14-16 Aug at 7:30 pm
Summerhall (venue 26) / 1 Summerhall (EH9 1PL)
Tickets: £3/£2
Box office: 0845 874 3001
Duration: 1 hour
Age restrictions: none
Produced by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and directed by some of Poland's brightest talents in filmmaking, Guide to the Poles constituted one of the flagship projects of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council.
The documentary film series takes viewers on a remarkable cinematic journey to the roots of contemporary phenomena of freedom and creativity in Poland. In spite of prevailing stereotypes, the socialist era in Poland was not just about oppression, poverty and subjection. It was just as much a time of attaining tenable freedoms in unexpected areas of life.
photo by Tomek Sikora
Beats of Freedom (14 Aug)
Wojciech Słota, Leszek Gnoiński, 2010, 78 min
Beats of Freedom tells the story of rock music during the Communist era in the People's Republic of Poland through the eyes of Chris Salewicz, a British journalist of Polish heritage. It's a film about the sound that gave people a dose of freedom, about one of few aspects of everyday life that gave a bit of elbow room in an otherwise constrained society. It turned out that the 'Iron Curtain' wasn't quite as impenetrable as the authorities would have hoped and a number of major acts new to the international scene made their way over from the west. Legendary bands took the stage in Warsaw and Jarocin, such as The Rolling Stones, who played two concerts in April 1967 at the Palace of Culture's Congressional Hall - an event that became fixed in the collective musical memory for many decades following.
Andrzej Zawada, photo by Bogdan Jankowski
Art of Freedom (15 Aug)
Wojciech Słota, Marek Kłosowicz, 2010, 70 min
Art of Freedom answers the most poignant questions on the phenomenon of Polish Himalaism in the '70s and '80s. How is it possible that in the People's Republic Poland of the '70s and '80s, at the very cusp of socialism, Polish mountain climbers were the best in the world? How could the citizens of a nation in which the average pay was 20 dollars a month afford to organize climbing expeditions in the Himalayas? In what way did privation across every aspect of life influence their condition and their morale? What distinguished climbers from Poland from those from the other side of the "iron curtain"?
Political Dress (16 Aug)
Judyta Fibiger, 2011, 63 min
Political Dress shows how bright colours and home-made tailoring can serve as a personal weapon against an oppressive political regime. Can one's appearance be a manifestation of liberty? Director Judyta Fibiger's film, produced within the Guide to the Poles documentary series, takes a look at Poland's style evolution. From the hard-headed Stalinist era, when colorful socks could get you reprimanded by the militia, through a fascination with Parisian fashion in the '60s, the flower children of the '70s up through the martial law period and the punk-rock '80s.