NOVEMBER FESTIVALS

Prob­a­bly the most im­por­tant doc­u­men­tary film fes­ti­val in No­vem­ber, is the IDFA fes­ti­val held in Am­s­ter­dam. This year at IDFA, Poland will be rep­re­sented by four ti­tles: "Every­thing is Pos­si­ble" by Lidia Duda is tak­ing part in the Mid-​Length Doc­u­men­tary Com­pe­ti­tion, while "Our Curse" by Tomasz Śliwiński is going to ap­pear in the com­pet­i­tive sec­tion ded­i­cated to stu­dent films. In the non-​competitive screen­ings, the view­ers will be able to see Matej Bo­brik’s "A Visit" and "Lead­ers" by Paweł Fer­dek. An ad­di­tional Pol­ish touch will be the film „Drill Baby Drill” di­rected by Lech Kowal­ski and pro­duced in France.

With the be­gin­ning of No­vem­ber, two fes­ti­vals have begun: the Span­ish Mi­radas­Doc and  Listapad held in Be­larus. The pro­gram­mers of the fes­ti­val in Minsk in­vited Paweł Łoziński’s  "Fa­ther and Son" to the com­pe­ti­tion, and the films "Man at War" by Jacek Bławut, as well as "Sur­vive Afghanistan" by Małgorzata Imiel­ska were in­vited to the non-​competitive sec­tion rep­re­sent­ing the Krakow Film Fes­ti­val pro­file. Four Pol­ish pro­duc­tions have been listed for the com­pet­i­tive sec­tion of the Mi­radas­Doc fes­ti­val, held on the Ca­nary Is­lands, in­clud­ing: Diana Aszyk’s "God’s Lake", "Dream of San Juan" by Joaquin del Paso and Jan Paweł Trza­ska, "My House With­out Me" by Mag­dalena Szymków and Tomasz Jeziorski’s film "Camp". .

These are not the only fes­ti­val screen­ings this month for the two lat­ter ti­tles. The doc­u­men­tary by Mag­dalena Szymków is going to have a spe­cial screen­ing at Pravo Ljud­ski Film Fes­ti­val tak­ing place in Sara­jevo. “Camp” on the other hand, is going to com­pete for awards at the Filmer a Tout Prix fes­ti­val in Bel­gium, as well as at the Ger­man Doxs! fes­ti­val, where it’s going to com­pete with Paweł Ziemil­ski’s "Ro­ga­lik” among many oth­ers. In No­vem­ber, Ziemil­ski’s film is also going to have a chance to win the awards in Spain and in Italy, as it’s been listed for the com­pe­ti­tions at the Al­cine fes­ti­val in Alcalá de Henares and the Ozu fes­ti­val held in Sas­suolo.

Apart from the films at the Mi­radas­Doc and Al­cine fes­ti­val, the Span­ish au­di­ence will also have an op­por­tu­nity to see Zbig­niew Czapla’s "Pa­per­box", which has been qual­i­fied for the com­pe­ti­tion at Fil­mets Badalona, and the film "The Whis­tle" by Grze­gorz Zariczny, which is going to com­pete for awards in the com­pet­i­tive sec­tion of the ZINEBI fes­ti­val. This month, the tro­phies from the out­side of Eu­rope will be within the reach of the films "A Piece of Sum­mer" by Marta Mi­norow­icz, which has been in­vited to com­pete at the Film Africa fes­ti­val in Kenya, as well as "A Diary of a Jour­ney" by Piotr Stasik, which is in­cluded in the com­pet­i­tive sec­tion at the Syd­ney In­ter­cul­tural Film Fes­ti­val. The film "Love" di­rected by Filip Dzierżawski will be pre­sented in the com­pe­ti­tion at the Lithuan­ian Scanorama fes­ti­val, and also as a spe­cial show at the Jazz and Ex­per­i­men­tal Music from Poland fes­ti­val in Great Britain.

