Casas errantes | Wandering Houses

Watch Casas Errantes trailer

Filmed in Lisbon, Wandering Houses (2025) features poems by Lauren Mendinueta and Lilián Pallares. It has been selected for Cadence Video Poetry (Seattle) and Bloomsday Film Festival (Dublin).

Vanitas

Watch on Filmetry Festival Archive

Invited by Filmetry to create a film based on the ekphrastic poem Vanitas by American poet Mary Jo Salter, Charles created this two-minute film.

Noho Mai

Watch on Love in the Time of Covid

'An absolutely stunning film. The finely wrought dance of words, visuals, music, pace and the dreamlike cadences of the Māori language. Noho Mai delivered everything I look for in a poetry film. A moving, beautiful poem and universal, timeless core of meaning which speaks also to our particularly detached and disconnected times.'

Paul Casey, Ó Bhéal Poetry-Film Competition, Best Poetry Film

Mum Asks Me to Write Her a Poem About the Sky

Watch on Filmetry Festival

'Charles Olsen’s film lyrically imagined the Christine Jones poem and extended its meaning into something new and wonderful. His sound design in particular gave greater depth and dimension to her poem and allowed us to imagine the narrator’s place in space.'

Filmetry Festival, Michigan, 3rd place award

Vertigo

Watch on Un Poema Cada Semana

'I love the simplicity of [Vertigo]. As well as a straightforward use of just one visual sequence, the sound moves from very busy to entirely silent. It's so marvellously succinct.'

Steve Smart, Poetry Film Workshop for Scottish Poetry Library

A-Dentro

'From a game this artistic duo call 'Palabras prestadas' (Given Words), they asked participants to each write a poem including four words inspired by the exhibition of the Biennale: woman, dis-capacity (proposed by one of the participants), tongue and body. Afterwards they read out the poems and together chose one to work with to create the poetry film.

Article by Lucía G. Calderón in Arte y Cultura | Fundación ONCE

The Afternoon

Watch on Poetry + Video

The Exhibition

'An irreverent take on the art world. A poetic hybrid combining essay, documentary, journalism, and video art.'

Watch the trailer on antenablue

Jury Special Mention, FilmArte Festival, Madrid 2023

Frozen Cry

'Frozen Cry is a tear of freezing water that overflows'

Watch on film poetry

Top Ten Finalists, JÁ Festival, Lisbon 2023
Honourable Mention, Cadence Video Poetry Festival, Seattle 2022

Grey Silence

'This silence doesn't let me hear the music.'

Collaborative poetry film made during the poetry club Lilián Pallares and Charles Olsen ran during their fellowship at Our Little Roses, San Pedro Sula, Honduras, 2022.

The Dance of the Brushes

Watch the trailer on YouTube

'The "short" that seemed to us the most visually accomplished was that of the New Zealander Charles Olsen.'

Maguy Naïmi, 21ème festival flamenco de Nîmes

Awarded 2nd Prize in the I Flamenco Short Film Festival (FFLAC 2010), The Dance of the Brushes has been screened in festivals in Seville, Jerez de la Frontera, Rodalquilar, Barcelona, Málaga, Madrid, Murcia, Nîmes, Mont-de-Marsan, Maracaibo, Montreal, Brazil and Helsinki.

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