2015

ROJECST OF DOC LAB START 2015

THE DIVINES!
dir. Barbara Białowąs and Katarzyna Trzaska; prod. Monika Braid – Braidmade Films supported by HBO
The film is the portrait of three courageous young women – graduates of fine art academy – facing lack of money, extreme opinions on their art and hard rivalry in the art milieu. This is also a story of becoming a grown‑up, about losing one’s illusions and a severe clash of high academic expectations with the everyday compromises.

I WOULD LIKE TO TELL YPU EVERYTHING
dir. Zvika Portnoy; prod. Maria Krauss, Joanna Plesnar; Plesnar & Krauss Films
In every human being, love to his child is deeply encoded. This movie is about parental love that desires to be fulfilled, but was suddenly interrupted. The protagonists did not choose to be isolated for many years from their children. It was a side effect of their criminal life. Their relation to the children is the only one dimension of their innocence that have not been ruined yet.

DIAGNOSIS
dir. Ewa Podgórska; prod. Małgorzata Wabińska; Entertain Studio
The world’s first ever urban psychoanalyst comes from France to a city in the heart of Poland, invited by its residents. He lays the city on the therapeutic couch, defines its traumas, goes back in history and provides diagnoses.

WHERE ARE YOU TERESA O.?
dir. Arkadiusz Bartosiak; prod. Paweł Nazaruk, Paweł Biniek; Medion Art Studio
The film tells the story of Teresa Orlowski, an exceptional and strong woman who decided to achieve something in life, against the regime and the social mores of 1980s Poland, but in accordance with her own self. Teresa Orlowski is famous for being an international porn‑star but pornography is not a central theme of our movie. It focuses on the life story of this intriguing woman who successfully built a true sex‑Empire, achieved great wealth and fame, only to fall so badly that she decided to hide from the world.

NEW BLOOD
dir.Paweł Ziemilski; prod. Łukasz Długołęcki; NUR
In 1980 Valdi, an Icelander in his thirties was travelling through Poland. A lady conductor on a train caught his eye. Attempts of a conversation in broken English left Valdi with information she was single… and lived in Stare Juchy. He decided to visit this obscure place. And so began the fateful adventure of a young man in a foreign that would lead to the almost complete migration of the youth of Stare Juchy to Iceland.

OLIMPIA (former “Mr Jan and His 40 Girls”)
dir. Jacob Dammas; prod. Jacob Dammas; GRANIZA
Poland’s only female brass band ‘Olimpia’ is composed of 40 young vital women, and one brave man, the 75-year-old conductor and manager Mr Jan Skroś who must work hard to keep the orchestra playing as money is tight, instruments and uniforms need repair, new musicians are harder to find, international concerts await, and no one wants to take over Mr Jan’s job.

SUCH A LITTLE TOWN BATORY
dir.Anna Dejczer, prod. Anna Dejczer GRIFILM
Director’s grandmother was a sailor. She was somebody ‚absent‘, ‚unreachable‘, ‚from somewhere else‘. She was working on the biggest and most famous Polish transatlantic ‚Stefan Batory‘ ship. A Polish trademark of the 70s and 80s; a ‚cocktail‘ made of greatest Polish artists, honored passengers, professional crew, spies, agents and administrative officials. An icon of Poland under communist regime. This is the story of the ship and the grandmother.

THE WIND
dir.Michał Bielawski; prod. Maciej Kubicki; Telemark
The halny wind is the most unpredictable element in the Polish mountains. Halny particularly affects the inhabitants of Zakopane and its area, changing picturesque mountain trails into a set for an untamed performance of nature. It triggers fear and unusual behavior – people become more anxious and aggressive, drink more alcohol, the number of suicides is at its highest level… The multi‑thread documentary observation takes us to meet people dependent on the wind’s actions: doctors, police officers, foresters, meteorologists, and average inhabitants of the Podhale region.

AHEAD OF BILL
dir. Paulina Gawęcka, prod. Tomasz Gaj; WorkshoP
Here is a story of a man who built the first portable computer. His name was neither Bill nor Steve. His name was Jacek. And he changed the history of computers as much as computers have changed all of our lives. Polish engineer Jacek Karpiński invented and constructed one of the first desktop computers in the world overcoming multiple obstacles of the communist regime. It took place not in the ‘80s, but in the late ‘60s in Poland. By doing so he went ahead of his era by several dozen years.

