Short Film Festival at POSK Dublin

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Dublin, Film festival, Filmmaking, Movies, Short film

A student of mine in The People’s College, Samanta Stochla from Poland, is involved in organising a Short Film Festival to take place on June 2nd at POSK. English version here. Why not go along and see what you might discover?

Samanta wrote the following about her experiences with the festival:

‘ODDALENIA’ (‘Distances’) was founded 4 years ago. Its name originated from a Polish newspaper in Ireland which did not succeed so the name was free and ready for another use. The idea of the film preview was simple. There were some films that I wanted to show and I wanted to use the occasion to meet new filmmakers. There was the Polish Social and Cultural Association (POSK) where the festival could be organised. So it began this way…

The Short Film Festival ODDALENIA/DISTANCES is now a cyclical event. Each year it looks different. The organisers have more ideas and more experience. When I first came to Dublin with films, I did not think that the festival would develop so much. I simply had my film which I wanted to show everyone. It was actually a Dawid Ciślak film. I worked on it as production manager. In fact, it was a film etude. It was a 17 minute short story. I searched similar films and found Tomek Machura from Polish Social and Cultural Association (POSK) in Dublin.

There were posters advertising the film night. We had a small screen and a computer and a place where the event could be organised. There were various films lined up to be shown, some simple stories and also documentaries. There was voting and prize-giving. At the end of the night some Kabaret DNO films were shown. Everyone left in a joyful mood. The 2009 Short Film Festival ODDALENIA/DISTANCES turned out to be an enjoyable event. The audience voted for Dawid’s film titled ‘Drugi pogrzeb’ (‘Second funeral’) as the best. For me personally it was a great achievement.

One year later we spread our wings by organising the event again. The person acting on behalf of POSK was Sławek Norberczak. The subject area and the genre of films varied a lot from comedies to reportages to Catholic missions, films for fun and films that aimed to show something more and impress the viewers. For the first time there were English language films. The 2010 festival ODDALENIA/DISTANCES was going to be a film marathon!

I hosted the event along with Trevor Rooney. I witnessed a miracle, and not only one, on that day. First, despite all my limitations in the English language we managed to communicate and set tasks, explain the way of presenting films and the way we would host the event. We knew what had to be done and said. Secondly, despite problems with equipment we managed to start up all the devices. Thankfully, there was a computer specialist in the audience. Thirdly, we did not set up breaks so the marathon went on uninterrupted. There was also a show of films produced by iTVe – Polish Television in Ireland.

We encouraged people to cooperate with each other and organize their own filmmaking groups. There was even a film invitation to Madagascar by Rafał Gilewski. Rafał was looking for a film crew to produce another film during his next trip. We still have a film centre in the POSK in Dublin. Trevor made a screen out of huge film posters. It was an amazing night but for us organisers it was also a little bit of a stressful evening. The Kabaret DNO helped us too by sending in their films. During that evening the jury chose Agnieszka Grandowicz with her film ‘Eine kleine movie’. The audience prize was given once again to Dawid Ciślak and his film ‘Nic nie wiesz’ (You don’t know anything).

The 2011 Short Film Festival ODDALENIA/DISTANCES was of a little bit different nature. On the stage Trevor entertained the audience along with Barbara Bugalska who joined our team. We chose 12 films for the show. They came from various parts of the world and were discussed, described and ready to be shown. Two films, a short Korean masterpiece and a beautiful Polish animation, competed for our ‘Golden Camera’. That year there were video clips, trip documentaries, animations, documentaries, etudes etc.

ODDALENIA/DISTANCES gained international character and it could be felt. In the audience there were people from all over the world. The room was chock-full! The occasion was honoured by Kimberley Murray who performed in concert. This time both the audience and jury agreed- The winner was Beniamin Szwed with his film ‘Rosa Alba’. To wrap up the evening, we saw the film ‘Skauci’ (Scouts) created by the Kabaret DNO.

