19TH DOCS AGAINST GRAVITY FILM FESTIVAL
This year the festival adopted the magenta colour, like in the logo of its long-time sponsor Millennium Bank. There were pitchings of East European and Ukrainian films with their own prize. Polish documentaries vied to win 3 prizes: for the best film, for the best production and one funded by the Polish Association of Studio Cinemas for the best distribution potential. Guests from abroad included the long announced Sergei Loznitsa and Bill Morrison but Darren Aronofsky couldn't make it. Below comes a list of what directors of Polish films said about their offerings:
"Anioły z Sindżaru" ("Angels of Sinjar") - the director needed an interpreter since the protagonists spoke a language used only on the southern slope of Mt. Sinjar.
"Najgłośniej słychać milczenie" ("Silence Heard Loud") - about asylum seekers from Ghana, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia in London. About the indifference of Europe in their own words. One of the protagonists obtained his residence permit after 21 years.
"Silent Love" - about lesbians living in the Polish countryside.
"Bestie ze Złego" ("Beasts") - the film's about a special football club: for men and women. 464 tickets sold for the premiere, which took place on 4 screens, because they all wanted to come.
"Pisklaki" ("The Fledglings") - black and white about 6-7-year-old blind children.
"Simona" - on a woman who took care of wild animals, was a book author and on her shocking family story.
"Lot" ("Flight") - about artist Roman Stańczak. The film is by Łukasz Ronduda who had made 3 actors' movies on artists and performers before, including "Wszystkie nasze strachy" ("All Our Fears") - I had written about that film before, now he presented his first documentary. This one is about an alcoholic sculptor. Funding was easy to obtain owing to the artwork being an important exhibition in Zachęta. Robert Stańczak creates through destruction. The sculpture won the Venice Biennale. The destroyed plane joined liberals - familiar with the language of art and the Smoleńsk crowd.
"Lombard" ("The Pawnshop") - at the fair, coffins served as benches. Before the camera was switched on, it had taken a few months chatting with the protagonists. The community is supportive of one another. The hardest bits were cut out and left to be ambiguous. Wiesław wants to start up a disco in the new place.
LOMBARD (THE PAWNSHOP)
Recommended. A poverty-stricken district of Bytom in Silesia, Poland. Through both financial and personal problems of the shop staff and customers alike a portrait of the poor is painted: how hard they work for their daily bread and how simple little pleasures bring them joy. Touching and eye-opening.
PANI BASIA
Watchable. An actors' short film - 30-minute long - made to educate the society which in turn is meant to pressure politicians to fight smog. Engaging, with interesting pictures. But nothing you wouldn't have known about smog already. Cancer is in every other Polish drama too. And the idea behind it is like promoting taking a scenic route when running from fire. The final monologue sounds like some self-life-coaching gibberish.
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