MAY 6TH @ FILMSCENE, IOWA CITY! 

Homegrown Stories is an online collaborative media project featuring the work of nationally and internationally recognized video and sound artists. Established in 2013 by LeAnn Erickson and Sandra Dyas, Homegrown Stories has resulted in the creation of over 160 short experimental videos.

On May 6th at 7pm, FilmScene will screen a retrospective called The Art of Moving Poetry. Afterwards there will be a Q&A with Sandy Dyas and composer Pieta Brown. 

Homegrown Stories: The Art of Moving Poetry

RT 68 minutes

Homegrown Stories is an online collaborative media project featuring the work of nationally and

internationally recognized film, video and sound artists. Established in 2013, Homegrown Stories has

resulted in the creation of over 160 short experimental videos.

Much of the work created as part of Homegrown Stories takes the form of moving poetry. The aesthetics

of Homegrown Stories embrace a ‘prompt’ approach commonly used in writing exercises. Influenced by

the I Ching, chance elements are also explored in the creation of collaborative video projects. Whether

inspired by actual poems (HGS 2021, The Year of the Poet), or embracing the prompt approach, the

resulting video work reflects the aesthetic relationship between process and chance.

Over its 13 years of existence, Homegrown Stories videos have been featured in film festivals, gallery

exhibitions and in written reviews.

This retrospective screening of Homegrown Stories is a 68 minute program featuring over 30 different

experimental films created by 20 different film, video and sound artists. The program is currently on a

national tour, screening at venues in Philadelphia, Richmond, San Francisco and other US locations. 

CONTACT FOR MORE INFORMATION. WE WOULD LOVE TO 

SCREEN THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR INDEPENDENT THEATRE! 

 

 EXPERIMENTAL VIDEOS & HOMEGROWN STORIES!

SELECTED: BIDEODROMO--Experimental Film & Video Fest in Bilbao, Spain: October 2025

and

LIVING WITH BUILDINGS FESTIVAL- VIII: People, Poetry, Space - Screening in Coventry, United Kingdom, July 2025

GRAPEFRUIT PARTS: This collaboration was inspired by Yoko Ono and the serendipity of chance. It is our second chance operation/collaboration, both videos were inspired by Yoko Ono and her book "Grapefruit". Our first collaborative video was called "fuze".

Homegrown Stories (http://homegrownstories.com/) has been nurturing creative collaborations for many years. This year (2024) we were interested in creating a more hands-on collaborative project among our loyal and talented collaborators. We invited sound and image artists who have contributed great work in the past to take part in this year’s Homegrown Stories theme – The Serendipity Project.

Twelve individuals were formed into six collaborative pairs. The pair of artists selected a title for their video piece and a designated length. They then worked separately with one collaborator creating a soundtrack inspired by the title and the other creating a silent image track. At a designated time, these two separate tracks were combined.

Using collage, organic image, music as sound, and a variety of structural schemes, these collaborative videos reveal the random magic of Serendipity.

Image: LeAnn Erickson

Sound: Sandra Louise Dyas

 DOUBLE VISION - MOTHER/DAUGHTER EXHIBITION

VOICES STUDIO - DUBUQUE, IOWA

June 6 - July 26, 2005

Two Way Lens and Sandra Dyas

 THE TRUTH OF BEAUTY

BY MICHAEL WERNER

JUNE 20, 2010

Two Way Lens and Sandra Dyas

Two Way Lens proudly presents Sandra Dyas

I am very happy and excited that I can add another wonderful photographer to my project. This month's photographer is Sandra Dyas. Sandra is a photographer and teacher based in Iowa City, Iowa. Her work is widely exhibited and published and she was selected to be the photographer for Iowa for The 50 States Project.

Please visit Sandra's website for more work to see, and of course, Sandra's blog is worth a visit too.

But now it's time to read Sandra's very insightful interview for Two Way Lens.

