Blok shortów: Another Story: Polish Shorts

  • Mine

    Mine

    Mine

    reż. Natalia Brzozowska
    Poland / 1947 / 10′

    In the dark depths of the mine, workers confront the physical demands of their labour, the relentless rhythm of machinery and constant danger, while their loved ones wait anxiously above ground. Wordless and intensely expressive, Mine transforms a documentary about labour into a powerful meditation on the human body, fear and the limits of endurance.

    One of the most remarkable Polish post-war documentaries about labour. Natalia Brzozowska takes us underground, where the miners’ day is shaped by the rhythm of machinery, the weight of their bodies and constant danger. Rather than creating a conventional image of the heroic worker, camera close-ups, stark contrasts of light and shadow, moving coal conveyors, shovels, drills and fragments of human bodies to create an almost abstract, expressionistic portrait of the mine. Kazimierz Serocki’s music and the film’s rhythmic editing turn the miners’ labour into something resembling choreography, while the mine itself takes on the qualities of a living, pulsating organism.

    Amid this mechanical rhythm, women waiting above ground appear on screen, their anxious faces accompanied by prayers to Saint Barbara. When disaster strikes, the film takes on a dramatic dimension, revealing not only the physical effort involved, but also the fear and psychological cost of working underground. This unconventional form set Mine apart from the propaganda-driven films about labour of the period. Following the 1949 Film-makers’ Congress in Wisła, Brzozowska was forced to make a public self-criticism for her “formalism” and “bourgeois aesthetics” and was subsequently prevented from continuing her work as a filmmaker. Today, the film remains one of the most compelling examples of post-war Polish documentary cinema – a powerful portrait of labour, the body, fear and human endurance.

    02.10.2026
    18:00
    Kinomuzeum
    Bilety

    Natalia Brzozowska

    Natalia Brzozowska (1915–1988) was a Polish documentary filmmaker who helped shape the aesthetics of Polish documentary cinema after 1945. Originally trained as a painter, she worked in the emerging post-war film industry in Łódź. Her films moved beyond reportage and propaganda, combining observation with a poetic and reflective approach. Focusing on landscape, labour, and everyday life, her work is characterized by lyrical narration, rhythm, composition, and strong visual sensitivity.

    Reżyseria: Natalia Brzozowska

    Język: Polish

    Napisy: English

  • Symptoms

    Symptoms

    Symptoms

    reż. Ewa Zarzycka
    Poland / 1980 / 7’41”

    Two characters engage in an absurd conversation about the future of art, wondering whether film and photography might already be approaching their end. In this Dadaist parody of silent cinema, Ewa Zarzycka humorously challenges an art form that becomes so absorbed in analysing its own medium that it loses sight of the world beyond it.

    Symptoms is a Dadaist play with the conventions of silent cinema and slapstick, in which Mrs X and Mr Y engage in a pseudo-dialogue about the future of art, film and photography. Devoid of conventional sound, the film was accompanied during screenings by actors performing the dialogue live, alongside Zarzycka’s own commentary. Through absurdity, repetition and self-irony, the artist questions art’s obsession with its own medium – instead of offering yet another serious treatise on the limits of cinema, she creates a playful and subversive experiment that continually undermines the very rules on which it is built.

    02.10.2026
    18:00
    Kinomuzeum
    Bilety

    Ewa Zarzycka

    Born in 1953 in Szczecin, she lives in Lublin and Kazimierz Dolny. A performance artist working with video, drawing, and installation. A graduate of the State School of Fine Arts in Wroclaw (1978), her practice is rooted in conceptual art and reflects on art itself. She developed a distinctive “spoken performance” format focused on language, blending art and everyday life while questioning the boundaries between them. Her works are held in leading Polish museum and archival collections.

    Reżyseria: Ewa Zarzycka

    Język: Polish

    Napisy: English

  • Grain

    Grain

    Grain

    reż. Teresa Tyszkiewicz
    Poland / 1980 / 11′

    Teresa Tyszkiewicz turns her own body into a site of confrontation, desire and experimentation, testing the boundaries between self and the surrounding world. Blending dirt, pleasure, banality and luxury with abstract imagery, Grain becomes a visceral exploration of female corporeality and sexuality.

