SCREENINGS OF THE FILM "JUREK" IN THE USA AND CANADA
In recent months, the documentary film by Paweł Wysoczański has been successful at many international festival. Soon, the film "Jurek" will be shown during screenings in the United States and Canada.
On October 20, the film was shown at the Polish Film Festival in Los Angeles, where it got enthusiastic reviews of American critics. On October 24, a screening was held within the frames of Austin Polish Film Festival, as well as two screenings at Texas State University. At the end of the month, the film was also present at the University of Washington in Seattle.
"Jurek" was also included in the programme of the Mountain Film Festival in Banff, Canada, which began on October 31 and lasts until November 8. Then, the documentary film will be shown within the frames of the Ekran Polish Film Festival in Toronto. November ends with screenings of the film at the Polish Film Festival in America, and at the beginning of December, "Jurek" appears during a special screening in New York.
"Jurek" presents the story of Jerzy Kukuczka, who died on 24 October 1989 during the Lhotse expedition. It was the first time when we went to the Himalayas with money, equipment, and a a really famous person. The documentary by Paweł Wysoczański does not, however, concentrate on the mystery of the Himalayan mountaineer's death. It shows a person who climbs up, higher and higher - literally, but also metaphorically and symbolically. From a bootblack to a millionaire, from a socialist worker to an international media star, from the man who climbs without any money and equipment to the real competitor of Reinhold Messner in the competition to climb the Crown of the Himalayas and the Karakoram. Interviews with family and friends, archive materials, photographs, recordings, excerpts from television programmes and interviews make up the portrait of the Himalayan mountaineers in 1980s. It is also the image of the times in which they lived - hard and colourful at the same time, when idealism was more valued than fame.