REVIEW: IN NEED OF SEAWATER (DOCUMENTARY) ★★★★

IN NEED OF SEAWATER is a short documentary (2026) about American poet Mark Anthony Thomas, directed by Richard Yeagley. The documentary is centered around a private live session in an apartment with Mark Anthony Thomas talking about his early poetic works, created between the ages of 21–24, eventually assembled in books like The Poetic Repercussion and In Need of Seawater. The session is combined with dramatized cinematic scenes that provide visual support to selected poems given by Mark in this intimate staged performance, surrounded by a small audience in a Baltimore apartment, together with rare archival footage from 20 years ago.

Poetry is an art form. It’s a play with words without the conventional boundaries or constraints of correct spelling, grammar, and layout. All that becomes secondary to the meanings of the words and the underlying feelings they lure out in each one of us. Whether or not you are into poetry, it’s impossible to ignore, and you can’t escape your own response to words, which are the building blocks of poetry. As a person who is drawn by image and sound, the combination of all three art forms becomes a potent mix that somehow perfectly matches this review session on a cold Sunday in the heart of Copenhagen, far away from an America in motion—for better and worse. Some would say for worse—thus making poetry even more relevant than ever. Especially great poetry like the early works from Mark Anthony Thomas. Not only a Black man, but a gay man—subjected to the harsh surroundings of his environment, using poetry as a way out. A way forward.

I was personally struck by the last piece in the documentary, called Acoustic Prayer. There is indeed something spiritual about the magic of music and its inherent ability to connect with people on all levels. Acoustic Prayer is a perfect example of how words can translate and describe one art form with another in a way that makes you want to experience both in their cleanest output.

Richard Yeagley does a fine and delicate job of weaving the staged performance of Mark Anthony Thomas together with music and other footage in various forms. It doesn’t rise above the traditional genre features, and it lacks a little ingenuity and visual excellence, but it delivers just enough to not take away from what matters—the poetry.

IN NEED OF SEAWATER is the first installment in a poetic trilogy that will explore more poetic works from Mark Anthony Thomas. Not to dwell on the past as nostalgia, but to illuminate how poetry can create the map of your life and guide your journey forward. For many artists, the art form itself becomes a means of survival—a way of expressing yourself in existential and meaningful ways in order to survive a rugged life in an equally rugged world.

Mark Anthony Thomas on IMDb | Richard Yeagley on IMDb

Written by | Jesper Isaksen