Polish Film Festival Los Angeles has been started on October 7 and will run until October 16. 2014 marks the 15th anniversary of this successful film festival that presents the best of Polish cinema in Hollywood every year. Here is the complete program of the festival for October 8 and 9:
Laemmle’s NoHo7 Theatre, 5240 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601 (310-478-3836):
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 (in person: Zbigniew Czapla, Antoni Pawlicki)
7:00 p.m. Animation Program: BEACH (Plaza) by Pawel Prewencki (4 min.) A summer, lazy day at the beach. The wind unhurriedly turns the pages of a book read by one of the sunbathers stretching in the sand. In boiling sun the bodies seem to melt like ice lollipop. Only cold water that delicately washes out the feet brings the relieve. This sluggish morning will get suddenly interrupted by the lunch pause. It won’t be long till the rubbish left by the sunbathers begin their own march and then rest in the sand as the tired, sun setting down will set to sleep. An engaging, erotically swaying BEACH by Prewencki is an animated impression of one summer day that brings a clear, ecological meaning.
ENDEMIT’S GREED by Natalia Dziedzic (11 min.) At the seaside beach fates of balding sailor, young girl and two modest creatures – the bee and the crab are tangling. Going after their greediness, they are meeting themselves by the stall with waffles. This is animated story about primal desires, which are present in the human nature.
EX ANIMO by Wojciech Wojtkowski (7 min.) Animated impression. Images conjured up by the animator form a two-dimensional reality of their own. Absurd and unrelated scenes describe the rules governing the world confined to a sheet of paper and animation technique. The relationships between the characters seem strangely familiar.
THE GOVERNANCE OF LOVE (O rzadach milosci) by Adela Kaczmarek (13 min.) What if, instead of bombs, we dropped watermelons? Dreamy and hopeful, this animated short sweeps us up into a colorful world where layers of reality and creativity intersect. Our protagonist navigates through it all seamlessly, and in the process shows us the importance of imagination.
MOONSHINE by Michal Poniedzielski (11 min.) Dark, yet spiced with black humor love story told form the edge of reality and nightmare. Main character, rejected by cold and demonic woman of his dreams embarks on a surreal and oneiric journey towards his fate, following a mysterious crescent moon. The world of MOONSHINE is created from the mixture of three techniques – flat animation, 3D and live acting. On a backdrop of black and white photography the characters – actors as well asanimated creatures – live through their nightmare accompanied by equally murky Tom Waits’ song “Way Down in The Hole”.
POCHLEBA by Barbara Mydlak (4 min.) Animated variation about a poem for children written by the Polish author Jan Brzechwa. It tells the story of an old but cunning spider, eager for a meal. The story can also be read as a metaphor for the consumptive nature of developing towns.
SPIDER AND FLIES (Pajak i muchy) by Tessa Moult-Milewska (4 min.) Animated variation about a poem for children written by the Polish author Jan Brzechwa. It tells the story of an old but cunning spider, eager for a meal. The story can also be read as a metaphor for the consumptive nature of developing towns.
SUMMER 2014 (Lato 2014) by Wojciech Sobczyk (13 min.) Summer 2014, a kind of an author animated impression about human nature in relation to the past and present. Summer here is the season of war, starvation and death…
THE TENEMENT BUILDING (Kamienica) by Agnieszka Burszewska (13 min.) Black comedy dealing with world without love problem. It is dilapidated, the tenants are not very well-off, and what is more they don’t have enough food. They are very kind to each other, and cultivate good manners. However, their behavior is marked by artificiality and exaggeration, caused by the specific tradition they cultivate. The biggest problem in the tenement is the lack of food. The restaurant, is the only place where animals can eat. In the world full of competition and hostility, the lack of food is the big problem. Eating food leads to temporarily satisfy the desires. The gluttony is the biggest sin which can cause imminent doom.
TO THY HEART (Do serca twego) by Ewa Borysewicz (10 min.) He was handsome, had raven‑black hair and stood by a swing. When he smiled, eyes would stand on end. Life with him was colorful – when he gave rein to his paranoia, she would do whatever he said. She wanted to listen to him talking up all the night. He ate her thighs with relish. And then she stopped pinning her hopes on him. She refused to forgive him betrayal. Ewa Borysewicz’s animation is a secular litany and a story of a relationship, resounding through a tower block estate, which ended with bitter disappointment.
TOTO by Zbigniew Czapla (12 min.) A kaleidoscope of events filled to the brim with suspense and awe, is an universal story of naivete and irreversibly lost infant dreams. If we lack the word to name the phenomenon, we don’t know precisely what happened.
VANITAS by Kamila & Miroslam Sosnowski (7 min.) Hope, perdition, memory. VANITAS is symbolic story about three stages of human life, shown by the example of the history of one woman.
9:00 p.m. PAPUSZA by Joanna & Krzysztof Krauze (131 min.) Drama based on the true story of the first Roma – gypsy – poet, Bronislawa “Papusza” Wajs, a woman aware of her proprietary voice, not only of her life but the life of the Roma community during the first half of the 20th century. When Papusza meets Polish poet Jerzy Ficowski, he encourages her to write down her poems and eventually has them translated into Polish and published in the public circuit – thanks in part to the efforts of Polish poet Julian Tuwim who was enchanted by Papusza’s lyrical prose. The literary output of Papusza presented a true sense of the Roma community that permanently enriched the Polish culture and gave insight into the “gypsy soul”.
Thursday, October 9, 2014 (in person: Nadja Ropac, Piotr Stasik, Douglas Wood, Wendy Waldman)
7:00 p.m. Doc. & Shorts1: FIGHTER’S ROOM by Slav Zatoka (16 min.) A 32-year-old female boxer, Nadja Ropac, turns her love of boxing into a professional career typically dominated by men. A former kick boxer, she trains in the famous La Habra Boxing Club under the watchful eye of David Martinez, a decorated war hero and the director of an open door La Habra Boxing Foundation that has produced champions like Librado Andrade, Julio Gonzales and Enrique Ornelas. Slav Zatoka, a photographer turned filmmaker, follows Nadja during the first few months of her professional career in a beautifully filmed short.
A DIARY OF A JOURNEY (Dziennik z podrozy) by Piotr Stasik (52 min.) Tadeusz Rolke, an aged master of Polish photography, has more than just a typical teacher-student relationship with 15-year-old Michał. Together, they travel across Poland to take portrait photographs of the residents of small towns and villages while the dark room placed in their camper enables them to develop pictures on the spot and give them to the models whom they accidentally met. For the boy, this is an excellent opportunity to find out about the arcana of traditional photography. For both – an opportunity to experience a beautiful friendship.
ENTANGLEMENT by Douglas Wood (24 min.) An independent living facility for the elderly is the unlikely setting for this comedy-drama about the explosive love triangle that develops when a 40-year-old man visits his estranged father and unexpectedly falls for the object of his aging dad’s affections – a sexy senior citizen named Vera.
9:00 p.m. SHAMELESS (Bez wstydu) by Filip Marczewski (80 min.) A story of forbidden love. An 18-year-old Tadek feels overwhelmed by his feelings for his sister and wants to prove worthy of the affection regardless of the consequences. His sister feels lost, living in a relationship with the local neo-fascist group leader, and she longs for intimacy and tenderness as much as her brother does. Then, a 17-year-old Gypsy Irmina appears. She is dreaming about a breakaway and believes Tadek can help her…
Informatio: www.polishfilmLA.org , 818/982-8827
Program subject to change without prior notice