The Wanderers
Magma Poetry in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh
Read more about the collaboration here:
Poets and Filmmakers: from Page to Screen
The Wanderers
Film Poem by Ted Fisher after a poem by Aoife Lyall
The Wanderers
Film Poem by Ted Fisher after a poem by Aoife Lyall
Ted Fisher: My interest in documentary film as a practice is always connected to the power of the real world as a storyteller. In reading and re-reading Aoife Lyall’s poem, I saw it as amplifying a reality I could feel and I found myself wanting to look and listen further. We shot aspects of her life for several days, with the idea of trusting this as raw material that would meld with the poem in an editing process. I have made many short documentaries, and the best of these have been made from finding a situation where events lead to a real outcome, in front of the camera. Working in connection to a poem (and a poet) shifts this practice to one that is new for me: trying to understand past and present at once. So my approach had to include tuning in to the idea and experience of reflection and reconsideration.
Aoife Lyall: The most significant thing I learned was that the poem isn’t so much about welcoming my daughter into my life, as allowing myself to finally call Inverness home. I lived here for almost six years before she was born, and spent much of that comparing my life here to the life I had in Dublin. Walking the poem with Ted I came to realise it encapsulated what I had been missing – the accumulation of memories, moments, and experiences that layer themselves into the familiar.
As for collaborating, trust is vital: in the skills you have brought to the project, in the skills of the other party, and in the potential of what you are creating together. So there has to be a relationship there, a mutual respect, and a willingness to let someone else explore, and act on, avenues of your work that you may not have considered before. For future projects I would make the point of being able to recite the poem from memory, simply because this makes more filming options available. What would I keep the same? Working with Ted.
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Ted Fisher is an American film director specializing in arts and culture documentaries. His short films have screened at over 30 festivals around the world. He is currently working toward an M.F.A. in Film Directing at the University of Edinburgh.
Shortlisted twice for the Hennessy New Writers Award, Aoife Lyall’s work has appeared in Poetry Ireland Review, The Stinging Fly, Banshee Lit, and others. She has just completed her first collection.
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Magma Poetry in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh
Read more about the collaboration here:
Poets and Filmmakers: from Page to Screen
Project Team
Magma Poetry
Stav Poleg, Co-Editor, Magma 71, The Film Issue
The University of Edinburgh
Institute of Academic Development:
Jennifer Williams and Lucy Ridley, Festival of Creative Learning
Learning Teaching and Web Services:
Lucy Kendra, Open Media Project
And also:
Charlie Farley, Open Education Resources Advisor – open.ed.ac.uk
Emma Davie, Programme Director – Postgraduate Film, Edinburgh College of Art
Juro Oravec, President 2017-2018 – Edinburgh Movie Production Society