Poetry Film “Sentimental Education” 26/02/2022 | 17:00

Location: Kumu auditorium

Dir: Sirel Heinloo
Estonia, Great Britain, Ireland
2021, 1h 26 min
English, Estonian, with English and Estonian subtitles
Cast: Tõnis Vilu osas Merca; luuletajad esinemise järjekorras: Mari Pihl, Reijo Roos, Jill Kenny, Aivar Lembit, Irene, Grete Kaio, Kelli Kiipus, Adam Kammerling, Iina Gyldén, Kaisa Linn, Joelle Taylor, Hannah Eynon, Susan Kolde, Sirel Heinloo.

Introduction by the film makers

The four part poetry film „Sentimental Education“ is an international collaboration between Estonia, Ireland and the UK, featuring the work of 14 established and emerging poets. Inspired by the work of the prize winning Estonian poet Tõnis Vilu, the collective considers connection, mental health and community in this collection of poetry-performance-films tracing deeply personal links between the artists.

1. part: „Deep Conversations“ inquires into the search for meaningful connection.
2. part: „A Gift To My Therapist“ poses questions about the contact we can establish with, for example, a therapist or a significant other, and how this informs our poetry.
3. part: „Unending Spring“ faces family traumas and harmful patterns which run through our personal relationships and the whole society.
4. part: „Sentimental Education“ investigates the baggage we carry from our childhoods and school years, and the experiences we take away from birthdays – the very moments when we are supposed to celebrate our own existence.

The works of Tõnis Vilu have been presented by punk-poet and actor Merca, all the other poems have been performed mostly by the authors themselves. The poets featured are Joelle Taylor (with two poems from the collection “Songs My Enemy Taught Me”) and Adam Kammerling from London, Jill Kenny from Ireland, Hannah Eynon from Northern Ireland, Iina Gyldén from Finland/Estonia and Kelli Kiipus, Irene, Aivar Lembit, Mari Pihl, Reijo Roos, Grete Kaio, Kaisa Linn, Susan Kolde and Sirel Heinloo from Estonia.

Mentored by legendary poet, Joelle Taylor, award-winning poet and theatre maker, Adam Kammerling, and Estonian poetry slam leader and the creative co-ordinator of the project, Sirel Heinloo, “Sentimental Education” is a film series unique to the past year, at once defined by the pandemic in form, and equally refusing to be contained by it. Welded together by the video artist Einar Lints, “Sentimental Education” is a unique and varied poetic experiment that combines bilingual voices never before heard side by side, transcending borders both physical and sentimental.