RUSSIA-POLAND. NEW GAZE

A SERIES OF NEW DOCUMENTARIES BY YOUNG POLISH AND RUSSIAN FILMMAKERS

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2007, 8 PM – PART I
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2007, 8 PM – PART II
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2007, 8 PM – PART III


GALAPAGOS ART SPACE (www.galapagosartspace.com)
70 North 6th Street (between Kent and Wythe, Williamsburg), Brooklyn, NY 11211
Tel. (718) 782-5188
Free admission

Three Programs of Short Films from an innovative experiment in international understanding: Russia in the eyes of Poles, Poland in the eyes of Russians

From an innovative program in cross-cultural encounter called Russia-Poland. New Gaze (www.newgaze.info/english), selected film students from a number of film schools in Russia “traded places” with their counterparts from film schools in Poland to make short documentary films about each other’s countrymen. As a group the films offer intriguing personal glimpses – a “new gaze” – into the lives of “others”, with the similarities at least as startling as the contrasts. The enthusiastic young film-school students used their talents and skills to explore who those "Poles" and "Russians" really are. These films thus came to life through the confrontation of prejudices with spontaneous interactions, and the collision of expectations with facts, bringing us closer to the truth about the stereotypes dividing these two nations. The films have been shown over 300 times throughout Europe and cumulatively have garnered nearly thirty awards.

Russia-Poland. New Gaze was co-produced by Eureka Media and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, with further financial support from the Polish Film Institute and in collaboration with the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing, Gerasimov All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography, St. Petersburg State University of Cinema and Television, K. Kieslowski Faculty of Radio and Television at University of Silesia, Polish Television, and the European Documentary Network.

Project curator: Mateusz Werner
Tutors and art supervisors: Maciej Drygas, Andrzej Fidyk, Vladimir Fienchenko, Dmitriy Kabakov, Tue Steen Müller, Jacek Petrycki, Dorota Wardęszkiewicz, Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz
Producer: Krzysztof Kopczyński
Co-producer for Polish Television TVP SA: Witold Będkowski


PROGRAM AND FILM DESCRIPTIONS

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2007, 8 PM – PART I:  PEOPLE

ABOUT THE TRUTH by Nikolaj Borts (from Russia) (14’31”)
Immigration, living in a foreign country, always brings hardships, ordeals and loneliness. But Helena, a Russian living in Poland, seems to be a successful and accomplished creator of an amateur theater, a loving and loved wife and mother. Could there be any other side to her life? Will the director manage to reach and reveal it?  One thing is for sure, he manages to break the stereotype of poor Russians making a living selling smuggled cigarettes. Yet there is another layer, the director\'s narration on how virtually impossible it is to break such a stereotype in a film.

MOSCOW WIFE by Barbara Bialowas (from Poland) (17’09”)
The film shows the lifestyles of modern Russian oligarchs\' wives in the years after the collapse of Communism. But if you expect to see emptiness masked by the glitter and riches, you\'ll be in for a shock when you see a deeply rooted, existential need for self-expression through art, as well as an awareness of the possibilities and challenges life brings.

MY KIESLOWSKI by Irina Volkova (from Russia) (20’49’’)
The film is Volkova\'s personal look at Poland through Kieslowski\'s films woven around an interview with Kieslowski\'s daughter, Marta Hryniak. You will also hear people who came to the casting tryouts for a remake of Przypadek (Blind Chance) talking about the role Kieslowski\'s films have played in their lives, and visit places close to the famous director.

THE SUBURBAN TRAIN by Maciej Cuske (from Poland) (18’00’’)
The filmmaker beautifully captures a panoply of Russian faces suspended in the limbo of an evening commuter ride. A child making his first steps, a well-dressed man talking on the cell phone, a man rummaging through his suitcase and many other characters observed on the train represent Russia\'s society today.

Total time: 70’29”


SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2007, 8 PM – PART II:  PLACES

7x MOSCOW by Piotr Stasik (from Poland) (19’00’’)
This film is like poetry without words. In seven long shots we can observe seven different areas in Moscow. These locations are not accidental. In each case the camera is placed in a key spot, typical for Moscow, yet completely different from the others. Each one of them lets us get deeper and deeper into the city and its reality.

THE LAST STOP – ZAGORZ by Yulia Iskhakova (from Russia) (17’06”)
We are shown around this provincial, picturesque town in southern Poland by a local postman. Together we meet people from the town and visit their homes. For the young, Zagorz is just the first stop on their way into the big world. For the old it\'s a place where they are getting ready to say their final goodbyes.

6 BIELINSKI STREET by Karolina Bielawska (from Poland) (26’00’’)
A communal apartment in a Petersburg tenement house is shared by a few young artists, crooks, an elderly music composer, and a teenager deeply in love with her husband. We see the life of both bohemians and ordinary people. But are they just sharing the hall, kitchen, and the city they live in, or also their dreams or lack thereof?

Total time: 62’06”


SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2007, 8 PM – PART III:  METAPHYSICS

A FOLK TALE by Monika Filipowicz (from Poland) (23’09’’)
In a small, desolate village somewhere in Karelia live two people depicted by Mariusz Wilk in his book „The House on Onega.” Their life resembles a bucolic Russian folk tale – they fish, exchange their catch for gasoline, keep animals, grow ’taters... Some say that this idyll hides a big secret.

THE SACRED by Aliona Polunina (from Russia) (30’17”)
The Lichen sanctuary as seen by the Russian director, who found this place while searching for sacredness. At Lichen religion is fitted to the needs of modern life, and the pilgrims there are more like tourists; their goal is not the sanctuary itself, but rather the amusement park that the place has become. The film concentrates on the Golgotha maze, intended to symbolize the ordinary man\'s search for meaning in life.

THE SEEDS by Wojciech Kasperski (from Poland) (27’09”)
In a cottage at the outskirts of a small village surrounded by the Altai Mountains lives a family rejected by the local community. Little by little we learn about their secrets. The story is haunting and it\'s difficult for the viewer to remember that this is a documentary film. The attractive Russian surrealism turns out to be real life.

Total time: 80’35”