I Want to Breathe Sweet Air (9 frame version)
Log Line:
"I Want to Breathe Sweet Air" a film poem in three parts, is a terribly beautiful indictment of careless land development and the impact of climate change on the natural environment.
Brief synopsis:
“I Want to Breathe Sweet Air,” a film poem in three parts with acclaimed writer Lucy English, is a stunning and terribly beautiful visual indictment of careless land development and the impact of climate change on the natural environment, incorporating footage shot specifically for this project as well as footage from the vast library accumulated by Outlier Moving Pictures during six years of documenting environmental destruction.
Text of the poem:
I WANT TO BREATHE SWEET AIR
Remnants (Part I)
Take me far away from here
to a grass meadow in the Basin.
The same flowers grow in the buffer zone
near the nuclear power plant
as the flowers in my great-grandmother’s farm.
Gallardias and Gauras.
The same birds sing in the Texas oaks;
Lark Sparrows, Warblers, Bunting.
I want to breathe the pure sweet air
rolling down from the rocky hill
and watch gold stratus clouds and cirrus strands
reflected in the reeded lake.
Along the Freeway (Part II)
I want to leave this concrete land.
On the freeway outside Austin
at one point I saw vent pipes
coming out of a hill, and that was landfill.
The landfill surrounded by starter homes.
I looked for trash along the creeks.
But micro stuff doesn’t get filtered out
in the laundry wash. Deep mining digs up the undisturbed.
The machines strip off the soil to thirty feet.
Is there anywhere we haven’t touched?
We thought there was no life in the earth’s deep crust.
The Permian Basin holds the world’s most oil.
By the river (Part III)
We’ve known all this for seventy years.
In Austin behind the Taco restaurant
by Lady Bird Lake the homeless are bedding down.
In the shallows the water foams. There’s plastic bottles,
beer cans, dirty towels and shoes.
I’ve intruded into what substitutes for homes.
Take me far away from here.
I want to breathe cool sweet air
and listen to the Black Throated Blue Warbler’s song
and smell the dry wind from the rocky hill,
and walk through prairie flowers to the lake
and sink my fingers in the mud
and wipe the mud across my face.
Biography of Lucy English, poet and author
Lucy English was born in Sri Lanka and grew up in London. She studied English and American Literature at the University of East Anglia, and has an MA in Creative Writing and a PhD in Digital Writing from Bath Spa University. She has three novels published by Fourth Estate: Selfish People (1998), set in contemporary Bristol; Children of Light (1999); and Our Dancing Days (2000), set in a Suffolk commune in the 1970s. She is best known as a performance poet, first winning the Bristol Poetry Slam in 1996, and going on to tour worldwide, performing her poetry at many international festivals. Her first poetry collection Prayer to Imperfection was published by Burning Eye books in March 2014. She co-ordinated the International Conference in the writing and practice of performance poetry at Bath Spa University and since then ran the first performance poetry module at a UK university. In 2006 she was artistic director of Apples and Snakes Poetry Tour, Exposed. In 2007, she was a finalist in the first BBC Radio 4 Poetry Slam.
She has toured Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Taiwan with the British Council, running workshops and performances. She has also run workshops for the Arvon Foundation. In 2010-11 she toured the UK with the acclaimed Arts Council sponsored multimedia poetry show Flash and in 2014-5 toured with Count Me In. She is one of the organisers of 'MIX', the conferences in digital writing. She is co-creator of the poetry film organisation Liberated Words, which curates and screens poetry films. She created the digital poetry film project, “The Book of Hours”, which was shortlisted for the New Media Writing Award, and twice long-listed for the Sabotage Awards. Two of the “Book of Hours” films won the first and second prize for the 2018 Atticus Review Videopoem Contest (https://atticusreview.org/winning-entries-of-the-2018-atticus-review-videopoem-contest/), first prize to Kathryn Darnell's “Things I found in the Hedge” and second prize to “Que Es El Amor” by Eduardo Yague. Many of the https://bookofhours.org films have been selected by poetry film festivals, including O’Bheal, Rabbit Heart, Juteback, Zebra, and Athens. She is currently working on a new novel.
