The 19th Century poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) is the subject of a new documentary, Seeing New Englandly, written and narrated by poet Susan Snively and produced and edited by Ernest Urvater.
The film presents more than a dozen of Dickinson's poems, selections from her letters, paintings by such artists as Frederic Edwin Church, Thomas Cole, and George Inness, as well as work by contemporary local artists, including Elizabeth Pols; and illustrations from period publications such as Harper's Weekly. The music for the background, performed by pianist Deborah Gilwood, is by Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Schubert.
Below is a preview of the opening of the film, which had its first screening in Amherst, Massachusetts, on September 28 as part of a series, "Angles of a Landscape: Perspectives on Emily Dickinson", sponsored by the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst.
Seeing New Englandly (opening) from Ernest Urvater on Vimeo.
A DVD of Seeing New Englandly is available for purchase. (Go here to see the DVD cover featuring a painting by Elizabeth Pols.)
Resources
Jerome Charyn, The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson: A Novel (W.W. Norton, 2010)
Holland Cotter, "My Hero, the Outlaw of Amherst" in The New York Times, May 13, 2010
Divide Light, Opera by Lesley Dill based on Dickinson's Work
Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst, Massachusetts
Lyndall Gordon, Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds (Viking, 2010)
"I Hear a Voice: The Art of Lesley Dill", Retrospective Exhibition, at Columbia Museum of Art, October 1, 2010 - January 23, 2011 (Selected images are here. Go here for a video presentation about the artist.)
"Lesley Dill's Word-Inspired Pieces at Columbia Museum of Art", Otis R. Taylor Jr.'s Review of "I Hear a Voice: The Art of Lesley Dill" Retrospective Exhibition in The State, September 26, 2010
Michael Dirda's Review of Helen Vendler's Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries (Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 2010) in The Washington Post, September 9, 2010
Polly Longsworth's Review of Lyndall Gordon's Lives Like Loaded Guns in The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 22, 2010
Olana, Home of Frederic Edwin Church
Sampler, 200 Poems by Emily Dickinson, 206 Original Prints by Kiki Smith, Arion Press, 2007 (Go here for additional information.)
Susan Snively, Skeptic Traveler: Poems (Wordtech Communications, 2005), From This Distance: Poems (Alice James Books, 2002)
Suzanne Wilson, "The Reel Emily Dickinson: New DVD Explores the Life and Environs of Amherst's Poetic Genius" in Amherst Bulletin, September 26, 2008
Clip from Ernest Urvater's 32-minute The Poet in Her Bedroom:
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5 comments:
Oh, Maureen. I love Emily. Thank you.
I'll look forward to seeing this!
I think Dickinson's life and poetry - the form and the contemplative, observational nature of it - are particularly well suited to these kinds of video accounts.
Dear Maureen, your blog is a treasure chest, and today I feel especially enriched on visiting here. I have put the first video on my blog with a link to Writing Without Paper and a very sincere and enthused recommendation. I hope you like it. Thanks so much for all of your wonderful efforts here.
About 12 years ago we visited Amherst on our way to Springfield to see friends. I wanted to see her home and we did. The town is quintessentially New England as is its embrace of all things Emily and UMass.
This looks terrific and I'll have to see it.
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