Did the audience enjoy the event? I hope they did. Our film events are visited by more and more people each year. My dream of showing some short films has turned to a cyclical film festival and many people have contributed to that success. The festival and its course depend completely on both the organisers and the audience. However, the standard of the festival depends on you, our dear readers.

One more thing: We were supported strongly by the Embassy of Poland in Dublin which bought us a solid, professional screen. Your films will be presented on it wonderfully!

Samanta Stochla

(Translation Assistance by Sławomir Płudowski and Caroline Casey)

Thanks to Samanta for the above. See below for festival programme and last year’s winning short film Rosa Alba directed by Beniamin Szwed:

Short Film Festival ODDALENIA 2012 – Program and Final Gala
 
Congratulations to all succesfull entries who made it on the list.
 
The Festival will kick off at 7pm on Saturday, June 2nd, for the Screening of the movies and Final Gala.
 
Venue: Polish Social & Cultural Association, 20 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2
 

1. 38.5
    Grzegorz Dębowski / 10′
 
2. TRANS
    Elwira Florek / 11′
 
3. KRAWĘDŹ ZIEMI / THE EDGE OF THE EARTH   
    Nikodem Wojciechowski / 28’30″
 
4. WINDA / THE ELEVATOR
    Sebastian Kwidziński / 10’06″
 
5. COMPASS
    Domicjan / 16′
 
6. AUTUMN. THE RAINY FRIEND
    Karina Zembrzuska / 2′
 
7. LUKOUT
    Konrad Anoszczenko / 10′
 
8. ASHES TO ASHES. LOVE TO DUST.
    Grzegorz Dębowski / 16′
 
9. JEREMIAH O’DEA
    Kamil Krolak / 05’31″
 
10. ZWIERZĘ BEZ NOGI / LEGLESS ANIMAL (FISZ EMADE)
     Tymon Tykwiński / 4′
 
11. DZIEŃ Z ŻYCIA ŚW. MIKOŁAJA/ ONE DAY OF SANTA’S LIFE
     Sebastian Kwidziński / 6’39″
 
12. PIÓRO / THE PEN
      Wiesław Zieliński / 18′

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Find readers for your stories

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Ether Books, IPhone, Manila, self-promote, short story app, writers

I’ve joined the ranks of Ether Books authors. Described as ‘Ether Byte Sized Reads’, the app is for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch and readers can download from their library of short stories. It’s an attractive interface – the pages turn when you slide your finger on them.

You get tags, blurbs, author pics and bios to help you choose and there are free downloads too if you want to try it out.

There are some bestselling authors on the menu along with the less well-known.

One of the great things about publishing on Ether is that your stories can be previously published elsewhere so you don’t have to tie up new work you might want to enter into competitions, and stories already published have a chance to get new readers. Ether are friendly and helpful with any queries and they promote you too.

‘Mirage’ was the first of my stories to be released. I was surprised and delighted to see that it reached number one in the ‘charts’ that week. It’s good to know that the story was downloaded.

Stories cost 79 cents each per download.

Some Ether authors may be familiar to you. You might want to download stories by Madeleine D’Arcy, Brian Ahern, Aiden O’Reilly, Carys Bray and Rebecca Emin, to name just a few great examples.

For writers it helps if you tweet or send your link out on Facebook. Ether encourages you to get involved with promotion. Having a blog is handy too. These days there are lots of ways to promote your work and apps are a great way of doing that.

You can download the app here. Just search under author or story name (for mine: ‘Mirage’ or ‘Valerie Sirr’).

I blogged earlier about Five Stop Story, another story app you might like to try.

