Although most people do not actively read or write poetry it is one of those strange things that enjoy
an almost universally positive image. Most of us would like to grow our hair long and pose as a
romantic poet, be able to express ourselves marvellously in language, to woo lovers with our words,
and hang out in literary cafes creating important poems by which people shall remember us.
The anarchic and antisocial poet remains a powerful archetype. The poem, a powerful distillation
of language to which most of us would like to aspire.
Poetry, which is all about imagery created in the mind, finds it difficult to break through to a mass
audience in an age dominated by the media of mass communication. But occasionally the right
poem at the right moment strikes a powerful emotional chord with the public and poetry, for a while,
goes from being an esoteric pursuit to being something with a living vibrancy and an enormous
topical relevance. When the makers of the popular romantic comedy "Four Weddings and a Funeral"
used a well-known poem by W H Auden to convey the grief felt by one of the characters on the death
of his partner, the audience saw how powerful a poem can be. Sales of Auden's poetry collections
skyrocketed and the poem was memorised by people who had never read or written poetry in
their lives before.
It is no accident that human beings reach for poems to express themselves at times of transition,
at times of great happiness or unhappiness. Poems usually make their appearance in our lives
today at weddings, funerals and times of celebration or commemoration. This is a testimony to
the power and relevance of poetry.
The Company has strong connections to the Poetry Society and to some of the UK's leading
poets and poetry publishers. We believe that poets and poetry can form the subject of exciting
and original documentary films, which will open doors for the audience to new worlds of language,
imagery and musicality.
This is not a dry as dust subject but includes such powerful poetry as the militant call to arms issued
by the great Reggae poet, Linton Kwesi Johnson, in Brixton in 1984, the poems of infinite sadness
written by Douglas Dunne after the untimely death of his wife, the joys and cruelty of adultery written
about by Hugo Williams and the many faces of femininity as written about by Carol Anne Duffy in
her collection "The World's Wife".
The Company intends to create groundbreaking documentaries which express in powerful visual
terms, married to language and music, the distinctive worlds created by poets and poetry and the
way in which words can have a narcotic and mind-expanding effect. The whole world is here and
the Company intends to show it, in films combining colour, movement and magic.