POLISH FILMS AT THE 15TH MILLENIUM DOCS AGAINST GRAVITY FILM FESTIVAL
9 Polish films will be presented at the 15th Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival and 6 of them will have there their Polish premiere! You will have a chance to see "The Prince and the Dybbuk" which was awarded in Venice and Minsk and "Call Me Tony" awarded at IDFA and ZagrebDOX. In the festival's programme you can also find "Love Express. The Strange Case of Walerian Borowczyk", the story of the acclaimed artist and his connections with the erotic film market.
"The Prince and the Dybbuk" directed by Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski is a documentary journey following one of the most fascinating Polish filmmakers. Michał Waszyński – an extremely popular director in the pre-war Warsaw and an influential figure in European and American cinema. This mysterious filmmaker was a leading director in Poland before the war and later on a powerful member of Italian and Hollywood film industry. He worked with Orson Welles, Sophia Loren, Vittorio De Sica. Yet the most spectacular film he ever made was the story of his life. The film by Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski had its world premiere at the 74th Venice International Film Festival where it won the Venezia Classics award for best documentary film about cinema. "The Prince and the Dybbuk" was also awarded with a diploma in the documentary competition of the last year's International Film Festival in Minsk. Polish premiere of the film will take place on the first day of the Millennium Docs Against Gravity Festival, May 11th.
The winner of the Student Competition at IDFA which received special mention at ZagrebDOX "Call Me Tony" by Klaudiusz Chrostowskiego will be shown in Poland for the first time during this year's Millennium Docs Against Gravity. Chrostowski’s film is a story of a 18-year-old bodybuilder Konrad, who is desperately trying to get attention of his forever absent father. Chorostowski tries to capture this moment in life when everyone expects answers and all we have are questions.
Another film in the programme is "Love Express. The Strange Case of Walerian Borowczyk”, the story of the connections between high art, sexuality and cultural market told from the perspective of the career of the rebellious director and visual artist Walerian Borowczyk by people close to him and great cinema personalities inspired by his work. The film by Kuba Mikurda tries to answer the question how was it possible that this artist, adored by the critics and film festivals in the 1970s, 10 years later was sucked in by the erotic film market? The film in an original way portrays the twists of the sexual revolution and its consequences. The people taking part in the movie are not only Borowczyk's co-workers but also famous filmmakers and cinema theoreticians including: Terry Gillian, Bertrand Bonell, Neil Jordan, Andrzej Wajda, Patrice Leconte and Slavoj Žižek. "Love Express. The Strange Case of Walerian Borowczyk" was presented in 2017 at the MFF Karlovy Vary and will have its Polish premiere during the 15th Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival.
At this year's 15th Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival for the first time Polish audience will have a chance to see the latest project by Katarzyna Kozyra "Looking for Jesus". The starting point for the Kozyra's film was her fascination with so called Jerusalem syndrome. The people who suffer from it while visiting the Holy Land believe that they are the characters from the bible, most often the Messiah himself. The film is based on the recorded journeys the artist made to Jerusalem during which she talked to those who at the beginning of the 21st century believe they are Jesus.
The film that awaits its world premiere at Millennium Docs Against Gravity is "The Dragon Spring". The latest work of Jarosław Wszędybył is a film about passion and overcoming adversities. The protagonist, 25-year-old Paweł, dreams to one day become the coach of Arsenal F.C. Yet there is a long way ahead of him. For now, instead of his dreams, he has to deal with the harsh reality. As a beginning football coach in Poland, where the story takes place, Paweł has nothing to do with the fame of Arsenal. Quite the contrary, his first independent job he is able to find is to train Czerwone Smoki Brwinów (Red Dragons Brwinów), the worst football team in the whole country.
The 15th Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival will also present the films that Polish audience had already chance to see: "Photon" by Norman Leto, "In Absolute Silence" by Łukasz Środek, "Tourists" by Mateusz Romaszkan and Marta Wójtowicz-Wcisło and "I Can Come to You in Your Dreams" by Wiktoria Szymańska, Juan Pablo Ramirez and Patrycja Lewandowska.
The 15th Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival will take place May 11-20 in Warsaw and Wroclaw, May 13–21 in Lublin and May 16-25 in Gdynia. The local edition of the festival will also take place in Bydgoszcz May 19–26. See you there!