FOUR POLISH FILMS AT THE HOT DOCS FESTIVAL
On April 28, the International Documentary Film Festival "Hot Docs" in Canada starts. In the programme of this year's edition, there are four Polish documentary films: "Last Season" by Sławomir Witek, "Before the Dawn" by Łukasz Borowski, "Brothers" by Wojciech Staroń and "All these sleepless nights" Michała Marczaka. The project "Over the limit" by Marta Prus will participate in the pitching during the Hot Docs Forum.
Initiated in 1993, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary film festival on the American continent. It takes place every year in spring, and film screenings are accompanied by international film market and industry conferences. This year's edition, the 23rd one, begins on April 28 and lasts until May 8. During this edition will be shown 232 films from 51 countries. At the festival, there will be 69 world premières and 49 international premières.
This year, there are four Polish documentary films in the programme of the festival. Two of them, "Last Seasson" by Sławomir Witek and "Before the dawn" by Łukasz Borowski will be shown at "Shorts" section while the "Brothers" by Wojciech Staroń and "All these sleepless nights" will be presented in the "World Showcase" section.
The first one is "Last Season" by Sławomir Witek. In the review by Daniel Stopa, we can read that the film "Last Season" is a record of one day, and at the same time, of a world in a drop. We look at the work of two Baltic fishermen: an older and a younger one. We do not know their names, and we learn they are related only from the end credits, so we interpret their relationship as that of a master and an apprentice. At sea, they are doomed to each other and the elements surrounding them. Their work, from dawn to dusk, is filled with numerous rituals, which are painstakingly shown by Witek, but it is the contact with unpredictable nature that makes each day of theirs a mystery and a question about a successful catch and the safe return home. The younger fisherman does not only take "lessons" from his master, but he also has to learn how to struggle and co-exist with the elements surrounding him. In this context, "The Last Season" appears as a film about tradition, about learning, about transferring knowledge and experience, and all this so that the world, which is passing away, would survive.
The full review can be found here.
Making the film was not easy. This is how the film's director, Sławomir Witek, remembers the days on the set in his interview for PolishDocs.pl:
Cinematography was the most difficult thing, mainly because most of the fishing takes place at night. In the morning, it is extremely cold. In addition, the decision to go to sea is made often just before the action itself, after checking the weather forecast and looking at the sea. That is why at two in the morning I often returned home with nothing done. Taking into account the closed fishing season for codfish, unattractive cinematography in the summer, freezing of the sea in the winter, problems with the boat and two-month long periods of downtime, when the European Union pays the fishermen equivalent for the catch, as a result the shooting of the film was much prolonged.
The second film, which is included in the programme of Hot Docs, is the documentary film "Before the dawn" by Łukasz Borowski. The film, produced by Munk Studio, is a story of a teenage hair stylist with androgenic looks, who, together with his father, a former wrestler, wanders through the wilderness in the mountains of Albania. They are doomed to each other, and together they have to face the danger, so that they can find each other in the end. "Before the dawn" is an intimate portrait of the relationship between father and son, a homage to unconditional love, in spite of so many differences.
This documentary film also cost the film-makers a lot of effort. "We made in the film in Albania, in the mountains, at 50 degrees Celsius. We had no electricity, so we had to charge up the batteries using a converter. We had three such converters, and all of them broke down very quickly because of the heat, and I do not even remember how we dealt with that problem, said Łukasz Borowski after the film's premiere in Warsaw.
Watching the film by Łukasz Borowski, we get the impression that only the journey together and overcoming obstacles is the key to create a close relationship between father and son, as well as between the documentary film-maker and his protagonists. The journey and the beautiful views of the high mountains in Albania are only the background of the story which takes place in the human heart - we can read in the review by Daniel Stopa.
It is worth reminding that the project of the film by Marta Prus, "Over the limit," will also appear in Canada. The project will be shown at the Hot Docs Forum, and you can read more information about this event in our previous news bulletin.
The full programme of the festival in on the website of the Hot Docs.