11.05.2017
14th Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival launches
Today on 11 May the 14th Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival is getting started! The opening show “Bez tytułu” by Michael Glawogger and Monika Willi. The programme includes premieres of acclaimed Polish films as well as VR cinema!
The opening film will be Michael Glawogger’s last production: “Bez tytułu”, completed two and a half years after his tragic death by Monika Willi, his long-standing film editor who edited the footage, following the director’s notes, which he had been making while filming. Monika Willi will be the special guest at the opening show of 14th Millennium Docs Against Gravity, which will be on 11 May at 7.30 p.m. in Warsaw’s Kinoteka. In the Polish language version of the film the narrator’s voice will come from Magdalena Cielecka.
On Tuesday 9th May a press conference was held in the offices of PAP before the start of the Festival. This year Millennium Docs Against Gravity will be held for the first time in five Polish cities. The Festival will have its premiere in Lublin (Centrum Spotkania Kultur, 11-14 May). The 14th Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival will take place on 12 – 21 May in Warsaw and Wrocław; on 17-26 May in Gdynia and on 15-21 May in Bydgoszcz. Tickets for the Festival film shows are available on docsag.pl. Meanwhile box office purchase of at least 10 tickets is eligible for attractive discounts..
For the first time in the history of the Millennium Docs Against Gravity Festival there will be VR (Virtual Reality) film shows. In Warsaw, Wrocław and Gdynia it will be possible to experience seven VR films. - We have a common denominator with the Festival: innovation, and new technologies are a pillar of our business ― Iwona Jarzębska, Director of the Public Relations Department of Bank Millennium said at the Tuesday press conference. - Introduction in the Festival of VR film shows is a major breakthrough because virtual reality provides a completely new quality of experiencing cinematic art – by means of image, sound as well as presented content.
World premieres of Polish films
The Festival audience will have the opportunity to see the premiere of „Punkt krytyczny. Energia odNowa” by Łukasz Bluszcz - the first Polish documentary feature film about climate change and the unavoidable energy revolution. Also „Fugazi – centrum wszechświata” by Leszek Gnoiński - will have its Polish premiere - a documentary-cartoon film presenting the short though turbulent history of one of the first independent music clubs in free Poland, considered in the early ‘90s to be the biggest such place in the entire Central-Eastern Europe. “Ucho wewnętrzne” directed by Szymon Uliasz i Magdalena Gubała is a fascinating project of Mikołaja Trzaski – world-famous jazz saxophonist from Tricity.
During the 14th Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival there will also be the world premiere of the film “Happy Olo – pogodna ballada o Olku Dobie” directed by Krzysztof Paweł Bogocz and Marcin Macuk, presenting Aleksander Doba, who at the age of 67 crossed the Atlantic alone in a kayak.
The programme of the 14th Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival also features „21 x Nowy Jork” by Piotr Stasik, an onirist impression on the contemporary human condition, told with the voices of 21 inhabitants of the Big Apple and pumped up with hypnotising rhythmic music. „DOM/Łodź” by Piotr Szczepański is a tale about six musicians who decided to create a new meeting place in their home town of Łódź: “Ogniwo” (the Cell or Link) social cooperative. „Nadal wracam. Portret Ryszarda Krynickiego” by Adam Sikora is a film about one of the greatest – and at the same time underappreciated – Polish poets. Also shown at the Festival will be a film by Jacek Piotr Bławut titled “Jak zniszczyć wehikuły czasu”, which focuses on Jeph Jerman – an Arizona-based musician, experimenter, sound geek. The cartoon film „Cipka” by Renata Gąsiorowska is on the other hand a surreally humorous story of a young girl who is spending the evening at home and decides to arrange a pleasure session on her own; however not everything goes according to plan …
There will also be the Polish premiere of the Polish-Russian co-produced “Proces. Federacja Rosyjska vs Oleg Sencow” by Askold Kurov. The film shows the trial of Oleg Sentsov, a director, producer and pro-Ukrainian activist. Also Russian-Polish co-produced was the film „Przekonania” by Tatiana Khristowa. Its plot is set during debates of four Russian military recruiting committees, facing the four main characters.
In Warsaw the films will be competing for as many as 10 awards. 14 films will compete for the Bank Millennium award A jury made up of: Mariusz Grzegorzek, Jan P. Matuszyński and Agnieszka Traczewska will be choosing among the latest and greatest documentaries. In the Fiction/Non-Fiction Competition the viewers of 14th Millennium Docs Against Gravity will be seeing as many as 10 films – i.a. the aforementioned “21 x Nowy Jork” and “To Stay Alive – A Method” featuring Iggy Pop and Michel Houellebeck. („To Stay Alive – A Method”) z Iggy’im Popem i Michelem Houellebeckiem. Tomasz Wasilewski, who sits on the competition jury together with Syllas Tzoumerkas and Martą Minorowicz, was speaking during the conference about the fascinating way, in which fiction is entwined with reality in contemporary documentary cinematography.
The 14th Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival will take place on 12–21 May in Warsaw and Wrocław; on 17-26 May in Gdynia; on 15-21 May in Bydgoszcz and on 11-14 May in Lublin. From 19 to 21 May selected Festival films will be shown in 20 cities all around Poland (i.a. in Łódź, Poznań, Rzeszów, Kraków, Szczecin, Elbląg, Ełk and Katowice) in the Weekend with Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival series.
More information is available on the Festival’s website: docsag.pl/pl/
