"We are thrilled to be showcasing Polish films this year and welcoming a delegation of Polish filmmakers to the festival," says Hot Docs director of programming Charlotte Cook. "Poland’s contribution to documentary has been vast, and it’s a joy to be able to share the incredible new work coming from the country with our audience".
Polish films have featured in the festival's programme for several years and Bartek Konopka's Oscar-nominated Polish-German documentary Rabbit à la Berlin, the story of rabbits living in the grassy space of the Berlin Wall and their fate when communism and the wall were toppled, won the Best Mid-Length Documentary Award in 2009. Following the focuses from previous years since 2003 - Italy in 2011, Brazil in 2007 - the 2013 Hot Docs special Made In section features the newest documentaries from Poland.
Convicted murderers in Piotr Sułkowski's The Conversation who have been pen pals for eight years then lay eyes on each other for the first time; Wiktoria Szymańska's portrait. The Man Who Made Angels Fly, of one of the world’s greatest marionette masters who, at age 82, revisits his past by bringing his famous handcrafted puppets out of storage one last time; a seemingly aimless camera floating through people’s lives, which reflects the alienating, pervasive influence of technology on the everyday in Paweł Ziemilski's Rogalik. The ten Polish documentaries chosen for Made In's programme spare no effort in showing reality as it is - often beautiful, often scary and incomprehensible.
Dealing at first glance with seemingly similar topics - the need to escape "sick" West consumerist societies - the protagonists in films by Kamila Józefowicz and Michał Marczak carry two opposing views of life. "The system is all the time inventing things that we don’t need", says Argentinian artist Danna Arabahiana in Józefowicz's Galumphing. "You work 10 hours per day to buy things that you don’t need? It’s incredible". Danny, the hero in Michał Marczak's Fuck for Forest, also despises big corporations and doesn’t want to be part of the rat race. Danna escapes into nature and lives in a remote part of Brazil. Danny escapes into the Amazon too, but he does so by joining an NGO called Fuck for Forest whose members make pornographic material or have sex in public to raise money for worthy causes. Danna takes responsibility for the course of her life and is aware of the consequences of living far away from the luxuries of civilization. Danny perpetuates a Western stereotype - his carnal needs are met, he has a cause and is free from bourgeois conventions while running from reality, rebelling against consumerism while depending on the sale of sex. As part of Made in Poland, Marczak's green porn is listed in the Nightvision programme.
The focus on Poland at Hot Docs 2013 goes beyond screenings of documentaries. The Hot Docs Forum, a documentary filmmaking industry event bringing together producers, commissioning editors, film buyers, financing institutions, representatives of film funds and other professionals, held on the 1st and 2nd of May, will be attended by a delegation of Polish producers including representatives of the production companies Staroń Films, Wajda Studio, Hanna Polak Films, Metro Films, Endorfina Studio, and Otter Films, as well as the Krakow Film Foundation and TVP. The event is co-organized by the Polish Film Institute and the Consulate of Poland in Toronto. Polish producers will also take part in the Hot Docs Deal Maker programme, a feature introduced for the first time at this year's festival to explore a selection of 50 projects in development, production or post-production, and offer meetings with key decision-makers.
North America’s largest and one of the world's leading documentary festivals, conferences and markets, Hot Docs began in 1993. Presenting an outstanding selection of 205 documentaries from Canada and around the world, and welcoming over 2000 creators and producers, the 2013 edition marks Hot Docs 20th anniversary.
The lineup of the Made in Poland section features 10 Polish documentaries:
Galumphing, directed by Kamila Józefowicz;
Wirtualna wojna / Man at War, directed by Jacek Bławut;
Uwikłani / Entangled, directed by Lidia Duda;
Moja Wola / A Dream in the Making (alternative title My Wola), directed by Bartosz M. Kowalski;
Lalkarz / The Man Who Made Angels Fly, directed by Wiktoria Szymańska;
Uwolnić motyla / Free the Butterfly, directed by Joanna Frydrych;
Zabawki cesarza / Emperor's Toys, directed by Tomasz Gotfryd, Jarosław Moździerz, Joanna Rusinek, Joanna Wójcik, Grzegorz Wierzchowski;
Punkt wyjścia / Exit Point, directed by Jagoda Szelc;
Rogalik, directed by Paweł Ziemilski;
Rozmowa / The Conversation, directed by Piotr Sułkowski
For more information on the festival see: Hot Docs
Thumbnail credit: Still from Kamila Jozefowicz's "Galumphing", photo: Dwa Brzegi Festival
Sources: article by BS for culture.pl, Hot Docs website, PISF, Krakow Film Festival, Polish Docs
Editor: MJ, 11.04.2013