Born to a Polish father and a British / Canadian mother, Bednarski spent his childhood in the small Atlantic city of Halifax in Canada, where much of his mother’s family once lived. He first visited Poland at the age of three. His father, Leszek Bednarski, left Warsaw with a single suitcase in 1960. Bednarski cites his father as deeply influencing his later fascination with both Warsaw and Poland.
Throughout his teenage years Bednarski developed a deep interest in history and filmmaking. He studied Polish history at York University in Toronto, graduating with an M.A. in 2002. He then coupled his passion for history with film by enrolling at the European Film College in Ebeltoft, Denmark where he specialised in documentary film. In 2002 Bednarksi worked with Polish documentary filmmaker Paweł Woldan for several months as an assistant on "Jestem Gotowy Na Wszystko" / "I’m ready for everything": a historical documentary for Polish television (TVP1). The Film deals with the life of well-known Polish priest and Solidarity activist Jerzy Popieluszko, murdered by the Communist regime's secret police in 1984. Woldan and Bednarski were to reunite in 2005 on another film for Polish television called "Ostatni Swiadek" / "The Last Witness".
In 2003 Bednarski was awarded a European Film Institute Internship with Austrian film director Paul Rosdy, with whom he collaborated in 2004 in Vienna.
Many of the films Bednarski has since produced have held a strong connection to Warsaw. He has commented that:
Having been born and raised in Canada, I was always aware of a great ignorance of Poland and its history in North America. I’ve tried to make films which will hopefully educate non-Poles a little about Poland through my exploration of some of the remarkable stories connected with the country. I am certainly drawn to Polish history and culture, and I think as a Canadian I have a unique perspective on all that. I have also tried to make films that people in Poland can get something out of. Countless residents of Warsaw, for example, have told me they had no idea about the story of MDM
Bednarski explains his moving to Warsaw as inevitable. Both his grandparents and his architect father lived in the Polish capital. He also describes growing up in a household with a father who lived through the horrors of the Second World War as having had a "profound effect".
Bednarski's interest in Varsovian culture includes, in particular, architecture and the changing urban fabric. From his early childhood he possessed a marked fascination with history, and in his film work he also works extensively with archive materials, including photographs, and archive film footage.
A project of particular importance for Bednarski was "The Strangest Dream" which focuses on the life of Nobel Prize laureate Sir Joseph Rotblat, a Warsaw-born physicist. It tells the story of a small Canadian village, Pugwash, where Rotblat and other leading scientists met during the height of the Cold War. The film highlights the fact that Sir Joseph Rotblat's work, which won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995, remains relatively unknown- even to Poles themselves.
Since 2003 Bednarski has been collaborating with the National Film Board of Canada. Collaboration with the NFB led to work with producer Kent Martin, whom Bednarski credits with enabling him to collaborate with many acclaimed Polish and Canadian cinematographers and editors.
Bednarski’s current projects include "Neon" and "A City Divided". The first film, currently in post-production, tells the story of Warsaw Communist era neon signs: the context in which they came about, the people and places connected with them, and the many meanings they have acquired since they were created.
"A City Divided" tells another story of Warsaw: from its origins as a multicultural city of different faiths to its transformation into occupied terrain. The film will particularly focus on the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto.
Bednarski has been working between Poland and Canada since 2003. He is a fan of Kieslowski’s early documentaries and the film "Rabbit à la Berlin" directed by Bartosz Konopka and Piotr Rosołowski.
Filmography:
"The Strangest Dream"
Canada, 2008 - 90 minutes / Produced by the National Film Board of Canada
The story of Polish Physicist and University of Warsaw graduate Sir Joseph Rotblat and the role of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs to halt nuclear proliferation and bring about disarmament.
The film moves from the site of the first nuclear test to Cairo, where Pugwash scientists meet under the cloud of nuclear proliferation, as well as Hiroshima, where the first atomic bomb was dropped.
The film features interviews with Rotblat's contemporaries, members of the Pugwash movement and passionate public figures.
"The Last Witness" / "Ostatni Świadek"
Canada/Poland, 2005 – 57 minutes / Co-Produced with Pado Studio Film & Telewizja Polska S.A.
Based on the book "In the Shadow of Katyn", The Last Witness tells Dr. Stanisław Swianiewicz’s remarkable story of survival against all odds, and fight for justice.
As one of the thousands of Polish officers and political prisoners rounded up by the NKVD (Soviet Secret Police) after the invasion of Poland by the U.S.S.R in September of 1939, he was the only officer to not have been killed at the Katyn massacre. There, 4,000 other Poles were executed by the Soviets and hastily buried in mass graves.
The truth about Katyn and other mass executions which claimed the lives of some 20,000 Poles could not be told for many years. Only since the end of the Cold War have full details of the massacres and of the half-century of Soviet cover-up begun to emerge.
"MDM"
Canada/Poland, 2005 – 37 minutes
MDM explores the relationship between architecture and ideology by focusing on one Warsaw neighbourhood.
The Marszalkowska Housing District was one of the first and most famous of Poland's 1950s Socialist-Realist housing developments. Conceived on a monumental scale as a model of socialist planning and an architectural showpiece for the new Soviet-backed Communist regime, it rose up from the ruins of a city almost completely destroyed in World War II.
Architects, planners and urban and cultural historians evoke the controversies surrounding MDM’s conception and construction. They examine the changing meanings that have attached to it over the years, and its place in the Warsaw of today.
"Postcard from Auschwitz"
Canada/Poland, 2003 – 16 minutes
On the 19th of January, 1942, in Nazi occupied Poland, Mieczysław (Mietek) Bednarski, an officer in the Polish resistance, was arrested in Warsaw. He would spend the next nine months in Nazi custody, six of them in the concentration camp of Auschwitz.
In this historical documentary, based on excerpts of the diary Bednarski wrote after being released, a wartime story is told, and the phenomenon of correspondence from Auschwitz is evoked.
Awards/ Distinctions:
In November 2010 Bednarski received the prestigious Gemini Award for work on his film "The Strangest Dream". The Gemini Awards, handed out by the Canadian Academy of Cinema and Television, awarded both Bednarski and co-writer Barry Cowling in the category of Best Writing in a Documentary Program or Series
"The Strangest Dream" also received a special UN screening in May 2009 in New York. The film marked the opening day of the Third Session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2010 NPT (Non-proliferation Treaty) Review Conference. It was screened for an audience of NGOs from over 60 organizations and representatives from 192 member states. "The Strangest Dream" also had a smaller screening at the European Parliament in April of the same year.
Author: Jessica Savage-Hanford, September 2011