Every writer wants an attentive reader and I was lucky to have ’Mirage’ reviewed by short story aficionado Mel Ulm from Manila at The Reading Life. Thanks to Mel for including my work in the Irish short story section and to Nuala Ni Chonchuir for recommending me to him. Mel will review more of my stories in the coming months. He’s passionate about the short story and is dedicating space to Irish women writers until July. You’ll find great short stories from all over the world on his website.

you might also like:

• How writing feeds your writing… (wordznerd.wordpress.com)
• App of the week for journalists: Byword, a great text editor for iPhone/iPad (blogs.journalism.co.uk)
• How to choose a smartphone (fonespotr.com)

The New Writer

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Cuirt International Festival, Publishing, Short story, Twitter, Writers Resources

I’m delighted to hear that I won second prize in The New Writer Magazine (UK) Micro Fiction Category. The judge, Catherine Smith, was twice shortlisted for the Forward Prize among other accomplishments.  I received a very welcome sterling cheque and a lovely letter from the magazine with these encouraging comments from Catherine: “I admired each (of the top six) writer’s confidence in knowing what to leave out – the power of specific imagery to suggest more than was actually stated in the stories. In ‘The Bridge’ (by Valerie Sirr), I admired the risks the writer took with imagery and language, the sense of menace lurking beneath the surface.” My piece will be published in The New Writer’s ‘The Collection’ in July.

My flash piece ‘Robbed’ features on National Flash Fiction Day’s website. It was first published in The Irish Times.

ROPES, Galway (the MA in Literature and Publishing class’s annual Review of Postgraduate English Studies at NUI Galway) is using my Twitter length story for their 20th issue, ‘Links’. The launch date is set for 26th of April, 2012 to coincide with Cúirt International Festival of Literature.

I had a flash piece longlisted for Flash500′s competition and ‘Made You Look’, my short story was longlisted for Ink Tears Short Story Competition. Ink Tears is an interesting project supporting new writing and you can get involved as a writer or a reader. Some members of their community are here where you’ll see some familiar faces.

Finally the US magazine ‘The Rusty Nail’ are publishing my flash story ‘Tyrants’ in their next issue. They publish work both on their webzine and in a print edition and some of their writers have impressive bios so I’m very pleased to be included.

Thanks to the editors and judges of the above and if you’d like to submit work to any of those outlets just click on the links.

You might also like:

• Simple Ways to Stand Out with Editors (terrywhalin.blogspot.com)
• Publishing for Free (swine.wordpress.com)
• Writers and writers (sueghosh.wordpress.com)

How haiku can improve your writing

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Buddhism, Haiku, Jack Kerouac, Michael Hartnett, Poetry

from google images

It’s great how you learn something about writing from every new form you try. I tried haiku, the Japanese form of poetry, recently. It’s good for your writing because as well as being a type of poetry, it’s a way of experiencing the world by focusing your attention on individual, insightful moments. It teaches you about change and movement and endings too, by use of a cutting or pivot word that turns the meaning of the poem in some resonant way.

Basho (1644-94) is considered the father of haiku. It’s a short, 17-syllable form, usually written in three lines with a syllable count of 5-7-5. It’s closely related to the spirituality of Buddhism. It looks deceptively simple to write, but can take years to really master it.

A good haiku is grounded in the physical world of the senses, but suggests something deeper, more mysterious and existential, often referring to the transitory nature of all existence.

Haiku has become a popular poetic form of the 20th & 21st centuries. Perhaps its brevity and precise illumination of the spiritual suits a contemporary audience that needs meaning among all the chaos and speed. Many poets including Alan Watts, Robert Hass and Jack Kerouac have written and been influenced by the form. Some practitioners are loyal to the traditional Japanese format of 17 syllables, but others have adapted it to the English language and use non-natural images found in modern life.

Why not have a go at capturing a single moment in time? It’s relatively simple to learn, but the more you read and practice the form, the more complex and fascinating it becomes.

Here’s an example by Issa (1763-1827) who loved all creatures and had a sense of humour which comes through in his work. Translation by Robert Hass:

Don’t worry, spiders,/I keep house/casually

‘spiders’ is a seasonal word – a ‘kigo’. The cutting or pivot word is ‘casually’. The poem’s ‘satori’ (insight), deals with the precarious nature of all life.

You can find rules that have come and gone here. It’s fun to pick a few then raise your game and add another rule, or learn some rules and then break them.

