PWA: Polskie Wydawnictwo Audiowizualne

[zedz]

The Black Series discs are very revealing: a small collection of films that put a whole lot of Polish cinema into a new perspective for me. They're basically a series of surprisingly frank social criticism shorts, often ironic and sometimes flat-out sarcastic in tone. There's a clear lineage through Karabasz to Kieslowski, and Polanski also kicks off here, but I'm pretty sure Wajda and others were also paying close attention.

Some of the films are fairly straight newsreels and PSAs, others are more typically polemic, but there are also flourishes of neo-Impressionist montage and effects sequences (e.g. the camera embodying a wild, drunken dance; a night journey shot through a highly distorting pinhole lens that anticipates Sokhurov) and fantastic micro-narratives. The second half of the short 'Warsaw 1956' contains one of the most harrowing suspense sequences I've seen in a long time, as an infant wanders along the edge of an abyss, all shot for maximum drama and brilliantly edited.

[MichaelB]

The second half of the short 'Warsaw 1956' contains one of the most harrowing suspense sequences I've seen in a long time, as an infant wanders along the edge of an abyss, all shot for maximum drama and brilliantly edited.

Totally agree - and if you have small children yourself, this sequence is perilously close to being unwatchable.

It's a bizarre cross between the classic 1935 British documentary Housing Problems and a particularly sadistic child-in-peril thriller, and works sensationally well.

[zedz]

I also need to mention the wonderful 'Jazz Talks' short, even though it seems completely out of place in the 'Black Series': great trad jazz from the 'Hot Club Melomani', against a surrealist backdrop; then cool 'modern jazz' from the 'Komeda Quartet' against geometric abstractions. The deep penetration of American popular music (plenty of Jazz, plus some fine rock and roll in some of the shorts) into Sovietized Polish society is a real surprise of this set.

[MichaelB]

The Black Series discs are very revealing: a small collection of films that put a whole lot of Polish cinema into a new perspective for me. They're basically a series of surprisingly frank social criticism shorts, often ironic and sometimes flat-out sarcastic in tone. There's a clear lineage through Karabasz to Kieslowski, and Polanski also kicks off here, but I'm pretty sure Wajda and others were also paying close attention.

Oh, they definitely were - given that Polish cinema was only just emerging from rigidly Stalinist socialist realism, any filmmaker worth his salt would have been keeping a very keen eye on what others were up to, just to see what they were getting away with.

And short documentary is a very useful medium for this kind of thing (as was animation), as it had a lower profile so it was easier to push the envelope.

When I first saw Are You Among Them? (1954, at the start of disc two), I thought it was essentially Poland's answer to one of those finger-wagging public information films that the Central Office of Information spent decades foisting on Britons - which is partly true, but it's also a very cunning way of testing the water by offering hints that Poles might not always behave impeccably (references to vandalism, etc.) masquerading as an official warning.

And since Jerzy Hoffman and Edward Skórzewski got away with it, this presumably emboldened them enough to make the far blunter Look Out, Hooligans! the following year.

I also need to mention the wonderful 'Jazz Talks' short, even though it seems completely out of place in the 'Black Series': great trad jazz from the 'Hot Club Melomani', against a surrealist backdrop; then cool 'modern jazz' from the 'Komeda Quartet' against geometric abstractions. The deep penetration of American popular music (plenty of Jazz, plus some fine rock and roll in some of the shorts) into Sovietized Polish society is a real surprise of this set.

This isn't made very clear either on the discs or the packaging, but Jazz Talks is part of a second collection of films that aren't part of the 'black series' but which were made at the same time and respond to (or contrast with) them in some way. That's why they've also thrown in things like Polanski's Break Up The Dance, which isn't a 'black series' documentary either, but which was clearly strongly influenced by it - and radically different pieces like Sopot '57 (another jazz film), Island of Great Hopes (another film about troubled children, but in a much more optimistic style than The Children Accuse) and two Kazimierz Karabasz films that are much closer to his more lyrical early 1960s pieces than the 'black series' films. And the two official newsreels clearly aren't part of the 'black series' either.

Incidentally, I recently received a PWA postcard whose design was based around a list of director's surnames - I've made educated guesses as to the first names, and thought I'd list them here to give some indication of what's likely to be coming down the line.

