| Theatre Cinema / February 2012 |
 Marcel Łoziński Polish School of Documentary Venue: Cinema Room, Rynek-Ratusz 27 Admission free Films in Polish with English subtitles In February Theater Cinema will present a programme of films by Marcel Łoziński, a film director, one of the most internationally acclaimed Polish documentary makers, winner of many film festivals such as Oberhausen, Cracow, San Francisco and Leipzig, and prestigious film awards including the 1995 Polityka Passport for film, 1995 Culture Foundation’s Award, 2000 Minister of Culture and National Heritage Award, the Jańcio Wodnik Award at the 11th Prowincjonalia Polish Film Festival in Września, and the Andrzej Wajda Freedom Prize at the 2004 International Film Festival in Berlin. Nominated for Oscar in 1994 for the documentary 89 mm from Europe. Thursday 2 February, 6pm Happy end written and directed together with Paweł Kędzierski, 1972, 16’ Originally planned as a documentary record of a communist party meeting, Happy End ended up a psychodrama echoing back to Polish March 1968. Although not officially shelved by government censors, the film was only shown at the Cracow Short Film Festival and in film clubs across the country. The King 1974, 7’ Portrait of a perfect conformist: a man who made a living sewing uniforms for German officers during the Second World War, made uniforms for the officers of the Polish People’s Army after the war, and now runs a café and lives the life of a king. The Visit 1974, 16’ Marta Wesołowska, a Polityka journalist, and Erazm Ciołek, a photojournalist, visit Urszula Flis, a young single woman running a farm on her own. Unlike most villagers, Ms Flis takes a keen interest in culture and corresponds with writers. Łoziński revisited the woman 24 years later, in 1998, in So It Doesn’t Hurt. Front Collision 1975, 11’ A documentary about a railwayman who caused a railway accident six months before his retirement, ruining his otherwise impeccable professional record. The Touch 1978, 13’ Famous healer Clive Harris comes to Warsaw. Matriculation 1978, 17’ Matriculation is a documentary about secondary school exams in History and a subject called Introduction to Social Science and Civics. Students were filmed in the exam room, where they dutifully recited propagandist slogans, and in the corridor, where they poked fun at them. Thursday 9 February, 6pm How to Live 1977, 82’ Documentary feature, with actors. A model family contest is held at a Union of Polish Socialist Youth camp for young couples. Unbeknown to the camp participants and the camp manager, there are two couples in the midst who are actors, their behaviour stirring up conflicts about compliance to the strict rules of the contest. Thursday 16 February, 6pm
Microphone Test 1980, 19’
Practice Exercises 1984, 12’ My Place 1985, 14’
89 mm from Europe 1993, 11’ Thursday 23 February, 6pm Anything Can Happen 1995, 39’ A story about life and death featuring Łoziński’s six-year-old son, Tomaszek, and some elderly people relaxing on the benches of a Warsaw park. Riding by on his scooter, Tomaszek asks the old people some amazingly adult questions; they, in turn, are eager to provide answers. The film juxtaposes the way a small boy, standing at the threshold of life, imagines his future with the perspective of those facing the end of life’s journey. So It Doesn’t Hurt 1998, 47’ A sequel to The Visit, filmed 24 years later. This time it is Gazeta Wyborcza journalist Agnieszka Kublik and, again, photojournalist Erazm Ciołek who show up at Urszula Flis’s solitary farm. The film explores solitude, a lost (or won?) life and the acceptable limits of filmmakers’ interference in the life of a documentary protagonist. Ms Flis draws the line saying ‘Let it not hurt’. Contact: Aneta Kurek, aneta@grotowski-institute.art.pl |