The Poet’s Eye: A Screening and Conversation Celebrating Poet-Filmmakers

Orson Welles wrote, “A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet." Join Host Publications for a special screening of three short films by poet-filmmakers Jae Nichelle, Maryan Nagy Captan, and Emery Jones. There will be a screening of breaking, broken; Loretta; and Peregrine followed by a panel conversation with the poet-filmmakers about their short films, their work as poets, how poetry influences their filmmaking, and much more. The conversation will be moderated by poet, artist, and educator m. mick powell.

✦ Host Publications is an award-winning, women-led independent publisher located in Austin, Texas. Devoted to our mission to elevate historically marginalized writers, Host Publications publishes radical poetry and fiction by emerging LGBTQ+, BIPOC, intersectional feminist, and immigrant voices.

✦ Free & open to all lovers of literature.

✦ Free popcorn + concessions will be available for purchase.

✦ Health and safety note: masks are encouraged and will be provided.

✦ This event is supported in part by an Elevate Grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music, & Entertainment.

✦✦✦ ABOUT THE GUESTS ✦✦✦

Louisiana-born Jae Nichelle (she/her) is a poet, performer, screenwriter, and the author of God Themselves (Andrews McMeel, 2023) and the chapbook The Porch (As Sanctuary) (YesYes Books, 2019). A 2026 Oregon Literary Fellow and a graduate fellow of The Watering Hole, Jae was a finalist for a 2023 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship and won the inaugural John Lewis Writing Award in poetry from the Georgia Writers Association. Her work has been featured by Write About Now and Button Poetry. She believes in all of our collective ability to contribute to radical change.

Maryan Nagy Captan is a filmmaker, researcher, and award-winning poet based in Austin, Texas. She is the writer and director of Loretta and co-founded AyaGozie Productions with Bev Chukwu. In addition to her work in filmmaking, she is the author of two poetry collections, copy/body (Empty Set Press, 2017) and Sixteen Rabbits (Host Publications, 2022). Maryan received her MFA from the Michener Center for Writers and is currently a PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Information, where she studies the impact of generative AI on imaginative thinking, cognitive diversity, and self-trust.

Emery Jones (they/them) is a nonbinary Texas filmmaker and the writer / director of eight narrative short films. Emery received Austin Film Society’s Harrison McClure Endowment Fund for their fourth film, HALFWAY TO HEAVEN. They graduated with an undergraduate degree in the Texas State University film program, as well as the 2025 AFS Creative Careers program.

m. mick powell is a queer Black Cape Verdean femme, poet, artist, Aries, and the author of DEAD GIRL CAMEO, winner of the Stonewall Book Award and listed as a Best Book of the Year by the New York Public Library. They have received fellowships and residencies from Yaddo, Lambda Literary, Torch Literary Arts, the McCormack Writing Center, and others. Their chapbook “threesome in the last Toyota Celica & other circus tricks” won the 2023 Host Publications Chapbook Prize, and they are a proud member of the Host Board of Directors. Currently based in Portland, OR, mick enjoys chasing waterfalls and being in love.

✦✦✦ ABOUT THE FILMS ✦✦✦

Winner of the 2024 Catalyst Film Collective Script to Screen Grant, breaking, broken is a love story between two young Black women: Amari, a nursing student who is dealing with deep depression after losing her brother, and Jazz, an overworked herbalist who is trying to hold their whole world together.

Loretta is a feminist, emotionally complex story that champions women’s rights by supporting women’s “wrongs.” Set in small-town Texas in the early ’90s, it follows a lonely school bus driver, whose obsession with a romance novelist, who she believes is her long-lost love, propels her on a reckless journey toward reclamation.

Peregrine is about Prudence, a dancer who recently got rejected by her dream school and decides to take a trip with her sister Mia and their friends to retreat from the pain. This film deals with rejection, escapism, the healing process, & realizing what matters more than the pain you're feeling.

✦✦✦ ACCESSIBILITY & PARKING INFO ✦✦✦

PARKING: Hyperreal Film Club is located at 301 Chicon St Suite A, Austin, TX 78702. Free parking lot.

ENTRANCE: Hyperreal is wheelchair accessible, but the door is difficult to open from the outside – if you are arriving alone, please email [email protected] to get the phone number of an employee to coordinate your arrival!

✦✦✦ ABOUT HYPERREAL FILM CLUB ✦✦✦

Hyperreal Film Club is a time and a place for good folks to see good movies. In 2016, founders David, Jenni, and Tanner started popping up in dozens of Austin’s most iconic locations to bring you our fave entries in the world of cult, genre, arthouse, and independent cinema — always paired with one or more short films showcasing the thriving local scene here in ATX.

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Hyperreal Film Club, 301 Chicon Street, Austin, United States

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