Films

• Patriotic Lesson, 20'7"

  Production: DE/PL 2016

  The film presents a competition of patriotic song, held in a Polish primary school on Independence Day (11th of November). The director has been consistent with the black-and-white stylistics, which produces a splendid result. As viewers we watch the students of varying age and vocal abilities compete against each other. Their parents and grandparents observe the whole event with wonder, moved. The picture was screened at the Swiss festival VISIONS DU REÉL.

  

  

  

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  Authors:

  • Filip Jacobson
• My First Time in My Life, 14'59"

  Production: PL 2016

  This 15-minute documentary film shows a typical day of mister Henryk. For the first time, however, something exceptional happens – something our protagonist will never forget. The film is set in contemporary Szczecin. Its director is Krzysztof Kuźnicki, known Szczecin-based director and culture animator. In 2011 it was him who initiated the creation of the Kamera Association, which successfully popularises film art in the West Pomerania region.

  

  

  

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  Authors:

  • Krzysztof Kuźnicki
• We Need to Talk, 16'18"

  Production: PL 2016

  “We need to talk” is a very intimate and moving documentary film made in the classic “talking heads” convention. The director has created his work from a series of personal messages by people who have recently lost someone very close and, with the help of the camera, are trying to talk to the dead as if they were still alive. The film medium becomes a form of self-therapy for the participants. Jędrzej Michalak presents portraits of people who had been struck by death and live in its shadow, making them very believable psychologically. This has resulted in a picture that talks about life where death is a natural, unavoidable, and traumatic event. Sooner or later, everyone will need to face it and go through several obligatory emotional stages such as denial, anger, sorrow, and, finally, acceptance.

  

  

  

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  Authors:

  • Jędrzej Michalak
• The Breath, 13'50”

  Production: PL 2015

  An ascetic story, one that captivates with beautiful cinematography, of a young man who decides one day to commit suicide in verdant surroundings. The director has created a fascinating, mysterious film, which keeps escaping any poetics- or genre-related classification. Is this a documentary, a feature, or an experimental film? Or maybe it is made up of parts from all these categories? The film was directed by Maciej Jarczyński, a young and talented director from Chojnice, whose earlier, short documentary film “85625” (2014) was presented in Cannes and in Los Angeles.

  

  

  

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  Authors:

  • Maciej Jarczyński 2016
• The Realm of Forgotten Existence, 27'54"

  Production: PL/UK 2015

  While the film’s cinematography shows a landscape which often seems unchanged, the narration reveals fragments of forgotten stories and traditions, abilities, and professional life, which are no longer valued in modern society. In Piotr Pasta’s film we meet aged people from the Scottish-English border city of Berwick-upon-Tweed, who are at the end of their life’s journey. We do not see them, but we do hear their voices. The film connects accounts of oral history, archive materials, and new film footage.

  

  

  

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  Authors:

  • Piotr Piasta
• The River, 10'50"

  Production: PL 2016

  Just like the memorable Alice in Wonderland from Lewis Carrol’s classic, seven-year-old Nelly paces the Polish land right by the river Bug. For Nelly, the landscape of this uncanny borderland river becomes an unforgettable place of play and numerous new experiences. One day an incredibly important and “adult” question is born in the girl’s mind: what is freedom, what does it mean, and what are its boundaries? The key to the answer is held by her little two-year-old brother.

  

  

  

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  Authors:

  • Wojciech Klimala