Spotlight On Polish Cinema

By Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

Poland has had an active film industry since the beginning of the 20th century and continues to be one of the most active players on the Eastern European film scene. Having produced such acknowledged film masters as Roman Polanski, Andrzej Wajda, Agnieszka Holland, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Jan Lenica, Lech Majewski and Jerzy Skolimowski, the Polish film scene has flourished, even under the strict demands of 40 years of Communist rule. As the economic dynamo of the “new Europe” and host country to the world-renowned Lodz International Film School, a new generation of filmmakers is now emerging.


American audiences have an opportunity to discover these new talents-in-the-making at the New York Polish Film Festival, which runs from May 9 to 13 at the Anthology Film Archives, one of New York’s most committed film showcases. For the fourth time, the Festival is presenting a fascinating program featuring some of the most interesting, exciting and diverse feature, short and documentary films from Poland.

One of the Festival’s highlights occurred on Sunday evening, with the premiere at the prestigious Museum of Modern Art of Katyn, the Oscar-nominated film by film master Andrzej Wajda. The film is a recreation of one of the most shocking incidents of World War II, when Soviet soldiers slaughtered thousands of Polish officers and citizens in the forests of Katyn. A story that could not be told during the Communist regime, Wajda brings all the drama of the incident and its aftermath in an impressive sweep of historical importance. The special screening was introduced by Dr. Annette Insdorf, Director of Undergraduate Film Studies at Columbia University and a noted writer and film critic who has written several books on films that chronicle the Holocaust.


Among the festival's films are: Savior's Square by Krzysztof Krauze and Joanna Kos-Krauze, which won Best Picture honors at the Gdynia Film Festival; Immensity of Justice by Wieslaw Saniewski; Jasminum by Jan Jakub Kolski; Extrasby Michal Kwiecinski; Tricks by Andrzej Jakimowski, which won the Best Film prize at the Miami Film Festival; Time To Die by Dorota Kedzierzawska; Tomorrow We Are Going To The Movies, which won the Best Debut film prize at the Gdynia Film Festival; Preserve by Lukasz Palkowski; and SSummer Love by Piotr Uklanski, a Polish Western (imagine that) that had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival. A short film or documentary accompanies each feature.

Most of the Festival’s are award-winners in Poland and abroad but have never been seen in the United States. Leading Polish directors, actors and young filmmakers are participating in the festival, using the opportunity to present their work with audiences and to perhaps find American distributor interest. New York is home to a large Polish community so there is a strong core audience interested in films that explore Polish history and contemporary culture.
The producer of the festival is Hanka Hartowicz Productions FILMART, which has introduced Polish films to the American public at special programs at various institutions, including the first American retrospective of the films of Jerzy Skolimowski at the Anthology Film Archives last December. .

The New York Polish Film Festival is co-organized by the Association of Polish Filmmakers, with support from the Polish Film Institute, the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York, and the Kosciusko Foundation. Plans are in place to do a touring program of the films, giving national audiences a chance to discover these blazing new talents. For more information on the Festival, visit their website: www.nypff.com

New York Salutes Godard In The 1960s

By Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

This May marks a milestone in recent world history. It is the 40th anniversary of the “events of 1968”, a series of revolutionary protests that spanned the globe and created social and political turmoil, particularly in the United States, England and France. While the protests centered on the escalating war in Vietnam, the main engine was a discontent with politics as usual. In France, in particular, art mixed with politics, as leading filmmakers, artists and philosophers led the charge and envisioned a proletarian state where artists, students, workers and intellectuals would fight side by side for basic human rights. The protests even reached into the vaulted ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival, stopping the proceedings for the first and only time in the Festival’s sixty plus year history.


One of the key “artistic agitators” of the period was the director Jean-Luc Godard, whose prolific films of the decade were the most accurate depiction of both the promise and the doomed fatalism of the period. To mark the “events of 1968”, the Film Forum, New York’s most progressive arthouse complex, is screening a milestone five-week program devoted to Jean-Luc Godard, which began this past weekend with Godard’s breakthrough film, Breathless, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg.