Some great Irish practitioners I’ve come across are Michael Hartnett ‘Inchicore Haiku’ and John W Sexton who posts regularly on Facebook.

You Might also like:

• How to Write Haiku: In a Nutshell (writingtipsforbetterwriting.wordpress.com)
• Haikus to ponder upon for the week (staciapriscilla.com)
• What is a Haiku? (swedishmaggie.wordpress.com)

Webcomics and Graphic novels

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Comics, Doonesbury, Graphic novel, Softer World, Valentine's Day

Image via Wikipedia

I’m sure you’ve seen daily or weekly comic strips like Doonesbury in newspapers and many of you will have read graphic novels. (Just click on the image above to view.)

There are a huge number of comics on the Internet, but here’s some links mentioned in an article in ‘Totally Dublin’ to check out if you’d like to take a look: xkcd, A Softer World, Hark, a vagrant.

I really admire the artistry involved in combining image with narrative -  some comics are hand-drawn, some are drawn with computer programs, some use pictures. They’re often self-published and hosted on the artists’ own sites. The great thing about this is that it’s free from the control of publishers (same with self-publishing in other media), and competition for page size and it allows for all sorts of creative expression. They’re usually free to read too.

One of my students, who uses the name Sean Drawn, made an exciting announcement in class the other day. He’s about to launch his graphic novel, Cupid’s Last Arrows. We discussed earlier drafts of the novel in class over the last couple of years and thoroughly enjoyed it’s quirky, gentle humour and delightful illustrations.

Next week, on Valentine’s Day, 12pm – 10pm, at Exchange Dublin, a collective arts centre in Temple Bar’s Project Arts Centre, the novel will be launched alongside an art exhibition. The exhibition consists of original and print art from the graphic novel, which tells the story of Cupid’s journey through the streets of Dublin as the ancient Roman god of love attempts to fix his mismatches.

As advertised here, you can even be drawn by Drawn, who will be creating portraits and caricatures of visitors throughout the day.

Sean will also speak at the Exchange at 8pm at the ‘Milk and Cookies’ storytelling event. ‘Milk and Cookies Stories’ is a “Dublin-based, non-profit arts collective that hosts storytelling nights on the second Tuesday of every month. It transforms Exchange Dublin into a giant living room, complete with cosy cushions and duvets, fairy lights, hot tea and delicious cookies.” It’s free for everyone.

Congratulations to Sean and I hope the launch generates a lot of interest for his work.

Has anyone any webcomics or graphic novels to recommend? What do you think of the form?

Related articles

• Graphic Novels Again (farrarwilliams.wordpress.com)
• Introducing The All-New Marvel: Season One Graphic Novels! (graphicpolicy.com)
• Gifts for the Reluctant Reader: Graphic Novels from Papercutz (GIVEAWAY) (susanheim.blogspot.com)

More Writing Opportunities

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Crannog, Elizabeth Bowen, short story competition, William Trevor, writing award

I received a press release from the Mitchelstown Literary Society because I entered the William Trevor/Elizabeth Bowen International Short Story Competition last year (my story ‘Omega Point’ was shortlisted).

If you’re interested in entering the competition this year, the closing date is Friday, March 30th, 2012. You can pay online but you have to send your entry by post - entry forms are available on their website.

I’m delighted to hear that my short story ‘Lotso’ will be published in the next issue of Crannog. It will be launched in the Crane Bar, Sea Road, Galway, on Friday, February 24th, at 6.30pm. Fellow blogger and talented writer Niamh Boyce also has a story included, titled intriguingly, ‘Since I Became A Monster’.

I plan to read on the night. Hope to meet some fellow writers there.

The submissions link for Crannog is here if you want to give it a try.

Related articles

• Short Stories on Kindle (madhattermiscellany.wordpress.com)
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New Publishing Opportunity in The Telegraph

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Bloomsbury, Louise Doughty, Short Story Club, story competition, The Telegraph

Image via Wikipedia

For any short story writers out there – just came across this competition in The Telegraph. It appears to be open to everybody and there’s a chance to get your story published online in The Telegraph, in Louise Doughty’s column, then be shortlisted for an end-of-year prize which involves some dosh as well as meeting literary agents. Basic details below, more on the link above and by moving around the links on the right of their page.

