OZ Arts Nashville

OZ Arts Nashville Hosts Special Screenings by
Defy Film Festival and Kindling Arts Festival

12 Poetry into Film Collaborations

Friday, May 7 at 8PM
Saturday, May 8 at 2PM, 5PM, and 8PM

ASL-Interpreted Performance: Saturday, May 8 at 2PM

Tickets: $15

Local independent arts incubators Kindling Arts Festival and Defy Film Festival have teamed up for a unique cross-genre collaboration pairing 12 local poets with 13 local filmmakers to create visually stunning poetic adaptations. In this premiere screening event at OZ Arts, the dozen new short films will be screened for the first time — all new cinematic works based on individual poems, mostly written in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Powered by an all-star list of diverse Nashville-based poets and filmmakers, this hour-long collection of films explores a year that sparked a new appreciation for nature, a renewed surge for racial justice, a changing relationship between the individual self and the broader community, and universal feelings of love, loss, grief, and hope.

Featuring Poet x Filmmaker collaborations from:

Elise Anderson x Katie McCall
C. Sinclaire Brown x Drew Maynard
Dan Hoy x Sophia Gordon
Robyn Leigh Lear x Nichole Lim & Natalie Ruffino Wilson
Cameron Mitchell x Montez Mickles
Joshua Moore x Samantha Szwaglis

Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay x John Warren
Ciona Rouse x Luke Harvey
John Shakespear x Caleb Dirks
Frank “Frizzy” Sykes x Chris Durai
Meg Wade x Haven Nutt
Alora Young x Angell Foster

The premiere screenings at OZ Arts will have a limited capacity with distanced seating. Masks and social distancing required at all times.

Post-Show Conversation Schedule:

Please join us after each screening for a post-show conversation moderated by Defy Film Festival Co-Founder Dycee Wildman.

Friday, May 7 at 8pm
Poet Elise Anderson and filmmaker Katie McCall
Poet C. Sinclaire Brown and filmmaker Drew Maynard
Poet Dan Hoy and filmmaker Sophia Gordon

Saturday, May 8 at 2pm
Filmmaker Caleb Dirks with a virtual message from poet John Shakespear
Poet Joshua Moore and filmmaker Samantha Szwaglis

Saturday, May 8 at 5pm
Poet Cameron Mitchell and filmmaker Montez Mickles
Poet Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay and filmmaker John Warren
Poet Ciona Rouse and filmmaker Luke Harvey

Saturday, May 8 at 8pm
Filmmaker Angell Foster and interviewee Curry
Poet Robyn Leigh Lear and filmmaker Nichole Lim
Poet Meg Wade
Poet Frank “Frizzy” Sykes and filmmaker Chris Durai

This project is funded, in part, by a grant from

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