Already released:

The Black Series
Maciej Drygas
Kazimierz Karabasz
Krzysztof Kieślowski
Marcel Łoziński
Andrzej Munk
Marek Piwowski
Wojciech Wiszniewski

Announced in the latest booklets as imminent releases:

Jacek Blawut
Irena Kamieńska
Pawel Łoziński
Andrzej Titkow
Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz (not mentioned on the postcard, so it's clearly not exhaustive)

Not yet announced, but mentioned on the postcard:

Jerzy Bossak
Andrzej Brzozowski
Andrzej Fidyk
Krystyna Gryczełowska
Jerzy Hoffman
Pawel Kędzierski
Bohdan Kosiński
Grzegorz Królikiewicz
Maria Kwiatkowska
Jan Łomnicki
Andrzej Piekutowski
Edward Skórzewski
Władysław Ślesicki
Jerzy Ziarnik
Tomasz Zygadło

Obviously, I don't know whether this means all these individuals will get their own set - some key works by people like Bossak, Hoffman, Skórzewski, Ślesicki et al have already been featured on the Black Series compilation, and I assume (and hope) they'll be doing more themed collections along similar lines. But I thought I'd throw the names out anyway.

[zedz]

I've watched the first disc of the Wojciech Wisniewski set and - holy shit! This is one of the biggest surprise discoveries I've had in years. Usually when I see a master's work for the first time it's after many years of tantalising anticipation (e.g. Naruse, Yoshida), but this guy came completely out of nowhere. He died young, made no features, but was obviously a major talent, and among his shorts are works that stand up with the best European cinema from the last fifty years.

Trace, apparently a student film, is visually stunning: six intense minutes of cinematic invention that show just what a brilliant, unconventional eye Wisniewski had from the outset. It's nominally a portrait of a railway retiree, but it's better understood as a dreamlike aria for unbounded camera. His previous film, Heart Attack, exhibited outlandish visual effects, but for a rather obvious end. It's far more a 'student film', in the sense of throwing every possible idea at a very simplistic idea, but Trace is mature, poetic and elusive, with a heightened, subjective treatment of sound and image that imply a rich underlying psychology.

A Story of a Man Who Filled 552% of the Quota - the most traditional documentary in the bunch. In fact, it's the only major film that would meet any standard understanding of 'documentary' (thank God PWA are so expansive in their definition of the form!), and it's stunning. It's a fragmentary portrait of a former socialist labour hero, but it's profoundly cynical about the entire socialist project, with various voices disputing the protagonist's achievement and Wisniewski probing the unpleasant consequences of it. When the hero's wife confides that "this fame of ours is bitter as gall", it's a huge slap in the face.

Wanda Gosciminska - Weaver depicts another socialist labour hero, but the mode here is phantasmagoric, one of the most astonishing visualisations of a first-person narrative I've ever seen. The succession of Andersson-esque and Paradzhanovian (in both the ultra-formal Pomegranates and hyper-kinetic Shadows senses) set-pieces is dizzying. If this film is a documentary, it's a documentary only in the sense that I'm Not There and Amarcord are. A couple of examples to give you a sense of just how rich and strange this 20-minute film is:
- after a 'reconstruction' of the way in which Wanda's mother used to cut bread (framed from below in outlandish mock-heroic fashion, with the loaf eclipsing the fish-eye lens), members of her family sit at opposite ends of a table reciting critiques of the reconstruction (e.g."no, she used to hold the loaf closer to her chest" / "the slices were much thinner") while the camera tracks laterally back and forth from one commentator to the other, passing, mid-track, changing figures (a different one on each pass) that we'll later realise are embodiments of various categories of socialist hero. It's a continuous shot and the movement is quite rapid, so the figures change places with almost impossible speed (i.e. a second or two later a completely different human statue is seen in the same spot).
- the end of the war is represented by a huge ceramic(?) swastika, falling to the ground and shattering, shot directly from above and followed by a swarm of beetle-like people racing to the spot.

