This course focuses on a series of connected questions and investigates cinema through poetry: What is poetry and/as cinema? How does poetry and/as cinema connect to and intervene in expressions of human experience, aesthetic experimentation, and social change? Drawing from both poets and filmmakers who create at the intersection of poetry and cinema, the course will explore the various contours between and across the mediums. Students will not only discuss the readings and viewings, but also create their own poetic cinema through workshop exercises. In doing so, the course aims to bridge creative writing and media arts practices through collective conversation and creation. In investigating poetics, the course explores film and poetry through gestures. Students will engage in discussion, creative exercises, and workshops to further explore and express the contours of the questions and explorations of poetry and cinema. The end of the class will culminate in a reading, screening, and celebration of final projects consisting of a chapbook and short poetry video or performance exploring the intersections of poetry and cinema.