PWA: Polskie Wydawnictwo Audiowizualne

[MichaelB]

Well, I've watched the bulk of the Jacek Bławut box - everything pre-2000, with three more to go.

He was the dark horse of PWA's line-up in that I knew next to nothing about him other than that he's also a cinematographer - even PWA's own site still hasn't got round to translating the relevant page, and I couldn't find anything useful anywhere else. His career trajectory from 1980-96 (all I've watched so far) sees him shifting from overwhelmingly visual, often wordless pieces (he's often his own DOP) to more outwardly conventional talking-heads films where the subject is far more important than the style.

Quick notes on the films:

(Without Title) ((Bez tytułu, 1980, 4 mins): This film-school exercise is exactly the kind of thing you'd expect a cinematographer-turning-director to produce. Largely set in an underground passageway, it crams in references to Bławut's favourite films: an empty pram bounces down the steps, while two men carry a mirror-fronted wardrobe (the mirror deliberately reflects the film crew towards the end). The most beautiful sequence is a step-printed fantasy on a theme of pigeon flight, which harks back to some of the work of Franciszka and Stefan Themerson.

View (Widok, 1984, 9 mins): Bławut's wordless directorial debut is still very much a cinematographer's film, creating bizarrely haunting images out of ravaged industrial landscapes: pylons stud the horizon while open-cast mining scars the hillside and spurts black showers of coal. If it tends towards the didactic at times - a daisy is scooped up by the machinery, a time-lapse flower peeks through the earth as though defying man's dominion over it - that's probably a side-effect of it being commissioned as a propaganda film by the Department of Environmental Protection and Water Management. But it's greatly to Bławut's credit that this is mostly not obvious at all.

A Slide to the Sky (Ślizgiem do nieba, 1985, 15 mins): Still very much a cinematographer's film (Bławut is his own DOP), this portrait of multiple world water-sports champion Waldemar Marszałek keeps talk to a minimum, though an opening reminiscence about a near-death moments give Bławut an excuse for near-abstract images of boats against alarmingly orange light. (Orange is very much the dominant colour, as Marszałek sports it throughout). When Bławut shows us an actual race, he doesn't seem interested in its actual progress so much as in turning his shots into meditations on speed and fragility: his telephoto lens foreshortens the high-speed power-boats, making them look like giant manned tiddlywinks bouncing on the surface of the water, and about as robust.

Lump of Sugar (Kostka cukru, 1986, 9 mins): This fuses the themes of the two previous films, in that it's both a portrait of sportsmen and a wordless meditation on man's ruthless exploitation of the natural world - in this case horses. Bribed with sugar (hence the title), and fetlocks tightly bound to cushion impact, they're paraded in front of crowds and forced to race each other for little apparent benefit to themselves. The film features plenty of conventional racing footage, including low-angle shots of horses jumping over hedges and brooks en masse (often in step-printed slow-motion, to emphasise the action), but Bławut stays behind to show things television broadcasters shy away from: horses missing the target and collapsing on the ground, their faces slapped to get them to stagger to their feet, examined by vets and put down there and then if they're judged unsalvageable. (This last sequence takes place behind a green sheet, to shield the sight from the public, though Bławut doesn't give us that luxury). If it's not as gory as Georges Franju's Le Sang des Bêtes (the kills are distressingly clean, in fact), there's a similar implied anger about the way we unthinkingly exploit and degrade these magnificent creatures for such trivial ends.

Skalski's Circus (Cyrk Skalskiego, 1986, 21 mins) and I Was A Wehrmacht General (Byłem generałem Wehrmachtu, 1988, 18 mins): These are broadly similar, so I've lumped them together - essentially, they feature the straight-to-camera reminiscences of legendary World War II fighter ace Stanisław Skalski and shipbuilding expert turned underground resistance hero Kazimierz Leski. In both cases their memories are illustrated with impressionistic images - in Skalski's case step-printed quasi-slow-motion footage of various WWII dogfights, while in the Leski film they've become more stylised: a particularly striking effect is of a naked prisoner standing in a cell, his back to the camera, having a tub of cold water thrown over him. The cell is lit by daylight, and then Bławut cuts to exactly the same setup and action, only at night and lit artificially. Then day again, then night, getting faster and faster - a very effective way of conveying prisoner abuse over a period of time that I don't think I've come across before.