The film features a host of sui generis camera movements, including a wonderful sequence where a ground level camera swirls among bizarre weaving machines (they look like rejected Doctor Who villains circa 1976) as Wanda and her friends roam through the factory, but my favourite is a vertical downward track from several stories up, hugging a wall and descending on some graffiti sprayers, then miraculously leaving the wall to trace a quarter-circle arc in mid-air (a half-sensoria, for those in the know) and end up looking straight at the sprayed wall. It's an incredible shot that belongs in our "amazing camera movements" thread, but it has plenty of company in this film and other Wiszniewski works.

The Primer - Probably goes even further into the indescribable than Wanda, but here goes: a hallucinatory, profoundly eerie "dramatization" of a reading primer, over so fast you almost can't believe such a film exists.

The Carpenter - another worker's portrait, this time combining close-up work footage so intense as to be near-abstract with archival footage repeated in looped montage (not repeated shots, but repeated sequences of shots, which gives an extremely weird tone to them), and building up to a typically Wisniewskian skewering ("why, being such a qualified carpenter, do I have to live in such a small flat?"). The eccentric staging of a personal historical narrative - the unifying thread is the protagonist's voiceover relating his life experiences - seems to place this in the same vein as Wanda until you learn that the carpenter doesn't exist. The film is entirely fictional except for the unrelated, ironized archival extracts. It's one of the films on this set that brings to mind Greenaway's early, hybridised shorts.

Foreman on a Farm - a deeply mysterious and disturbing elliptical narrative in which a family arrive in a small village, are involved in unelucidated conflicts (which escalate to stone-throwing and car-burning) and leave soon after. There's the clear shadow of some of Wiszniewski's earlier works here - the patriarch seems to be some kind of socilaist labour hero, and that also seems to be a part of his stigma, and the closing shot closely matches that of The Primer (where it was much more incongruous) - but it doesn't all add up tidily in any conventional way. As usual, it's stunningly shot (crisp, cold black and white) and visually exciting, and it's a film whose mysteries I look forward to teasing out.

Disc two - yet unwatched - is his longest film, a 50-minute TV drama, and it's apparently atypical, but the first disc at least is essential viewing. Some of these films will definitely find their way onto my 1970s list.

Before this, I also watched the Karabasz set. It's an excellent compilation of a major figure in Polish documentary, and is particularly essential for Kieslowski fans, but it's somewhat dwarfed by my present excitement about Wiszniewski.

[MichaelB]

I watched most of the second Marcel Łoziński disc yesterday - I only originally planned to watch 89mm From Europe for work-related research, but that was so good that I ended up watching all but the final title.

And, yet again, it's a stunning collection. Łoziński was a friend and near-contemporary of Krzysztof Kieślowski, and on the evidence of his post-1980 films he operates in a very similar humanist vein, characterised by a deceptively straightforward approach.

Microphone Test (1980) has echoes of Kieślowski's Camera Buff the previous year, in that it's about a man trying to make an engaging radio programme about the factory where he works, only to find that the workers' opinions are altogether too candid for management to sanction. (A footnote in the booklet reveals that the radio presenter was subsequently fired, but found a job with Polish Radio).

The title Practice Exercises (1984) only becomes truly clear when the film moves into its second section (of three) - up to then it seems to refer to Łoziński apparently testing a new video camera by asking various people about their opinion of the youth of today. But as the film progresses, it also becomes an illustration of how filmmakers (and their government sponsors) can manipulate innocuous footage to propagandist effect, as we see fuller versions of interviews only briefly excerpted in the first part. Finally, the sound cuts off altogether and we get jaunty music, as if to imply that everyone's all part of the same happy Polish family.

My Place (1985) is probably the most straightforward documentary of those mentioned in this post. Set in a large hotel in Sopot, it anatomises the hierarchy of its workers, from toilet cleaner up to director, their opinions given in voiceover as we see them going about their daily business. All, needless to say, think their job is the most important, without which the hotel wouldn't function - but a group portrait at the end reveals that they're all small cogs in the same vast machine.

