Gazeta Cafe
Moderator: Paweł T. Felis, Gazeta Wyborcza
Puro Hotel courtyard, Włodkowica 6
July 27, Sunday, 7.00 p.m.
Neomodernism in Film
A meeting with Rafał Syska, author of the book Filmowy neomodernizm (Neomodernism in Film), as well as Miłosz Stelmach, and the organizers of the T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival, Roman Gutek and Joanna Łapińska.
We will talk about silence, emotional separation, melancholy, and loneliness in film, i.e., about the new horizons in film that the Festival in Wrocław (starting in Sanok and Cieszyn) has revealed for Polish audiences. Filmowy neomodernizm is about the roots of this trend (also known as slow cinema), its mechanisms of production and distribution, as well as its main narrative features and subject matter. The characters in the book include some outstanding contemporary filmmakers from the world of artistic cinema: Aleksandr Sokurov, Béla Tarr, Bruno Dumont, Tsai Ming-liang, Carlos Reygadas, and many more.
July 28, Monday, 7.00 p.m.
guest: Lou Ye
After graduating from the Beijing Film Academy, Lou Ye started his career as an assistant director, producing movies, and also shooting his own short films. He is considered one of the sixth generation of Chinese directors. China forms the background for his films: its beauty and harsh everyday realities, as well as its dynamic changes, which his characters, caught up in complicated lives, are trying to keep up with.
July 29, Tuesday, 6.00 p.m.
guest: György Pálfi
György Pálfi is one of the most interesting contemporary Hungarian directors. In 2002, his debut feature Hukkle was recognized by the European Film Academy as the discovery of the year. Two years later, the screenplay for Taxidermia, his second film, won a KNF award for the best European project, as recognized by the Sundance Institute. In 2012 in Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen, he made successful use of found-footage techniques in editing together a love story exclusively from scenes from other films.
August 2, Saturday, 1.00 p.m.
guests: Grzegorz Jarzyna, Anna i Wilhelm Sasnal
Grzegorz Jarzyna is one of Poland’s best-known theater artists, who revolutionized Polish theater. He studied Philosophy at Jagiellonian University and Direction at the National School for Theater and Acting in Krakow. Since 1998, he has been the artistic director at TR Warszawa (the former Teatr Rozmaitości), one of the most innovative theaters in Poland. Between 2006 and 2013, he was also the managing director.
Anna Sasnal is an editor, screenwriter, and filmmaker. Together with her husband, Wilhelm, she has made both feature and documentary films. The 2011 film It Looks Pretty from a Distance qualified for the main competition at the festival in Rotterdam, and received the Wrocław Film Prize in the New Polish Films section at the New Horizons International Film Festival. She served as the inspiration for several paintings by Wilhelm, including Untitled – Kacper and Anka (Bez tytułu – Kacper i Anka).
Wilhelm Sasnal is a world-renowned painter and experimental filmmaker. He is one of the co-founders of the Krakow Ładnie (Pretty) collective. He has sometimes been considered one of the voices of the 1970s generation and his work often deals with the impact of the political transformation on society. He has exhibited his work on numerous occasions, including in New York and at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 2006, he occupied the top position on a list of the 100 most important young artists in the world of contemporary art, as voted upon in the pages of the magazine Flash Art.