27-05-2010

Krakow 50th Anniversary Special: Events Schedule

By FNE Staff
    The 50th Krakow Film Festival, which takes place May 31 - June 1, has announced its complete schedule of events and ceremonies.

    Galas:

    The 50th KFF Opening Gala (31st May)

    The Dragon of Dragons Award Ceremony (1st June)

    The 50th KFF Closing Gala, hosted by Wojciech Mann (6th June)

    Concerts:

    Morion Trio in the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre (5th June)

    Tomasz Stańko's recital (6th June)

    Night in Kazimierz: Chrząszcze in Alchemia Club (2nd June)

    The Industry Party - Ryszard Jaźwiński and Jerzy Kapuściński as DJs (3rd June)

    SOFA in Pauza Club (4th June)

    Exhibitions:

    Festival Posters Exhibition in Szczepański Square (1st to 6th June)

    Marcin Sauter's Photography Exhibition at the International Cultural Centre (31st May to 6th June)

    Film screenings:

    Sound of Music in Szczepański Square (2nd to 6th June)

    The screening of "The Documentary Filmmakers" (2nd June)

    Film industry meetings:

    Discussion panel: "Is it still a documentary, or fiction?" (3rd June)

    Focus on Israel Conference (4th June)

    The Debate of the Polish Filmmakers Association (5th June)

    Press Conferences:

    The 50th KFF Press Conference and the promotion of the anniversary album (31st May)

    Press Conference with the Dragon of Dragons Award Winner, Jonas Mekas (1st June)

    31st May (Monday), 12 noon, the International Cultural Centre (25, Market Square)

    THE 50th KRAKOW FILM FESTIVAL PRESS CONFERENCE AND THE PROMOTION OF THE JUBILEE ALBUM

    31st May (Monday), 7 P.M., Kijów.Centrum Cinema (34, Krasińskiego Avenue)

    THE 50TH KRAKOW FILM FESTIVAL OPENING GALA

    The programme includes:

    • The introduction of the jury
    • The screening of a competition entry: "Two Rembrandts in the Garden", dir. Jerzy Śladkowski, Poland/Germany 2009, 79'

    1st June (Tuesday), 12 noon, the International Cultural Centre, (25, Market Square)

    The press conference WITH the Dragon of Dragons Award winner, Jonas Mekas

    1st June (Tuesday), 6 P.M., Kijów.Centrum Cinema (34, Krasińskiego Avenue)

    The Ceremony of awarding Jonas Mekas with the Dragon of Dragons

    Followed by the screenings of his films:

    • Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol, USA 1982, 37'
    • Happy Birthday to John, USA 1996, 18'
    • This Side of Paradise, USA 1999, 35'
    • Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas, USA 1992, 34'

    2nd June (Wednesday), 3:30 P.M., Pod Baranami Cinema (27, Market Square)

    "The Documentary Filmmakers" dir. Jędrzej Lipski, Piotr Mielech - a screening from the cycle „A Panorama of the Polish Film". The main heroes will participate in the screening, among others: Maciej Drygas, Marcel and Paweł Łoziński, Andrzej Fidyk. The film was inspired by the Krakow Film Festival.

    2nd June (Wednesday), 9 P.M., Alchemia Club (5, Estery Street)

    Night in Kazimierz: The concert of the Chrząszcze group (The Beatles) - music from the 60's

    By invitation only

    3rd June (Thursday), 12 noon, the International Cultural Centre (25, Market Square)

    Discussion Panel within Industry Zone: "Is it still a documentary, or fiction?" - hosted by prof. Tadeusz Lubelski,

    3rd June (Thursday), 7 P.M., Pauza Club (18, Floriańska Street)

    The Industry Party - in the roles of DJs: Ryszard Jaźwiński, a journalist (The Third Channel of the Polish Radio) and Jerzy Kapuściński, a producer (The Film Studio "Kadr")

    By invitation only

    It seems that the Krakow Film Festival has a new tradition. Once again, the representatives of the film industry will become DJs in Pauza Club. Last year, the music was mixed by Marcin Koszałka, a director and cameraman. This year, it is time for a journalist and a film producer. Ryszard Jaźwiński, a journalist from the Third Channel of the Polish Radio, and Jerzy Kapuściński, a producer and the owner of the film studio "Kadr", will perform in Pauza Club

