2021

DOC LAB START PROJECTS 2021

ABOU’S JOURNEY
director and producer: Gosia Juszczak
A fisherman from Gambia migrates to Europe in a desperate move to provide for his family. But his daughter Mariama is threatened with genital mutilation. Will he manage to protect her from afar?

ARCTOWSKI
director: Katarzyna Dąbkowska
producer / production company: Ewa Żukowska – Studio Żuk
Love for Antarctica has been connecting scientists for over 100 years. Construction of the new Polish Antarctic Station perpetuates the dreams of H. Arctowski, the first Polish polar explorer.

BASE 13
director: Paweł Hejbudzki
producer: Wojciech Karubin – Movie Mates
Children’s karting is a high-risk sport. Extremely young children sit behind the wheels of go-karts speeding at 80 km/h (50 mph). Although the chance for success is small, the pressure is enormous.

CATCH UP WITH YOUR DREAMS
director: Diana Kadłubowska, Krzysztof Kadłubowski
producer / production company: Krzysztof Kadłubowski – Studio Filmowe Plus Tv D.Kadłubowska, K.Kadłubowski
This is a story about a director who despite his illness and disability returns to his student dreams and after 20 years decides to make a film. Thanks to this he finds the sense in his life.

CHILD OF DUST
director: Weronika Mliczewska
producer: Weronika Mliczewska – Ya-Man Studio
Sang is an unwanted kid from the Vietnam war. After a life of discrimination, miraculously he finds his father. Before they meet, Sang wants to mend his broken bonds with his kids to change his karma.

FEAR LESS
director: Edyta Sewruk
producer / production company: Ewa Hoffmann – Eh! Ewa Hoffmann
Is it possible to tame death by contacting it on a daily basis? „Fear Less” is a film about 28-year-old Simon which is assisting with post-mortem examinations and is preparing bodies for the burial.

GIRL’S STORIES
director: Aga Borzym
producer / production company: Marta Dużbabel, Agnieszka Rostropowicz-Rutkowska – Pinot Films
Story about being on the verge of becoming a teenager. We observe the world of adolescence, with all its ups and downs, through the eyes of two guides – 11-year-old Jagoda and 13-years-old Zuzia.

GUEST WORKER
director: Matej Bobrik
producer / production company: Agnieszka Skalska – Koi Studio
Recently, many Asians emigrate to Poland for economic reasons. For them, it’s a promised land. It’s also the case for Shiv and his family, who have been trying to build a life here for a few years.

LATE LOVERS
director: Anna Wowra, Lena Jabłońska
producer / production company: Rafał Sakowski – Story Vehicle
Basia and Zbyszek used to think that nothing surprising is ahead of them. Nonetheless when they met by chance, they chose to pursue their love. Sadly fate does not treat them kindly.

MAN OF MARBLE
director: Szymon Kuriata
producer / production company: Katarzyna Kuca, Aneta Zagórska – Film Kraków Sp. z o. o.
Remik tries to escape from alcoholism. His ex-partner Magda has to mature quickly to raise their son. Will they be able to break out of circle of his addiction and give Franek a better life together?

PAPA WAS A KING OF KONGO
director: Joanna Ratajczak
producer / production company: Maciej Kubicki, Joanna Ratajczak – Telemark
A black girl raised in a white family in Poland meets her Congolese father at the age of 21. As he dies she succeeds him as leader of the tribe. She looks for her father’s illegitimate children.

STEP BY STEP
director: Eliza Kubarska, Michał Woroch
producer / production company: Monika Braid – Braidmade Films
Michał, who suffers from SME and uses a wheelchair, goes to the Himalayas. His fight with his limitations and the hardships of the trip is a pretext for the story of determination.

THE INVISIBLES
director: Piotr Bernaś
producer / production company: Aleksandra Szczęsna – Hasko Film
Agnieszka, a newly widowed young woman, moves into her brother’s flat while he’s away. When she gets to know a Chechen refugee family living next door, her life starts changing.

THE SILK ROAD
director: Marcin Lesisz
producer / production company: Marcin Lesisz, Mateusz Sajdak – Stowarzyszenie „Lubińska Grupa Filmowa Uisel Studio”
Goran takes his animal caravan on a journey across the Silk Road, and with him goes Ghini, a female camel in search of a mate.

WIELICKI
director: Dariusz Załuski
producer / production company: Małgorzata Wala – Go Everest Studio
„Wielicki” is a portrait of an outstanding Himalayan climber whose life was full of extreme emotions. Now, being an older man, he has a growing feeling that he was an egoist.

WILD SOUL
director and producer: Marcin Gęsiarz
The young racing horse from the slaughterhouse is saved by a former climber who discovers his soul mate in time. Their relationship is driving the changes ahead of the World Championship.

DOC LAB GO PROJECTS 2021

DESERT MEDICINE
director: Rita Ciołek
producer / production company: Rita Ciolek – Kazia Productions, LLC
Lyndsay Hailey, a 35-year-old sexual abuse survivor, travels to the desert in Arizona to spend five days with a Native American shaman in hopes of healing from her childhood trauma.

FATHER AND SON
director: Paweł Chorzępa
producer / production company: Joanna Dobrzańska – Bees Film House
The story of a father-son relationship with the Dakar Rally at the backdrop. While the son tries to win, his father and coach in one person fights to make his child survive the murderous race.

INKA ON THE NET
director: Piotr Bartos
producer / production company: Bartek Bartos – MANIFIESTA
Return to the lost land of childhood, where everything happens for the first time.

LEON
director: Wojciech Gostomczyk
producer: Wojciech Gostomczyk, Anna Stylińska – Metrage Studio
A performative artist Leon rejects limits between art and life. Creating his dream project he finds himself in conflict with society and family, including his boyfriend, Manfred Thierry Mugler.

MY PLACE OZERNA
director: Karina Będkowska
producer / production company: Monika Braid – Braidmade Films
Karina, the director, escapes from London to Ukraine and meets her aunt Slava. Closeness and love between the two women of different generations who lost the will to live restore sense in their lives.

OLD HIPPIES DIE YOUNG
director: Zofia Pręgowska
producer / production company: Zofia Pręgowska – Prego media
Story about young marriage living in a trailer with their „children” – dogs Pig and Sussie and cat Joseph.

SILENCE HEARD LOUD
director and producer: Anna Konik
London 2020 – here the paths of seven asylum seekers cross. Their stories reveal the plight of all those fighting a desperate battle for freedom and dignity.

THE HERD
director: Monika Kotecka, Karolina Poryzała
producer: Aga Wasiak – Lava Films
An amateur female sports club Volteo takes on the challenge to become a national team at vaulting. Its members don’t realize how much sacrifice goes with that decision.

THE SOIL
director: Zuzanna Solakiewicz
producer: Anna Gawlita – Kijora Film
A feminist documentary musical that offers a fresh approach to the subject of rural women. In their singing, the protagonists find an expression of strength, maturity, and their life experiences.