“Short Story Club Monthly Competition

By Louise Doughty

“Entries should be emailed to  storycomp@telegraph.co.uk by the last calendar day of each month.  The  winner will be announced in my column in Telegraph Review as soon as  possible after that date.  Entries should be no longer than 2,000  words.  They can be on any subject but must be your own original work,  not breach anyone else’s copyright etc.  When you enter your story, you  are agreeing to it appearing online here at the Short Story Club for the  duration of 2012.  You are also agreeing that, if you are that month’s  winner, you are automatically on the shortlist for the end-of-year prize  of 500 pounds and publication in Telegraph Review.We’re not looking for any particular sort of story or any one style, just good writing – good luck!

Louise”

There’s also an interesting article on how Louise Doughty got her first big break as a writer by winning a short story award.

What was your first writing success? Did it help you to progress your writing career? Did you move on to a longer work because of the difficulty getting story collections published over the last 15 years or so?

Bloomsbury have declared 2012 as the year of the short story. Have you noticed the tide turning in favour of the short story? Have you come across any hopeful signs that the short story is becoming popular again?

Related articles

• Short and sweet (telegraph.co.uk)

Flash Fiction in The Irish Times

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Biker, flash fiction, Motorbike race, The Irish Times

Image by joeduty via Flickr

Check out my flash piece in today’s Irish Times

“The Gothic Reviv’d”

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Elizabeth Bowen, ghosts, Gothic fiction, Sheridan Le Fanu, Wilkie Collins

This weekend being the centenary of the birth of Charles Addams is as good a time as any to blog about things Gothic among which I’ve been wallowing for a few weeks.

Since a stay in a haunted room in Annaghmakerrig a while ago I’ve been drawn to stories about places and characters that dwell on the borders of consciousness and reality. I’ve written one or two, but I wanted to explore some antecedents of the horror genre before going any further and over the Christmas holiday I read some works of  Edgar Allan Poe, Sheridan Le Fanu, Montague Rhodes James (M.R. James), Wilkie Collins and Elizabeth Bowen. I finished Sean O’Brien’s ‘The Silence Room’ (Comma Press, 2008) too. He notes that his story ‘Close to You’ was suggested by a passage on ‘Carmilla’ in an introduction to Le Fanu’s stories, In a Glass Darkly.

Image via Wikipedia

‘Le Fanu’s was the first vampire tale whose protagonist is a female vampire. The lesbian relationship between the two main characters is of its time, implied rather than explicit. I’m not a Buffy-Twilight-True-Blood follower, but I was interested to read ‘Carmilla’, Fanu’s original vampire prototype and the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Laura is a rather passive character, but Carmilla is languidly evil and some of the dream sequences make for hypnotic reading.

In a Glass Darkly is a collection of gothic tales in which a doctor of ‘metaphysical medicine’  allows the reader to decide whether the supernatural happenings are real or the result of the haunted victims’ organic brain disease.

Sean O’Brien’s story is about an hilariously patronizing gothic stalker obsessed with a female Irish academic who is writing a book on the Gothic titled The Gothic Reviv’d which makes the stalker smile. It made me smile too, as do many of O’Brien’s blackly humorous stories. O’Brien’s stalker is horrified to discover that the academic has betrayed him by writing in her book that ‘Carmilla’ was ‘only a story’. She is an unbeliever! It’s a wonderfully playful story that makes you glad you can’t completely suspend your disbelief. The narrator is in no doubt about his own existence (at least I think it’s a ‘him’), and ends by saying ‘Desire and the clock have made an appointment, and when that comes we shall see what is real and what imagined’.

Le Fanu influenced a range of writers as diverse as M.R. James, Bram Stoker, Elizabeth Bowen and James Joyce.

