Sisters
Two sisters on a bench. The elder is grumbling about the younger one, who timidly undergoes the lament.
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How to Live
Jak zyc
Filmed in home-movie style and set to irrepressibly happy songs, this documentary by Marcel Lozinski captures everyday life at a Polish Socialist Youth summer camp, where floundering party officials instill newlyweds with approved values. Although not all the officials themselves are that well grounded ideologically, they do their best to mold the students into good citizens of the communist utopia. They rehearse songs, march, paint slogans on banners and play role-playing games in which the participants learn how to behave with visitors. The climax of this summer residency is a contest to find the most exemplary couple. How to Live is at times downright hilarious. It is almost impossible to believe that this film was shot only eight years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, which marked the end of the communist era. On the other hand, the tests the contestants have to do – including a party jargon quiz – bring to mind the citizenship courses that immigrants to Western European countries are required to take. Once we have pierced the ridiculous formality of Comrade Camp Leader and his helpers, what comes to the fore are the emotions of those who want to fit the ideological mold, and those who do not.
Credits
Director
Marcel Lozinski
Production
Zespol Filmowy "X"
Cinematography
Jacek Petrycki
Editing
Lucja Osko
Sound
Halina Paszkowska
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How It Is Done
In America, actors became presidents and governors. Why shouldn't it be possible in Poland too? The views of the alert media consultant Piotr Tymochowicz go even further. He wants to prove that everybody can make it in politics. Irrespective of the party or the political message. It's matter of craft. You have to beat the system at its own game. In a training of rethoric, guestures and 'how-can-become-more-charismatic' (...) Even filmmaker Marcel Lozinski seems top be unsure and makes some effort to get ressured. One of the test persons actually succeeds with such a lucky-hit political career, made up of a cynical mix of populism and power instinct. If there weren't back references to reality from the filmmaker, you could think it was all fake. For three years Lozinski followed Tymochowicz and his 'smithy for politicians'. He suspects that people would have liked to absorb his film team as part of the game too. However, in the end he says in control of everything - thanks to a clever cut.
More infoIDFA history
2014
Screened
Paradocs: Curated by Aernout Mik
Paradocs: Curated by Aernout Mik