Great Poets: In Their Own Words

A journey into the BBC archives unearthing glorious performances and candid interviews from some of Britain's greatest poets.

Elsa the Rose

Images and poems of the celebrated couple Louis Aragon and Elsa Triolet. Elsa’s youth as recalled by Aragon, with commentary by Elsa.

Where are the African Gods?

A moving recording of the late writer and renowned jazz singer Abbey Lincoln is captured in this new film from Brooklyn-born director Rodney Passé, who has previously worked with powerhouse music video director Khalil Joseph. Reading from her own works, Lincoln’s voice sets the tone for a film that explores the African American experience through fathers and their sons.

Wè

As Black and LGBTQ+ History Month begin this February, material science clothing brand PANGAIA leads celebrations with a poetic film that honors these two communities. Following a year of isolation, and with it a deeper understanding of the importance of outdoor spaces and the environment, Wè is a portrait of the self-love and acceptance we have learned to show others and gift to ourselves.

Sylvia Plath reading poems from Ariel

Sylvia Plath Read 18 Poems From Her Final Collection, Ariel, in a 1962 Recording

Where is the Final Destination?

A single tree that has witnessed events, a girl who loves Forough, and a boy who reads Sohrab.

I Am Pablo Neruda

Examines the career and literary output of Pablo Neruda, who makes his home at Isla Negra on the coast of Chile. Includes views of Mr. Neruda reading many of his poems in the locales which inspired them.

Landscape of our Body

As queer trans and gender non-conforming children of the Vietnamese diaspora, we are fragmented at the crossroads of being displaced from not only a sense of belonging to our ancestral land, but also our own bodies which are conditioned by society to stray away from our most authentic existence. Yet these bodies of ours are the vessels we sail to embark on a lifetime voyage of return to our original selves. It is our bodies that navigate the treacherous tides of normative systems that impose themselves on our very being. And it is our bodies that act as community lighthouses for collective liberation. Ultimately, the landscape of our bodies is our blueprint to remembering, to healing, to blooming.

TIME

"Time" takes you through the city at night, capturing fleeting moments. With dynamic visuals and an atmospheric soundtrack, this short film explores the nature of existence and memory. Narrated by David Bowie, it invites you to reflect on the passage of time.

O Poeta Americano

The boy runs after the ball. The worker builds concrete dreams between buildings and soccer balls in a lowland field in Recife. The poet receives a word ball, gives a literal stroke and makes an imaginary goal in this film about football, passion and poetry. João Cabral's America goes beyond the four lines of the field or paper, it transcends time and the field; update the memory to the fact that the love of football will not be volatile or ephemeral, neither in defeat nor in victory.

Come il Bianco

Time to Read Poems

The experiences of five free-spirited individuals trying to break free from societal norms. Each narrative discusses creativity, mental health, labor activism and gender politics.

unbroken rhythms

a poem. trees. fragments of fritz. love—and nothing besides!

Only Ten Percent Is a Lie

The life and literature of Mato Grosso do Sul poet Manoel de Barros. Alternating sequences of interviews with the poet, verses from his poetry, and statements of connoisseurs of his literature, the film portrays a revealing panel of the author's language. Manoel de Barros, age 91, with some 20 books published, lives in Campo Grande. Acknowledged, the winner of several literary prizes, he is the Brazilian writer who accounts for the greatest sale in poetry in Brazil.

Alternate Spaces

A short documentary on the River Ouse, following it downstream from Lewes to Newhaven, meditating on the surrounding area.

Leila and the Cigarette

In early September 2011, Leah decided to go to Lebanon to film her grandmother. Two weeks after the end of filming, her grandmother died of metastatic lung cancer. It would take her 12 years to regain the courage to review their last conversations. Through memories and poems she draws the portrait of her grandmother paying homage to her colorful spirit that made her unique.

My Mirror is the Door

The ten anthologies and eight long poems of the Sangam age are the oldest and most distinguished body of secular poetry extant in India, of which women poets were a very strong presence.

Hermes Bird

This 11 minute homage to the male member shows its subject in the various stages of erection. The voice-over poem by James Broughton includes the line "This is the secret that will not stay hidden."

