It's alive! Film professor loves to use bugs in work

By: Paige Unger

Posted: 2/18/08

Squirming its way into an ill-fated destiny, a grasshopper fights the jaws of a Venus fly trap to the sounds of a suburban setting and a canine that is devouring what one can only hope is a bone. A stock ticker of poetry entwines words and goosebumps come to your arms.

You're experiencing "Drift," a Kansas City Art Institute ArtSounds production.

"There's no plot or characters, [the film] is an engrossing emotional experience," said filmmaker Caitlin Horsmon, UMKC professor of film and arts.

One of the featured poetic works, "Carnivorous Plants," allowed Horsmon to incorporate one of her favorite subjects.

"I have a certain affection and affinity for bug images," she said.

A yellow pitcher plant acidically devours its meal. The bug squirms, you hear a dog slurping water from a bowl. Slowly, across the bottom of the screen, flicker words such as denuded, swiftlets, toque and metonym; only to be followed by magma, dancing and twirling to a placid tune.

It's not all barking dogs, bugs and molten lava. Humans do enter the picture. A 1950s Stepford housewife twirls in her white and red polka-dot dress, ribbons bouncing in her hair, as a train's horn blasts your ears.

Such play on sounds and imagery is a recurring theme of "Drift."

"Experience imaginatively," said poet Nathan Bartel.

A Newton, Kan. resident, Bartel's poetry is what started the whole project.

"It was a circular process," Horsmon said.

Inspired by Bartel's poetry, Horsmon compiled footage of dancing lava, microscopic worms, inner-ear cartoons and more. She created a one-hour production with a focus on fitting in as a video without overwhelming the other elements of the project. The film was then submitted to Paul Rudy.

A "life long student," Rudy is a well-decorated UMKC professor, who has received honors and awards from Fulbright and Wylitzer.

With such honors under his belt, he wove together sounds one wouldn't naturally associate with the footage fashioned by Horsmon.

After Horsmon and Rudy finished the product, Bartel's poetic wheel began turning once again.

Using the images and sounds as inspiration, Bartel, a graduate of University of Montana, wrote a new series of poems set to the picture's score.

Working on the production since September, Horsmon is no beginner to cinematography. With 10 years experience, Horsmon established herself by previously running film festivals such as the Thaw Festival.

Horsmon also shows her personality through the work. A regular feature in her films, the artist produced a personal film three years ago showcasing grasshoppers. The insect has become a recurring subject in her cinematography.

"It's a place where all my interests intersect," Horsmon explained. "I love science films. … I do like bugs, maybe more than the average person, but I also think that it is their ordinariness that makes the image so striking when it is presented cinematically."

Viewings of new ArtSounds productions, including the works of Mara Gibson, will take place March 11 at the Kansas City Art Institute.

punger@unews.com