The Abnormals (Nienormalni, 1990, 75 mins): The set's longest film is also the pivotal one in Bławut's career - it's when he abandoned highly stylised images in favour of observational fly-on-the-wall techniques. What this loses in visual distinction it gains immeasurably in terms of bringing the subject across - the whole point of the mentally disabled teenagers featured in the film is that they're actually completely normal in their various needs and desires, and a treatment that emphasises a sense of "otherness" (as in Bławut's previous films) would have done them and the film a severe disservice. I found it so engrossing that the 75 minutes flew by - there's a loose structure (a music teacher trying to get them to play something coherent in a makeshift orchestra), but the most memorable parts of the film come between those scenes, often in almost throwaway moments. Some of these hint at the difficulties the teenagers face in the outside world, such as a brief sequence in which one of them goes to a dance, takes a girl's hand, kisses it, and in the next shot is roughly hustled outside by two other boys.

Rugged Souls (Rogate dusze, 1996, 57 mins): For me, this study of members of the French Foreign Legion was less successful, at least partly because of the ruinous decision to present every non-Polish interview with an obtrusive Polish voiceover translation. (This must be especially intolerable if you're French, the language most of the original interviews seem to be in - French subtitles are supplied, but shouldn't be necessary!). This creates an unnecessary distancing effect (precisely the kind of distancing that wasn't present in The Abnormals) and precludes full engagement - though when the film focuses on Polish Legionnaire Mariusz, who lost a leg in Yugoslavia, the film gives a hint of what it might have been if the treatment of the other interviewees had been more sensitive. Mariusz' story is interspersed with that of veteran Legionnaires, who still feel more loyal to the Foreign Legion and their comrades there than their family or country.

More later - I'll try to watch the remaining three films today.

[skuhn8]

I ordered the PWA experimental animation set a few weeks ago, and have been informed that it will not be available until March 11 - so if this item was part of your order then this could be the problem. Merlin contacted me by email to ask if I wanted to keep the order open. At least I think this is what the email said - I struggled through it with the help of an online Polish-English translation site, so it's possible I got the wrong end of the stick.

Any movement on the experimental animation sets? I've been waiting nearly two months, have received a couple of expected delivery dates that came and went, etc. Not complaining as I don't believe its sloth but am VERY eager to get my hands on this. I long exhausted their other two animation sets.

[ryan11]

I ordered the PWA experimental animation set a few weeks ago, and have been informed that it will not be available until March 11 - so if this item was part of your order then this could be the problem. Merlin contacted me by email to ask if I wanted to keep the order open. At least I think this is what the email said - I struggled through it with the help of an online Polish-English translation site, so it's possible I got the wrong end of the stick.

Any movement on the experimental animation sets? I've been waiting nearly two months, have received a couple of expected delivery dates that came and went, etc. Not complaining as I don't believe its sloth but am VERY eager to get my hands on this. I long exhausted their other two animation sets.

Not looking good. Release date was put back to April 1. The title is now showing as a 7 day order, as it did last time.

Empik are showing it as a 72 hour turnaround, so that looks like the best bet at this stage. Empik also have the Blawut set available, as MichaelB mentioned.

I'll post again if Merlin happens to supply the title.

[MichaelB]

It looks as though PWA has changed its name, to the National Audiovisual Institute, or NIA (Narodowy Instytut Audiowizualny).

I suggest waiting until this is reflected on their DVD releases before renaming the thread, though.

[skuhn8]

I ordered the PWA experimental animation set a few weeks ago, and have been informed that it will not be available until March 11 - so if this item was part of your order then this could be the problem. Merlin contacted me by email to ask if I wanted to keep the order open. At least I think this is what the email said - I struggled through it with the help of an online Polish-English translation site, so it's possible I got the wrong end of the stick.

Any movement on the experimental animation sets? I've been waiting nearly two months, have received a couple of expected delivery dates that came and went, etc. Not complaining as I don't believe its sloth but am VERY eager to get my hands on this. I long exhausted their other two animation sets.

Looks like my Experimental Animation has shipped:
Przesyłka została nadana dn. 06-04-2009 przesyłką kurierską na adres:
Hope the same happens for everyone else eagerly waiting.

[drpauligari]

Looks like my Experimental Animation has shipped:
Przesyłka została nadana dn. 06-04-2009 przesyłką kurierską na adres:
Hope the same happens for everyone else eagerly waiting.

