POLISH FILMS IN THE DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION AT THE CAMERIMAGE FESTIVAL
At the turn of November and December, the anniversary 20th edition of Plus Cameraimage festival takes place in Bydgoszcz. Among the competition documentary films at this edition there is as many as eight Polish films.
For twenty years, the organisers of the Camerimage festival pay attention to the role which the authors of the film photography play in the making of a film. Marek Żydowicz, the festival's director, points out that "The role of cinematographers and their importance as contributors to the visual effect of the whole construction - the final shape of the film picture - is usually underappreciated. Yet, the creation of moving pictures by means of a camera goes back to the sources of the cinema and camera story-telling, in which a picture, equally with the plot, accumulates the meaning. This would not be possible without the great art of cinematographers." [the quote after the Festival's website]The documentary film competition has accompanied the main competition and the student etude competition since 2008. In 2009 it was divided into two separate competitions - for full-length and short documentaries. Among the winners of the documentary competitions there are three Polish films so far. In 2010, Piotr Stasik got the main award in the short documentary competition for his photography for "The Last Day of Summer." A year later, in the full-length competition, Tomasz Wolski was appreciated for his photography for the film "Doctors" which he himself directed; in the short documentary competition - Piotr Bernaś and Łukasz Żal - the authors of the photography for "Paparazzi."
This year, Polish cameramen also have a chance to compete for the Golden Frogs in the documentary section of Camerimage. Among the full-length competition films there are the following:
- "The Palace" - direction and photography by Tomasz Wolski
- "Men at war" - directed by Jacek Bławut, photography: Jacek Bławut, Michał Marczak, Monika Woźniak, Jacek Piotr Bławut, Arsenij Rapaport and Jerzy Rudziński.
In the short documentary category there are as many as six Polish nominees. These are:
- "Entangled" - directed by Lidia Duda, photography by Wojciech Staroń
- "Freestyle life" - direction and photography by Adam Palenta
- "I want (no) reality / Needcompany on Life and Art." - directed by Ana Brzezińska, photography by Karol Jurga, Piotr Tokarski
- "Loneliness of Sound" - directed by Jacek Bławut, photography by Jacek Piotr Bławut, Paweł Chorzępa
- "Wild currants" - directed by Leo Kantor, photography by Witold Adamek
- "Survive Afghanistan" - directed by Małgorzata Imielska, photography by Jan Paweł Trzaska
More information about the nominations on the festival's website.