    4th June (Friday), 11 A.M., The International Cultural Centre (25, Main Square)

    FOCUS ON ISRAEL CONFERENCE

    The "Focus On Israel" Conference is a meeting with Israeli filmmakers, producers and festival directors, devoted to, among others, the discussion about the possibility of Polish-Israeli co-production. The guests are: Riky Zaks, the vice-director general and producer of The New Israeli Foundation for Cinema and TV, a photographer and a journalist, Orna Yarmut, an independent producer, the director of CoPro, a marketing foundation for documentary, Ruth Diskin, the director of the international marketing and distribution agency Ruth Diskin Films, Philippa Kowarsky, a film and television producer, the owner of the distribution and co-production agency Cinephil, Nati Baratz, a director, producer and scriptwriter, a member of the Jury at the 50th KFF, and the authors of the films presented in the cycle "Focus on Israel": Kineret Hay Gillor, Itzik Lerner, Noa Ben Hagai.

    4th June (Friday) 10.30 P.M., Pauza Club (18, Floriańska Street)

    THE CONCERT OF the SOFA GROUP

    By invitations only

    About the SOFA group:

    The group was formed in 2003. One year later, a demo, distributed in an illegal circulation, aroused interest not only among Polish listeners but also in the music industry. Before recording their first album, SOFA was a regular on the playlist of the Third Channel of the Polish Radio.

    Their debut, Many Stylez, recorded in 2006 in the phonographic company, Kayax, was well received both by listeners and music critics. SOFA was one of the candidates for nomination to the "Paszporty Polityki 2007" award (Polityka's Passports), and the album received the Fryderyk Award in the Newcomer category. SOFA received also the prize of the mayor of Toruń, and became the city's official representative in the fight for the title of the European Capital of Culture in 2016. The group has been invited several times to the biggest Polish festivals such as: Top Trendy, Opole - Premiers, Vena Festival (London), Heineken Open'er Festival, and many more. SOFA collaborates with artists such as Kayah, O.S.T.R., Andrzej Smolik, Michał Urbaniak, Jamal, Frenchman, Zgas, Mosquito, or Frank McComb. Their second album, DoReMiFaSoFa, was produced in 2009.

    SOFA:

    Katarzyna Kurzawska (singer)

    Iwo Naumowicz a.k.a. STUB (rap)

    Tomasz Organek (singer, guitar)

    Adam Staszewski (bass)

    Bartek Staszkiewicz (keyboard instruments, production)

    Robert Markiewicz (percussion)

    5th June (Saturday), 12 noon, the International Cultural Centre (25, Market Square)

    THE PANEL OF THE Polish Filmmakers Association

    A traditional, annual meeting of the members of the Polish Filmmakers Association. This year's theme: "5 years of the cinematography law. What comes next?"

    5th June (Saturday) 9 P.M., the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre (1, Św. Ducha Square)

    MOTION TRIO'S PROJECT: MOTION ACCORDION ORCHESTRA - THE GALA CONCERT ON THE OCCASION OF THE KFF'S 50th ANNIVERSARY

    The Polish premiere! An accordion orchestra combining the experience of the Motion Trio group and the enthusiasm of the young accordionists from Akord, a group from Koszalin. The performance, based solely on accordion and the music of Motion Trio, is addressed to a wide audience of all ages. The power of the sound and the unique nature of several dozen of instruments playing simultaneously fully illustrate the character of accordion, which is also proved by the audience's excellent response.

    Music: Janusz Wojtarowicz, Pawel Baranek and Marcin Gałażyn

    Arrangements: Krzesimir Dębski

    Preparations and orchestra conduct: Artur Zajkowski

    World premiere: Lille - May, 2009

    Polish premiere: Kraków - 5 June, 2010

    6th June (Sunday), 6 P.M. , Kijów.Centrum Cinema (34, Krasińskiego Avenue)

    The 50th Krakow Film Festival Closing Gala

    Host: Wojciech Mann

    The programme includes:

    • Tomasz Stańko's recital
    • The award ceremony
    • The screening of the award-winning films

    6th June (Sunday) 6 P.M., Kijów.Centrum Cinema (34, Krasińskiego Avenue)

    TOMASZ STAŃKO - A MINIRECITAL PRECEDING THE AWARD CEREMONY

    Tomasz Stańko, a jazz artist, trumpeter and composer of international fame.

