Directors emphasize artistic side of movies at 11th & 1/2 Polish Film Festival
By Diana Wendel
Oct. 14, 2010 4:37 p.m.
If you want a taste of Polish culture that lasts longer than some kielbasa sausage, then the 11th & 1/2 Polish Film Festival might be a good place to start. Running from Oct. 14. to Oct. 21 at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 Theatre in West Hollywood, the festival will be screening short films, documentaries, dramas and animations from Polish directors.
The large fraction found in the festival’s title is indicative of the festival’s new location on the calendar. Though the festival usually takes place in April, it has been moved to the more movie industry-friendly and student-accessible month of October.
“October is the beginning of the awards season for the Golden Globes and for the Oscars, and it’s also the beginning of the school year, so students will be able attend,” said festival director Vladek Juszkiewicz. “In April, students couldn’t attend the festival because it coincided with finals.”
The festival is already accustomed to working with students, as it often screens films from aspiring Polish student directors. However, the opportunity to collaborate with the festival is not exclusive to students hailing from Poland, Juszkiewicz proposed working with UCLA students beginning next year.
“We will do seminars or we will screen films on campus ““ it depends on how (the universities) want to collaborate, but it’s an open book for now,” said Juskiewicz.
Though next year’s festival will offer many more opportunities for students, the new date of this year’s festival is geared toward student attendance.
Randal Malone, an actor and the president of the Southern California Motion Picture Council, attended the festival in April.
“I like a good story and I like the art of good acting, and I think that that’s what Polish films are about,” Malone said. “American films get a little too commercialized and we use a lot of special effects. I think it should be more about the art of the screen performance instead of the car chase and the blowing up of things.”
The weight that Polish filmmakers place on the artistic side of film may not appeal to those more drawn to the latest Tom Cruise spy action flick, but it did manage to entice former child star Margaret O’Brien into becoming a fan of Polish films and to signing on to a project with a Polish director.
O’Brien had never seen Polish films before being asked to be part of the panel of judges in April’s festival. Once she was there, however, she took on a film entitled “Hotel Paradise” by Mariusz Kotowski.
“(Kotowski) has a wonderful, wonderful script. It’s about people who are ill, and when they check into this hotel to get better, they can’t check out,” O’Brien said.
Because of such high praise from the festival’s attendees, it is possible that all these Polish films need is a bit more exposure before we see more them in American theaters.
“Polish films are just coming into their own here, so hopefully through these festivals they will also be entered into the Golden Globe category,” O’Brien said.
