The films were shown at the Agnes B. cinema studio in the Hong Kong Arts Centre. The event was arranged by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society as part of the second season of the HKIFF Cine Fan programme.
The review of Polish cinema was a continuation of cooperation between the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the HKIFF, following the large presentation of Polish film at the Festival in 2012, as well as the Has – Beyond The Master retrospective organised in autumn 2013 during the first HKIFF Cine Fan programme. The shows were attended by a special guest from Poland – animator Wojtek Wawszczyk, who met the audience and gave a lecture about Polish animation.
The Hong Kong Film Festival, acting as an independent non-profit organization since 2005 (Hong Kong International Film Festival Society Limited), is one of the oldest and the most prestigious film festivals in Asia. Due to its status as Hong Kong's biggest cultural event, it’s a perfect platform for promoting films and artists.
The animations presented included artists such as Jan Lenica, Walerian Borowczyk, Zbigniew Rybczyński, Witold Giersz, Kazimierz Urbański, Daniel Szczechura, Stefan Schabenbeck, Piotr Dumała, Marek Serafiński and Ryszard Czekała. The audience had an opportunity to see some of the most renowned and characteristic Polish animations, such as Zbigniew Rybczyński’s Tango from 1979 and Julian Antonisz’s How a Sausage Dog Works from 1971.
Animations by Julian Józef Antonisz still receive tremendous applause from audiences even 20 years after the director’s death. Julian Józef Antonisz (real name: Antoniszczak), an animated film director, screenwriter, and author of art essays, was born in 1941 in Nowy Sącz and died in Lubień near Myślenice in 1987. As a director, he debuted in 1967. From 1977, he created films without using a camera. He rejected traditional methods and instead used a technique based on painting, writing with a marker pen and ink on the tape, and even burning and scratching it.
The show also featured the latest animations made after 2000 by authors such as Grzegorz Koncewicz, Jerzy Kucia, Marek Skrobecki, Wojtek Wawszczyk and Kamil Polak.
Organizer: HKIFF Cine Fan
Partner: Culture.pl
Source: press materials, culture.pl, ed. km, transl. szm, September 2014