2026 REELPOETRY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: Check out the 2026 Festival Program!
2026 REELPOETRY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: Check out the 2026 Festival Program!
Lilián Pallares and Charles Olsen are the creative duo antenablue, making videopoems and running poetry film workshops with diverse communities. Their work has received support from Madrid City Council and the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Charles has published articles on videopoetry in Spain, Portugal, Colombia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
Program: Palabras Prestadas | Given Words, at 1PM, Sunday, Sept. 20
Chris Wise is a poet, novelist, voice actor, and television host. Author of seven books and published in numerous literary journals and anthologies, he hosted The Crawl and has appeared on NPR, the Huffington Post, and at The Moth. His work includes collaborations with recording artists and composers for mixed ensembles and orchestra.
Program: Joseph Merrick at 3PM, Saturday, Sept. 19
Heba Toulan, originally from Egypt, is a Houston-area actor and performer. Her credits include Deaf Austin Theatre, Deaf Broadway, Shakespeare in the Shade, and numerous films and productions. She won Best Actress in a Short Film at the Retro Avant Garde Film Festival and continues to build a diverse and impactful career.
Program: ASL Poetry and Deaf Creativity at 11AM, Sunday, Sept. 20
Lucy English is a poet and poetry film maker and a Spoken Word poet who has made poetry films in collaboration with many leading poetry film creators.She is also a Professor of Creative Enterprise and The Spoken Word at Bath Spa University where where she teaches fiction, spoken word and live literature. Among her notable poetry film projects are “The Book of Hours” and “Cancer Alley.”
Program: Video Jukebox at 2:15PM, Saturday, Sept. 19
Marie Brown is an author, poet, and spoken-word artist. She was the first Black woman on Houston’s National Poetry Slam Team and the first woman to win the Blue Bonnet Poetry Award. Her work includes three albums and a 2025 memoir, An American Life, Volume I, with writings featured in anthologies.
Program: Marie Brown: Spoken Word at 1:45PM & 7:00PM, Saturday, Sept. 19
Swoon, Marc Neys, is a videopoet, painter and musician whose award-winning videopoems have been screened at festivals and exhibitions worldwide. His multidisciplinary practice merges poetry, moving image, sound, and visual art into intimate, experimental works. He has conducted workshops internationally and collaborated with poets across the globe, continually exploring new forms of poetic cinema.
Program: Cheap and Fast: A Swoon Retrospective at 7:15PM, Saturday, Sept. 19
Matt Mullins’ videopoems have been shown throughout the world. He is the Mixed Media editor of the online journal Atticus Review and currently teaches at Ball State University where he is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing.
Program: Joseph Merrick at 3PM, Saturday, Sept. 19
Maya Dimerli is a writer, translator and cultural manager, and I head the Odesa UNESCO City of Literature Office. She is also one of the co-founders of New Odyssey, a children’s poetry competition created together with the poet Ilya Kaminsky and the Evening Odesa Newspaper.
Program: Jazz Music of Victory at 2PM, Saturday, Sept. 19 & Online at 12PM & 7PM on Tuesday, Sept. 22
Program: Roads Connected at 2PM, Sunday, Sept. 20
Jack & Pam are award winning filmmakers based in Austin making films as Outlier Moving Pictures. Our films have featured at the Fotogenia, Zebra, O Bheal, Queens World, and Buffalo International film festivals. Emmy Pèrez & Octavio Quintanilla are past Texas poet laureates. Jane Creighton & Aliah Lavonne Tigh are widely published Houston poets.
Program: Made in Texas at 8:30PM, Saturday, Sept. 20
Sabina England is a British Asian deaf filmmaker, poet, performer and playwright who studied at London Film Academy, UK. Her first film “Wedding Night” screened at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City “Deaf Brown Gurl” won an award at Lady Filmmakers Festival in Los Angeles. She has performed nationwide.
Program: ASL Poetry and Deaf Creativity at 11AM, Sunday, Sept. 20
Sissy Doutsiou is an actress, poet, spoken-word artist, and curator based in Athens, Greece. She curates the International Video Poetry Festival and co-founded the Institute for Experimental Arts. A pioneering Greek spoken-word artist, she has performed internationally across Europe, Asia, and the USA, and released her debut spoken-word LP in 2025.
Program: Paradise Now at 4PM & Performance at 7PM, Saturday, Sept. 19
Tugce and Hugo Dervisoglou are Paris-based filmmakers working across cinema, film distribution, criticism, and visual arts. With backgrounds in cinema studies and diverse creative practices, their work explores intimate, socially engaged stories through documentary, photography, and experimental forms.
Program: Turkish Films at 12:15PM & 7:15PM Online, Tuesday, Sept. 22
Usha Akella is the founder and coordinator of Matwaala South Asian Diaspora Poetry Collective. Pramila Venkateswaran is the co-coordinator of Matwaala. Kashiana Singh is the Poetry Ambassador of Matwaala.
Program: Turkish Films at 12PM & 7PM Online, Friday, Sept. 25