Speaking of cinema
By : Magdalena Wierzchowska
It was 1956, and thanks to a slight thaw in an otherwise frosty communist regime, a group of people saw an opportunity to enjoy a nugget of freedom by indulging in their favorite pastime the movies.
With the government's blessing, the first Film Discussion Club (DKF) was established.
DKFs are associations of film enthusiasts who watch local and international films at special screenings and discuss them afterward. In its heyday in the 1980s, there were as many as 600 DKFs across the country.
"One of our colleagues even adapted a barn in Golancz (a village near Poznan) for film screenings and drove children to the shows on a tractor," said Aleksandra Myszak, general secretary of the Polish Federation of Film Discussion Groups, whose headquarters are located in a cozy attic room with walls jammed with bookshelves.
Today, there are 135 DKFs across the country and while they are renowned for offering quality intellectual films, membership is declining. Myszak reckons it's because of the large number of commercial cinemas nowadays. She's also disappointed by what she sees as a lack of quality Polish cinema.
"DKFs have always promoted good cinema," she said. "They have promoted Polish cinema, too."
Myszak said that the 1960s and 1970s were the golden years for Polish and international cinema. "There were fantastic artists at the time who had something to say," she said. "Today, everything boils down to business It's too much about business and too little about talent and art."
Even artistic films, she said, can be successful financially. "For many years, Fellini, Visconti, Antonioni, Bergman were making (artistic) films, so it means they were selling well," Myszak said. "If they had not sold well and had only brought losses, the directors wouldn't have received money for their next films."
Wenanty Nosul and Lech Mackiewicz - Filmmakers
While the TV stations are busy investing in new Polish film productions, there's a community of underfunded filmmakers in Poland, populated with passionate and talented people such as Wenanty Nosul and Lech Mackiewicz.
Actors turned filmmakers, they wrote, starred in, directed and produced their first film in 1998. Called "Divorce or a Bit of Luck in Your Life," the 62-minute film took eight days to shoot and cost zl. 30,000.
It was shown at the annual Polish Feature Films Festival in Gdynia, at a special screening for independent entries, where it received a mass of publicity.
"And there was all this talk about independent cinema and we were interviewed on television and in Gazeta Wyborcza and we thought someone would come and buy our film," Nosul said. "But then it was quiet. No one was interested."
In 1999, another self-funded film followed called "4 in 1." Nosul put in a large amount of his own money (so much so that he declined to say how much) and shot the film on a small digital camera. Once again, it debuted in Gdynia, where it received a great deal of support from audiences (5th place on the applause meter). Nosul had it transferred to 35mm format with the help of Gutek Film, a distribution company, and will shortly have his first cinema release. Meanwhile, Canal+ has also expressed interest in buying Nosul's feature film.
The duo is now working on their third project, which looks destined to be even more successful.
"I really wasn't prepared to put in any more of my own money and Canal+ has shown interest in my idea and found me a producer," he said. "I feel optimistic about the future of film here. I think audiences want to see more local films and I think independent films will become very strong and very fashionable."
Malgorzata Szumowska Young filmmakerBy : Magdalena Wierzchowska
Twenty-seven-year-old film director Malgorzata Szumowska was sitting in a restaurant next to the Skarpa cinema where movies from the Warsaw Film Festival are being shown this week and spoke about her first steps as a professional filmmaker. Szumowska's feature debut, "Happy Man," will be shown on the festival's last day, which she regards as an honor.
A graduate of the National Film, Television and Theater University in Lodz, Szumowska received 18 international film festival awards for her documentary short film, "Silence." Her other short film, "Assumption," was the only Polish film at the Cannes Film Festival this year.
Used to her lighthearted, film-school life, she now has to face the tough reality of producers, spectators and film critics. "The opinions about my feature debut are either really positive or really negative, but that's fine," she said. "If everybody likes (a film), it means it doesn't go beyond the average. It was my first contact with real critics, a real audience kind of a shock.
"Maybe 20-30% of spectators liked 'The Happy Man.' Producers may ask: Is it worth investing in a person whose films are so controversial that they won't necessarily bring a reasonable profit? I see that it won't be easy anymore.
"The most difficult time is in front of me; I either choose an easy way, or I choose a difficult way, expose myself to criticism from people or institutions that may marginalize me. It's not an easy moment in my life, and it makes me nervous." Szumowska said she'll probably stick to her artistic vision. "Maybe what I'm doing won't show results right now. But possibly, in 10 years this film will not be out of date and will be universal," she said.
Joseph Vogt Film producerBy : Magdalena Wierzchowska
In a quiet street in the swish suburb of Wilanow, it's difficult to believe that heads are being chopped off, spears being thrown and space aliens welcomed.
But it's just another hard day's work in the high-tech office of American producer/director Joseph Vogt.
Vogt runs a boutique production house called Critical Mass Media where he does everything from special effects "I was responsible for killing everyone in 'With Fire and Sword,'" to creating 3D computer creatures and exploding pyrotechnics. Packed with $500,000 worth of state-of-the-art equipment, Vogt works on films, TV commercials, cinema promos and web sites.
He first came to Poland two years ago, believing that the Polish film industry would soon go through a rapid growth phase. Since then, he's worked with some of the industry's best, including Heritage Films.
"Every year I'm here, more and more cool things are happening," he said. His ultimate wish is for the local film industry to move away from its traditional fare of historical movies to more contemporary projects.
"I'd like to make a horror film," he said. "No one has done it here yet. A colleague said, 'Oh, people won't take it seriously.' They'll go and see a Hollywood horror film, but they won't see a Polish horror film. There's just too much historical stuff happening here at the moment."
And his best piece of advice for young filmmakers?
"It's a question of packaging: the marketing, the distribution deal get it all done up front and get a great story together," he said. "Package it, make it and put it out there. It's the only way. The days have gone where you can make a nice movie, hope it gets to the theater and make some money. You can't do that anymore."