Yes! The large order I placed at the end of February, which includes the Experimental Animation set, has also finally shipped. I wait with bated breath to see how long it takes for the package to get to Californy.

[paczemoj]

...even PWA's own site still hasn't got round to translating the relevant page...

The first quotation on the page is quite nice. It translates to something like: "While filming, I don’t have to look through a magnifying glass. I look people in the eyes, and my camera follows what I see. I wouldn’t be able to speak with anyone while looking through my viewfinder. So it’s a little like there is no camera at all."

I guess that means the interviewees never look at the camera?

[karmajuice]

My order also shipped on the fourth. Very excited about getting these, although that may not be until July, as I'm going to Scandinavia next month. I should have just dropped by Poland to pick them up.

[posto]

PWA has a new animation set out: "Akcja Animacja. Filmy najnowsze" "Action Animation. The most Recent Films".
PWA English site does not show this title and they don't list films included in the anthology.
A short note on polish site mentions that anthology features the youngest generation of animators (from 1989 on).
Promotional poster shows 31 names and I found that at least the following films are included:

Disc I:
ROMANS DŻENTELMENA (Gentleman’s Romance) - real. Tomasz Kozak, 8’
MILEŃKA - real. Joanna Jasińska, 4’20”
MYSZ (Mouse)- real. Wojciech Wawszczyk, 7’
NARODZINY NARODU (Birth of a Nation) – real. Kamil Polak, 5’
PRÓŻNIA (Vacuum) – real. Janek Koza, 2’36”
UWAGA! ZŁE PSY! (Beware! Bad Dogs) - real. Maciej Majewski, 6’
00:03:04:08 - real. Olga Wroniewicz, 3’
PO JABŁKACH (After Apples)- real. Marta Pajek, 5’
SZTUKA SPADANIA (Fallen Art) - real. Tomasz Bagiński, 5’50”

Disc II
JAM SESSION – real. Izabela Plucińska, 9’30”
TELEWIZOR (TV Set) - real. Tomasz Siwiński, 9’
CARACAS - real. Anna Błaszczyk, 10’
DOKUMANIMO - real. Małgorzata Bosek, 10’
REFRENY (Refrains) - real. Wiola Sowa, 13’30”
SEKWENS - real. Robert Sowa, 7’50”
WSZYSTKO PŁYNIE (Everything Flows) - real. Edyta Turczanik, 7’45”
FILM MÓWIONY 2 (Talking Movie 2) - real. Wojciech Bąkowski, 5’

Price: 32 zł
I could not find it available on any site other than PWA.

[Alyosha]

PWA have updated the list of films now. Still not available to order from Merlin though.

DVD1
STUPAJKOP - Andrzej Zaręba
MASKI - Piotr Karwas
OJ DA DA NA - Anna Matysik
OPERA OCALENIA -Tomasz Kozak
ROMANS DŻENTELMENA - Tomasz Kozak
MILEŃKA - Joanna Jasińska-Koronkiewicz
MYSZ - Wojtek Wawszczyk
NARODZINY NARODU - Kamil Polak
PRÓŻNIA - Janek Koza
UWAGA! ZŁE PSY! - Maciej Majewski
POJEDYNEK - Waldemar Mordarski
00:03:04:08 - Olga Wroniewicz
MASA - Wojciech Bąkowski
SUFLER - Przemysław Świda
PO JABŁKACH - Marta Pajek
SZTUKA SPADANIA -Tomasz Bagiński

DVD 2
IO - Olga Wroniewicz
JAM SESSION - Izabela Plucińska
INTRO- wstęp do cyklu filmów "SIOSTRY Z DOMU JARZĄB" - Aga Jarząbowa
SIOSTRY Z DOMU JARZĄB - Aga Jarząbowa
TELEWIZOR - Tomasz Siwiński
CARACAS - Anna Błaszczyk
EXIT - Grzegorz Koncewicz
MOLOCH - Marcin Pazera
AMERICAN DREAM - Jakub Wroński
ARKA - Grzegorz Jonkajtys
DOKUMANIMO - Małgorzata Bosek
EPIZOD - Agata Gorządek
REFRENY - Wiola Sowa
SEKWENS - Robert Sowa
WSZYSTKO PŁYNIE - Edyta Turczanik
FILM MÓWIONY 2 - Wojciech Bąkowski

[MichaelB]

I picked up a copy of Action Animation at the Poznań Animation Festival last week - I suspect it was a sneak preview prior to official release.