SPECIAL GUESTS – LITHUANIA

PEOPLE, ANIMALS AND THINGS
dir: Aistė Žegulytė, prod: Giedrė Burokaitė; Meno avilys
The main criteria in the taxidermy competition are two: the animal’s posture and gaze. In the words of the master of stuffed birds and animals, “Anyone who is not afraid of blood can pick out the brains, guts and meat, but not everyone can produce a proper posture”. 16 years ago Vasilijus, Egidijus and Kęstutis all together – as a team of taxidermists representing Lithuania – won the First Prize at World Taxidermy Championship. However, as Lithuania achieved economic crisis, the trio disbanded, the three men have not been talking to each other since that time. And whose “posture” and “gaze” are more important in competition? Those of the stuffed animal or those of the craftsman?

EL PADRE MEDICO
dir: Vytautas Puidokas, prod: Paulius Juoceris; Ironcat
Lithuanian‑born priest, missionary, doctor, aristocrat and “Great White Father” to the natives, Alexander Bendoraitis (1919‑1998) had created an entire empire in the heart of the Amazon: a boat‑clinic system, two modern hospitals, a brick factory, the first jungle radio and even a football team. However the quest to understand how one becomes a great man shifts dramatically as we discover the dark side of glory: a cult, a macabre murder and the biggest mystery – Bendoraitis’ past in Europe.

PROJECST OF DOC LAB GO! 2015

21 x NEW YORK
dir. Piotr Stasik, prod. Agnieszka Wasiak (Lava Films)
How often do you catch yourself trying to figure out who the person sitting next to you on a train is? Imagine that you are in New York, in the subway, and you have the power to hear the thoughts of your fellow commuters. You can follow them, enter their home, find out who they are, know about their lives. This is what this documentary does. It follows the characters to the surface and observes moments in their lives, from funny and absurd to sad and dramatic.

NOISLESSLY
dir. Maciej Mądracki, Michał Mądracki, Gilles Lepore, prod. Anna Wydra (Otter Films)
At the doors of the desert, in the south of Morocco lies a small town called Ouarzazate. It was founded by the French legions in the early 20’s of the past century as the furthest military base for colonial conquest of the East in the region of North Africa. As one of the tools used for this “civilizing mission”, as it was named and believed by the French empire, came the new apparatus – camera. Seduced with the blue, the ochre and the ample light, the Western eye will never quit Ouarzazate, moving in for good with its dream factory, the cinema. And from this day on, fiction and reality will mix together inextricably, bathing in this ocean blue sky.

THE END IN THE VALLEY OF TEARS
dir. Jarosław Wszędybył, prod. Przemysław Miękinia (Before My Eyes)
This is the story of Tichilesti, the last leper colony in Europe. Located in Romania, the Valley of Tears is marked by a tragic history as it was pushed into obscurity for decades by the Communist government. In a town where hundreds of people lived, only 15 remain. With each passing year, more die off. When the last inhabitant dies, the village will disappear off the maps for good.

WHEN YOU RETURN
dir. Anna Zamęcka, prod. Anna Wydra (Otter Films)
Before Ola turned eight, her mother had moved out. She just disappeared one day. The girl can’t remember when she stopped waiting, but she remembers very clearly the moment she realized that from now on, she has to take care of her alcoholic father and autistic brother – she was determined to do whatever it takes to make him a “normal boy”. The problem was that Nikodem didn’t want to be a boy anymore. He believed that he was a chimpanzee and that one day he will grow fur and strong claws. Now Ola is eager to send her brother to First Holy Communion; she wants to have a family dinner and gifts, like everyone Else – this is an opportunity to meet her mum. She promised she would come. The truth is Ola never stopped waiting for her.

