Twelve new projects will be presented May 12 at the first Progress Pitching Session of Millennium Docs Against Gravity Industry. The pitches will be made to an international group of leading sales, distribution, funding and festival personnel as part of the Polish doc festival’s 20th edition. The pitch moderator will be Frank Piasecki Poulsen.
“Although this is the first edition of the Progress Pitching Session at MDAG Industry, we received very high level projects,” Anna Szczypińska, MDAG Head of Industry told Business Doc Europe May 11 as doors opened on the 2023 edition. “It was with difficulty and care that we selected 12 films, but we hope that those that do not appear at this pitching session will have the opportunity to be seen on cinema screens during future editions of Millennium Docs Against Gravity.”
She added: “Our goal is to create an event that will make a real contribution to the development of documentary cinema in Poland and will be a space for filmmakers to establish contacts and promote Polish films abroad.”
The selected films include new projects directed by acclaimed filmmakers such as Lidia Duda, Piotr Bernaś, Hanka Nobis and Jasmina Wojcik. There are also debut projects such as Go&See by Julia Kuzka and I Am One of Them by Nadim Suleiman.
The projects are also eligible for the following prizes:
CANAL+ Poland: cash prize of 3,000 PLN
EURSMAKJAM Award: colour correction service worth 15,000 PLN
DAE Award: mentoring consultations
The SFP distinction: a stay at the SFP House of Creative Work
PROGRESS PITCH PROJECT SELECTION 2023
GOING B(L)ACK by Joanna Ratajczak, prod. Telemark. Status: Pre-production/development. The documentary road movie is the chronicle of a journey of two friends: Joanna (the film’s director), who is ‘white’, and Monika who is ‘black.’ After her father’s death, Monika, an architect based in London, becomes chief of her family, so she sets off to unite Mong’s children scattered around the world. The documentary camera accompanies her on her journey as she searches for her black identity.
GO&SEE by Julia Kuzka, prod. Małgorzata Małysa, furia films. Status: Production. The world of fashion is filled with beautiful people, magnificent clothes, exotic travels and big money. While in theory it is a well-known world, in practice few people have access to it. One of the few is Julia Kuzka. Before becoming a film director, she was a model for nine years. Foreign contracts, fashion shows, campaigns for the most famous brands and fashion houses, photographs in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. In her film Go&See she will take us into this world – full of glitter, fame and loneliness, which she knows too well from her own experience.
I AM ONE OF THEM by Nadim Suleiman, prod. Adrianna Rędzia. Status: Edit. At the Łagów Lake, Grzegorz makes a living by guiding tourist cruises on his boat, where he coincidentally meets Nadim, a filmmaker from Syria. The two seemingly different men develop an instant connection, Grzegorz opens up in front of Nadim’s camera. A year goes by, Nadim returns to Łagów to find out that Grzegorz has become a regional leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement…
STEP BY STEP by Eliza Kubarska, Michał Woroch, prod. Monika Braid. Status: Pre-production. “The most difficult thing is that you are completely dependent on other people,” says Michał Woroch (36), who has been a wheelchair user for 15 years and is getting weaker every year. Michał, who has undertaken extreme expeditions, such as aone-year jeep journey across the Americas, only feels free when he travels. He chose that route, because it was the longest. Now he is thinking about the Himalayas because it is the highest. His time is limited. His disease is slowly and ruthlessly taking the last of his strength. One day he will be chained to a bed forever. He draws his mental strength from his expeditions, but his strain accelerates the moment Michał is condemned to others. This is the price he is willing to pay.
KING MATT THE FIRST by Jasmina Wojcik, prod. Marta Dużbabel, Agnieszka Rostropowicz. Status: Pre-production. The film follows the journey of two sisters – Zoya and Lea. We meet them during the pandemic, during an online lesson in which the book ‘King Matt the First’ by Janusz Korczak is discussed…The film tells the story of war, power, isolation, the search for a friend and the failed rule of children. The girls, who have left the city, begin to bravely explore the nature around them, while playing out scenes from the book. By following the film’s multi-layered narrative (which captures a child’s perception), even adult viewers can go on a journey in finding their inner child.
