Producer Matin Vandas has been mulling over the idea of connecting the world of animation with poetry for a long time. In the series called Poetry in Animation he will bring to the cinemas 52 one minute long short movies which will show before the main feature films. „We would like to introduce into the cinemas animation of selected Czech poetry, which would work at the same time as a who’s who of contemporary artists – animators,“ explains the author of the idea Martin Vandas.
„The aim of the project is to show in 52 parts the different faces of Czech poetry between 1945 and 1993. Of course it is very limiting and it’s hardly possible to capture all the poetic styles that poetry, especially in the Czech environment, offers. We tried to select authors who – disregarding their political affiliations – were great figures of their time influencing through their work the future development of Czech poetry,“ says the dramaturgist of the project, Michal Jareš.
We find side by side names like Miroslav Florian, Ivan Bondy, Jiří Gruša, Vladimíra Čerepková, Vladimír Holan, Jiří Žáček, František Hrubín, Ivan Martin Jirous, Karel Sýs, J. H. Krchovský, Vítězslav Nezval, Jana Štoblová, Josef Topol, Jiří Kolář and more. The main aim was to show a selection with as many types of poetry as possible, showing the variability and riches of Czech post-war poetry, which to this day have a message as representatives of poetic groups (authors of concrete poetry, several waves of underground, spiritual poets, surrealists, lyricists and beatniks).
„As colourful as the scale of individual poems will be, we will try to make the animation techniques also interesting and diverse. Perhaps there should be a list of techniques that should get space in this project, so that their representation is as ballanced as possible. At the same time such a broad offer of animation techniques will allow the authors access to a technique which maybe they would never think of exploring,“ explains director David Súkup.
While working on a given poem each author should get to know the historical context in which it was written and understand the whole life and work of „their“ poet, so that each single film reflected if possible the historical connections. At the same time this project offers unique creative freedom: the authors are not dramaturgically limited in any way, and they can freely express their views.
One of the aspects of this project is bringing poetry closer to ordinary viewers who can find in them for themselves something interesting, exciting, stimulating, and expansive.
The series will include 52 one minute short films and it should be finished by 2023. The first poem which is entering production just now, is „In the Coffee Grinder“ by Ivan Wernisch, directed by David Súkup.