A visual experiment composed from simultaneous displays. Collage-type parallel of images becomes a sign of modernity, based on the chaos of multiplicity and excess. The collapse of linear forms leads to a complete degradation of borders, while the exhaustion of homogenous vision of the world – to the aesthetic eclecticism.
An outstanding artist talks about his painting. This moving confession leads from the emotions which moved a child years ago, to an artistic imperative realized several decades later. The extermination of Jewish Działoszyce has been preserved in memory and in art. The film is a reflection on the tragedy of a terrible time.
She would like to return as a little bird in the next life, small enough to hide. Right now she still lives in a bird cage, at the mercy of the whims of a fate that transported her and her family from Myanmar to a refugee village in the Thai jungle. The rain drums ceaselessly on the roof. The torrential river in front of the house is as powerful as the suppressed feelings of a woman who gave birth to 12 children and lost some of them. She hasn’t chosen her husband; moreover, he sometimes flies away. Now she only hopes that her daughter will follow.
Working the boggy meadows at the river Biebrza are the titular last mowers, passing on the tradition of mowing the grass by hand to a sparse handful of successors. Here, long contemplative shots of unique wildlife make the human order merge with the order of nature.
The film closely follows the lives of patients in a hospice. We witness their everyday existence – their tears, pain and suffering, but also some joyful moments. For, against all expectations, a hospice is not only a place where one comes to die.
What happens behind the closed doors of surgical wards, treatment rooms and other spaces where specialist medical consultations take place? Things you don't see but they can save people's lives.
Ludwik Flaszen, co-founder of the Laboratory Theatre, comes to Wrocław. He follows in the footsteps of Jerzy Grotowski and talks about his friendship and cooperation with this outstanding reformer of 20th century theatre. Ludwik Flaszen's stories are accompanied in the film by excerpts from recordings of performances, TV programmes and documentaries or hitherto unpublished archival photos, as well as by an extensively illustrated historical context.
The film tells the story of deaf soldiers fighting in the Warsaw Uprising. Few people know that a platoon of deaf soldiers fought in the Uprising and suffered no casualties. It is a unique documentary, just as unique as the everyday situation of its protagonists and the special event in which they participated. The film lifts the veil of mystery that surrounds, for most of us, functioning in a world of absolute silence, where not even the slightest murmur can be heard.
The film is in a way the continuation of the previous one entitled „A Lesson of Belarusian”, which showed a protest of young people against the recent fake presidential elections in Belarus. The protest got brutally pacified by militia forces. Despite that, young Belarusians did not give in; they keep fighting the regime. This time they use slightly different methods. Their weapons are music, humour and an ironic distance to the absurd reality. Each form of regime has two sides: the dangerous one and the ridiculous one. “Music Partisans” describes the latter.
The documentary explores the Labor Day at the Exhibition Industry in Lodz in 1912.
A beautiful story full of poetry and melancholy about an unconventional, unhurried, nature-compatible life. It is about a man who, although at a mature age he had to start all over again, was able to find himself again, to see the meaning, joy and taste of existence.
A memorizing documentary, is inspired by the documentary films - the specific genera that is commonly used to mythologize the heroes of mass culture in order to emphesize their celebrity status.
A tribute to a Polish jazz drummer, Jacek Olter (1971-2001). Olter played in many bands connected to so called 'yass' scene and was considered one of the best young talents in the genre. Though presently not as blossoming as in previous decade, Yass (a term coined in the 1980s) was a musical amalgam of various styles, with strong jazz/improv roots and influenced by punk rock, folk, electronica.
A documentary about the re-enactment of the Stanford Prison Experiment - a famous psychological experiment studying human behaviour in prison conditions, conducted in 1971 by Professor Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University in California. In early 2005 the artistic radical Artur Zmijewski took the risk of reconstructing Professor Zimbardo's experiment in Warsaw. He tried to recreate precisely the architecture of the simulated prison and its rules. Seven "prisoners" and nine "guards" were selected in a procedure aimed at eliminating mentally unstable candidates. They were offered $40 a day for their role in the experiment. The rooms were equipped with one-way mirrors, and the course of the experiment was filmed by five man-operated cameras and several night vision-enabled industrial TV cameras. In the process, Zmijewski pierces through societal masks and travels to the heart of mankind, where it is still dark.
A film about the pilgrimage to Rome for the funeral of the Pope.
Dwarfs appeared in Poland in the 80s, painting over opposition slogans with their images. They organized happenings under “There is no freedom without dwarves,” contributing to the fall of communism. During Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, Polish dwarves supported it by traveling to Kyiv in an orange bus, bringing chocolate heads of candidates, orange ribbons, and a 15-meter scarf, which they draped around the election winner.
The extended television version of the film 83 Zlota Street, offering an expanded look at the various colourful characters introduced there.
Artur Zmijewski, a Polish artist born in 1966, explores social norms through films and photographs by creating unusual situations and documenting participants’ reactions. His work often addresses long-term trauma from historical and sociopolitical events, focusing on marginalized groups and popular beliefs. In “Sculpture Plein-air. Swiecie 2009,” Zmijewski organized workshops where Polish artists collaborated with steel workers in Swiecie to create public sculptures, inspired by 1960s collaborations in Elblag. This project questions the possibility of overcoming current social and political divides.
