“... poetry brought to the screen
is what you think poetry brought
to the screen would be: an
interpretive art form being
interpreted into another art form.”
- dimitrireyespoet.com
When I first started taking poetry seriously, I wanted to ingest it all at once. Like eating at a buffet, I wanted to keep shoveling down plates of backstories and poems until I got my money’s worth and I was beyond full. I looked for it everywhere: I googled “poetry near me,” I scoured the poetry sections in my library, I tried to go to any poetry events, and I even searched for poetry films when I was too tired of reading. I was doing this the year that Paterson was in theaters and as a poet on a budget, it wasn’t in my financial plan to go watch it, even at a matinee price of $6. There weren’t many poetry movies on Netflix and I was only able to find one poetry documentary along with whatever else I could find on YouTube.
I recently decided to reopen my investigation on Netflix because of poetry’s steady growth in popularity again. There surely had to be more individuals producing films with themes that explored poetry. I consulted Netflix’s search bar where a few keyword changes later I found five movies.
In this list, I'll share with you what I think
about them.
Generally, poetry brought to the screen is what you would think poetry brought to the screen would be: an interpretive art form being interpreted into another artform.
In turn, these movies all function differently, though what they share is how they are operating from similar sentiments of digging profoundly deep. What I will discuss is a bit of the movie, as well as how it serves the poet in more ways than just being entertaining.
Depending on when you read this, they may or may not be available on Netflix. If they replace them with other movies, please leave a comment down below, as I would like the comment section to become a forum for this type of thing.
1) The Prophet
Based on the book, The Prophet, the movie by the same name interprets some of Kahlil Gibran’s most famous poems from the 1923 prose poetry book.
If you don’t know much about Gibran, he was a Lebanese-American writer, poet, visual artist, and nationalist during the Mahjar movement, but is mostly known for his role in the Romanticism period while writing in America.
In both the book and movie, the main character (a poet and painter like Gibran) is someone who hasn’t been to his island in 12 years. He is finally able to return home by way of ship but the people of his current location want him to stay. So before his departure, he enlightens the country people with 26 chapters of his “truths” which take form as aphorisms.
Aphorisms are the way in which individuals should live their lives and they’re usually told in statements. This is similar to the way Insta Poetry and Twitter Poetry are currently working— small tidbits of material to get you through the day.
I really enjoy animations and I appreciate how by transforming The Prophet’s poems into animations, the audience can see how poetry and images complement each other. Everytime the movie gets to a point where the poet starts to recite his aphorism, the screen pans over to one of Gibran’s paintings, which begins to evolve and move with the narrative. It is not only beautiful but very impressive. What the film also does is introduce some of our poetry predecessors to a newer audience.
This is a great movie for those who enjoy beautiful imagery and simplistic poetry with an uplifting edge.
2) The Kindergarten Teacher
This is the newest movie out of all of them on this particular list. It has been reviewed immensely and is arguably one of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s best performances. It also has all the elements of an” indie film” blockbuster— sudden/ sullen movements, lots of silence & whispering, a complicated protagonist struggling with one’s own artsyness, and quite a few bare chests.
The premise of the whole movie revolves around the protagonist kindergarten teacher struggling to find some excitement in her one precious life. She’s taking a poetry class in the evenings and it isn’t going as well as she’d hoped until she notices that one of her student is a prodigious poet. Unfortunately for her, she’s the only one who wants to feed into the student’s creativity, and what begins as a teacher’s sentiment turns into a gradual obsession.
This movie’s aim was to defend the fostering of the arts (especially for children and POC’s I imagine) which it does, but there are also different facets of the movie that I could be knit-picky about. I’ll rant on them briefly:
To start with, I always find a problem with the notion that artists have to be struggling, depressed, or hurting to produce. We also produce in times of love, thankfulness, and appreciation. I think it is dangerous when we let emerging writers or our audience think that we NEED to be in pain to write. It isn’t a healthy relationship to have with one’s artform and we should always aim to create responsibly.
The communication between Gyllenhaal’s character and Parker Sevak’s as Jimmy, the kindergarten poet- prodigy, teeters between “white savior” complexes and uncomfortable teacher-student relationships. Gyllenhaal’s whisking away of little Jimmy from nap-time, day trips, and bathroom meetings were just a bit unrealistic as an educator; epecially with aides, nannys, and parents knowing about these secret meetings.
It’s important to note that this movie is a remake of the Israeli 2014 film, Kindergarten Teacher. This is a good example of the social responsibility creators have and one of the dangers of reinventing a story. A movie with an American audience means that one will also take on America’s baggage. So when we think of cases between teachers losing their jobs over unprofessional relationships with children, we can see how this movie may cause some friction.
I thought it was interesting how the movie addressed plagiarizing. It sheds some decent light on real issues that happen within the community. Now, there hasn’t been anything in poetry news about plagiarizing material written by a kindergartner or taking part in physical and/or intellectual kidnapping, but in the recent world of poetry there has been bigger cases about individuals plagiarizing work.