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Pamela FalkenbergDirector
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Jack CochranDirector
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Lucy EnglishWriter
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Pamela FalkenbergProducer
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Jack CochranEditing and sound design
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Pamela FalkenbergCinematography and production design
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Project Type:Experimental
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Runtime:10 minutes 58 seconds
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Completion Date:December 18, 2020
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:United States
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:4K and 2K digital video
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Aspect Ratio:16;9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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New York Nil GalleryNew York, NY
United States
January 29, 2021
North American installation premiere
Official selection -
Cinema Verde Environmental Film & Arts FestivalGainesville, FL
United States
February 12, 2021
Florida premiere
Official selection -
Filmfest BremenBremen
Germany
April 14, 2021
European premiere
Official selection -
North Dakota Human Rights Arts and Film FestivalFargo, ND (and several other venues)
United States
January 6, 2021
World premiere
Official premiere -
International Nature Film Festival Gödöllő - Nature and Environmental Protection FestivalBudapest
Hungary
May 28, 2021
Hungarian premiere
Official selection -
Carmarthen Bay Film FestivalCarmarthen Bay, Wales
United Kingdom
May 17, 2021
Great Britain premiere
Official selection -
High Tatras Film & Video FestivalDolný Smokovec
Slovakia
June 23, 2021
Slovakia premiere
Official Selection -
Queens World Film FestivalJackson Heights, NY
United States
June 27, 2021
New York Premeire
Official selection, Nominated for Best Experimental Short -
Portoviejo Film FestivalPortoviejo
Ecuador
June 10, 2021
Ecuador premiere
Official Selection -
Encuentro Para Cinéfagos (Festival de CineArte en la Frontera) (Spanish subtitled version shown)San Cristobal
Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of
August 18, 2021
Venezuela premiere
Official selection -
uneARTh FestivalLos Angleles, CA
United States
December 3, 2021
Official selection -
Laceno d'oro International Film FestivalAvellino
Italy
December 1, 2021
Avellino premiere
Official selection -
Hell Chess Film FestivalMadrid
Spain
October 31, 2021
Semi-finalist -
International Migration & Enviromental Film FestivalMontreal, Quebec
Canada
October 9, 2021
Canadian premiere
Official selection, honorable mention (second highest award category for this festival) -
Festival FotogeniaMexico City
Mexico
November 24, 2021
Mexico premiere
Official selection -
Amerta Film FestivalIstanbul
Turkey
August 20, 2021
Turkish premiere
Official selection; Finalist, best video art -
Zebra Poetry Film FestivalBerlin
Germany
November 24, 2021
Berlin premiere
Official selection -
Golden Tree International Documentary FestivalHessen
Germany
November 1, 2021
Hessen premiere
Official selection -
Inheritance - The Environmental FestivalBelfast
Ireland
April 22, 2022
Irish premiere
Official selection, screened on community TV: Northern Visions (Ireland): Latest TV (Brighton & Hove (UK); and Sheffield Live! (UK) -
MimesisBoulder, CO
United States
August 2, 2022
Colorado premiere
Official selection, Nominee/Finalist -
SEFF - Smaragdni eco film festivalTouring festival in cities in Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina
Croatia
August 26, 2021
Croatian premiere
Official selection -
International Nature and Environmental Protection FestivalBudapest
Hungary
May 28, 2021
Hungarian premiere
Official selection -
Venice Architecture Film Festival 2022Venice
Italy
Semi-Finalist -
Cambio International Film FestivalBerlin
Germany
February 21, 2021
Semi-Finalist -
Semana por la Saberania (Spanish subtitled version shown)Buenos Aires
Argentina
November 27, 2022
Argentina premiere
Official selection -
Video BardoBuenos Aires
Argentina
November 26, 2021
Argentina premiere
Official selection -
FICNOR - Festival Internacional de cine de Norte de SantanderNorte de Santander
Colombia
September 5, 2022
Norte de Santander premiere
Official selection -
International Migration & Environmental Film FestivalToronto
Canada
October 9, 2021
Honorable mention -
KinamMexico City
Mexico
February 17, 2022
Latin American premiere
Official selection -
Festival Cinemistica (Spanish subtitled version shown)Grenada
Spain
April 1, 2021
Grenada premiere
Official selection -
Ecozine Film Festival (Spanish subtitled version shown)Zaragoza
Spain
May 11, 2022
Zaragoza premiere
Official selection -
Ooty Short Film Festival 2022The Nilgiris, TN
United Kingdom
December 2, 2022
Tennessee premiere
Official selection -
Italia Green Film festival (Italian subtitled version)Rome
Italy
April 20, 2022
Rome premiere
Award winner -
Festival Internacional de las Artes Cinematograficas de San Cristobal de las CasasSan Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas
Mexico
February 15, 2022
San Cristobal premiere
Official selection -
Tulum World Environment Film FestivalTulum
Mexico
October 31, 2022
Tulum premiere
Official selection -
Wales International Film FestivalSwansea, Wales
United Kingdom
September 16, 2020
Wales/UK premiere
Official selection, Finalist -
Ealing Film FestivalLondon
United Kingdom
November 24, 2022
London premiere
Official selection -
Sustainable StoriesHouston, TX
United States
November 29, 2022
Houston premiere
Official selection -
FICMA - Festival Internacional de Cine con Medios Alternativos FICMAMexico City
Mexico
November 22, 2022
Official selection -
Malnad International Wildlife and Environmental Film FestivalBangalore
India
December 4, 2022
India premiere
Finalist -
Festival AngaelicaPasadena, CA
United States
December 21, 2023
California premire
Official selection -
Festival Internacional de las Artes Cinematograficas de San Cristobal de las Casas (Spanish subtitled version screened)San Cristobal
Mexico
August 6, 2023
Chiapas premiere
Official selection
Pam is an independent filmmaker who received her PhD from the University of Iowa and taught at Northern Illinois University, St.Mary's College, and the University of Notre Dame. She directed the largest student film society in the US while she was at the University of Iowa, and also ran films series for the Snite Museum of Art in South Bend, IN. Her experimental film with Dan Curry, Open Territory, received an individual filmmaker grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as grants from the Center for New Television and the Indiana Arts Council. OT screened at the Pacific Film Archives, as well at numerous film festivals, including the AFI Video Festival, and was nominated for a regional Emmy. Her other films include museum installations, scholarly/academic hybrid works shown at film conferences, and a documentary commissioned by the Peace Institute at the University of Notre Dame. She is an occasional contributor to Moving Poems Magazine (http://discussion.movingpoems.com/).