Godard famously said of the films of this period that they “should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.” That anarchic attitude is reflected in most of his films of the decade. Throughout the 1960s, cinephiles eagerly awaited the latest film — or two— by Jean-Luc Godard, a founding father of the nouvelle vague. The former film critic for “Cahiers du Cinema” was the most innovative and prolific of his contemporaries, with each new work seemingly rewriting the grammar of film. Jump cuts, asynchronous soundtracks, self-narration, cinema as essay, cinema as collage, self-referential cinema, cinema of anarchy — you name it, Godard’s 60s oeuvre redefined “cutting edge” — and, with location and available-light shooting, now provides a near-documentary time capsule of Paris in those years.

Godard spawned a new kind of movie star, as well, with such New Wave icons as Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, and Anna Karina, the latter doubling as the director’s muse through seven film collaborations and a rocky four-year marriage. Forty years after the tumultuous events of May ’68, one can almost see the chaos coming through the satire and social criticism in Godard’s chronicles of “the children of Marx and Coca-Cola.” For this pivotal decade, Godard was a seminal force in redrawing the map of film.

Among the films to be shown over the next five weeks at the Film Forum are Breathless (1959), Le Petit Soldat (1960), A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Les Carabiniers (1963), A Married Woman (1964), Band of Outsiders (1964), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot Le Fou (1965), Two Or Three Things I Know About Her (1966), Made In U.S.A. (1966), Masculine Feminine (1967), La Chinoise (1967), Weekend (1967), Vivre Sa Vie (1968), Le Gai Savoir (1969) and his documentary on the Rolling Stones, Sympathy For The Devil (1968). This is an astonishing output for any filmmaker, and indicates how Godard felt that his films were almost newsreels or “reports from the front lines”. In total, it presents us with a daring and provocative look at the Parisian scene and the revolutionary spirit unfolding in the French capital in those moody, melodramatic and mythical days.

Strong European Showing At 2008 Tribeca Film Festival Awards

By Sandy Mandelberger, North American Editor

Following a packed 10-day marathon of film screenings, industry events, seminar panels and chic parties, the Tribeca Film Festival ended this past weekend with the announcement of the winners of the juried awards in several categories. The World Competition winners were chosen from 12 narrative and 12 documentary features from 18 countries. Two awards were also given to honor New York films, which were chosen from seven narrative and nine documentary features. Awards were also given for the best narrative, best documentary and student visionary films in the Shorts competition.


European films figured strongly in the winners’ circle. The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature was given to Let The Right One In (Lat den rätte komma in) by Swedish director Tomas Alfredson. Novelist John Ajvide Linquit adapted his best-seller to tell the beautifully touching tale of the first romance of 12-year-old Oskar and the girl next door, Eli….who also happens to be a vampire. The jury commented that the film was exceptional “for its mesmerizing exploration of loneliness and alienation through a masterful reexamination of the vampire myth.” Director Tomas Alfredson receives a cash prize of $25,000 plus the art award "Maternal Nocture: Clearing Storm” created by Stephen Hannock. The film has a North American distribution in place, with Magnet Releasing, the specialty arm of Magnolia Pictures.

Winner of the Best New Narrative Filmmaker prize is Turkish director Huseyin Karabey for the film My Marlon And Brando. The film, a co-production with The Netherlands and the UK, is a cross-cultural love story between a Turkish actress living in Istanbul and a Kurdish actor living in Iraq. The story is set on the eve of the American invasion and spins a unique take on the “Romeo And Juliet” legend with contemporary references. The jury praised the film for “its skillful blending of documentary style with a classic love story.” The film had its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival. The director receives a cash prize of $25,000, sponsored by American Express, and the art award “Bonfire,” created by Ross Bleckner.

Best Actor honors were shared by Thomas Turgose and Piotr Jagiello, the teenage protagonists of the UK drama Somers Town, directed by Shane Meadows. Turgose plays a lad from the British Midlands who strikes up an unlikely friendship with Jagiello, who plays a Polish refugee living with his construction worker father in a working class neighborhood of London. The jury was impressed with the twin actors’ “extraordinary and exhilarating rendering of a friendship found”. The prize, sponsored by Delta Air Lines, gives each winner a business elite ticket voucher for anywhere Delta travels.