Witnesses (1987) is a marrow-chilling account of the Kielce pogrom, an anti-Semitic massacre that was perpetrated by Poles in 1946, many of their victims being Holocaust survivors. The form couldn't be simpler: a series of straight-to-camera interviews by people who were there, intercut with shots of present-day Kielce as they describe atrocities that happened in the same locations only forty years earlier - but with material as strong as this, there's no need for any additional flourishes. Incidentally, Interrogation director Ryszard Bugajski has been trying to make a feature based on the Kielce incident for some time, but for some unaccountable reason he's having difficulty raising funds.

89mm From Europe (1993) is an eleven-minute film-poem (very similar to the work Kazimierz Karabasz was producing in the early 1960s) about the process trains have to undergo when travelling between Europe and Russia, where the carriages have to have their wheelspan enlarged by 89mm to cope with the wider-gauge track. It intercuts the engineers working on this with the passengers who are waiting for them to finish, alternately bored, amused or fascinated. There's virtually no dialogue (European passengers and Belarussian workers wouldn't have a language in common anyway), but the sense of a gulf between Europe and what lies to the East is palpable throughout.

Finally Anything Can Happen (1995) is, quite simply, one of the most disarmingly delightful films that I've ever seen. The booklet notes compare it to Saint-Exupéry's 'Le petit prince', which is absolutely fair, and captures a lot of its charm. Essentially, Łoziński has miked up his six-year-old son Tomek (you can see the mikes protruding from strategically-cut holes in the shoulders of his distinctive red jacket) and then retired to film him from a discreet distance as he ambles through a park, pausing every so often to ask seemingly impertinent questions of various elderly people sitting on assorted benches - but these develop into surprisingly wide-ranging and profound conversations. Tomek's left-field observations won't come as a surprise to anyone with children of a similar age, and neither will his nonchalant dismissals of such matters as ageing, war and family rupture - but in many ways this serves to intensify the material, because the gulf between his innocence and their experience (many of the people he talks to have adult memories of World War II) is so wide. But not, as Łoziński subtly reveals, entirely unbridgeable. Like all truly great films, it's much easier to watch than it is to write about!

(I haven't seen the final film on the second disc yet because it's a sequel to one of the films on disc one).

[MichaelB]

Heads up - PWA has just announced two new releases.

My Polish isn't remotely up to imparting detailed info, but they appear to be announcing a new entry in their documentary series, covering the work of Krystyna Gryczełowska, Irena Kamieńska and Danuta Halladin - presumably on a single two-disc set. Here's a close-up of the cover. Kamieńska was trailed in the last documentary sets, while Gryczełowska's name was on the postcard I mentioned above - but Halladin is entirely new.

The other DVD release has already been hinted at - it's the Anthology of Experimental Polish Animation (cover). Not too many clues as to the content, but there's a clear reference to Borowczyk and Lenica's Once Upon a Time on the artwork.

I'll post more info when I get it.

[gelich]

Heads up - PWA has just announced two new releases.

My Polish isn't remotely up to imparting detailed info, but they appear to be announcing a new entry in their documentary series, covering the work of Krystyna Gryczełowska, Irena Kamieńska and Danuta Halladin - presumably on a single two-disc set. Here's a close-up of the cover. Kamieńska was trailed in the last documentary sets, while Gryczełowska's name was on the postcard I mentioned above - but Halladin is entirely new.

The other DVD release has already been hinted at - it's the Anthology of Experimental Polish Animation (cover). Not too many clues as to the content, but there's a clear reference to Borowczyk and Lenica's Once Upon a Time on the artwork.

I'll post more info when I get it.

Using www.poltran.com, the following translation of the release information resulted:

Relevance of novelties (news) publishing PWA

In our bookmark for procurement already soon „ ", in stores of networks Empik, Traffic, in smallest bookstores and they let's search our publishing novelty (news) with plates (discs) internet stores DVD.

School of document has come in (to) on women huge popularity of series being glad (please) polish < poland > wrestle < pore > < time >. For newest album, editor of (editor of) series, tadeush has chosen fairest polish movies topping Sobolewski dokumentalistek cristine Gryczełowskiej, irena Kamieńskiej and danuta Halladin.

First monographic plate (disc) will appear near the end of june in sale one of most prominent polish modern composer already, Pawła Mykietyna, titled „ song " Speechless.

