“The Internal Ear” will be the only Polish representative in the music documentary film competition.
The film by Szymon Uliasz and Magdalena Gubała, “The Internal Ear,” the protagonist of which is the eminent composer and musician, Mikołaj Trzaska, will be the only Polish representative in the music documentary film competition within the frames of the 56th Krakow Film Festival.
“The Internal Ear” is about improvisation, but it is not the only thing that matters; it is a story about meetings of various musicians, different personalities in the creative process. It is a story about the fulfilled dream of a man, who gave up his art studies and took the risk – he started to play the saxophone and gradually discovers his capabilities and limitations. We watch how he traverses the path he chose in such a way, we accompany him during his work, during meetings and conversations with his friends. The formal side of the film is subordinated to music, its changeable and often broken rhythms,” explain the authors, Szymon Uliasz and Magdalena Gubała.
The film presents the work of Mikołaj Trzaska and portrays the living presence of Polish contemporary improvised music on the international jazz scene. The artistic biography of Trzaska, the independent path that he traverses in a totally uncompromising way, is the starting point of the story and the line which unites the several levels of narration in the documentary film. The film “The Internal Ear” may be an intriguing and courageous voice describing the constitution of the contemporary artist in the commercial world.
The protagonist of the film, Mikołaj Trzaska, comes from Tricity and is a would-be painter, respected musician, saxophonist and clarinettist, co-founder of the legendary group Miłość and the leader of many other musical projects, such as: Łoskot, The Users and Masło. He co-operated with eminent musicians around the world. He is also the author of the music for numerous theatre performances and film productions, among others, for the previous film by Gubała and Uliasz, “Papercuts.” He also composed music for several films by Wojciech Smarzowski, among others, “The Mighty Angel,” “Traffic Department,” “Rose,” and “The Dark House.”
“The Internal Ear” is the second film made together by the duo of film-makers. Magdalena Gubała graduated from film studies at the Jagiellonian University, she is a scriptwriter, director, stage designer, co-author of video clips. Szymon Uliasz is a graduate of anthropology and literature at the University of Silesia. He published essays about Tadeusz Kantor and Laszlo Krasznahorkai. He is the author of the films “Papercuts” (together with Gubała) and “Something strange has happened here.” Last year, he was awarded the Artistic Scholarship of the City of Krakow in film.
DocFilmMusic is the youngest of the four competitions organised within the frames of Krakow Film Festival. Since 2013, the best music documentary films from around the world compete for the prestigious award: the Golden Heynal. The last year’s winner was Brett Morgen, the author of the famous film “Cobain: Montage of Heck.” The result of the competition selection and thereby the full list of the music documentary films, which will be shown this year, will be known in the second half of April.