No­vem­ber at fes­ti­vals in Poland means pri­mar­ily Camer­im­age. This year, the films to com­pete for the Golden Frogs and Tad­poles are: Ag­nieszka El­banowska’s "The Love Equa­tion of Henry Fast", "Joanna” by Aneta Kopacz, Bar­tosz M. Kowal­ski’s "A Dream in the Mak­ing", "Se­crets of Love" by Krys­t­ian Maty­sek, "Left Side of the Face" by Marcin Bortkiewicz, "When I Am a Bird" by Monika Pawluczuk and “Fa­ther and Son” by Paweł Łoziński. In the non-​competitive screen­ings, we’ll be able to see "Free the But­ter­fly" by Joanna Frydrych, "Black Box" by Krzysztof Kowal­ski, “Every­thing is Pos­si­ble” by Lidia Duda, "Abu Haraz” by Ma­ciej Dry­gas, Piotr Stasik’s “A Diary of a Jour­ney”  and fi­nally, "A New Dream – Krzysztof War­likowski” by Marcin Latałło.

The rich pro­grammes of Pol­ish doc­u­men­tary cin­ema are also going to be pre­sented this month at the many fes­ti­vals of the Pol­ish di­as­pora. Ten ti­tles have been in­cluded in the Pol­ish doc­u­men­tary re­view at the Buenos Aires Polo­nia fes­ti­val start­ing 31 Oc­to­ber, in­clud­ing: "Viva Maria!” by Ag­nieszka Smoczyńska, "PRL de Luxe” and "The Girl From a Read­ing Primer" di­rected by Edyta Wróblewska, "Mother" by Jakub Piątek, "De­crescendo” by Marta Mi­norow­icz, "Los­ing Sonia" by Radka Franczak, "Ar­gen­tin­ian Les­son" by Wo­j­ciech Staroń and  "An­drzej Wajda: Let’s Shoot!” by Ma­ciej Cuske, Thierry Pal­adino, Marcina Sauter and Piotr Stasik.

In the United States three fes­ti­vals of the Pol­ish di­as­pora are held in No­vem­ber. The or­ga­niz­ers of the 25^th Pol­ish Film Fes­ti­val in Amer­ica have de­cided to present no less than four­teen doc­u­men­taries, among them the film "Rotem” by Ag­nieszka Arnold, Filip Dzierżawski’s “Love”, "The Pledge" by Igor Mołodecki, "Cri­sis Man­age­ment" by Ivo Kardel, Janusz Mro­zowski’s „"Bad Boy – High Se­cu­rity Cell", “Free the But­ter­fly” by Joanna Frydrych, “Se­crets of Love” by Krys­t­ian Maty­sek, Lidia Duda’s "En­tan­gled", "You’re Gonna Be a Leg­end, Man" by Marcin Koszałka, Michał Bielawski’s "Mundial. The High­est Stakes", "Fuck for For­est” by Michał Mar­czak, “Lead­ers” by Paweł Fer­dek, “Fa­ther and Son” by Paweł Łoziński and Tomasz Wol­ski’s "The Palace".

Dif­fer­ent Ages, Dif­fer­ent Voices: Pol­ish Women in Film, a re­view of films made by women or talk­ing about women is tak­ing place in New York. In the course of this re­view, the films "From the City of Łódź", "First Love" and "Seven Women of Dif­fer­ent Ages" di­rected by Krzysztof Kieślowski are going to be pre­sented, as well as the films "So It Doesn’t Hurt" by Mar­cel Łoziński, "The Princess and the Wall" by Małgorzata Koz­era and “Los­ing Sonia” by Radka Franczak. On the other hand, the films in­cluded in the pro­gramme of the Ann Arbor Pol­ish Film Fes­ti­val were "Cast­aways" and “Santa Rosa” by Sławomir Grun­berg or “Mae­stro Rodziński” by Bożeny Garus-​Hockuba, among many oth­ers.