    With no clear beginning or end, Grain is a dynamic, physical record of a confrontation between the human body and the world around it. The artist places her own body at the centre of an intense encounter with space and matter, touching, probing and pushing the limits of her physical presence. Rather than telling a linear story, Tyszkiewicz creates a layered visual structure in which images of dirt, pleasure, banality and luxury collide with abstract and dreamlike visions. The film reflects Tyszkiewicz’s distinctive practice, rooted in an uncompromising exploration of the body, materiality and the possibilities of the cinematic image. Her physical presence becomes both subject and medium, challenging conventional ways of looking at the female body and blurring the boundaries between intimacy, performance and visual experiment. Often read through a feminist lens, Grain can be seen as a provocative meditation on female sexuality and corporeality, and on the ways in which women’s bodies are represented, desired and controlled within culture.

    02.10.2026
    18:00
    Kinomuzeum
    Bilety

    Teresa Tyszkiewicz

    Teresa Tyszkiewicz (1953–2020) was a painter, sculptor, and artist working with photography and short films. A graduate of the Warsaw University of Technology, she co-founded the “Remont” Film Artists’ Union. Rejecting conceptualism, she focused on the sensual exploration of material reality. In the 1980s, she developed an experimental film language and created her distinctive “pin paintings” – rhythmic compositions made of pins embedded in canvas.

    Reżyseria: Teresa Tyszkiewicz

    Język: Polish

    Napisy: English

  • Relative Similarities III

    Relative Similarities III

    Relative Similarities III

    reż. Izabella Gustowska
    Poland / 1980-81 / 8’34”

    Encountering pairs of twins, Izabella Gustowska turns their resemblance into a playful exploration of similarity, difference and the ways in which the camera shapes what we see. The film suggests that identity and representation are never fixed, but emerge through the relationship between the filmed subject, the artist and the camera’s gaze.

    In her Relative Similarities series, Izabella Gustowska observes pairs of twins, beginning with a fascination with their almost identical appearance. In Relative Similarities III, however, physical resemblance becomes a starting point for an experiment with difference, identity and the act of filming itself. The artist enters into a kind of game with the women, while their reactions and interaction influence the process of recording. Gustowska explores the boundary between reality and representation, revealing that resemblance is never absolute and that the meaning of an image shifts with perspective, interaction and context.

    02.10.2026
    18:00
    Kinomuzeum
    Bilety

    Izabella Gustowska

    Prof. Izabella Gustowska, PhD, DSc, was born in Poznań. She is an intermedia artist working across various media, including painting objects, graphics, photography, video installations, video performance, film, and QR codes.

    Reżyseria: Izabella Gustowska

    Język: Polish

    Napisy: English

  • Drawing TV

    Drawing TV

    Drawing TV

    reż. Ewa Partum
    Poland / 1976 / 6’01”

    Ewa Partum draws directly onto a television screen, intervening in the official image of reality broadcast by Poland’s state-controlled media. Her simple yet radical gesture becomes both an act of resistance to propaganda and an experiment exploring the boundaries and materiality of the television image.

    In Drawing TV, Ewa Partum draws directly onto a television screen with a pen, entering the space of the official broadcast produced by state television. Her gesture disrupts the propagandistic image of reality while simultaneously becoming an experiment with the medium itself: the flickering and trembling caused by the difference between the camera’s recording frequency and the television signal are deliberately incorporated into the work. The physical trace on the screen and the electronic interference come together in a playful yet radical reflection on how an official image of reality is constructed, operates and can be reclaimed.

    02.10.2026
    18:00
    Kinomuzeum
    Bilety

    Ewa Partum

    Ewa Partum is a key figure of the first generation of Polish conceptual artists. A pioneer of feminist and body art, her multidisciplinary practice spans conceptual art, performance, installation, photography, film, visual poetry and mail art. In 1972, she founded Adres, an influential mail art gallery in Łódź. Since 1974, she has used her body to explore visibility, autonomy and gender. Her work is held in collections including MoMA, Tate Modern and Reina Sofía.

