POLISH DOCUMETARY DAYS

Borzecka, Blawut, Hugo-Bader, Lozinski, Pacek, Slawinska, Zmarz-Koczanowicz. These names, which are so hard to pronounce, are those of the major filmmakers in the polish documentary cinema of recent years. And the works they directed are just as important.

For the five works cycle ‘Our national census’, Poland had chosen five directors who had already proved to be capable of looking at things with a careful and delicate eye, of describing reality without affecting its frale nature, without interfering with it nor erasing it. Yet, this time their task was particularly hard, as they had not chosen the topic theirselves, they weren’t focusing on an issue which had caught their attention for a particular reason: the subject of their work had been simply given to them as if it was some kind of a homework. How could an artist be happy with this?
Nevertheless, a national census can offer a very special and fertile framework for a documentary: being such a rare and extraordinary event, it always stimulates many reflections. If, for example, we all tend to weigh the pros and cons of our own lives as each New Year approaches, a State would do this with the lives of all its inhabitants each time it carries out a national census. It would gather data, plot them down, study and analyse the situation, make hypothesis and prove them true or false.

And the natural question that raised is: is this the best way to understanding something of the lives of Polish people? Perhaps they could tell us more than just figures, tables, questions and answers - maybe with the help of a cup of coffee, and in ways that may not be that straightforward. The five documentaries that will be screened at the Festival are based on the recordings of interviews carried out during the census. The camera caught a picture of all of those things which one could never list or file, it was there when people, rather than giving an answer or two, told their stories, it went where the real lives of people are, with all their qualities and their limits.
The other two films that will be screened represent another attempt of ‘recording’ reality, a reality which may be bitter and desperate or make you laugh till you cry. ‘Born dead’ draws a picture of a whole landscape using one single character, whereas ‘Pekin Zlota 83’ uses many characters to describe one single place. The first could have been shot anywhere, the second is typically Polish. We are extremely glad that these two works have attracted the attention of the Festival organizers.

Julia Zabojszcz,
Polish Institute of Rome