    Unique tones of his trumpet sound in the most prestigious venues in the world, and his music is recorded by a highly regarded company, ECM Records. His music received many awards, recently the European Jazz Award in 2002, twice the Australian Bell Award on the Melbourne Jazz Awards in the category of the International Jazz Album of the Year for "Soul of Things" and "Suspended Night", and the Order of Rebirth of Poland for lifetime achievement. He is one of few European jazz artist whose art has gained recognition in the United States, the cradle of jazz. In 2008, for the third time in a row, a prestigious American magazine, DownBeat, hailed him the 6th trumpet of the world in their annual critics' survey.

    Although the critics often compare him to Miles Davis and Chat Baker, Stańko has his own, unique artistic language. The lyrical, acute tone of his trumpet, the magical and magnetising atmosphere of his music, his extraordinary charisma as a leader and as a man, all of them create his legend.

    "One of the most original and creative jazz trumpeters in the world."

    The New Yorker

    "The trumpeter of freedom - freedom of soul, thought and jazz."

    The New York Times

    2nd June to 5th June, 10 P.M., Szczepański Square

    SOUND OF MUSIC - OPEN-AIR SCREENINGS ON SZCZEPAŃSKI SQUARE

    • 2nd June (Wednesday): When the Road Bends. Tales of a Gipsy Caravan, dir. Jasmine Dellal, USA 2006, 110'
    • 3rd June (Thursday): Buena Vista Social Club, dir. Wim Wenders, Germany/Great Britain, 1999, 101'
    • 4th June (Friday): Shine a Light, dir. Martin Scorsese, USA/Great Britain, 2008, 122'
    • 5th June (Saturday): Anvil! The Story of Anvil, dir. Sacha Gervasi, USA 2008, 80'

    1st June to 6th June, Szczepański Square

    FILM POSTERS EXHIBITION

    50 years of the Krakow Film Festival in posters - the film posters exhibition from Krzysztof Dydo's collection.

    About the exhibiton:

    "The jubilee of Krakow Film Festival is a superb opportunity for reminding the history of the showpiece which the annual festival poster definitely is.

    With true pleasure over 50 posters, a tiny part of Polish artistic film poster of the second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, are presented.

    Polish poster played an important role in the modern history of the poster after the WWII. Just after WWII, especially from 1956-1963, the time known in Poland as the period of the Polish School of Posters, we made a great breakthrough in the approach to the cinema advertisement, which was noticed by all art critics on the world.

    In contrast to the pre-war commercial set patterns, the prevailing poster styles, the "sentimental" one and "revolver" one, the artists created a new Polish style, new poetics of poster, capturing the content and atmosphere through lapidary synthesis. The following several years witnessed a wonderful development of this art genre, possible only thanks to the patron - monopolist, a company promoting films, which accepted the artists' ideas without reservations, allowing them at the same time to experiment. It can be said that it was a period of incredibly fast changes of a very high artistic standard which was never and nowhere achieved on such a scale.

    In this vein, the posters for the film festivals and other events were made.

    From 1961 until today, the best Polish designers have been taking part in it. The first poster, prepared for the all-Poland event, was designed by Witold Skulicz - a graphic artist, the professor of the Krakow Jan Matejko Academy Of Fine Art, the creator of the Biennale and subsequently the Triennial of Art in Krakow. The following projects, until 1984 were selected in competitions. The organizers frequently decided - due to the high quality of the competition - to print two different awarded projects for one festival. During the first years, Waldemar Świerzy, Rosław Szaybo and Zbigniew Lutomski were in the lead. The poster for the first international festival was made by Bronisław Zelek in 1964. An unforgettable motif was presented in 1966 by Jan Lenica. The poster was printed in as much as three formats.

