A Short History of Polish Animation
October 23–November
2, 2003
For more than fifty
years, Polish filmmakers have drawn on their nation’s rich
tradition of graphic art, avant-garde theater, and puppetry to create
some of the most technically sophisticated and darkly satiric animation
in the world. This survey of Poland’s finest hand-drawn and
computer animation—the most comprehensive ever assembled—reveals
a breathtaking range of forms and techniques, from Jan Lenica and
Walerian Borowczyk’s politically subversive surrealist collages
of the late 1950s and early 1960s to Tomek Bagiński’s
computer-generated short Cathedral, nominated for an Oscar
in 2002.
Organized by Joshua
Siegel, Assistant Curator, Department of Film and Media, and Marcin
Giżycki, author of Nie tylko Disney (Disney Was Not the
Only One). Presented in association with the Polish Cultural
Institute in New York. Special thanks to Monika Fabijańska and
Pawel Potoroczyn of the Polish Cultural Institute; Mateusz Werner,
Adam Mickiewicz Institute (Warsaw); and Film Polski (Warsaw).
A tour of Polish animated film from the 1960s to the mid-1980s,
featuring Lenica’s and Oraczewska’s gallows humor; experiments
in paint, plaster, and rubber stamping by Giersz, Dumała, and
Antonisz; and a split-screen narrative by Oscar-winning artist Rybczyński,
who introduces the screening on October 23.
. 1974. Zofia Oraczewska.
8 min.; . 1966. Kazimierz Urbański. 7 min.; . 1963. Daniel Szczechura. 6 min.; . 1962. Jan Lenica. 14 min.; .1967. Witold Giersz. 6 min.; . 1979. Jerzy Kucia. 7 min.; . 1975. Zbigniew Rybczyński.
10 min.; . 1977. Julian Antonisz. 4 min.;
. 1985. Piotr
Dumała. 12 min.
Program 74 min.
A rich survey of Lenica’s films, from his surrealist collages
with Borowczyk to his last film, The Island of R.O., and
a documentary on its production by Giżycki.
. 1958. Jan Lenica, Walerian
Borowczyk. 12 min.; . 1958. Lenica, Borowczyk. 3 min.; . 1959. Borowczyk. 8 min.; . 1957. Lenica, Borowczyk.
9 min. . 1961. Lenica, Wojciech
Zamecznik. 3 min.; .
1959. Borowczyk, Chris Marker. 10 min.; . 1960. Lenica. 10
min.; .
1963. Lenica. 11 min.; . 2001. Lenica. 33 min.; . 1998. Marcin Giżycki.
29 min.
Program 128 min.
Polish animation was ambitious from the start: Starewicz worked
with puppets and stop-motion; Giersz with oil-based paints; Janczak
with collage;
and Kijowicz with politically subversive line drawings.
.
1958. Halina Bielińska, Włodzimierz Haupe. 9 min.; . 1960. Witold Giersz. 5 min.; . 1962. Giersz, Ludwik Perski. 9 min.; . 1963. Giersz. 7 min.; . 1963. Kazimierz Urbański. 9 min.; . 1970. Jan Janczak. 8 min.; . 1966. Mirosław Kijowicz. 9 min.; . 1971. Kijowicz. 4 min.; . 1971. Kijowicz. 11 min.; .
1978. Kijowicz. 4 min.; .
1979. Andrzej Warchał. 2 min.
Program 77 min.
Dumała employs his trademark plaster-plate technique for interpretations
of Kafka and Dostoevsky. Kucia’s impressionistic portraits
of town and country are masterpieces of interwoven sound and image.
.
1982. Piotr Dumała. 6 min.; . 1984. Dumała. 8 min.; . 1988. Dumała. 10 min.; . 1972. Jerzy Kucia. 9 min.; . 1980. Kucia. 9 min.; . 1986. Kucia. 14 min.; . 1991. Dumała. 16 min.
Program 72 min.
Schabenbeck’s absurdist tales of Sisyphean men, Czekała’s
nightmarish scenes of a Nazi concentration camp, and Kalina’s
and Antonisz’s visions of madness all confirm Polish animation’s
dark cast.
.
1966. Stefan Schabenbeck. 8 min.; .
1968. Schabenbeck. 7 min.; .
1969. Schabenbeck, Henryk Ryszka. 5 min.; . 1970. Ryszard Czekała. 10 min.; . 1970. Czekała. 7 min.; . 1976. Zbigniew Szymański. 7 min.; . 1980. Andrzej Klimowski. 10 min.;
.
1981. Ewa Bibapska. 8 min.; .
1983. Jerzy Kalina. 9 min.; . 1983. Jacek Kasprzcki. 10 min.; . 1985. Julian Antonisz.
9 min.
Program 90 min.
Recent Polish animation combines cutting-edge technologies with
traditional practices. This program features Sczcechura’s
melancholic renderings of domestic life; Brillowska’s sado-erotic
Grabowski, House of Life; and Bagiński’s Oscar-nominated
Art Nouveau fantasy Cathedral.
. 1974. Piotr Kamler. 6 min.;
. 1968. Daniel Szczechura. 8 min.;
. 1970. Szczechura.
7 min.; . 1978. Szczechura.
5 min.; . 1983.
Szczechura. 10 min.; .
1989. Marek Serafiński. 7 min.; . 1978. Marek Komza. 5 min.;
. 1982. Andrzej Czeczot.
4 min.; . 1990.
Germany. Mariola Brillowska. 20 min.; . 1998. Agnieszka Woźnicka. 7 min.; . 1996. Robert Sowa. 5 min.; . 2002. Tomek Bagiński. 7 min.
Program 91 min.
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