ypsi~dixit

Polish Film Festival, right? Where? In the basement of the Michigan Theatre ... right?

Last I heard they had not yet picked a location. Last year it was in Lorch Hall.

I was impressed with the lineup. It sounded very interesting. They ask for only $12 per night for a whole night of films that you'd never see otherwise.

Those newsreel shorts sounded particularly interesting. There's also a number of feature films, but none too long.

Y. is going, to soak up these films.

I'll post the schedule tomorrow.

Polish Film Festival Program:

XIII Ann Arbor Polish Film Festival
November 17-18, 2006

Location /to be announced soon/

17 listopada (17 Nov.), 2006 – Piątek (Friday)

7:00 PM Polska Kronika Filmowa 25/50 (Polish News Reels), 1950, 10 min.
7:10 PM Z miasta Łodzi (From the City of Lodz), documentary, not rated, 1968, dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski, 17 min.
7:27 PM Fabryka (Factory), documentary, not rated, 1971, dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski, 17 min.
7:44 PM Rozmowa z Krzysztofem Kieślowskim (Encounter with Krzysztof Kieślowski), documentary, not rated, 1995, dir. Andreas Voigt, 45 min.
8:29 PM Dyskusja z Andreas’em Voigt’tem, reżyserem filmu (Discussion with Andreas Voigt, a film director)
9:00 PM Przerwa (Break)
9:15 PM Nasiona (The seeds), documentary, not rated, 2005, dir. Wojciech Kasperski, 28 min.
9:43 PM Komornik (The collector), drama, not rated, 2005, dir. Feliks Falk, 93 min.
11:16 PM Koniec pierwszego dnia festiwalu (The end of the first day of the Festival)

18 listopada (18 Nov.), 2006 – Sobota (Saturday)

5:00 PM Polska Kronika Filmowa 25/50 (Polish News Reels), 1950, 10 min.
5:10 PM Wszyscy byliśmy dziećmi (We all were children), documentary, not rated, 2006, dir. Marcel Łoziński, 57 min.
6:07 PM Przerwa (Break)
6:20 PM Mojej mamie i sobie (For My Mother and me), animation, not rated, 2000, dir. Mariusz Wilczyński, 3 min.
6:23 PM Allegro ma non troppo (Allegro ma non troppo), animation, not rated, 1998, dir. Mariusz Wilczyński, 3 min.
6:26 PM Czas przeszły (Times have passed), animation, not rated, 1999, dir. Mariusz Wilczyński, 4 min.
6:30 PM Szop, Szop, Szop, Szopę (Chop, Chop, Chop, Chopin), animation, not rated, 1999, dir. Mariusz Wilczyński, 13 min.
6:43 PM Wśród nocnej ciszy (In the Stillness of the Night), animation, not rated, 2000, dir. Mariusz Wilczyński, 3 min.
6:46 PM Śmierć na pięć (Death to Five), animation, not rated, 2002, dir. Mariusz Wilczyński, 4 min.
6:50 PM Z zielonego wzgórza (From the green hill), animation, not rated, 1999, dir. Mariusz Wilczyński, 6 min.
6:56 PM Niestety (Unfortunately), animation, not rated, 2004, dir. Mariusz Wilczyński, 14 min.
7:10 PM Dyskusja z Mariuszem Wilczyńskim, reżyserem filmów animowanych ((Discussion with Mariusz Wilczyński, an animation film director)
7:45 PM Przerwa (Break)
8:00 PM Jeden dzień w PRL (One Day in People's Poland), documentary, not rated, 2006, dir. Maciej J. Drygas, 52 min.
8:52 PM Przerwa (Break)
9:00 PM Jasminum (Jasminum), romantic comedy, not rated, 2006, dir Jan Jakub Kolski, 113 min.
10:53 PM Koniec (The end)

All films have English subtitles.

Organizers reserve the rights to change the festival program without any further announcement.

