Animated poetry contest

Calling all video poets!

Calling all poetic filmmakers!

Calling all wizards of words on the screen!

Big Joy is looking for YOU!

The Big Joy Project is a multimedia venture focused on the life and work of James Broughton, who pioneered the marriage of film and poetry way back in the 1950’s, long before music and poetry videos. And now in his honor, The Big Joy Project is holding its very first poetry video competition!

Find a James Broughton poem you love and turn it into a short video (under 4:00) using animation, montage, film, photographs, music, spoken word, special effects, or whatever. The best Big Joy poetry videos will be featured on our James Broughton YouTube channel, and they may even find their way into the Big Joy feature film now in production! Watch the Big Joy fundraising trailer at http://www.vimeo.com/7606346. If we use your video in the Big Joy film, you’ll get an honorarium and be listed prominently in the film’s credits! Many videos will be posted on the Big Joy website (http://www.bigjoy.org).

PRIZES for the Big Joy poetry video competition include:

• Adobe Creative Suite 5: Master Collection (a $2,700 value)

• Signed James Broughton books

• “This is It” broadsides, hand-calligraphed by William Stewart

To be eligible to be included in the feature film, please produce your work in HD, 1080p, 24 fps. (Other formats are welcome in the contest, too, but may not make it into the final film).

Submit your creation by midnight, October 31, 2010 by posting your video to YouTube, Vimeo or any other online video hosting site. Then, let us know where we can watch it by sending an email to info@bigjoy.org.

Questions? Call or e-mail Stephen Silha at (206) 567-4363, info@bigjoy.org.

For a sampling of James Broughton poems, visit http://www.bigjoy.org and click Enter Flash site and then works – words. There are also poems to download under goodies.

A complete list of Broughton books and films is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Broughton.

James wrote hundreds of poems, so there’s an abundance to choose from. Here’s one to spark your imagination.

Round Table

It’s all in your head,

the first man said.

It’s all in your heart,

said another.

It’s all in your stars,

said the man with scars.

It’s all in your guts,

said his brother.

It’s all in your soul,

said the man who was slow.

It’s all in your balls,

said the fast one.

It’s all in your things,

said the fellow with rings.

It’s in no thing at all,

said the last one.

~ James Broughton

If all forms of cinema could link the souls of the world into a loving global unity,

we might all see ourselves as one planetary phenomenon

instead of a disparate globe of warring states.

Adventure, not Predicament.

~ James Broughton

The Big Joy project creates more joy in the world by inspiring people to “follow your own weird,” using the life, joy and work of James Broughton – filmmaker, poet, writer, trickster, wildman – as inspiration.