FOREST by Lidia Duda, prod. Patryk Sielecki (Lumisenta Film Foundation). Status: Edit. Some years ago two fresh university graduates, Asia and Marek, escaped to their own paradise. They bought an old house near the eastern border of Poland, in the Białowieża Forest, the oldest forest of Europe. This is where their children were born: Marysia, Ignacy and Franek. Their life was immersed in nature and the forest became their second home, tamed and trusted. European bison and herds of roe deer often come up to their windows. The kids had a happy childhood, a loving mum and a caring dad. But one day, their forest changed as Strangers and Others showed up. Freezing cold, often sick, hungry, lost… Refugees, unwelcome neither in Poland, nor in Belarus…
SONGS OF SISTERHOOD by Hanka Nobis, prod. Esther van Messel. Status: Pre-production. Lu, Margot and Łania, all in their 20s, fight against conservative, repressive norms and arbitrary police violence in modern Poland – a divided nation. Homophobic slogans ring out from the speakers of a police van. Margot promptly sprays the car with Antifa slogans. Soon after, a video appears on the Internet showing the police dragging her barefoot out of her apartment. The video went viral. The collective to which Margot belongs is active on social media platforms and has many followers. Margot and her friends are role models for their generation in Warsaw and across Poland. They work around the clock to reach out to the public in creative and imaginative ways. For a time, this succeeds. But as time goes by, the young people realise the level of resistance there is from their ruthless opponents…
THE BEAR AND THE PIANO by Piotr Bernaś/ Cheng Herng Shinn, prod. Piotr Bernaś/ Velvet Studio sp z.o.o.Status: Pre-production. Seven years ago, Chieko discovered that her husband, fisherman Tokunaga, was stealing her private money to cover up for his gambling expenses. In an attempt to save his marriage Tokunaga decided to learn the piano to impress his wife, a piano teacher by profession. After years of laborious and tedious training via a Youtube tutorial, much to Chieko’s astonishment Tokunaga mastered “La Campanella” by Liszt. When a clip with Tokunaga’s performance makes it accidentally onto the web, the Fisherman immediately becomes famous all over Japan. But Tokunaga’s new passion places even more strain on the marriage as he shows symptoms of another addiction – this time to popularity. Now, it is Chieko who makes an attempt to save their marriage. As Tokunaga plans to tackle more Chopin pieces, the woman suggests a common trip to Poland. Chopin’s music is sacred for her and to play it one needs to gain basic knowledge of the Polish composer. During their trip the characters will have a chance to reflect on their relationship and traumas, hopefully to be able to redefine their relationship.
THE LIFE AND DEATHS OF MAX LINDER, by Edward Porembny, prod. Edward Porembny. Status: Complete. The film depicts Max Linder, the first international screen star who was once revered in France, throughout Europe and in Hollywood. This pioneer of early silent film comedy was mentored by Charlie Chaplin. Max miraculously avoided death five times. And finally, at the height of his artistic powers, he and his adored wife committed a double suicide. How was this possible? While investigating the mystery, the filmmakers found a trunk sealed for 100 years, inside which was 5 metal cans and old documentation. Inside the cans, the found a 35-millimeter film from 1926 made by an unknown filmmaker, and the investigation into why Max Linder committed suicide begins to yield results…
WAJDA by Liliana Komorowska, Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz, prod. Daria Maślona, Stanisław Zaborowski. Status: Development. The documentary will focus on the foreign successes of Polish cinema master Andrzej Wajda from the moment he was spotted at the Cannes Film Festival in 1957 until he was awarded an Honorary Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 2000. Through interviews with other great filmmakers of world cinema whom Wajda delighted and inspired – such as Martin Scorsese, Wim Wenders, Steven Spielberg, Volker Schlondorff – we want to answer the question as to the Poland that foreigners saw in his films, and what those films meant to them. We also want to reach out to foreign archival materials about our hero’s work, which are unknown in Poland, as well as reach out to his personal diaries and notes on these events.
Two Ukrainian projects developed as part of the Young Europe programme, organised by the Foundation for Documentary Education, are also invited as guests of the MDAG Progress Pitch session:
METRO by Pavel Dorohoi, prod. Foundation for Documentary Education (Fundacja Edukacji Dokumentalnej) – Mirosław Dembiński. Status: Edit. As of February 24, 2022, the metro is becoming Kharkiv’s largest bomb shelter. With the daily threat of shelling, people are seeking a sense of security at metro stations. The Armiyska Metro Station is located in one of the most frequently bombed areas of Kharkiv. Many people have lived in the subway station since the first days of the war. Some houses have been damaged or destroyed. The station platform, train cars and technical rooms become their new home. Despite these difficulties, people here try to live a relatively normal life, creating the best possible conditions for survival for themselves. Common space and common problems allow people to find new friends among their neighbours at the station. The subway becomes a modern ark in which animals and people escape the shelling and horrors of war.
KEEPERS OF THE RUINS by Mariia Shevchenko,prod. Foundation for Documentary Education (Fundacja Edukacji Dokumentalnej) – Mirosław Dembiński, Ella Shtyka. Status: Pre-production. Kharkiv has been shelled every single day for a year now. As a result of Russian bombing, more than 5,000 buildings were destroyed. And yet Kharkovians still live in their city. They hide from shrapnel, fix up their buildings, restore city transit and help neighbours who have suffered misfortune. At the sound of sirens, they hide in their basements. When it’s quiet, they meet in the backyards, plant flowers in flower beds, take care of stray animals and organize a New Year’s party for kids at one of the subway stations. They live life to the fullest, or at least they try to. Sashko unintentionally has become a vlogger who uses his phone to film the destroyed apartments of those who have left and sends the pictures to their owners…