ANIMATOR will proceed during international festival of animated cartoons in knowledge (poznan) in series devoted animation premiere of (prime minister of) new album. Three-tabular publishing house titled issues in jubilee year „ 60 -years polish animation " „ anthology polish animation pilot " PWA, edited by marcin Giżyckiego. Promotional meeting about in poznan at square of freedom hour 20.00 - 9 july Empiku.

[der_Artur]

That online-translation is awful. Michael could translate all the important things, besides the fact that the new animation anthology will be a three-discer.

[beckmann_max]

These are the contents of the new DVD of experimental animation by PWA

„Antologia Polskiej Animacji Eksperymentalnej"
Czas trwania: 259 minut, napisy: angielski
1 DVD:
- OKO I UCHO, 1944/45 reż. Franciszka I Stefan Themersonowie
- BYŁ SOBIE RAZ, 1957 reż. Walerian Borowczyk, Jan Lenica
- KINEFORMY, 1957 reż. Andrzej Pawłowski
- TAM I TU, 1957 reż. Andrzej Pawłowski
- SZTANDAR MŁODYCH, 1957 reż. Walerian Borowczyk, Jan Lenica
- SOMNAMBULICY, 1958 reż. Mieczysław Waśkowski
- PROSTOKĄT DYNAMICZNY, 1971 reż. Józef Robakowski
- TEST I, 1971 reż. Józef Robakowski
- DEMONY, 1980 reż. Kazimierz Urbański
- STOMP, 1984 reż. Maciej Ćwiek
- MUKA, 2003 reż. Natalia Wilkoszewska
- III, 2003 reż. Jakub Lech
- 1-39-C, 2004 reż. Olga Wroniewicz
2 DVD:
- SŁODKIE RYTMY, 1965 reż. Kazimierz Urbański
- SAM SOBIE STEREM, 1971 reż. Katarzyna Latałło
- REPLIKA, 1975 reż. Kazimierz Bendkowski
- NOWA KSIĄŻKA, 1975 reż. Zbigniew Rybczyński
- OJ! NIE MOGĘ SIĘ ZATRZYMAĆ!, 1975 reż. Zbigniew Rybczyński
- PORTRET, 1977 reż. Stanisław Lenartowicz
- MARTWY CIEŃ,1980 reż. Andrzej Klimowski
- LINIA, 1981 reż. Grzegorz Rogala
- PIERWSZY FILM, 1981 reż. Józef Piwkowski
- BLOK, 1982 reż. Hieronim Neumann
- ODPRYSKI, 1984 reż. Jerzy Kucia
- VIDEO DISC,1986 reż. Maciej Ćwiek
- ZOOPRAXISCOPE, 2005 reż. Hieronim Neumann
3 DVD:
- PLAŻA, 1964 reż. Edward Sturlis
- COPYRIGHT BY FILM POLSKI MCWLXXVI, 1976 reż. Piotr Szulkin
- SŁOŃCE-FILM BEZ KAMERY, 1977 reż. Julian Antonisz
- CO WIDZIMY PO ZAMKNIĘCIU OCZU, 1978 reż. Julian Antonisz
- KOŁO BERMUDZKIE, 1979 reż. Jerzy Kalina
- CINEMA VERITE, 1979 reż. Andrzej Warchał
- NIEZAPOMNIANA NOC, 1996 reż. Janek Koza
- RODZINNY INTERES, 1996 reż. Janek Koza
- ŚMIERĆ NA 5, 2002 reż. Mariusz Wilczyński
- NIESTETY, 2004 reż. Mariusz Wilczyński
- KUNDELKU UJADAJ, PEREŁKO RÓB PIEKŁO, 2006 reż. Wojciech Bąkowski
- FILM MÓWIONY 1, 2007 reż. Wojciech Bąkowski
- CZAPKA, 2007 reż. Tomek Sikora
- CIASTKA, 2007 reż. Tomek Sikora

[MichaelB]

These are the contents of the new DVD of experimental animation by PWA

Fabulous - thanks for that. It looks as though this might conceivably beat the already outstanding Anthology of Polish Animation.

No qualms about a blind buy, certainly - anyone know when it's out?

[perkizitore]

I would like to see more works by Wojciech Has. Do the Polish releases have English subtitles? More information on these is welcome.

