THE CHILDREN OF LENINGRADSKY (2004), dir. Hanna Polak, 35 mins
>> Screening Friday, December 4 at 7:00 pm in Loria 250, 190 York Street, New Haven
From the film’s website:
“When this film was made, authorities estimated that some 30,000 children were living on the streets and railway stations of Moscow. The Children of Leningradsky concentrates on a dozen or so children living in the Moscow train station Leningradsky. Panhandling from strangers and sleeping among the rush of commuters, their wants are minimal.
The Children of Leningradsky conveys what life is like for these homeless children as they plan their day around “best begging hours.”
Select Awards: Nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Documentary, Short Subject (2004); Nominated for an IDA Award for Best Documentary, Short Subject (2005)
Interview with Hanna Polak about the film
SOMETHING BETTER TO COME (2015), dir. Hanna Polak, 98 minutes
>> Screening Friday, December 4 at 8:00 pm in Loria 250, 190 York Street, New Haven
From the film’s website:
“Filmed over 14 years, this film tells an intimate story of 11-year-old Yula, who grows up in one of the most desolate places on Earth: the Svalka, the biggest junkyard in Europe which lies 20 km outside the center of Moscow. Surrounded by barbed wire and guards, the area is closely monitored to keep intruders out. But in the junkyard lives a group of people in a small, lawless society. These people make up Yula’s closest family; here she lives her life, and from here her future springs.”
Select Awards: International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, (IDFA): Special Jury Award (2014); Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival Special Jury Prize International Documentary (2015)
Longer description of the film here.
SOLIDARITY ACCORDING TO WOMEN (2014), dir. Marta Dzido and Piotr Śliwowski
>> Screening Saturday, December 5th at 5pm in Whitney Humanities Center Room 208, 53 Wall Street, New Haven
Marta Dzido and Piotr Śliwowski’s film recovers the stories of the women who were at the center of the Solidarity movement and who have been largely written out of its history until now.
The Solidarity movement coalesced during the 1980 workers’ strikes in the Gdansk shipyards. Workers, students, and members of the intelligentsia came together and formed a union to challenge the Communist Party’s hegemony.
Born in 1981, Marta Dzido considers herself a symbolic daughter of the Solidarity movement. She narrates her journey around Poland and her attempts to locate the women who made Polish history.
Awards: The Krzysztof Kieslowski Beyond Borders Award, New York Polish Film Festival, 2015