That’s what is so fun about the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival (SJIWFF for slow typers.) You get to meet lots of new people. Nice, smart and fascinating people from all over.
Elizabeth Zetlin is my first new best SJIWFF friend. She kindly left a comment on a blog entry informing me that I got my dates wrong. (Darn, fire that fact checker.)
Liz is a fellow Ontarian, and she is coming to St. John’s to screen her docu-poem Night Walk: Boreal Poetry Garden.
If it looks fascinating, that’s because it is. This is what she told me:
I follow Newfoundland artist Marlene Creates and about 30 of her friends, lit only by flashlight, on a walk through her boreal forest to the Blast Hole Pond River. Along the way, she stops to read poems conceived at these sites. Words meld into forest, trip down paths, flow into the river, where inspiration lurks like a moose. (Yes, there’s actually a moose in there too.)
I first met Marlene Creates in 2003 when she came to my neck of the woods (Owen Sound, Ontario) to walk the limestone barrens on the Bruce Peninsula. I spent a few days driving her to various sites where she photographed “firewood for sale” signs and waded in Georgian Bay with an underwater camera.
Meanwhile, I was trawling for poems. Eventually the work we produced was exhibited as part of the Limestone Barrens Project in Newfoundland, Ontario and Ireland. I knew I had encountered an extraordinary artist, whose passion for the land I shared.
More women who walk! Sue will love this.
I have to meet Liz. If you see this woman, point her in my direction.
And mark this in your calendar:
Night Walk screens on Oct. 19 at The Rooms, 6:30 – 11:00 pm, along with other short films.
I’ll be there after the 7pm screening at The Majestic. Come by and say hello.
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Tags: Liz Zetlin, Marlene Creates, Night Walk, Boreal Forest, St. John’s Intl Women’s Film Fest
Hey Irene – is that really you with the lobster and screech. I need to know so I can find you at the festival. Liz Zetlin
Liz Zetlin’s films are like poems, they stream in and out of the heart, the mind. She is a rare talent. Owen Sound is lucky to have her as their poet laureate.
She’s the poet laureate of Owen Sound? WOW!
Yes, Liz. That really is me in the shot, and that’s exactly what I look like when stumbling out of a car.
Otherwise, good point. I should be easily identifiable so that all fellow SJIWFFers can find me. I want to chat with each and every one.
How feasible do you think it be that I walk around with a lobster, film reel and bottle of Screech?
All other suggestions welcome!
maybe just the lobster, Irene. That would be a sure identifier, and leave one hand free for filming.
a new grouping to disallow money shopping there.