These concerns should all be checked or at least acknowledged while watching the film. Whether you agree with my opinions or not, they’re a part of important conversations.
If I can give this movie a thumbs up, it’d be for the poets featured in The Kindergarten Teacher. Though they aren’t seen in the film, work by poets Kaveh Akbar and Ocean Vuong are used in the film. Any time there’s a movie that has anything to do with poetry, there is a chance there’d be cameos from poets. It’s greater when the poets are alive! I can’t stress how important it is for artists to see themselves and their peers celebrated.
My only gripe about using their work was some of the choices that were made in picking the poems. Personally, with the kind of gravitas the movie was developing, I felt like “The Bull” made the child too meta-cognitive and put him in a place of masculinity that was beyond his years. Nevertheless, these two poets are worth looking up if you don’t know about them.
We also get to see one of New York’s most famous poetry venues, too.
Bowery Poetry
3) Love Beats Rhyme
This film thrives in the way it aims to bridge the gap between hip hop and poetics. This adds to the conversation about stage vs. page writing which is a BIG deal within the community. I like this film because of how “now” it is. Meaning, how this movie represents the 21st century poetry community that can seem like such a cult.
Love Beats Rhyme also moves in the direction of urban and POC pointed literature and it could open up the floodgates of poetry to those who’ve never seen this type of poetry before. In showing the audience some characteristics of these two spaces (stage & page/ hip hop & poetry) the movie demystifies some of the inklings of a would-be 21st century poet.
I’ve had several subscribers comment on my YouTube videos mentioning how rap has its place within poetry. This movie will particularly satisfy that statement and it can be seen directly in the beginning with its rap battle scene. Within the first 20 minutes, the audience also gets to hear about the comparisons between hook/verse and freestyle rap.
The poetry professor in this movie is many things, but a hybrid antagonist mostly. For sure, the professor in this film acts how we think every poetry class is going to be when we think of poetry: that we will be floored from verse and be born-again beings. And this is true to some effect. Poetry classes are awesome and you should take one if you can! The professor’s character also develops in a way that explains how some individuals higher in the literary hierarchy function; showing the way one can become engulfed in the academic circle.
There were many cameos here. Shout outs to the Nuyorican Poets Café, the Bowery (again), Miguel Algarín Jr., Common, Paul Tran, RZA and Mahogany L. Browne.
All in all, as I’m writing this, I considered how fun of a movie it was to watch and I’d see it again. It’s hard to compartmentalize the beginnings of a writer’s journey and inspiration within an hour and 40 minutes. When boiled down, Love Beats Rhyme is superficiality vs. introspection— where poetry synthesizes the cry of the heart.
4) Romeo is Bleeding
If you watch any of these, this is my top pick!
Romeo is Bleeding is my favorite suggestion for poetry on Netflix because this is a documentary rather than a movie. Produced to inform rather than primarily to entertain, this is the realest version of a poetry lifestyle where people may in fact be going through these similar situations. Though not everyone comes to poetry in the way our main character does in this film, there are many who do, and you may even be one of them.
This documentary takes place in Richmond, California and focuses around poet/ performer Donte Clark and the organization he works with. The organization (RAW Talent) is remixing the story of Romeo and Juliet. The play (entitled Te’s Harmony) showcases the talent of Richmond youth which includes Donte (at the time, age 22) as they reinvent the Romeo and Juliet story to bear witness to the North and Central Richmond turf war.
They introduce the play as a way to bring awareness to the community in hopes of suppressing the violence that challenges the city. I appreciate the angle of this film by how they interlace life in Richmond with the development of the play. Switching from scenes at RAW Talent and different locations around the two neighborhoods, the cameras also act as the poetic “eyes,” educating the audience while showing them unincorporated Richmond and how it’s people are left at the wayside.
In terms of what you can get from this film, it’s a gem in it’s own right for those exploring poetics because you get to see poetry at work. Donte is an artist who has turned his world into art and continues to bring his message to the community. You learn about his background and his connection to his neighborhood, but most importantly, you see his connection to the poetry community he helps create at RAW Talent.
5) Chaotic Love Poems
Chaotic Love Poems is another Shakespeare-inspired film and I appreciated this film for what it did. Taking space in the span of 30 years, this movie is an Indonesian rendition of Romeo and Juliet.
I liked this movie because it was refreshing to see a poetry film that wasn’t in a Western perspective. It encouraged me to glean into Indonesian history and helped to fill in the gaps of history that I’ve been too American to ponder.
I also liked the way Chaotic Love Poems decided to tackle the “star-crossed lovers” trope. Instead of having two families at war, the two families had houses across the road from each other and both households were trying to get it together in the struggling 1970’s. The story bopped back and forth between Yulia, an independent, by-the-book girl who lived alone with her mother, and Rumi, a struggling rebel-without-a-cause bad boy who lived alone with his father.
This is all done through vignettes of memories remembered from messages inside bottles that they would leave each other which was quite sweet.
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