The famous Battu’s Bioscope – a story about an Indian cinema on wheels, which in Europe is a forgotten relict of the bygone era of the indoctrinating cinema-fication, originated from the fascination with a culture founded on Bollywood – even before the West became infatuated with that genre. Reed Dance was supposed to portray the last absolute monarch in Africa, and instead became a touching story about Swaziland – an impoverished country ravaged by the AIDS epidemic. The documentation for the film on the carnival in Rio lasted about ten years, without the certainty that it would ever see a completion, which ended up happening, as the director admits, almost by coincidence.
A thorough documentation, topic appealing to broad audiences, a surprising perspective – these are the premises of Andrzej Fidyk’s artistic credo, which often brings unexpected results. One example of the latter is the conclusion of the Belarusian Waltz – a scrutiny of the phenomenon of the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who rigs every election, even though he would easily win without that. Another one is the touching climax of Yodok Stories – a documentation of a musical, which the escapees of a contemporary concentration camp in Yodok, North Korea, staged upon Fidyk’s encouragement.
Nonetheless, Fidyk’s merit for Polish documentary film goes far beyond his own output. In 1996, he became the head of the documentary department of Polish Television, which was related to a change in the approach to public television as a production unit. Fidyk led to a situation wherein documentary, thus far treated instrumentally by the policymakers, became a medium not so much aimed at observation of reality, but responding to the audience’s expectations. Furthermore, he managed to permanently introduce two interesting series to TV programming: Czas Na Dokument (Time for Documentary), dedicated to the achievements of Polish filmmakers, and Miej Oczy Szeroko Otwarte (Keep Your Eyes Wide Open), showcasing films produced outside of Poland. As a producer, he supported the realization of such loud – and controversial – films as Arizona by Ewa Borzęcka and Ballada o Lekkim Zabarwieniu Erotycznym (A Ballad with a Slight Erotic Tinge) by Jerzy Morawski and Irena Morawska, and he also introduced documentary telenovelas to the Polish television repertoire – this genre guaranteed the Polish documentary a viewership of over ten per cent, an exceptional achievement in Europe. As the head of the documentary section, Fidyk was nominated for the TV industry's most prestigious award, the Wiktor, twice (in 1998 and 2002).