I have some trouble buying from Merlin. At the checkout (Summary 4) the Polish buy button doesn't appear.

[MichaelB]

I would like to see more works by Wojciech Has. Do the Polish releases have English subtitles? More information on these is welcome.

The two current releases have English subtitles on the main feature, but not the extras (this is from first-hand viewing, not rumour).

It's probably safe to assume that the three or four upcoming releases will be similar.

[perkizitore]

It's probably safe to assume that the three or four upcoming releases will be similar.

Upcoming releases?Please provide more info.

[MichaelB]

Last autumn, five or six Has DVDs were announced from the same company, though I'm afraid I can't find the link - and specific release dates weren't announced. The first two titles were released relatively quickly, late last year, but nothing else has emerged since then.

I also only have a vague memory of the other proposed titles, though I think The Saragossa Manuscript, Lalka and The Hourglass Sanatorium were definitely included.

[perkizitore]

The Saragossa Manuscript has been released by Image in the US. I wonder why Criterion hasn't released a 2-disc version. The Hourglass Sanatorium can be found relatively easy to download. Why Merlin has two different prices for Petla and Wspolny pokoj?

[MichaelB]

The Saragossa Manuscript has been released by Image in the US. I wonder why Criterion hasn't released a 2-disc version.

Because they don't have the rights?
Because there's not enough material to fill a second disc?
Who knows?

Criterion has never exactly been renowned for championing central and eastern European cinema - aside from the Wajda box set and the quartet of Czech New Wave releases, they've pretty much ignored it.

[tavernier]

Criterion has never exactly been renowned for championing central and eastern European cinema - aside from the Wajda box set and the quartet of Czech New Wave releases, they've pretty much ignored it.

I'm assuming you're deliberately leaving out their many Russian releases, but even so, there's also Knife in the Water, the two Makavejev films, and Before the Rain.

But I agree there are many omissions.

[posto]

Anthology of Experimental Polish Animation is available from Merlin.
I couldn't find the other new release: Krystyna Gryczełowska, Irena Kamieńska, Danuta Halladin yet.

[MichaelB]

Anthology of Experimental Polish Animation is available from Merlin.

Thanks for that - I've been checking the site daily, but I've been trying the New Releases: Polskie section (or whatever it's called), where it's failed to register for some reason.

Amazing price, too - despite being a three-disc set, it's actually cheaper than the two-disc Anthology of Polish Animation! 36 złotys is currently £8.89, €11.21 or $17.76, not including postage - an unbelievable bargain for 40 films, especially as it's probably safe to assume that transfer standards will be as top-notch as before.

I couldn't find the other new release: Krystyna Gryczełowska, Irena Kamieńska, Danuta Halladin yet.

Neither could I - this link should bring up all of PWA's current documentary releases that Merlin are offering, but it's just the usual eight at present.

[posto]

I found this while looking for new PWA releases.

It is an offer for public bidding to manufacture PWA DVDs and CD's. On page 9 they list future releases and re-releases. No dates are given but a lot of specs. Document is in polish and of no use for most on this forum.

Here is the list:
1) DVD Polska Szkoła Dokumentu – Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz (2 discs)
2) DVD Polska Szkoła Dokumentu – Jacek Bławut (2 discs)
3) DVD Polska Szkoła Dokumentu – Paweł Łoziński (2 discs)
4) DVD Polska Szkoła Dokumentu – Krystyna Gryczełowska, Danuta Halladin, Irena Kamieńska (3 discs)

Then follows the list of titles already released and I assume they are re-releases. It appears that they press 3000 sets of each title.

As MichaelB, I am very enthusiastic about PWA top-notch releases. I own everything they issued so far and many films exceeded my wildest expectations, especially Wojciech Wiszniewski (see zedz reviews).
I've already placed an order for new animation set and can't wait to see the movies.

[MichaelB]

I am now the proud owner of a copy of the Anthology of Polish Experimental Animation.