Sobre Nós

New Hampshire Foliage

Video poem about New Hampshire and its foliage in Autumn

Nothing in Common

A successful advertising executive finds his freewheeling life crashing to a halt when his parents end their longtime marriage.

Goodbye, Dragon Inn

On a dark and rainy night, a historic and regal Taipei cinema sees its final film: 1967 martial arts feature "Dragon Inn".

Cria!

Ana, an eight-year-old girl living in Madrid with her grandmother and two sisters, mourns the death of her mother.

Pigsty

Two dramatic stories. In an undetermined past, a young cannibal (who killed his own father) is condemned to be torn to pieces by some wild beasts. In the second story, Julian, the young son of a post-war German industrialist, is on the way to lie down with his farm's pigs, because he doesn't like human relationships.

The New Adventures of the Elusive Avengers

The action takes place in 1920 during the Civil War. Crimea on the eve of complete liberation from the White Guards. Returning from patrol, the four brave “elusive” knocked down an airplane. In the field bag of the captured pilot, they find a secret report, which speaks of the existence of defensive fortifications around the coastal city, which the Reds have yet to take. Young heroes get the task to get a map of fortifications and go to the city...

Fantozzi to the Rescue

Fantozzi is now retired but continues to go to the office where it is held up as a fine example of employees intending to do career.

Natale in crociera

Paolo Cioffa, as Christmas approaches, is ready to leave on a cruise with his mistress Magda Venni, freed by his wife Francesca Zanchi and his son Federico, who is about to go skiing.

White Palace

Max Baron is a Jewish advertising executive in his 20s who's still getting over the death of his wife. Nora Baker is a 40-something diner waitress who enjoys the wilder side of life. Mismatched or not, their attraction is instant and smoldering. With time, however, their class and age differences become an obstacle in their relationship, especially since Max can't keep Nora a secret from his Jewish friends and upper-crust associates forever.

Go West

With little luck at keeping a job in the city a New Yorker tries work in the country and eventually finds his way leading a herd of cattle to the West Coast.

The Crocodiles Strike Back

New summer adventure of the Crocodiles, who set up their detective skills to find out who is behind the accidents of the factory where Ollie and Mary's parents work , which could mean the closure of the plant, the move of the family and the dissolution of the gang.

Polyester

Blessed with a keen sense of smell and cursed with a philandering pornographer husband, a parasitic mother, and a pair of delinquent children, the long-suffering Francine Fishpaw turns to the bottle as her life falls apart -- until deliverance appears in the form of a hunk named Todd Tomorrow.

Don Camillo's Last Round

Bewildered, Don Camillo learns that Peppone intends to stand for parliament. Determined to thwart his ambitions, the good priest, ignoring the recommendations of the Lord, decides to campaign against him.

Gigi

A home, a motorcar, servants, the latest fashions: the most eligible and most finicky bachelor in Paris offers them all to Gigi. But she, who's gone from girlish gawkishness to cultured glamour before our eyes, yearns for that wonderful something money can't buy.

Number Seventeen

A gang of thieves gather at a safe house following a robbery, but a detective is on their trail.

Hobgoblins

A group of hobgoblins, who allow you to live out your fantasies but kill you in the process, escape from a studio vault, and a security guard and his friends must stop them before dawn.

Shadows and Fog

With a serial strangler on the loose, a bookkeeper wanders around town searching for the vigilante group intent on catching the killer.

Cartoon Network Christmas: Yuletide Follies

Ring in the holiday season the Cartoon Network way via nine original tales that run the gamut from naughty to nice. The stories feature popular animated characters such as Ed, Edd 'n Eddy, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Cow & Chicken, I A.M. Weasel, Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls and Johnny Bravo. This holly-jolly animated collection sure beats a piece of coal in your stocking!

The Clink of Ice

An alcoholic writer is visited by an incarnation of his cancer.

Happiness

A young husband and father, perfectly content with his life, falls in love with another woman.

The Third Part of the Night

Set during the Nazi occupation of Poland, the story follows Michał, who witnesses the murder of his mother, wife and child and then is hurled into a life that literally is not his own; a surreal world littered with trapdoors, doppelgängers and wormholes.