"THE SYMPHONY OF THE URSUS FACTORY" WINS AT THE PROVINZIALE
The film by Jaśmina Wójcik was chosen as the best documentary film at the German PROVINZIALE Filmfest Eberswalde.
The PROVINZIALE – Filmfest Eberswalde is a festival at which interesting documentary, short and animated films are presented. The event has been held for 16 years in Eberswalde, Germany, and it enjoys considerable popularity among cinema enthusiasts.
The award-winning "The Symphony of the Ursus Factory" by Jaśmina Wójcik is a creative documentary which introduces to the film the methods of participatory art and the art with the community. It is also a film which combines video art with choreography and experimental music. Most of all, however, it is a voice in favour of commemorating the Ursus factory, the culture of the industry and the workers, fighting for the dignity of working people and the politics of memory which takes into account their biographies.
The Ursus factory was one of the largest tractor production plant in Europe. For nearly the entire twentieth century, it was the pride of the Polish industry. The fall of communism was the beginning of its end. Today, the halls of Ursus are empty or fall into disrepair. Tens of thousands of the biographies of people who worked here were consigned to the dustbin of history. The artists (Jaśmina Wójcik, Igor Stokfiszewski, Rafał Urbacki, Dominik Strycharski, Jakub Wróblewski) invited the former employees of the plant: the workers, the technologists, the managers and the secretaries to participate in an experimental documentary film, which would bring the factory back to life once again. The former employees, using their memories of body and sounds, reconstruct one day of work at the plant. This is how the extraordinary symphony of the Ursus factory is born.
This year's edition of the festival was held from the 12th to the 19th of October.
You can find more information about the PROVINZIALE on the official website of the event.