Katie in Her Wedding Dress, Iowa City, Iowa, from the series Holding On; Portraits of People I Know

Susan with the Red Tomato, near Andrew, Iowa, from the series Holding On; Portraits of People I Know

The Poodle in Berlin, from the series Heaven & Earth

Boy with Beads, Mardi Gras, Lafayette, Louisiana, from the series The Lost Nation Photographs

James and the Pronghorn, Iowa City, Iowa, from the series The Lost Nation Photographs

Steve Roling, Rolly World, near Bellevue, Iowa, from The 50 States Project

Sophie's Birthday, from the series Heaven & Earth

Pieta Brown, Coralville, Iowa, from the series Down to the River; Portraits of Iowa Musicians

Chloe Swimming, Iowa City, Iowa, from the series Holding On; Portraits of People I Know

Nya with Long Braids, Iowa City, Iowa

© copyright all images Sandra Dyas

 

Grapefruit Parts 

by Sandra Louise Dyas 

and LeAnn Erickson

ON MOVING POEMS : POETRY IN VIDEO FORM

A second film by old friends Sandy Dyas and LeAnne Erickson for The Serendipity Project, which we introduced with their earlier video, fuze. In the description on Vimeo, Dyas notes, “This collaboration was inspired by Yoko Ono and the serendipity of chance. It is our second chance operation/collaboration, both were inspired by Yoko Ono and her book “Grapefruit”.”

As in fuze, Erickson’s selection of images and Dyas’s selection of sound clips do seem to be in conversation—an uncanny effect, which I think says as much about the nature of collaboration between seasoned artists who know what they’re doing as it does about the nature of videopoetry. One thinks of the famous quote by Louis Pasteur: “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

Most of us amateur video-makers quickly discover that random mixes of text, sound and images tend to result in little more than a vaguely poetic fog. One of the reasons that Dyas and Erickson don’t fall into that trap, I think, is because they deploy fairly limited vocabularies of images and words or phrases: poetry lives in rhythm and repetition. And viewers can be relied upon to fill in semantic gaps, because that’s basically what we’re doing all day long with snatches of overheard conversation and chance fragments of others’ lives, consciously or unconsciously looking for connective threads—and regularly stepping back to try to see larger patterns. Any good poet, whether for the page or the screen, understands this instinctively: you have to leave a certain number of gaps for the audience to fill or leap on their own. That’s how the poetry happens. And it’s definitely happening here.

 

fuze by Sandra Louise Dyas and LeAnn Erickson

~ Homegrown Stories ~

fuze was chosen by DAVE BONTA FOR MOVINGPOEMS.COM - HE WRITES:

An experimental film that showcases the role of the viewer in creating videopoetry. As Iowa City-based visual artist Sandra Louise Dyas explains in the Vimeo description, ‘”fuze” is a collaborative video created for Homegrown Stories that relies on chance and serendipity. LeAnn Erickson (video) and I (sound) worked separately, only knowing the length of the piece and its title.’

Other videos for the project that don’t include text in their soundtracks are still well worth watching, but the magic here lies in just how well elements of the text do complement the imagery, culminating in a shot of a horseshoe crab which, as an environmentalist knowing something of the plight of horseshoe crabs, I found quite moving.

We’ve shared Dyas’ work here before: her 2016 videopoem River Étude. LeAnn Erickson, a professor of film and video production at Temple University in Philadelphia, is new to Moving Poems. Here’s her website.

https://www.movingpoems.com/tag/homegrown-stories/

SANDRA LOUISE DYAS 

LE ANN ERICKSON

 

Iowa City Celebrates with Enriching Pair of Festivals

Marya E. Gates

October 23, 2024

THE REFOCUS FILM FESTIVAL IN IOWA CITY, IOWA -- REVIEW ON ROGEREBERT.COM

"In fact, integrating local artists into the program is a big part of what makes the Refocus Film Festival so unique. Before each of the festival’s 30+ films and events, there are live performances by local musicians, slideshows of local artwork, and even short experimental films. Each artist is compensated for their work by the festival, but Venmo donations were also encouraged. 

Among my favorite acts that I saw were the experimental videos of Sandra Dyas, local rockers Silver Alexander (Marc Falk and Seth Petchers), and bowling-shirt-clad jazz duo Saul Lubraroff and Andy Parrott."