THE HYPNOTIST
dir. Przemysław Kamiński, prod. Maciej Kubicki (Telemark)
The Hypnotist is a creative documentary, whose protagonist Yuriy is a Ukrainian immigrant with an unusual gift for hypnotising people. Yet, his extraordinary talent doesn’t make it easier for Yuriy to take life‑changing decisions or solve problems all of us face every day. He is caught in a real dilemma: he wants to help people by means of innovative treatment methods for addiction but he also needs to succeed in commercial terms.

TROPHY
dir. Mateusz Romaszkan, Marta Wójtowicz-Wcisło, prod. Kuba Kosma (TAK Film)
The protagonist of the film is a Tourist – mental heir of the colonisers, a provincial from the West – who takes part in a trip organized by a travel agency. During the trip he does not stop filming all that he sees. The Tourist desires to experience something real and exceptional, but his very presence makes everything around him turn into kitsch and trinkets.

AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA
dir. Marcin Sauter, prod. Barbara Ławska (SF Kronika)
The film will be the collective memory of the inhabitants of Aralsk. This used to be beautiful,rich port town, full of hope and people, who were coming to work from entire Soviet Imperium. Today’s buried in poisonous, present Mokondo. Dying Ghost Town. Aralsk is the place where The Sea is eternal legend. The Sea is in people’s talks, dream and memories. Older are reminiscing the Sea, talk about it among themselves, youngsters tells the legends about beautiful Sea. They are fed by those stories which are the symbols of “better“ times.

THE DRAGON SPRING
dir. Jarosław Wszędybył, prod. Magdalena Bryk (Moth Films)
Football is more than a sport. It’s a religion. All over the world, on all of the Earth’s continents millions of people play football. Brwiny Red Dragons do it as well. Although the results they achieve are quite mediocre, it does not deprive them of hope that their fate will change one day. “The Dragon Spring” tells the story about this team and their coach Paweł, a man whose goal is to get The Dragons up from their knees.

WALKING SPARK
dir. Marcin Kopeć; prod. Dawid Janicki, Joanna Szymańska; SHIPsBOY
The main character is a gangster who tries to be a good man. Unfortunately, in his case it is not so easy. For the whole life he made people suffer and aroused fear in them.Peter – forty‑five years old former member of Warsaw’s mafia auer leaving the prison has been trying to make a new start in life. Trying to put the sins of the past behind him, he is taking the first legal job in a hospice. Will Peter be able to adjust to his new life based on other values than those previously confessed, will his transformation last?

JAROCIN – THE RISE OF FREEDOM
dir. Marek Gajczak, Leszek Gnoiński, prod. Aneta Zagórska, Witold Bereś (Stowarzyszenie Film Kraków)
Before 1989 Poland was a country ruled by communism and censorship. Jarocin, a small town in Greater Poland becomes a symbol of independence, rebellion and freedom in a system of oppression. And it was all thanks to rock music and Jarocin Music Festival. The film will show what freedom meant between 1970 and 1990, but also what it means today and how it is understood by the contemporary man. On the canvas of the Festival’s history, the film will show the difficult period of life in a communist system and the Poles’ musical road to freedom.

WHITE CUBE
dir. Wojciech Pustoła, prod. Marta Golba (Endorfina Studio)
As every precious thing white marble of Carrara has its worshippers – stone sculptors. They indulge their passion hidden in countless laboratories covered with marble dust from head to toe. It has always been that way. It is no more. Contemporary engineering has shaken foundations of that world by developing a robot, which can produce virtually any 3D marble form from a computer file. The robot’s name is Antropomorfo. Some of the survivors desperately try to keep the conservative agenda going. Others collaborate with the enemy, being forced to forsake their identity. ‘White Cube‘ depicts people torn by a conflict between conservative and progressive approach in contemporary art. Carrara is a scene of an uneven fight, where old confronts the new and the stake is survival.

LAND OF THE HOMELESS
dir. Marcin Janos Krawczyk, prod. Marcin Krawczyk (Janos Film Production)
It is a documentary film project dedicated to a group of homeless people who, since 2007, have been building an ocean‑going yacht. Their goal is to complete the construction of the “Ark” and to set off on a one‑and‑a‑half‑year cruise around the world, as a kind of therapy helping them come out of their homelessness. What gives them the strength and motivation to continue their noble cause? Will they manage to complete the work they have started?