A cou­ple sip cof­fee while pon­der­ing their future. A poem by Bri­an­na Kratz, after Louise Glück­’s The Bal­cony.

Director’s statement

This is the fourth film in the Lens + Ink series, a col­lab­o­ra­tion with the poet Bri­an­na Kratz. This poem lifts the first line from Louise Glück­’s The Bal­cony and ren­ders an atmos­pher­ic por­trait of a cou­ple at an inflec­tion point in their relationship.

With this adap­ta­tion, we strove to retain the mys­tery of Bri­an­na’s orig­i­nal poem, while com­pli­cat­ing the char­ac­ters and nar­ra­tive the text presents.

Getaway

By Bri­an­na Kratz
After Louise Glück’s “The Balcony” 

• It was a night like this, at the end of summer.
• We had sat in your uncle’s apartment 
• for three days? Or maybe just hours.

• Even when we talked about traffic
• or lemon­ade, we were thinking
• of the green that set­tled on the street
• and the tor­na­do watch.

• Soon we would be storm chasers
• soaked and adven­tur­ing to points
• on our own compasses.

• And the dish­es piled up in the sink
• because you couldn’t work the dishwasher
• and I said, “Why bother?”

• From upstairs, a tele­vised concert.
• Some­one singing about heartbreak
• we would nev­er know.

Credits

• Writ­ten by Bri­an­na Kratz 
• Direct­ed by Andrew Gin­gerich 
• Per­formed by Nor­ma Gin­gerich, with David Gin­gerich and Gladys Nel­son
• Pro­duc­tion assis­tance from Evan Riffe

Music:

• Phase Three by Fatal Injection 
• My Favorite Regret by Josh Wood­ward

All music is licensed under the Cre­ative Com­mons Attri­bu­tion 4.0 license.

Sound effects by Freesound​.org users all­re­al­sound, lwdick­ens, aldenroth2, strathamer, PhilllCh­abbb, gyzhor, and Splice­Sound licensed under the Cre­ative Com­mons 0 License. 

Screenings

• ZEBRA Poet­ry Film Fes­ti­val – Munich, Ger­many
• Art Visu­als & Poet­ry Film Fes­ti­val – Vien­na, Austria

She finds it eas­i­er to escape alone than to remain togeth­er. A film based on a poem by Bri­an­na Kratz.

Director’s statement

This is the third film in the Lens + Ink series, a col­lab­o­ra­tion with the poet Bri­an­na Kratz. As has been the case with all the Lens + Ink films, we want­ed to make sure that our trans­la­tion from text to screen offered some­thing beyond a lit­er­al inter­pre­ta­tion of the poem. In this case, that added lay­er involves a col­li­sion between night and day.

Credits

• Writ­ten and Per­formed by Bri­an­na Kratz 
• Direct­ed by Andrew Gin­gerich 

Music:

• Snow­men by Kai Engel

All music is licensed under the Cre­ative Com­mons Attri­bu­tion 4.0 license.

It was all too easy

By Bri­an­na Kratz 

• “It was all too easy,”
• pre­tend­ing I did­n’t love you.
• It was just a mat­ter of rolling
• up my car window
• and smirk­ing at your slack jaw
• leav­ing marks on the glass.
• It was all too easy,
• shut­ting you out
• and lock­ing my diary
• because you nev­er earned my heart
• or its key.
• The hard­est part is explaining
• to myself why the fog is better
• than let­ting your sun­shine burn through it.
• It’s warm here. Soft. Quiet.
• Not qui­et, muffled.
• Mois­ture creep­ing into my eardrums
• and warp­ing the tones.
• It is all too easy to say no
• when the risk is yes.

Attach­ment is a use­ful but some­times dan­ger­ous trait. Based on a poem by Bri­an­na Kratz.

Director’s statement

This is the sec­ond film in the Lens + Ink series, a col­lab­o­ra­tion with the poet Bri­an­na Kratz. The chal­lenge of this adap­ta­tion was that the source text was very abstract. Intro­duc­ing just the hint of a frame nar­ra­tive helped to give the piece its shape and just a hint of sin­is­ter energy.

Credits

• Writ­ten by Bri­an­na Kratz 
• Per­formed & Direct­ed by Andrew Gin­gerich 

Attachment

By Bri­an­na Kratz 

• Attach­ment is
• sta­t­ic cling
• tying socks to sweaters
• invis­i­bly.
• It’s a dig­i­tized file
• paper­clipped to an e‑mail.
• Attach­ment is
• check­ing in
• even if it’s against the rules
• because you lost the rulebook
• and you were always
• a rebel.
• Glue. And duct tape,
• sand­wiched between
• two big­ger things
• that need to stick together.
• Attach­ment is
• hand­cuff­ing your own happiness
• to some­one else’s.

The speak­er reflects on being a shrink­ing dot—an image in a mir­ror, pon­der­ing what the future holds. Based on a poem by Bri­an­na Kratz.

Director’s statement

The first film in the Lens + Ink series, this was the result of a col­lab­o­ra­tion with the poet Bri­an­na Kratz. In trans­lat­ing the poem to film, we embraced mon­tage as a way to extend the nar­ra­tive and com­pli­cate the source text.

Credits

• Writ­ten and Per­formed by Bri­an­na Kratz 
• Direct­ed by Andrew Gin­gerich

Walking away from your car

By Bri­an­na Kratz 

• feels famil­iar.  Feels right.
• As if see­ing you off
• on your travels
• makes sense in the cos­mic book
• of some sort of fate.
• I turn around in spirals,
• glimps­ing home,
  • glimps­ing you,
• build­ings,
  • your car,
• until you dri­ve off and away.
• I’m a shrink­ing dot
• in your rearview mirror,
• giv­ing you some reminder
• of what was worth the drive.