Jack is an independent filmmaker who has produced, directed, or shot a variety of experimental and personal projects. As a DP he has extensive experience shooting commercials, independent features, and documentaries. His varied commercial client list includes BMW, Ford, Nissan, Fujifilm, Iomega, Corum Watches, and Forte Hotels. His features and documentaries have shown at the Sundance, Raindance, Telluride, Tribeca, Edinburgh, Chicago, Houston, and Taos film Festivals, winning several honors. His commercials and documentaries have won Silver Lions from Cannes, a BAFTA (British Academy Award), Peabody Awards, and Cable Aces. Some notable credits: Director of Photography on Brian Griffin's Claustrofoamia, Cinematography for Antony Thomas’ Tank Man, Director/Cinematographer of Viento Nocturno, and Cinematographer of Ramin Niami’s feature film Paris. Jack was trained at the University of Iowa Creative Writers Workshop as well as the University of Iowa film studies program.
For over five years, Jack Cochran and Pamela Falkenberg have been making personal films together again under the name Outlier Moving Pictures. They hope their work will prove worthy of the name: avoiding the usual patterns and approaching their subject matter from the margins (which sounds better than saying that as filmmakers they're oddballs and cranks). Pam and Jack met in graduate school and made films together when they were young. Jack went on to become a professional cinematographer working out of LA and London, while Pam stayed in the Midwest, where she was a college professor and independent filmmaker before dropping out to work in visual display.
Their first film together, "The Cost of Living," based on some of Jack's short poems, screened at several film festivals, including the Buffalo International Film Festival and the Cornwall Film Festival, was nominated for two awards at the 2019 Queens World Festival, and took the award for best experimental film at the 2016 WV FILMmakers Festival. Other short poetry films have screened at the Ò Bhéal Poetry Film Festival (2016, 2018, 2019), the Juteback Poetry Film Festival (2017, 2018), the Festival Silencio (2017), the Filmpoem Festival (2017), the 6th CYCLOP Videopoetry Festival (2017), and the 6th, 7th, and 8th International Video Poetry Festival (Athens Greece). Their most ambitious film, "Teddy Roosevelt and Fracking," about environmental threats to the wild landscapes of North Dakota, premiered at the 2018 Queens World Film Festival, where it was nominated for three awards and took the award for Best Documentary Short, followed by awards at the Go West Film Festival, the Ozark Foothills Film Festival, and the American Presidents Film and Literary Festival at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museum. Their most recent poetry films, "In West Virginia," and "Flag Country," based on poems by Dave Bonta, have already screened at the Buffalo International Film Festival, the Small Axe Radical Film Festival, the Newlyn Film Festival, and the North Dakota Human Rights Arts Festival. Pam and Jack have just completed a new triptych with Lucy English on climate change, "I Want to Breathe Sweet Air,” and they are currently at work on "Now and Then," an experimental film based on a new collection of Jack's poems, and also on their first feature together, an experimental road trip/documentary essay about the loneliest road in America, Highway 50 in Nevada.
Jack and Pam co-direct the films they make together, and they collaborate fully, even when they divide up the credits. Their poetry films usually start with a poem (often, but not always, one of Jack’s poems), which they think of as analogous to a script. However, when collaborating with Lucy English on “The Shadow” and “The Names of Trees,” the process was more dialectical: some images and sounds came first, then Lucy wrote the poems; the poems inspired more images, and eventually the edited film poems. For us, the exact process depends on the project and remains open to experiment, so our body of work is somewhat disparate and hard to categorize. Some of our eclectic interests include collage, found footage, and repurposing; the film essay and film poetry; image capturing and post-production techniques that reveal what cannot be seen with the eyes alone (e.g., high shutter speeds, moving cameras, infrared photography, green screen and digital layering); landscapes and the ways humans mark them; human rights/social justice; and postmodern melodrama.
Jack has written poetry all his life, but he never knew what to do with it until he shared his notebooks with Pam, who said, “You’re a filmmaker -- shouldn’t your poems be films?” Pam and Jack both want to make lots of different kinds of films together, but Pam is especially proud to have been the one who suggested that Jack’s poems should come to life as films. They are both delighted that making films of Jack's poems has led to interesting collaborations with other poets and filmmakers.