Anyway, you know exactly what to expect - a fully bilingual edition (i.e. English menus as well as subtitles) of animated shorts, presented in 4:3 (letterboxed where necessary), the only difference with previous PWA animation sets in terms of content being that they're all very recent productions by young animators.

One surprise is that the physical presentation has changed - the two discs are presented in an old-fashioned elongated jewel case (remember about ten years ago when DVDs came either in those, snappers or Amarays before the latter won the packaging war?), and the textual information now comes in a single fold-out double-sided sheet rather than a booklet. To be fair this is marginally more convenient than physically sealing the book into the packaging (i.e. like the Anthology of Polish Experimental Animation), but I predict a fair amount of wear and tear with repeated folding and unfolding. Contents are brief biogs and filmogs for the filmmakers, plus an overview essay, all in Polish and English.

I also impulse-bought a couple of PWA's theatre releases - Burza is a reinterpretation of Shakespeare's The Tempest, and Kalkwerk is apparently a legendary Polish stage production, and cheap enough to be worth a gamble. In both cases, the releases are fully bilingual (plus German, French and Russian subtitles - and the English subtitles on Burza appear to be Bard-sourced), with Kalkwerk's packaging being particularly luxurious, coming in the form of a hardback book - though I'm not happy about the DVD being stored in a pocket inside the back cover: that's a notorious scratch magnet. By contrase, Burza is also in an elongated jewel case, though at least it has a proper booklet.

I also chatted to various people in Poznań about what's happened to PWA since it changed its name - basically, it's massively expanded from its original film/music remit to cover material across all creative media, but my understanding is that the series that made its initial reputation will certainly be continuing.

[Lazertron]

I spent last weekend in Krakow with my wife and we were impressed by the beautiness of this city, the progressive atmosphere and the quick glimpse we were able to take of Polish culture and lifestyle.
As I always wanted to dig a bit deeper into Polish filmmakers I visited two Empik stores and bought the following box sets for little money not knowing of this thread:

Polish School of the Documentary:
Krystyna Gryczełowska/Irina Kamieńska/Danuta Halladin
Krzysztof Kieślowski
Wojciech Wiszniewski
Marcel Łoziński
Maciej J. Drygas
Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz

Telewizja Kinopolska:
Krzysztof Zanussi
Andrzej Zulawski

I haven't had the chance to even open the cellophan shrinkwrap yet, but I'm looking forward to these movies.

I also saw many Czech DVDs on display, but due to the lack of English subtitles I had to pass.

[Lazertron]

I now ordered four titles, which I didn't pick up in Krakow, through Traffic Club:

Andrzej Munk: Polska Szkoła Dokumentu
Kazimierz Karabasz: Polska Szkoła Dokumentu
Czarna seria: Polska Szkoła Dokumentu
Jacek Bławut: Polska Szkoła Dokumentu

The price is fantastic (like in the Emprik stores) with 34,50 Zloty per item. Thanks to tips in this thread, ordering online at Traffic Club was smooth.

Read MichaelB's posting with possible upcoming releases - has anyone more info by now?

[PorkChop]

Seems like most of PWA DVDs are available on Amazon.com. I got few titles from Polish Jazz site: polishjazz.com

[PorkChop]

Does anybody know if PWA's DVDs with theatrical plays: H, Krum, Burza, and Kalkwerk have English subtitles?

[MichaelB]

Does anybody know if PWA's DVDs with theatrical plays: H, Krum, Burza, and Kalkwerk have English subtitles?

See above! Burza (aka Shakespeare's The Tempest) and Kalkwerk are fully bilingual; no reason to assume the others aren't either, though I haven't personally sampled those. Burza even has subtitles in the original Shakespeare.

[Lazertron]

I now ordered four titles, which I didn't pick up in Krakow, through Traffic Club:

Andrzej Munk: Polska Szkoła Dokumentu
Kazimierz Karabasz: Polska Szkoła Dokumentu
Czarna seria: Polska Szkoła Dokumentu
Jacek Bławut: Polska Szkoła Dokumentu

The package from Traffic Club arrived yesterday, one week after ordering =D>

[posto]

PWA has announced new animation DVD: „Polish Animation. Daniel Szczechura”. This announcement is only on their polish site. It is coming out shortly (no date).
Apparently it is a 2 DVD set with English subtitles and booklet, just like before.
Daniel Szczechura's shorts were included in: Polish Children’s Animation and "Anthology of Polish Animated Film".
Here is some info on Daniel Szczechura.