    From this moment until 1990 there were two parallel posters for the all-Poland and the international festival. From 1977 to 1990 there was a rule that one author designed two posters separately for each festival. Mieczysław Górowski is undoubtedly the record-holder of Krakow Film Festival, since he designed 8 posters for 5 festival editions. Until 1984, the posters of the following artists were selected for print in the course of competitions: Janusz Brzuchnalski, Zofia and Andrzej Darowscy, Andrzej Pawłowski and Maria Osterwa-Czekaj, Włodzimierz Kamiński, Jerzy Skarżyński, Jerzy Napieracz, Henryk Arendarski, Janusz Wysocki, Bronisław Kurdziel, Ewa Chodkiewicz- Świdrowa, Stanisław Kluczykowski, Jacek Stokłosa, Lech Przybylski

    From 1984, no competitions were held. From this time on, as the manager of the Poster Gallery Krakow I had the opportunity to cooperate with Jan Rypalski (until 1990) and then with Janusz Nowak (until 2000) from Krakow OPFR and propose the authors of the projects coming from outside of Krakow to the festivals. Andrzej Pągowski, Franciszek Starowieyski, Wiktor Sadowski, Roman Kalarus, Andrzej Klimowski, Jerzy Kostka, Leszek Wiśniewski are undoubtedly the lead of the Polish designers of this period. 1991 brought organizational changes, which were mirrored on the posters - designed only for the international competition. The festival was joined by the following authors: Andrzej Mleczko, Piotr Kunce, Edward Lutczyn i Wiesław Grzegorczyk - artists from Krakow as well as Leszek Żebrowski, Stasys Eidrigevicius, Wiesław Wałkuski, Franciszek Starowieyski and Jan Lenica - artists of international renown.

    2001 completely changed the formula, name and the festival poster. A generational change occurred. The best from the youngest - Ryszard Czernow, Lex Drewinski, Kuba Sowiński, Jakub de Barbaro, Jerzy Skakun - Joanna Górska, Małgorzata Gurowska, Tomasz Walenta - have well-grounded standing in the environment of designers. Thanks to them, we can look at the future of Polish poster, also the film one, with optimism.

    Writing about posters, it is worth adding that the editions of Krakow Film Festival were often accompanied by the exhibitions of film posters, international ones, like for instance the ones in 1984 and 1986 on the Krakow Market Place, showing posters to the same films from Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic , Hungary and Poland, as well as Polish film posters on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Polish cinema in the Palace of Art and the Bunker of Art in Krakow in 1996 from the collection of the undersigned."

    Krzysztof Dydo, Krakow, May 2010

    About the gallery:

    The Krakow Poster Gallery, founded in 1985 by Krzysztof Dydo, is the only Polish gallery specialising exclusively in the promotion and the sale of Polish posters. It is a meeting place of artist and all of those who are interested in the Polish poster art. In the gallery's collection there are nearly 2000 posters by over 100 Polish artists - painters, designers and graphic artists. Theatre, film, music and exhibition posters play an important part in the collection. In the gallery, you can also find social, sport or advertising posters.

    31st May to 6th June, the International Cultural Centre (25, Market Square)

    MARCIN SAUTER'S PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION

    The opening - 31st May (Monday) 1 P.M.

    The meeting with the author - 3rd June (Thursday) 2 P.M.

    The earliest photographs displayed on the exhibition were created during the film workshops within the Russia-Poland. New Gaze Project in Moscow, in 2005.

    Marcin Sauter about that period:

    "Around that time I began to hope that making documentaries might become my profession. That changed my attitude towards photography, with which I occupied myself already for over a dozen of years. I have begun to treat it more informally, and that put me at ease. I transferred the need to tell a story about people from photography into film. It is much easier to do it in this medium; time and words help. In film, the difficulty which is known to every documentary photographer doesn't exist. It's the difficulty of comprising in one frame, in one moment, a distinct story, facial expression, light, composition, description of place, and so on. Because of this, taking photos often exhausted me out and didn't give me satisfaction. Filming people didn't change drastically my way of thinking about photography, but it helped me to look at world through camera lens with greater distance and to change my perspective a little bit.

    I also changed the format from the dynamic frame of the reportage to a friendly, calm square. I like my most recent photos; by taking them I can relax myself. This puts me at ease."