Light Film explores the cinema of heartache. Thorough in its quest for drama, this collection of poems threads a personal narrative through kaleidoscoping imagery, in turns erotic, violent, and contemplative. Performing a shifting subject position, the speaker of this book finds humour, shelter, and emotional truth in fantasy, even as reality collapses into his desires.
Sholto Buck is a poet and artist living in Melbourne, Australia. He has been commissioned to write poems for the National Gallery of Victoria, and for 'Derek Jarman: Delphinium Days', at Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland, and UNSW Gallery, Sydney. His first book, In the printed version of heaven, was published by Rabbit in 2023.
“This is a collection of curves and boots, horny and isolated, in rain and bittersweet love with loneliness and lust, articulated through a series of ekphrastic-ish lyrics enamored with the parts of bodies on film. Jarman, O'Hara, and Wieners exert a strong influence, filtered through smartphone snapshots of queer life and longing: witty, tender, and engaging.” — Joshua Jones
“"The landscape / walked / a red / spiral of green / through me" as the poems in this book have passed through me, leaving me dizzy. Light Film is a great collection of poems: moving, curious, thoughtful – it's a film festival of poems.” — Ben Estes
“You will see Sholto Buck's Light Film being held by a romantic taking the subway. . . What is this book but a screen for holding images of tenderness, signifying a safe harbor for the kiss you imagine?”— Eric Sneathen