The “Emerging Genre” of the Cinematic Poem Short Film is an important evolution in the history of HD Film and Video. These unique short films will be generally:
- 5-minutes or less in duration;
- Original Footage, or Animation, Shot with High Definition (HD) technology;
- Scored with an original, classical or orchestrated musical piece;
- Original Recording/Interview or Professional Narration from an original and/or written work of prose or poetry.
A young director, James W. Griffiths, has produced two masterful, recent Cinematic Poem Short Films since 2012:
“We Were Wanderers On A Prehistoric Earth” (2012);

and “A Solitary World” (2014).


The original Cinematic Poem Short Film may be the 2006 HD Movie Trailer for “The Fountain”, spectacularly edited from the feature film directed by Darren Aronofsky. The film blends elements of fantasy, history, religion, and science fiction:

In 2011, Director Terrence Malick chronicled the origins and meaning of life by way of a middle-aged man’s childhood memories of his family living in 1950s Texas with his epic experimental drama “The Tree Of Life”. The theatrical trailer is a stunning example of a Cinematic Poem Short Film:

Cinematic Poem Short Films can also be sourced to the “Abstract Film” from director Ron Fricke, “Chronos”, released in IMAX theaters in 1985. The trailer can be viewed below:

The filmmaking duo of Ron Fricke and producer Mark Magidson further developed the Cinematic Poem with two visually stunning films. First, the digitally remastered theatrical film trailer of the movie “Baraka” (1992):

The second Fricke-Magidson film was “Samsara”. The beautiful theatrical trailer can be seen below:

The origins of short film poems can be traced to the “golden age of American animation” which began with sound cartoons in 1928 and continued into the 1960’s.
The Tell-Tale Heart was a 1953 American animated short film directed by Ted Parmelee and narrated by James Mason. The screenplay by Bill Scott and Fred Grable is based on the 1843 short story by Edgar Allan Poe:

In 1962, Ray Bradbury and George Clayton Johnson adapted Ray’s short story “Icarus Montgolfier Wright” into a screenplay for an animated short. Animation studio Format Films produced the film. Joseph Mugnaini created the artwork for the 18-minute film:

In 1967, Simon Gribben was a film writer/editor for Tel Ra Productions in Philadelphia making syndicated American Football League highlights. He produced “The Raven”, a “Parody Poem” based on the poem by Edgar Allan Poe, which was narrated by the NFL game announcer Charlie Jones, as an audition piece for NFL Films, where he was hired. Watch the film here:

In 1999, the Cinematic Poem Short Film further evolved when “The Periwig-Maker”, a cinematic narrated stop motion animation short film based on the novel, “A Journal of the Plague Year”, written by Daniel Defoe, was released . It received a 2000 BAFTA-award for Best Animated Short and was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the 2001 Academy Awards. The film was produced by Ideal Standard film, directed by Steffen Schäffler and narrated by Kenneth Branagh:

CinematicPoems.com will continue to update the history of the genre in the coming months.
Laguna Beach, CA
Hello, I really like your blog and have a content suggestion. I posted it here as I could not find a contact form.
vimeo.com/91685304
This film trailer is the story of our five month experience connecting to nature as we walked more than 2500 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail.
We are making this film for our love of wilderness, and it will be available free online this fall. We would really appreciate you sharing our message of conservation and appreciation for the natural world. You can learn more at onlytheessential.com
Thanks, Colin!
Hi Colin…Beautifully filmed and edited. I posted it this morning. Please keep me updated. Michael
Thanks so much Michael, I love the site. Is there anyway you could send me your email so I can send you links more directly in the future? You can find an email form to reach me through at http://www.colinarisman.com/contact/
thanks!
Hi there… You were a great fan of my infrared short “Hawaiian Tree Bones” last summer and I thought you would absolutely love this latest cinematic poem I just finished. “Mountains Made of Chalk, Fall into the Sea, Eventually.” It’s a guided visual meditation on the ephemeral nature of being.
The synergy of creative collaboration can result in magic beyond our imagining. Witnessing Genna Panzarella paint this 8×10′ mural of Mt. Tamalpais as it was when it was whole, literally inside of what used to be the mountaintop, is akin to stealing a peek through the kimono of mystery… the misty mystery of impermanence.
The project bears a great resemblance to the process of making a Tibetan Buddhist sand painting (and then blowing it away).
You are welcome to link to it in your blog if you feel that it would be a worthy addition to it.
More information about poetry film activities is available here: http://www.poetryfilm.org
Does my short film shot on the Greek island of Syros qualify as a Cinematic Poem? It is part of my series of short audio visual poems titled ‘Island Gardens’ – https://youtu.be/PVzmxefNO4E
Here’s my cinematic poem, something I’ve been working on for 4 months. “Song of the Last Place”
Hi! I’m Luca from Italy,
I really like Cinematic Poems, never seen simlar before. I also have a content suggestion but I could not find a contact form so…
Thank you!