Opis filmów (Film descriptions):

Polska Kronika Filmowa 25/50 [Polish News Reels]
• Delegacja rządowa NRD w Polsce (Government representatives of German Democratic Republic visiting Poland)
• Walka ze stonką – artykuł w prasie „Samototy USA zrzucają stonkę ziemiaczaną na pola NRD (Struggle against - Colorado potato beetle – US aircrafts spread Colorado potato beetle over German Democratic Republic)
• Amublans jedzie na wieś – ruchomy dentystyczny gabinet (Ambulance runs to a village)
• Żołnierski zespół pieśni i tańca Armii Radzieckiej (Soviet Army Military Ensemble)
• Spotkanie piłkarskie Polska-Węgry (Poland-Hungary soccer match)
• Fabryka sieci rybackich (Factory of fishing nets)
• Zlot wolnej młodzieży niemieckiej w Berlinie – antyamerykańskie hasła na transparentach (Meeting of free German youths in Berlin – anti-American rally)

Z miasta Łodzi [From the City of Lodz], documentary, not rated, 1968, dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski, 17 min.
This is something like a school assignment from when Kieslowski was a film student in Lodz. It is a simple visual celebration of the passing of old Lodz (what was left of it from the war) as new buildings replace the old and new people replace the old. The old are really resentful at being displaced. This expresses itself in the music. The old people, long time workers at the factory, are upset because the factories traditional mandolin band is being, well, disbanded, to be replaced by pop music. Believe me when I tell you that the pop music, taking on all sorts of forms from the kind of euro rock derived from misheard American and British bands to rumba rhythms with corny lyrics. Really the old stuff was great and now its gone. The women of the factory are being pensioned off one by one and they're all reluctant to leave but leave they must. Of course Lodz is something of an interesting case. A village which was chosen to be the Manchester of the Russian empire it became known as The Promised Land because of the availability of work in the huge textile plants and became the second largest city in Poland. The Polish population was further shaken by the war and virtually no one lives where either their parents or grand parents lived. The turnover has be the one constant of this synthetically created place. Kieslowski is unable to display his nostalgia except reflected from the hard surface of this little gem.

Fabryka [Factory], documentary, not rated, 1971, dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski, 17 min.
You know, despite what you've seen in the movies, being a political activist, no less a communist activist, isn't all fun and games. What they are is an infinitely endless series of meetings. Here we have a bunch of managers and workers who run this particular factory discuss how they can improve their production and the quality of their product, both of which have been abysmal. They discuss this in front of Kieslowski's traditional fly-on-the-wall-documentary style camera. Each problem is traced back to its origin which inevitably involves an incredibly wrongheaded bureaucratic decision and subsequent directive with about as much touch with reality as Lewis Carol. At one point one worker refuses to include items built by another factory to inflate their quota because it would be dishonest. The big manager points out that the quotas are deliberately set too high and that it's expected that they would use outside products in their quota fulfillment. Incredible. Do the pipes still need to be insulated or are they merely inadequately lagged? It was a real, and ultimately insoluble problem of socialism. What should be a bottom up social system becomes a top down farce.

Several positive things can be distilled from this 1. As bad as things get at the factory everyone still has a job and is paid. (When management fails in capitalism, the managers get golden parachutes and the workers get 32 weeks of unemployment insurance.) 2. The factories really were self managing enterprises. It was as if the engine was working but the gears were slipping. 3. People really are sincere and trying to make the thing work, but what an absolute moralist might consider corruption, in socialism would be called realism by the older comrade who merely shrugs his shoulders and acknowledges that this is just the way things work. Or don't work. Still they're not totally cynical. They are going to meetings in the hope of getting everything right, only what should be a consciousness raising experience is ultimately deeply demoralizing. Multiply this by any number of times and you'll have the answer to why Communism fell.

A working day in the Ursus tractor factory. Shots of workers alternate with those of management board meeting. The factory cannot meet its production quota because there is a shortage of equipment, parts, and so on. Papers are sent out, licenses are applied for, numerous meetings held, but there seems to be no way out of the vicious network of misunderstandings and bureaucracy - the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing. As one of the board members says: 'the bureaucracy in this country hampers any solution.' Yet the workers still have to meet their quota.

Rozmowa z Krzysztofem Kieślowskim [Encounter with Krzystof Kieslowski] documentary, not rated, 1995, dir. Andreas Voigt, 45 min.
Conversation with Krzysztof Kieślowski regarding his art and life.

