Gdansk Doc Film Festival
Poland is a big country with a strong tradition for festivals and an impressive national production of documentaries, many of them in the short format. I had never heard about it before, but reading the site there is also a well programmed documentary festival in Gdansk. Edition number 10 closes today. There are many Polish films in the competition section and a Polish as well as an international Panorama section. Good films like Piotr Stasik’s Last Day of Summer (photo), Romanian Anca Damian’s Crulic, Magdalena Pieta’s Planet Kirsan and Srdan Sarenac’ festival hit Village Without Women are at the programme. The idea of the festival in Gdansk has a political, historical reference:
Work is a special good and privilege of a human being. It should be the basis for dignified family life and stable social situation. Yet, so often in today’s world work, and its lack, become the cause of human tragedies and social conflicts. Discrimination, violation of law and treatment of human beings at work as objects more and more often threaten the development of societies and indirectly undermine trust in democracy and moral order.
It is in Gdansk that working people started the fight for dignity and decent working conditions against the system that was destroying these values. This is how “Solidarnosc” came to being. It is important to continue the discussion on this subject here, with the participation of NSZZ “Solidarność”, in an international group and on many levels – scientific, artistic, social and political. August 1980 needs not only to be remembered but also wisely continued. This is the origin of our Festival.
We want to accomplish it through, among others, presentation of works of world cinema and the debate about the role and significance of human being in the workplace – in the context of global economy, uniting Europe, on the background of company mergers, technological boom, but also bureaucracy and economy oligarchy.
