Readying for its 22nd edition, Polish fest Millennium Docs Against Gravity isn’t shying away from politically charged content, opening with “Coexistence, My Ass!” Its protagonist, pro-Palestinian Israeli comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi, will also deliver a stand-up performance.
“We’re aware of the subject matter we’re dealing with. Last year, ‘No Other Land’ won the Grand Prix at our festival,” argues festival director Artur Liebhart, calling it “a treasure that shows some hope for reconciliation.”
“It was already shown at other events, at Sundance, but it didn’t get the attention Noam Shuster-Eliassi deserves.”
But the Millennium Docs Against Gravity audience isn’t afraid of films about war, he stresses.
“They want more. Poland is a front-line country but also, it’s not about date night for them. They are engaged and want to learn – and feel – more. Also, it’s an audience that has something that’s not very popular these days, at least not in the U.S.: empathy.”
Especially towards its neighbor country Ukraine, with multiple selected titles covering its ongoing struggle. From “2000 Meters to Andriivka” – “The director put cameras on soldiers’ helmets and it really feels like you’re on the frontlines” – to “Slow Burning Earth,” about “what war does to a person who wants to lead a normal life, but it’ll never be normal again.”
“Mr. Nobody Against Putin” by Danish director David Borenstein will also be shown, based on the material brought to him by a Russian teacher in a small town. “He covered all the important events in the school – later, he was able to capture the difference in the behavior of the students and teachers, and the militarization of the school,” explains Liebhart.
“2000 Meters to Andriivka”
Courtesy photo
In the time of growing unease, the Warsaw-based fest is also taking a closer look at the U.S. In a specially created section “Contrasting America,” films like “Predators” by David Osit or “An American Pastoral” by Auberi Edler explore “the society, American politics, and certain media phenomena.”
The World Wildlife Fund will award the protagonist of Canadian film “Yintah,” showing “how the struggle of the first nations is related to the fight against climate change and how women play a big role in this process,” Mark Cousins will get a retrospective, and Ernest Cole get his due thanks to the screening of Raoul Peck’s film “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found,” and an accompanying exhibition of Cole’s photographs “Lenses in Exile.”
The event is also making some stands locally. First, by acknowledging the importance of volunteers by putting them on this year’s posters – “Without them, making such a big festival would be impossible” – and, second, by prioritizing gender parity. “We are simply attached to these values. When people ask us about it, we can’t help but laugh. It’s really not that hard. Women make wonderful films. We can’t understand why other festivals don’t do it,” says Liebhart.
Since 2019, gender parity is expected in the Main Competition, and “therefore also in the competitions in [Polish cities] Gdynia, Poznan, Bydgoszcz, Wroclaw and Katowice, where the same films compete for the local prize.” This year, 12 selected films were directed by seven men and eight women. Polish Competition will welcome six male and six female directors, while 17 women and 13 men will make up the juries.
Poland is known for its documentaries, with “renowned master of archival footage” Maciej Drygas bringing award-winning “Trains,” and Jaśmina Wójcik comes with a “very beautiful, visual film” fresh off its Hot Docs world premiere, “King Matt the First.”
But local filmmakers struggle.
“HBO and Canal+ have limited their production of documentary films in the region, and public television is waiting for changes that could only take place after the presidential election [in May]. The attitude towards financing documentaries, which have increasingly higher budgets, is changing very slowly,” notes Liebhart.
“We’ll have to wait and see what happens next, but it would be a shame to waste this moment. We’ve never had that many talented filmmakers before.”
Some of them look for opportunities abroad.
“Kinga Michalska, director of ‘Bedrock,’ didn’t even apply for Polish Film Institute funding: before political change, she knew she wouldn’t get it. She made it with Canadian money instead. It shows places associated with the Holocaust and the camps, but in a very contemporary context. In my opinion, some of the sequences here will go down in the history of Polish cinema.”
Marcin Wierzchowski made “Das Deutsche Volk” with German funding, focusing on the 2020 racist attack in the city of Hanau, while in “Letters From Wolf Street” Arjun Talwar shows Poland from his own perspective as an outsider. “It’s a very original take on Poles and Warsaw. This year is extremely interesting in this respect.”
Millennium Docs Against Gravity will take place from May 9 – 18. It will continue online from May 20 to June 6.
“Bedrock”
