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    POLISH FILM Special Issue 1982 – The First Polish Film Review in Warsaw

    By Dorothea Holloway | March 29, 2013

    This Special Issue of KINO – POLISH FILM was originally intended to accompany the First Polish Film Review in Warsaw, planned for February 23-28 in the wake of the 1982 Berlinale.

    The idea of an annual Polish Film Review was hatched during the 8th Gdansk Festival of Polish Feature Films in September 1981 by members of the Association of Polish Filmmakers. The model for such a national fest was taken from the Hungarians, who sponsor an identical national review each February prior to the Berlin Film Festival. Just as Budapest and Pecs serve as meeting-places on an alternative basis for some 70 international journalists and guests, so also would Warsaw convene on the heels of the Berlinale for a select group of film people already a stone’s throw away from Poland.

    The official announcement of the Warsaw review appeared in Variety during the Chicago Film Festival. Invitations from Andrzej Wajda and the Association of Polish Filmmakers were sent to key individuals in November. And we began collecting information for KINO and the Review as early as October of last year during a session of talks with members of the Association: Krzysztof Zanussi, Agnieszka Holland, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Filip Bajon, Feliks Falk, Tomasz Pobog-Malinowski, Edward Zebrowski, Wojciech Marczewski, Janusz Zaorski, Witold Stok, and Jerzy Bareda (Secretary of the Polish Filmmakers Association).

    On Thanksgiving Day in New York, Toby and Dan Talbot offered support to the Special Issue of KINO – POLISH FILM 1982. More encouragement came from Barbara and David Stone of Cinegate in London. We found that we had too much material for a special KINO issue. Actually, this should be a book, not just a modest number in a film series. Perhaps it will grow into one after all.

    Jay Scott, critic at the Toronto Globe & Mail, sent us his interview with Andrzej Wajda in New York shortly after the distinguished director received his Honorary Degree at American University in Washington, D.C. Barbara Katz mailed a photograph of Jerzy Bossak in San Francisco during his tour last year with Polish documentaries. David Robinson granted permission for a reprint of his 1979 Sight and Sound article on Poland’s “Young Generation Directors” – the very essay that, in part, accounted for his “honorary ring” tribute in Gdansk 1980 by the Association of Polish Filmmakers.

    For KINO – POLISH FILM, we have selected a series of articles relating to the three major festivals: Gdansk festivals, 1979 – 1981, and two showcases of Polish documentary films, Cracow 1981 and the “ZAK” Film Club in Gdansk during the time of the First National “Solidarity” Congress in September 1981.

    The series of articles, interviews, and other information on Andrzej Wajda’s Man of Iron is included in view of the Polish Nomination for the Academy Award in the Best Foreign Film category. This collection of writings and filmographies is dedicated to Andrzej Wajda and the Association of Polish Filmmakers.

    We are grateful for the help and encouragement of friends in preparing this Special Issue.

    – Dorothea Holloway / Ronald Holloway

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