This film won Second Prize in the 2019 Atticus Review Videopoem Contest.
Poem by Maija Hecht
Notes from Marc Neys, 2019 Videopoem Contest Judge:
Bird is a slightly disturbing video in which different story lines are worked out side by side. With a visual split screen, the links between the left and the right sides (like a brain’s left and right hemispheres?) become clear. Yet, they remain very different. Strong imagery carries the texts away and the two voices collide and scour.
And yet everything belongs together. You keep looking and listening. Hooked and fascinated. Good editing makes for the right rhythm and a striking use of color ensures that the viewer / listener always turns their attention back to focus on the screen, ready for the next detail.
About the Filmmaker:
Maija Hecht is a multimedia storyteller. She first found her voice through words, and became enamored with the lyric movement of poetry and how the sound of a language can carry more meaning than simply words themselves.
“Bienvenida” and “Bird” are Maija’s first two videopoems, born out of a curiosity between memory and longing for someone/thing. Her work intends to combine the artistic layout of words across a page with striking visual imagery that both deepens and broadens what the poem may carry in print alone.
Her poetry has been published in the undergrad literary magazines Chanter, Asterism, The Underground and The Oakland Arts Review.