    Reżyseria: Ewa Partum

    Język: Polish

    Napisy: English

  • Forced Response

    Forced Response

    Forced Response

    reż. Jolanta Marcolla
    Poland / 1976 / 1’20”

    The camera provokes passers-by into reacting, then repeats a single gesture until an ordinary action begins to feel almost absurd. In this brief experiment, Jolanta Marcolla explores how film does not simply record reality, but can actively shape it through the act of filming and editing.

    Forced Response is a minimalist experiment in two parts. The first captures the spontaneous reactions of passers-by confronted by an aggressively operated camera; the second repeatedly duplicates a short shot of a person adjusting their hair, transforming a single gesture into an obsessive rhythm. Marcolla thus juxtaposes two ways of influencing behaviour – direct intervention in the filming situation and manipulation of the recorded material. A pioneer of Polish video art, Marcolla was among the first Polish artists to consciously adopt video as her primary medium. Through experiments with closed-circuit imagery and projection loops, she explored how the camera not only observes reality but also influences behaviour and shapes the way we perceive it.

    02.10.2026
    18:00
    Kinomuzeum
    Bilety

    Jolanta Marcolla

    Visual artist working with photography, film and video. She studied independently at the Faculty of Painting at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Wrocław, graduating in 1974. She was a co-founder of the GALERIA SZTUKI AKTUALNEJ (Contemporary Art Gallery) artistic group.

    Reżyseria: Jolanta Marcolla

    Język: Polish

    Napisy: English

  • 24 Hours of Jadwiga L.

    24 Hours of Jadwiga L.

    24 Hours of Jadwiga L.

    reż. Krystyna Gryczełowska
    Poland / 1967 / 14′

    Jadwiga L. works the night shift at a factory and, upon returning home, immediately begins another: caring for her children and running the household. Through the rhythm of clocks, machines and repetitive gestures, Krystyna Gryczełowska’s film reveals the invisible burden of a woman’s life, in which the day never seems to end.

    In just fourteen minutes, Krystyna Gryczełowska condenses an entire day in the life of Jadwiga L. – a factory worker, mother and homemaker. After a night shift at a wire factory, Jadwiga returns home to her children, shopping, cooking, cleaning and the countless tasks of running a household. There is little time left for rest – after a few hours of sleep, the cycle begins again. Without commentary or explanation, the film relies on observation and the rhythm of repetitive activities. Clocks, legs, machines and mechanical gestures create an almost choreographic portrait of a day in which paid employment seamlessly turns into another, invisible shift – domestic labour. Made at a time when women’s employment was presented as a symbol of emancipation, Gryczełowska’s film reveals the other side of that promise: instead of freeing women from their burdens, work adds a second shift to their lives.

    02.10.2026
    18:00
    Kinomuzeum
    Bilety

    Krystyna Gryczełowska

    Krystyna Gryczełowska (1930–2009) was a Polish screenwriter and documentary filmmaker associated with the “Black Series” of Polish documentary cinema. She addressed social issues including rural poverty, labour conditions, and marginalisation, focusing on ordinary people with sensitivity and ethical attention. Her notable films include Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays (1965), Wola Rafałowska, and The 24 Hours of Jadwiga L. (1967).

    Reżyseria: Krystyna Gryczełowska

    Język: Polish

    Napisy: English

  • Day by Day

    Day by Day

    Day by Day

    reż. Irena Kamieńska
    Poland / 1988 / 17′

    Two twin sisters who, as young women, believed in the promise of emancipation through work find themselves, after four decades of hard labour, struggling with ruined health and life on the brink of poverty. Juxtaposing their memories with propaganda images of the “working woman,” Irena Kamieńska exposes the bitter gap between the ideological promise of emancipation and the price they were made to pay for it.

    Two twin sisters have worked at the Katowice-based “Transbud” company since the early 1950s, day after day performing physically demanding work transporting bricks. As young women, they believed in the propaganda promise of emancipation and independence that employment was supposed to bring women. After decades of hard labour, however, all that remains is damaged health, poverty and lives reduced to survival. Kamieńska juxtaposes the women’s memories with archival propaganda footage from the 1950s – images of young, smiling women and the enthusiasm surrounding the “building of socialism.” The clash between the official vision of emancipation and the reality of ageing female workers creates a bitter portrait of a generation of women for whom the promise of independence became yet another form of subordination to work. The film received, among others, the Grand Prix and FIPRESCI Prize in Oberhausen and the Silver Lajkonik in Krakow.

