BAFTA nominated film maker Jack Jewers launches new film for World Poetry Day

Launched on World Poetry Day on Sunday 21st March 2021, inVERSE is a collection of five of the world’s oldest surviving poems re-imagined for the 21st century through the medium of film. Filmed during lockdown 2020, and with narration from Adam Roche – host of the Secret History of Hollywood podcast, the inVerse poetry series is the brainchild of BAFTA nominated film maker Jack Jewers.

Each film takes a historical poem – ranging from Ovid (the Roman poet who wrote Metamorphoses) to Kālidāsa (ancient India’s greatest playwright) and dating from 15,000 BC to 1,000 AD – as a prism through which to explore our modern world. Far from being dry, remote echoes of a long-gone age, each poem chosen for the collection feels like it could have been written yesterday, offering new meaning and a fresh perspective on some of the key global issues we face today.

Against the backdrop of lockdown and the pandemic, today’s gender and identity wars, the climate crisis, Europe’s refugee crisis, and the challenges of against racism, discrimination and inclusion, each short film uses a historically significant poem as a prism through which to examine our society. It’s poetry – reimagined for the modern world.

The five poems that the have been reimagined for a 21st century audience are:

· The Flower Song Anon. Egypt, c.1400 BCE. (Abridged).

· He Waters His Horse By A Breach in the Long Wall Anon. China, c.120 BCE

· My Heart Flutters Hastily Anon. Mesopotamia, c.1500 BCE

· Take Care With How You Look from Ars Amarosa by Ovid. Italy, 1st Century CE. (Abridged).

· Salutation to the Dawn by Kālidāsa (attributed) – India, c.400 CE

You can read all five poems on the inverse website here: https://inversefilm.uk/the-poems.