4. MIEDZYNARODOWE DNI FILMU DOKUMENTALNEGO "ROZSTAJE EUROPY" / The 4th International Days of Documentary Cinema "European Point of Divergence/Convergence" will take place in Lublin between April 9th and 13th. The festival will open with a screening of Grzegorz Linkowski's film MARSZ ZYWYCH / MARCH OF THE LIVING.
The 4th International Days of Documentary Cinema "European Point of Divergence/Convergence" are a competition for films focused within a limited subject area. Namely, the competition is open to works that touch upon issues of the coexistence of nations and cultures, with a particular emphasis on works that focus on the coexistence of various religions and cultures in border areas, and on the problems associated with this. Films scheduled for screening depict the reality that has arisen in the great "cauldron of nations" that inhabit Central and Eastern Europe.
Almost one hundred works have been submitted for competition this year. These hail from more than a dozen European countries, including Poland, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Lithuania, Great Britain and Switzerland. Entries include a handful of documentaries that have already succeeded in generating significant attention. Piotr Morawski's TAJNE TASMY SB / SECRET FILMS OF THE SECURITY SERVICE is a documentary created on the basis of recently found operational films of the Communist secret police that accidentally escaped being destroyed. Marek Pawlowski's ZAKAZANA MILOSC / FORBIDDEN LOVE is a film about the punishment that was inflicted upon a young Polish woman and German man who entered into an unlawful relationship during World War II in the Opole region of Silesia. This film was also created based on a recently rediscovered film that documents the methods used during World War II to punish those who entered into illicit affairs. In MAMA MASZA / MAMA MASHA, Michal Bukojemski follows the seven-year-long quest of a pair of Russian lesbians to adopt a child. Films have also been submitted by some of Poland's most outstanding filmmakers, including
Pawel Lozinski, Janusz Zaorski, Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz and Maciej Drygas. The festival will include a series of special screenings of films about the activities of
Tadeusz Kantor made by Krzysztof Miklaszewski, one of Kantor's actors.
The jury for this year's edition of the festival will be made up of Tadeusz Sobolewski, Maria Malatynska, Andrzej Brzozowski, Magda Lebecka and festival director Grzegorz Linkowski.
The Documentary Film Workshops that have been scheduled will be a first at this year's edition of the International Days of Documentary Cinema "European Point of Divergence/Convergence". Lead by Andrzej Titkow, the workshops will be held on the 9th and 10th of April and cover the following:
rapid instruction in film language, its singular grammar and vocabulary (what is a shot, types of shots, camera direction in editing, etc.), based on examples (more practical than theoretical knowledge); presentation of archival footage that participants will use as a basis for scripting a film; selection of subjects and protagonists for a film, selection of the manner in which their story will be told, i.e. how does one answer the two basic questions: what? (subject) and how? (form); discussion about the films that participants would like to make; discussion on the world that is reflected in Polish film; what is worth some attention, and why, and what is not; presentation of a handful of documentaries dating from various periods and analysis thereof.
The festival will be accompanied by an exhibition titled I WTEDY NAS WYWIEZLI / AND THAT IS WHEN THEY REMOVED US, composed of texts, photographs and sculptures devoted to the Polish and German populations that were forcibly resettled at the end of World War II. The exhibition's initiator is Vanya W. Ronge (cultural sociologist), who has brought together a group of people who focus on studying the Polish-German borderlands and related issues. The group includes columnists based in border areas, visual artists and historians. The exhibition reflects the group's desire to reread history, but to do so through the specific experiences of individuals. A debate about "Znaki tozsamosci europejskiej" / "Signs of European Identity," part of the "Przekraczac mury / "Rising Over Walls" series of public meetings, has been scheduled for Friday, April 11. Participants will include directors, critics and academics. On April 12th, participants of the festival will have an opportunity to attend a book promotion for Krzysztof Miklaszewski's KANTOR OD KUCHNI / KANTOR BACKSTAGE. This will be combined with a screening of the author's two films about the famous artist.
4. MIEDZYNARODOWE DNI FILMU DOKUMENTALNEGO "ROZSTAJE EUROPY" / The 4th International Days of Documentary Cinema "European Point of Divergence/Convergence"
ACK UMCS "Chatka Zaka" / "Chatka Zaka" Academic Cultural Centre UMCS
ul. Radziszewskiego 16, 20-031 Lublin
tel. (+48 81) 533 32 01
fax (+48 81) 533 58 41
http://www.rozstaje.ack.lublin.pl