    02.10.2026
    18:00
    Kinomuzeum
    Bilety

    Irena Kamieńska

    Irena Kamieńska (1928–2016) was a Polish documentary filmmaker known for socially engaged films about ordinary people and post-war Polish society. A graduate of the National Film School in Łódź, she focused on women’s lives, social inequality, and everyday realities. Her key works include Female Workers, Day After Day, and Women’s Isle. Her cinema combines realism, empathy, and a strong ethical commitment to her subjects.

    Reżyseria: Irena Kamieńska

    Język: Polish

    Napisy: English

  • Beginning

    Beginning

    Beginning

    reż. Dorota Kędzierzawska
    Poland / 1983 / 6′

    To the rhythm of machines and repetitive gestures, women work in a textile factory in Łódź, while the sound of a crying child can be heard off-screen. When the shift ends, one of them rushes home, beginning another invisible part of her day – caring for her child.

    Dorota Kędzierzawska’s short, highly sensual documentary takes us into the world of a textile factory in Łódź, where the rhythm of work is defined by the clatter of machines, the rustle of threads and the repetition of everyday gestures. The camera observes the women at work, but rather than creating a conventional portrait of factory workers, Kędzierzawska builds an almost abstract composition out of fragments of bodies, hands, machines and industrial spaces. Unexpectedly, the mechanical rhythm is interrupted by the sound of a crying child – a reminder of another world waiting for the women beyond the factory gates. When the shift ends, one of the protagonists rushes home, where her young child is waiting. In just five minutes, the film captures the reality of women whose working day does not end when they leave the factory.

    02.10.2026
    18:00
    Kinomuzeum
    Bilety

    Dorota Kędzierzawska

    As a child, she watched film crews at the sets of her mother, director Jadwiga Kędzierzawska. She studied in Łódź, Moscow and at the Łódź Film School. Her student film The Egg was nominated for a Student Academy Award. She has written and directed films including Crows, Nothing, I Am, Time to Die and Tomorrow Will Be Better. A recipient of numerous awards, she is also a co-founder of the Polska Światłoczuła project.

    Reżyseria: Dorota Kędzierzawska

    Język: Polish

    Napisy: English

  • Everyone Knows Who Is Behind Whom

    Everyone Knows Who Is Behind Whom

    Everyone Knows Who Is Behind Whom

    reż. Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz
    Poland / 1982 / 6′

    In a huge queue, a symbol of everyday life in early-1980s Poland, snippets of casual conversations reveal the tensions, absurdities and invisible rules governing life in a time of scarcity. Zmarz-Koczanowicz transforms the mundane act of waiting into a surreal portrait of a society in which everyone knows who stands behind whom.

    A short, subversive portrait of early-1980s Poland, when queues became one of the defining experiences of everyday life. In a time of chronic shortages, people could wait for hours for basic goods, and standing in line became a social experience in its own right. Zmarz-Koczanowicz observes this reality without traditional commentary, giving voice to the people waiting in a seemingly endless queue. Through editing and sound, their fragmented conversations become a surreal chorus. Questions about who is first in line, who arrived during the night and who might be thrown out take on an ironic, almost political meaning – the queue becomes a miniature version of society, where everyone knows their place. Deliberately constructed images, far removed from the aesthetics of the Polish Film Chronicle, transform a mundane situation into a poetic and unsettling portrait of reality. Zmarz-Koczanowicz, who had previously studied painting, already reveals here the distinctive way of looking at everyday absurdities that would characterize her later work.

    02.10.2026
    18:00
    Kinomuzeum
    Bilety

    Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz

    Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz (b. 1954) is a Polish documentary filmmaker known for her ironic and socially perceptive approach to contemporary reality. She studied painting before directing at the University of Silesia. Her films explore social behaviour, political satire, collective memory, and cultural life. Her works include Major or the Revolution of the Dwarfs (1989), Nights with the General (2001), and Generation ’89 (2002). She teaches documentary filmmaking at the National Film School in Łódź.

    Reżyseria: Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz

    Język: Polish

    Napisy: English