‘Krakow Documentary Premieres’ cycle will be presented during 50th KFF.
For a few years now, within the
‘Krakow Documentary Premieres’ cycle, there have been screened the most interesting films picked out by our qualifiers mostly from foreign film festivals. Fresh, still not showed in Krakow cinemas, the titles, inventively produced, often touching upon controversial issues, will definitely become embedded in your memory.
This year, the audience will see four feature-length documentaries produced in the last two years. Historical and autothematic subjects make up the majority of the cycle. A lot of space has been given to the film as a medium and to the experiences of the very authors. We will witness a vivisection of Susan Mogul’s relationships with men performed, with the use of a camera, by the American director and performance artist herself (‘Driving Men’). Together with the Canadian director and his daughter, we will travel across Europe in search for places where the great cinema was born (‘PilgrIMAGE’). Strong cinematographic accents will be present also ‘In The Shadows of Casablanca’, which is made of fragments of classic film by Michael Curtiz, archival footage from the Second World War period and the images of the present day Morocco. The documentary presents a little-known episode in which the crucial role was played by a Polish spy thanks to whose work the Allied Operation Torch in Africa was a success which changed the course of war. The Dark Continent is also the background to the last film in the cycle. The documentary directed by Sérgio Tréfaut, who was a member of KFF Jury last year, talks about a perverse story about the biggest and, at the same time, the most lively necropolis in the world (‘The City of the Dead’).
The cycle includes:
DRIVING MEN, dir. Susan Mogul
What should one ask their other half, their ex-partner about? About the reasons for the split-up? About past fascinations? About common history? About later experiences? Susan Mogul, the director, performance artist, feminist, with humour and distance carries out a vivisection of her relationships with men important in her life – lovers, brothers, father (among them, there is one man from Krakow). She invites them to drive her car and, while driving, to spin their stories.
PilgrIMAGE, dir. Peter Wintonick, Mira Burt-Wintonick
Personal history of cinema and media presented from the point of view of father and daughter. In this film journal, the documentarians from Canada travel across European cities which are of great importance in the history of the cinema and the contemporary media either thanks to being the hometown of great directors or the place of inventing new media. This unique videoblog presents the look of two generations at the film universe.
IN THE SHADOWS OF CASABLANCA, dir. Malgosha Gago, Bolesław Sulik
Few people know that if it wasn’t for porridge, the fate of the Second World War could have developed in a completely different way. Few people know that the Operation Torch – the landing of the Allies in the North Africa – succeeded thanks to one man. Few people know that if Rick, the American really had had his bar in Casablanca, that man could have been his neighbour. A spy. A Pole. Mieczysław Słowikowski. History forgot about him and his considerable achievements…
THE CITY OF THE DEAD, dir. Sérgio Tréfaut
Cairo, a metropolis of several million inhabitants, of which the seventh part lives in the biggest necropolis in the world. Ironically enough, the City of the Dead is full of life – families dwelling in the tombs, children going to school, wives and mothers doing the shopping, opened bars, bakeries, garages, people leading busy social life… Everything on a graveyard…