Other Videos

Omelet

(2012, 2:08 minutes)
Animation by Toni Zhang with Claire Stewart.
Sound design by Tinjun Niu.
Poem written and narrated by Fiona Tinwei Lam

This poetry video is based on a poem in Enter the Chrysanthemum. My vision of the piece was to have key images in the poem appear as if hand-drawn, centered on the screen, without any backdrop, in primary colours, featuring images that would flow into each other. The two animators, recent graduates of Emily Carr University of Art & Design, did a fantastic job of realizing that vision.

Screenings:

  • Visible Verse 2012 (Vancouver)
  • International Poetry Film Festival 2013 (Athens)
  • Zebra International Poetry Film Festival 2014 (Berlin)
  • Interfilm Poetry Film Festival 2014 (Berlin)
  • Sadho Poetry Film Festival 2015 (Delhi)
  • Cadence Video Poem Festival 2018 (Seattle)
  • Midwest Poetry Video Festival 2022 (Madison, WI)

Aquarium

(2011, 1:08 minutes)
Animation by Chelsea Ker
Sound design by Tinjun Niu.
Poem written and narrated by Fiona Tinwei Lam

This poetry video is based on a short poem of mine that appeared in Best Canadian Poetry 2010, edited by Lorna Crozier. The images unfold from inside the aquarium (luminous, intimate, colourful) to the outside (cool, impersonal), with the colours and sounds shifting as the view gradually zooms out to convey the emotional trajectory of the poem.

Screenings:

Chrysanthemum

(2009, 2:32 minutes)
Filmed by Alan Goldman.
Poem written and narrated by Fiona Tinwei Lam. Scene design by Shona Lam.

This is my very first attempt at a poetry video done with documentary filmmaker and teacher, Alan Goldman, who was game to try this out. My sister Shona Lam helped set up my mother’s art supplies in front of a green screen.

Screenings:

  • Visible Verse 2009 (Vancouver)
  • International Poetry Film Festival 2013 (Athens)

August Raspberries

(56 min, 2021)

Poem written and narrated, and music composed and performed by Fiona Tinwei Lam
Photographs by Heidi Greco, Shannon Cowan and Fiona Tinwei Lam
Technical Design by Teegan Walshe

Talented eighth grade filmmaker, Teegan Walshe, created a montage of photos on iMovie. This was put together for an online screening of nature-based poetry videos for the Virtual Seedy Saturdays conference with Farm Folk/City Folk in 2021.