I live near the Phoenix Park and may of his stories take place there and in the nearby village of Chapelizod: Ghost Stories of Chapelizod and later his novel The House by the Churchyard.

A modern reader might find some of the stories less than spine-chilling and some might dislike the long sentences used by a 19^th century author, but I found the ones I read by Le Fanu readable rather than turgid and always meticulously grammatical. The stories are interesting in the context of the history of Gothic fiction and of social life in an early 19^th century Irish village.

Le Fanu was known as the ‘British Poe’ (he was Anglo-Irish). I’ve always admired Poe’s control of the musical elements of poetry and the endless, beautifully structured sentences of his prose. I get carried away by them, especially in the opening of his well-known ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’. Some of the stories might terrify you, depending on your sensibility, but they’re worth reading just for his language and his dark, brooding, half-crazed protagonists.

Wilkie Collins’ novella The Haunted Hotel is a mix of ghost story, gothic mystery and psychological thriller. There’s a long cast of characters, which can be confusing, but it is engaging. He is best known for The Woman in White and The Moonstone. There are some short stories along with the novella in the volume I got and I’m looking forward to reading those.

M.R. James ‘s stories are inhabited by palpable forces of evil. Figures appear in paintings, voices of demons are heard, sepia drawings contain horrors that are reawakened. Ordinary objects and situations become nightmarish. Some are less frightening than others, to a modern reader at least, but there is something genuinely creepy about ‘The Mezzotint’ in which a print of an old manor-house changes perceptibly to include a spooky figure that wasn’t there before. There are one or two passages which I’m not sure are intentionally funny where the narrator intrudes, as is the style of the time, to comment, for example, on a game of golf:  ‘…which golfing persons can imagine for themselves, but which the conscientious writer has no right to inflict upon any non-golfing persons’.

I must remember to write that next time I have to describe anything golf related.

Some of Elizabeth Bowen’s novels and short stories were familiar to me, but she too became fascinated by the supernatural and produced a number of stories which were later published in collections: Encounters, The Cat Jumps and The Demon Lover. In the title story of the last collection a woman’s fickleness engenders its own terror, in ‘Green Holly’ the characters are beset by ghosts of murder and ‘Hand in Glove’ is an absorbing story of supernatural revenge. In her other ghost stories she seems to accept ghosts as part of the continuity of time.

It’s ironic that it was my brand new Kindle that allowed me to access most of the nineteenth century gothic tales I read. I have to admit that my first Kindle purchase was the anthology published by Five Stop Story (to be read in five stops on the London Underground), in which one of my own stories, ‘Mirage’, features, having been published on the website last year.

Does anybody else have a passion for the Gothic? Are there any authors you particularly admire, contemporary or older? Any films come to mind? Recommendations welcome. And Happy New Year with no nightmares!

Related articles

• Short stories: Elizabeth Bowen and Tessa Hadley (guardian.co.uk)
• Early ’60s Horror (5) (hilobrow.com)
• Monday musings on Australian literature: Australian Gothic (19th century) (whisperinggums.wordpress.com)

Christmas Pressies for Writers

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Christmas, Elements of Style, gifts, William Strunk Jr, Writer

Just in case you haven’t decided yet what you want for Christmas, or somebody else in your life is a writer, I thought I’d share my virtual window shopping with you:

For procrastinators! Writer’s wall clock:

For those who need peace and quiet, Writer at work sign:

And for those who’ve gone digital for their reading:

Kindle reading light:

  

If you’re feeling generous (or someone feels like buying you one!),

Kindle (Keyboard) Lighted Leather Cover:

Maybe a beautiful Leather notebook:

Some handy Bookends with little drawers:

One of the following might be useful:

The Writers’& Artists’Yearbook 2012 

The Children’s Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook 2012

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White

You could even pay (or ask someone else to pay!) for a course or a workshop.

or, you could get a magazine subscription e.g. The Stinging Fly, Glimmer Train, or Writer’s Digest - for information on the writing world.

Hope you get some writing done during the holidays. Happy Christmas!