Two short films by Masahiro Sugano selected for the 2018 ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in Germany

Out of more than 1,200 entries from 87 countries, Berlin’s Literaturwerkstatt program commission selected two films by IAS faculty member Masahiro Sugano as part of the 2018 ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in both Münster and Berlin.The festival ran from September 27th to 30th 2018. The two works screened were spoken word short films by powerful poet Tjawangwa “TJ” Dema of Botswana. Both “Dreams” and “Neon Poem” were featured in this year’s festival line up. Both videos were filmed, performed and edited in Phnom Penh, Cambodia where Dema visited as part of her Sylt Foundation residency.

Sugano and his lab Studio Revolt are pioneers in the genre of spoken word videos. Within the past decade, Sugano has screened several of his poetry films at the Zebra Poetry Film Festival, including the 2012 award winning “Best Performance on Film” video for “Why I Write” with Cambodian poet Kosal Khiev.