Honors 2021 The Independent Image: Poetry & Film Techniques

This experimental course examines the power of image‐makers as it defines and explores the tools the poet and filmmaker employ to present charged imagery. A collaboration between a contemporary poet (myself) and filmmaker, Zack Godshall, it grew organically from hours of conversation about contemporary myth- and image-making. We approach this hands-on writing and film class like a studio or workshop, employing flipped classroom techniques to develop imagery collaboratively and often taking field trips to the Mississippi River (the Louisiana artist's preferred source and origin for myth-making). The course introduce students to a rudimentary array of techniques in both film and poetry, forming analogies (e.g., litany and montage, juxtaposition and cross-dissolve) as we guide their videopoem explorations--merging the mediums and honing creative and critical faculties. See videos for student examples.