[MichaelB]

Yes, I'd heard the anthologies would be followed by more focused packages devoted to individual artists, so hopefully this is the first of many.

When I was last in Poland I chatted to one of the major contributors to the PWA documentary sleevenotes, and he says that there should definitely be more, but since PWA was expanded into NInA they've devoted most of their time and budget to a massive cultural digitisation programme - which sounds sensible in terms of priorities, even if it's meant a slowdown in releases.

[MichaelB]

At long last, another release in the outstanding Polish School of the Documentary series:

Już wkrótce w sprzedaży kolejny album z serii Polska Szkoła Dokumentu – Paweł Łoziński. Na dwóch płytach znajdą się m. in. "Miejsce urodzenia", "Taka historia", "Chemia", "Siostry".

Which, with the aid of this culture.pl profile, I interpret as containing the following films by Pawel Łoziński (son of Marcel):

Birthplace (Miejsce urodzenia, 1992, 47 mins)
A Just So Story (Taka historia, 1999, 58 mins)
The Sisters (Siostry, 1999, 12 mins) - more info here.
Chemo (Chemia, 2009, 58 mins) - more info here.

[tajmahal]

At long last, another release in the outstanding Polish School of the Documentary series:

Już wkrótce w sprzedaży kolejny album z serii Polska Szkoła Dokumentu – Paweł Łoziński. Na dwóch płytach znajdą się m. in. "Miejsce urodzenia", "Taka historia", "Chemia", "Siostry".

Which, with the aid of this culture.pl profile, I interpret as containing the following films by Pawel Łoziński (son of Marcel):

Birthplace (Miejsce urodzenia, 1992, 47 mins)
A Just So Story (Taka historia, 1999, 58 mins)
The Sisters (Siostry, 1999, 12 mins) - more info here.
Chemo (Chemia, 2009, 58 mins) - more info here.

A very nice surprise. I've been working my way through the back-catalogue, including the animation sets. What a wonderful, and culturally important project. Most recently, I've started the Munk set, in preparation for my Secondrun Passenger dvd to arrive. I found the early propaganda shorts fascinating. Not a million miles from the average tv election campaign. ..... and don't the kiddies love it!

Hopefully this new set won't be the last.

[MichaelB]

Hopefully this new set won't be the last.

Andrzej Titkow has been announced as "coming soon" for ages, so I imagine that'll be the next one.

I don't see any reason to assume these will be the last - from what I hear, PWA's operation (and budget) has expanded significantly in the last year, and their remit remains the same: to compile and present outstanding examples of often overlooked aspects of Polish culture.

The relative lack of DVD output in 2009 seems to be largely down to the changeover to NInA and this massive digitisation project, though I suspect the latter will pay DVD-related dividends at some point down the line.

[MichaelB]

Excellent news - NInA have published the full press release (currently in Polish only) for the upcoming Paweł Łoziński set, and it looks as though there are rather more films on it than was hinted above.

Namely:

Disc One
Structure (Struktura, 1989, 6 mins)
100 Years of Cinema (100 lat w kinie, 1995, 62 mins)
Sławomir Mrożek Presents (Sławomir Mrożek przedstawia, 1997, 48 mins)
The Sisters (Siostry, 1999, 12 mins)
A Woman from Ukraine (Pani z Ukrainy, 2002, 19 mins)
Kici, Kici (2008, 28 mins)

Disc Two
Birthplace (Miejsce urodzenia, 1992, 47 mins)
A Just So Story (Taka historia, 1999, 58 mins)
Chemo (Chemia, 2009, 58 mins)

Total running time: an impressively meaty 338 minutes - and the price is the usual absurdly low 36 złotys (£7.69/€8.61/US$12.33).

As a footnote, it's worth highlighting that 100 Years of Cinema is one of the episodes of the BFI-produced TV series about various national cinemas - this is (obviously) the one about Polish cinema, which as I recall suffered badly from the decision not to identify any of the clips (which, by and large, weren't especially famous titles - at least not to non-Poles).

[MichaelB]

Paweł Łoziński now available from Merlin and Empik. No sign of Daniel Szczechura yet.

[broadwayrock]

How much is postage to the UK with Empik?