memory and association. Painting the poem’s trajectory became about contour: how do we support Carl's words and cadence, and the imagery as it's being painted?” Jeffrey Zeigler, who will also perform in live Festival events, said, “My relationship with Cavafy has been evolving quite a lot, and with each collaboration, it's like opening up another layer into this world. I'm learning more about the person and the various dimensions that he embodied.”
Music & Sound by Jad Abumrad | Visuals: Mac Premo
Longtime Cavafy admirer Laurie Anderson reads “Voices” (1904, after the original “Sweet Voices” in 1894), the haunting early work by Cavafy. Playing with memory and the nature of time, the poem provides fertile ground for the deeply personal audio and visual styles of musician-composer-storyteller Jad Abumrad and artist-filmmaker Mac Premo, and includes materials from the Cavafy archive. Abumrad reflected, “I'm very interested in the ways in which we, singular human beings living singular lives, are actually living a continuum. I’ve thought about my grandfather and this moment in Lebanon where he had to bury his mother on the side of the road as they were marching sixty miles over a mountain. That experience shaped him in a way that caused him to demand certain things of himself and then of his kids, and then his kids of me. So there's some way in which his ghost is always with me. So that line… ‘Sometimes, within our dreams, they speak’…I connect to that. Also, there’s this: Recently, there's something oppressive to me about narrative. It takes the utter chaos of experience, and like a tyrant, organizes it into a beginning and middle and end. So for me, this project is part of me trying to find new ways to define storytelling.”
Directed by Evi Kalogiropoulou | Featuring original music by Negros tou Moria (“The City of Morris”) | Featuring: Shady El Gendy Hendan, Sherok El Zoghby, Nermin Zien, Fatma Ibrahiem, Ali Amir
Songs featured:
زوروني كل سنة مرة (Zorouni Kol Sana Mara)
"Visit Me Once A Year"
Traditional
Lyrics and composition: Sayed Darwish
Performed by Nermin Zien
Evi Kalogiropoulou, a Cannes Film Festival award-winning director, was inspired by the urban environment of modern Alexandria and the omnipresence of C. P. Cavafy that she felt there even today. Kalogiropoulou turns her lens on various locations throughout Alexandria, from the Greek schools in Shatby, to the famous Alexandrian Corniche, and the shipyards at the Bahary area. Kalogiropoulou juxtaposes traditional songs such as “Visit Me Once A Year” by the Egyptian singer and composer Sayed Darwish, a contemporary of Cavafy and a song reminiscent of the poem “Come Back,” with an original score produced by the Greek rap singer, Negros tou Moria, whose combines the lyrics of Cavafy’s poems “As Best As You Can,” “The First Step,” and “The City” into a new work entitled “The City of Morris.” A poetic attempt to recreate a city long lost, and to many only as a melancholic memory, the short film shows an Alexandria still alive in verses and music of Cavafy’s poems. Kalogiropoulou commented: “When I first visited Alexandria, I was very inspired by the history of the city. And I was thinking of the city as a story of love; however, the two partners cannot be together because one of them has to leave. Which is actually very similar to Cavafy’s own life. This love motivated me to create the story, the film. I was always imagining him in every corner of the city, living his desire through his poems. I was also very influenced by the people who worked on the film. Some of the film crew appear in the film for this reason.”
Directed by Christos Sarris | Original soundtrack by Laura Jane Grace
Christos Sarris’s “Walls” draws heavily on his experience working with incarcerated individuals at a prison in Nigrita, Greece, teaching them the basics of filmmaking on both a theoretical and practical level. Through a series of workshops, Sarris provided them with the tools to create a film that not only speaks to their own experiences but also resonates with audiences around the world. In the end, “Walls” is a reminder of the power of storytelling and the human ability to find hope and meaning even in the most challenging of circumstances. The film features both Sarris’s own footage, as well as that from participants in the classes. The film is accompanied by a musical adaptation of Cavafy’s poem “Walls” by Laura Jane Grace, Emmy-nominated artist, author, activist, musician and founder of the American punk rock band Against Me! Sarris said: “‘Walls’ is a thought-provoking film that takes place within the confines of a prison. Through the eyes of inmates, we are given the opportunity to explore the themes of freedom, dreams, hope, and the human condition in a way that is both poignant and emotive. The powerful musical adaptation of Cavafy’s poem ‘Walls’ by Laura Jane Grace adds another layer of emotion and depth to the already compelling narrative.”
