Solidarity Of Arts 2009
Between August 15th and September 3rd 2009 the city of Gdańsk was home to Solidarity of Arts' first edition. Our festival had two major themes in 2009: the 20th anniversary of the fall of Communism and the 70th anniversary of the WWII outbreak.
Here is a short photo-diary of the 2009 Solidarity of Arts.
August 15th 2009 - Official opening of the festival and the City of Gdańsk President Awards ceremony, Neptuny 2009. Neptune statues are awarded to Polish and foreign artists whose creations made a name not only for their authors but also for Gdańsk and for the way it is perceived, both here in Poland and internationally.
In 2009 the Neptunes went to the pianist and copmoser Leszek Możdżer, actress Joanna Szczepkowska and composer and musician Przemysław Gintrowski (Krzysztof Materna holding here Przemysław's award in his absence).
August 17th 2009 - Filmmakers' and photographers' take on freedom movements in Central and Eastern Europe - a panel discussion ahead of the documentary film screenings at Neptun and Letnie cinemas in Gdańsk.
- To me a documentary film is always a process of discovery. Both hidden and new meanings often come to light only at editing stage, when I try to put together the material I have. I find these moments of documentary work most rewarding. (Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz, leading Polish documentary filmmaker)
- I don't believe in being perfectly objective. Those who pursue perfect objectivity, in reality, they abandon what is most important in a documentary. (Bolesław Sulik, documentary filmmaker and a former BBC correspondent)
- It is vital not to generate new stereotypes. We often expose and denounce myths, only to simultaneously create new ones in their place. (Bogdan Borusewicz, former Solidarność activist)
- A documenatry shows the unique vision of reality, a vision filled with emotions. It delivers something that no historical truth can deliver. It is an interpretation, a metaphore that propels its audience to action. Which is why it is vital to make movies of different viewpoints. That way different, subjective visions can complement one another. (Leszek Koczanowicz, philosopher)
- Communism has corrupted the role of a documentary filmmaker by harnessing her or him to work for the propaganda. At the same time our colleagues abroad enjoyed broadly understood respect. They enjoyed a reputation of persons in position to capture history as it happened, often by sacrificing their lives. (Stanisław Markowski, photographer documenting opposition movements in communist Poland)
Alien. Bydgoszcz, central Poland, 2008. Photo: Mariusz Tomaszewski
Ian Gillan (Deep Purple and Black Sabbath)
Myslovitz
Fully Fullwood's Tosh meets Marley
Ian Gillan and the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra
- If it wasn't for the hunger, Kim ir Sen's system created in North Korea would have been perfect: it is based on a mind-numbing propaganda and a bullet-proof isolation from any information from abroad. In Poland's communist hey day we still did get some information from the other side of the Iron Curtain, there was the Wolna Europa radio station, we knew that it was possible to live differently. North Koreans are deprived of that knowledge. The only thing that really matters there is The Leader. Even dreaming is impossible in these conditions. (Andrzej Fidyk, film director)
- In Wiśniewski's play the table is set and, over a white cloth, the Gods are plotting the killing of a family. Evil? It's triumphing. As usual, only temporarily. (Alicja Olkowska, Teatralia Trójmiasto; photo: Tomek Kamiński)
Academy Award winner Marcia Gay Harden
- I decided that the story of Irena Sendler, who managed to lead around 2500 children out of the Warsaw ghetto during WWII, is well worth telling people around the world. (John Kent Harrison, director). Also on this photograph: Anna Paquin (in the film playing Irena Sendler) and Marcia Gay Harden.
Virtual flames climbing up the roof of the Holy Trinity Church in Gdańsk - project by Thyra Hilden and Pio Diaz; photo: Konrad Pitala.
- I was in Auschwitz. I built Auschwitz, because I arrived there with the first transport of prisoners. What is also true is that for almost fifty years I didn't talk about Auschwitz. [...] In my drawings I don't want to appear smarter than I was back then. I want to go back to the naivety of my youth. These days I am an old man writing a letter to myself, trying to put in order and preserve in drawings only what has survived with me, what I managed to save and what is now living in me. [...] Will it carry any meaning for someone else? I would like to tell the passer-by: be patient. Read what is written inside these drawings patiently. These are my words drawn for you. They must be read. (Marian Kołodziej, brilliant Polish artist, stage designer, both theatre and film)
Michael Nyman
Leszek Możdżer
Michael Nyman, the photographer