Migration, Exchange, Traveling

Literature is definitely a traveling experience. One in which words, create tantalizing building-block metaphors of communication that birth amazing new worlds to explore, manifesting live vehicles to travel in with a strange assortment of traveling companions, that bring all kinds of baggage with them. Dorian Merina explores this perception of literature in his short film “Migrations”, where he creates a setting of diffusion, of exchange, a boat. Merina begins his film by stating that on “the boats come the goods that cross the waters / like veins and blood rushing / the goods cross the waters” (15-17) while showing a boat-like figure crossing the waters. The combination of poem narration and film creates an even more vivid image of what the author is describing. This perception of the connection between literature and travel is manifested in the images, the thematic of the poem and even its mechanics.

An element I truly enjoyed while seeing this short film was the relationship between the words, the path created by the order in which these were placed, just like water hitting the hull of a ship. Merina uses words in Spanish and other languages to give a true migration, traveling feel to his poem, specially while including race terms such as mestizo and “a word like… / Achuete / atole / avocado / balsa / banqueta / cachuete / calabaza / camachile / camote / calachuche / chico / chocolate / coyote / nanay / tatay / tiangui / tocayo / zacate / zapote” (58-76). The author coordinates the colors with the words being presented, for example when saying “chocolate” he puts a brown, chocolate color that matches what he is saying. The order of the words, alphabetical, brings order to the poem, while flowing with imagination, with the sound of unknown words.

Merina exploits his inspiration to imagine when displaying animal-like figures while mentioning “buffalos geese swans horses males asses / caged birds that sing birds that talk / birds the color of ash the color of sunrise” (33-35) in a completely natural way. The video supported poem gains more life with these images, immersing the viewer in this completely new world. I really liked this way of exposing poetry, it gives the author new tools to create his world and expose his migration, his travel and truly convincing us that there is an exchange in literature.