Eileen Walsh, a haunting Irish actress, won Best Actress honors for “her exquisite rendering of a lonely wife aching to be seen and heard” in director Declan Recks’ Eden. The film takes a frank look at the slow disintegration of a marriage during the week a couple celebrates their 10th anniversary. Adapted from Eugene O’Brien’s award-winning play, the film’s use of closeups and intimate editing only enhances its emotional impact. The actress receives two business elite ticket vouchers for anywhere Delta travels.

The Best New Documentary Filmmaker is Spanish director Carlos Carcas for the film Old Man Bebo. The film, which had its world premiere at the Malaga Film Festival in Spain, tells the story of Bebo Valedes, the greatest living Cuban musician who was one of the inventors of the mambo, who turns 90 this year. The joyful portrait film mixes archival footage with contemporary interviews and performance segments to offer a celebration of the man and his music. Director Carlos Carcas receives $25,000 cash, sponsored by American Express, and the art award “Maquette for Primary Compass,” created by Don Gummer.

The sole non-European filmmaker in the winners’ circle is American director Gini Reticker for her moving documentary film Pray The Devil Back To Hell. Winning the Best Documentary Feature prize for “its moving portrait of the women of Liberia, who show us how community, motherly love and perseverance can change the fate of a society.” The film, which had its world premiere at the Festival, wins for director Gini Reticker a cash award of $25,000 and the art award “Liza Minnelli,” created by Timothy White.

The Tribeca Film Festival has long demonstrated its support for local film talents. When it began, it hosted a separate “Made In New York” competition category. That has since been dropped, but the Festival still makes a point of honoring New York filmmaking talents through its New York Loves Film Award. This year’s documentary winners was Zoned In, a documentary by Daniela Zanzotto that traces the remarkable journey of a Bronx high schooler to an Ivy League university, with trenchant comments on the role of race and class in the American education system. Director Zanzotto receives a cash prize of $5000, sponsored by New York State Governor's Office for Motion Picture and Television Development, and the art award “Table Odeon,” created by Donna Ferrato.

Winner of the Best New York Feature was The Caller, directed by Richard Ledes. Acting veterans Frank Langella and Elliot Gould star, respectively, as an energy business executive, who is assisted by a private investigator in his effort to expose his corporation's corrupt practices. The jury hailed the film’s “superb use of its New York locations – from the sleek mid-town high-rises to the desolate Brooklyn Bridge piers – to create a chilling and finally stirring suspense movie; an unusual thriller whose mysterious plot finally exposes the mysteries of the heart.” The filmmakers receive a cash award of $5,000, sponsored by The City of New York Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, and the art award “Nude on Guitar” created by Ralph Gibson. Prize winning short films included Best Boy (Steph Green), Mandatory Service (Jessica Habie) and Elephant Garden (Jessica Habie).

The Cadillac Award was given to the documentary War Child, directed by C. Karim Chrobog. The American film, which had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, was voted on by Festival audiences. War Child tells the story of hip-hop artist Emmanuel Jal, a veteran of the 20-year civil war in southern Sudan. First-time filmmaker Chrobog follows Jal as he returns to Sudan for the first time in 18 years to reunite with his family, including the father who summoned him to war and then abandoned him. Now in his 20s, Jal is using his music to raise awareness about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sudan and the plight of child soldiers throughout the world. The director receives a cash prize of $25,000 and the art award “Peripheral Drift Illusion” created by Ryan McGinness.

The Festival, in presenting over 120 films from 40 countries around the world, gave its loyal audiences the chance to check the pulse of world cinema and to be introduced to the amazing stories of both real and fictional people from many different cultures. It is often said that New York is the center of the world (perhaps an overinflated statement) but for the past 10 days, the world was certainly on display in all its glory and complications for New York audiences to savor, absorb and learn from. Aside from all the glitz and the industry buzz, that could ultimately be the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival’s most important legacy.