Here's the blurb on the back:

Experimental animation is a broad notion that can be applied to many genres of animated film that break with formal and narrative conventions. The present anthology is a selection of some forty productions that do not quite fit into the mainstream of film animation. On the three discs the viewer will find abstract films, films composed of photographic images subjected to manipulation, as well as animations drawn in unconventional fashion. Some of these are works by well-known artists from beyond the cinematic milieu - writer Stefan Themerson and his painter wife Franciszka, for example, the designer Andrzej Pawlowski, or the photographer Tomek Sikora. There are also works by leading Polish contemporary artists like Josef Robakowski and Jerzy Kalina. There is no lack of work by world-renowned animators like Jan Lenica, Walerian Borowczyk, Zbigniew Rybczynski or Jerzy Kucia. The choice of films included in the Anthology of Polish Experimental Animation is so varied that every viewer is sure to find something of great interest.

Physical presentation standards are exactly the same as usual - fold-out Digipak in a cardboard slipcase, the spine designed to blend perfectly with my ever-increasing PWA library. One difference, though, is that the 11-page booklet has been bound into the fourth flap of the Digipak, next to the DVDs (hence the lack of a 12th page) - and, somewhat disappointingly, it only contains an introductory essay by Marcin Gizycki, which only amounts to three pages in total: there are no notes for individual films. For example, literally everything that he has to say about the Themersons' The Eye and the Ear is that it was made in England during World War II and that the Themersons were pioneers of the Polish cinematic avant-garde - it doesn't even mention that the film consists of four abstract visualisations of songs by Karel Szymanowski, let alone discuss it in any detail.

Still, at this price that's hardly a major complaint, and I'm looking forward to having a proper delve into the films themselves.

[zedz]

I'm nearly through the Marcel Łoziński set and I have to agree with MichaelB above, particularly regarding the delightful Anything Can Happen and the brutally effective Witnesses, one of the most disturbing documentaries I've seen in a long time. It's extremely basic filmmaking at one level (videotaped talking heads), but the material naturally layers past (what the interviewees are talking about) and present (how they're talking about it) in a most uneasy fashion. The events described are appalling and horrific, but they're made all the more disturbing by the inflection they're given by various contributors (ranging from indifference to barely suppressed glee) and the scary void of who's not there to tell their story.

I don't know if Michael's got around to disc one yet, but the knockout of this set for me was How to Live, a feature length documentary about a 'People's Poland' camp for young marrieds. It seems like a government sponsored holiday camp, but it's weirdly regimented and competitive, with a secret tribunal going around scoring young families for their positive attitude and good socialist behaviour, their scores being posted daily in the middle of the campground. It starts out bizarre and unnerving enough, but anybody familiar with Soviet propaganda films of the 60s and 70s will have seen plenty of behaviour just as extraordinary. However, the more we see, the more disturbing it becomes, with grumblings about mini-conspiracies, children being interrogated about their parents behaviour at home (all the better to evaluate their 'performance'), the singling out of a particular family as being 'uncooperative', and the creepy, predatory behaviour of the designated camp leader.

I can't give away how it's all resolved, but this is one of the most devious and vertiginous documentaries I've seen, all masquerading under the guise of sunny cinema-verité.

[posto]

I was absolutely devastated after watching Witnesses. I can't get out of my head some images invoked by this movie.
I read a book by Jan Gross Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz which describes pogrom in Kielce in detail. Author frequently mentions Witnesses. He had access to all the material that Marcel Łoziński filmed and he quotes frequently from interviews which were not included in the finished film.

[zedz]

The Drygas set is fucking awesome. All four films are amazing.

I've just watched Hear My Cry and I'm astounded. Surely one of the greatest documentaries of the last twenty years, and amazingly mature for an early work.

What most impressed me is how the film circles around an event of extraordinary horror (it's no accident that Kielce and Katyn get subtle namechecks), closing in on it inexorably but very slowly. Drygas exhibits steely control, and this film has some of the most intelligent use of archival footage I've ever seen: the film of The Event, explored, fragmented, deconstructed, reconstructed, but only reluctantly yielding the horror at its centre. When it finally does come, in the film's closing minutes, it's an extremely powerful and complex moment, since we've imagined and approached it from every angle and there's an initial disconnect between our inevitable mental images and the documentary record itself, which takes a few moments to burn itself into our brains.

These PWA sets just keep revealing more treasures. I can't wait for the next batch.