Nasiona [The seeds], documentary, not rated, 2005, dir. Wojciech Kasperski, 28 min.
Out of nowhere, somewhere in Siberia on the border to Kazachstan: a small village, a family bound together by a tragedy happened in the past. Father, mother and kids share the same history, yet they are neither able to speak about it nor trying to change and adopt their life to new circumstances. Emotionally and geographically disconnected and inability to communicate are obstacles to overcome that trauma. Violence, silence and frustration are the consequences influencing family life - no way out! This is an intimate, close look upon family life - an intimacy you would not wish to disclose. Why did they allow the filmmaker to come so close? Which message are we supposed to receive? And finally: do we believe it at all?
Visit also:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0806133/combined
http://www.filmpolski.pl/fp/index.php/4221410

Komornik [The collector], feature, not rated, 2005, dir. Feliks Falk, 93 min.
The film concerns a hard-nosed debt collector, Lucek, who mercilessly repossesses anything from difib machines from hospitals to a statue of the Virgin Mary, without remorse. But things invariably start to unravel for Lucek & an 'epiphany' turns him into a human being, despite everyone's doubts.

The film's turning point is heart-wrenching and the characters develop into rounded people, it just takes them a while! One area I had trouble with though was the soundtrack, which although was really good, didn't really suit the piece.
Visit also:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480163/
http://www.komornik-film.pl/ (in Polish)

Wszyscy byliśmy dziećmi [We all were children], documentary, not rated, 2006, dir. Marcel Łoziński, 57 min.
TBA

To learn more about Mariusz Wilczyński and his animations visit website:
http://www.wilkwilk.pl/

Mojej mamie i sobie [For My Mother and me], animation, not rated, 2000, dir. Mariusz Wilczyński, 3 min.

Allegro ma non troppo [Allegro ma non troppo], animation, not rated, 1998, dir. Mariusz Wilczyński, 3 min.

Czas przeszły [Times have passed], animation, not rated, 1999, dir. Mariusz Wilczyński, 4 min.

Szop, Szop, Szop, Szopę [Chop, Chop, Chop, Chopin], animation, not rated, 1999, dir. Mariusz Wilczyński, 13 min.

Wśród nocnej ciszy [In the Stillness of the Night], animation, not rated, 2000, dir. Mariusz Wilczyński, 3 min.

Śmierć na pięć [Death to Five], animation, not rated, 2002, dir. Mariusz Wilczyński, 4 min.

Z zielonego wzgórza [From the green hill], animation, not rated, 1999, dir. Mariusz Wilczyński, 6 min.

Niestety [Unfortunately], animation, not rated, 2004, dir. Mariusz Wilczyński, 14 min.

Jeden dzień w PRL [One Day in People's Poland], documentary, not rated, 2006, dir. Maciej J. Drygas, 52 min.
It is a basic feature of totalitarian regimes - whether they be of the ideological or religious variety - that they want to quash dissent. So it is no surprise that Poland, along with the other iron curtain countries, had a secret police and a network of informers which maintained surveillance on citizens who dared to criticize the government and the system. But not only that: in a system where all economic production and distribution was controlled by the government, those who broke economic rules - for example, selling a few bras in a shop from an unofficial source - also became "suspects". This film takes a typical day in 1962 and narrates the transcripts of secret police files about what "suspects" did: all so mundane as to be amusing. But the real nature of the "workers' paradise" - shortages of all commodities, shabby consumer goods and decaying infrastructure - is also superbly conveyed with a clever mix of historic film and TV footage with recreations. As well as secret police transcripts, there are also sad private letters narrated. In all it is a highly recommended film for anyone interested in 20th century history.
Visit also http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0794300/

Jasminum [Jasminum], romantic comedy, not rated, 2006, dir Jan Jakub Kolski, 113 min.
Kolski at his finest! it truly is a beautiful and heart warming story. Strongly recommend watching it to all you people who enjoy good stories, beautiful scenery and amazing light. Great Polish actors and of course- the little girl who, in my opinion, did a very good job-so natural and so cute! Grazyna Kolska, Janusz Gajos, Adam Ferency, Boguslaw Linda. If you know and respect them, you won't be disappointed, I guarantee. The title is Jasminum and you can almost smell all the fragrances throughout the whole movie.I went to see the movie with my girlfriend, not actually knowing the plot line or anything and we were both speechless after the show. Go see it, even if you are not Polish-this is just a truly beautiful picture.
Visit also: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0778749/
http://www.jasminum.pl/ (in Polish)