Curating Shorts: The Words of Big Dreamers by Chris Loukides

Poems are meant to cause emotion and feeling in those who read them. Readers come to new feelings and realizations as they travel from the beginning to the end of a poem. Many mediums have a similar way of effecting people when they must be read, watched, or listened to. Poetry just happens to be a linguistic medium. Film and video also take viewers from a beginning to an end just like a poem. Many films in this program even incorporate words of poetry or present poem like text into their images and sounds. The constructed rhythm of film is closely related to the rhythmic tools of poetry. I never realized how similar film is to poetry, until I curated this program. Words, both heard and read, are the real stimulator in nearly all of these pieces. They show the power that words have to change one’s feelings and even make dreams come true in the world around them.

The Chestnut Tree by Hyun-min Lee (4 min 8 sec)

The only film in the program with little to no importance on written or spoken words, but remember a picture is worth a thousand of them. The film takes us into a melodic dream world of a young girl who reminisces about her childhood and her love for her mother.

Embrace It by Kirthi Nath (6 min 40 sec)

Amazing quotes from big dreamers who spoke words of love and peace to this world, accompanied with amazingly beautiful images. It shows how the words of big dreamers are remembered.

Slip of the Tongue by Karen Lum (4 min 15 sec)

A fast paced lyrical poem that takes the viewer into the head of a girl crazy dreamer. He meets his match with a girl whose lyrical genus surpasses his own.

The Midnight Hour by Edgardo Cervano-Soto (8 min)

This poetic and self reflexive piece reveals how the filmmaker struggles with a world with little answers and no dream big enough to make sense of it all.

A Boy's Mouth by PJ Raval (5 min 26 sec)

More of a nightmare of frustration and insecurity and less of a dream. This film is a content play on words as they are switched around and transformed.

I Promise Africa by Jerry Henry (2 min 45 sec)

I heart felt experience shared through words of the filmmaker as he learns first hand about the tragic HIV epidemic of Africa. Accompanied with images and voices of beautifully talented HIV positive singers in Africa.

The Apollos by Nick Parker and Jazmin Jones (5 min 58 sec)

An amazing story of how a dream of young people became a reality and federal law. Showing how one person’s dream sparked many more.

Over all I wanted the experience to start off by illustrating the power of dreams and imagination.  I wanted Slip of the Tongue to be like a climax because of its fast pace and beautiful let down ending. With the let down of that story I wanted to go into the more serious and darker toned films. The Midnight Hour was perfect to open up this can of worms. With the way the narrator is so overwhelmed with the struggles of the world it really sets a new tone that is shared with the following  films. I continued on with the sadder pieces but I chose to end with The Apollos to show that against failed attempts of the past, dreams do come true with persistence.