PRESSBOOK TRIBECA FILM CENTER November 15-17, 2012 375 Greenwich Str NY, NY 10013. THE NEW GENERATION OF POLISH FILMMAKERS MUNK STUDIO, ONE OF A KIND, DEDICATED TO DEBUT FILMS, IS NEW YORK BOUND. After a series of screenings in Moscow, London, Paris and Berlin, Munk Studio is bringing the new generation of Polish filmmakers to New York City. We cordially invite moviegoers to the TRIBECA FILM CENTER and the NEW GENERATION of POLISH FILMMAKERS, a feast of works by some of Poland’s most outstanding young filmmakers. Running from November 15 to 17, the event will offer audiences a rich and varied bill of shorts, together with two full-length features. Director Bartek Konopka, whose documentary short Rabbit à la Berlin received an Oscar nomination, makes his full-length debut with Fear of Falling and the program will open with the premiere of Women's Day, directed by Maria Sadowska. The event will be crowned by a special screening of Andrzej Munk’s last work, Passenger. There will an open Q&A session with the filmmakers after the screenings. New York Women in Film and Television and Polish Cultural Institute in New York are our Partner organizations for the event, which is co-funded by the Polish Film Institute, to find more and to register for the films please visit wwwpolishfilmmakers.com www.studiomunka.pl FULL-LENGHT FEATURE DEBUTS TO BE PRESENTED IN MUNK STUDIO’S NOVEMBER SHOWCASE OF AWARD WINNING FILMS WOMEN’S DAY 2012, 91' Halina, a modest cashyer in a chain store is dreaming of a better life for herself and her gifted 13 years old daughter-Misia. She soon gets her chance as Halina becomes the store manager. She discovers that the price for a higher salary and a better standard of living is dishonesty, manipulation and deceit. She turns from victim to villain to her former cashyer friends. She is so consumed with her work that she failes to notice her daughter’s addiction to computer games. She will soon have to start her journey for forgiveness… Maria Sadowska Director, singer, composer, producer . A graduate of the Academy of Film and TV in Warsaw and Film&TV Directing Department of PWSFTviT in Lodz. Her student feature film entitled ‘Wings’ was shown at numerous international film festival such as: Moscow, Taipei, Bologna, Barcelona, Istanbul or Paris. Her other movies include: ‘Interrogation’, ‘A moment before…’, ‘A couple scenes from the life of an artist’, ‘Who am I still’, and ‘Love me a little…’ Co-director of “Demaquillage”- an omnibus film consisting of three episodes, in which young female directors portray contemporary life. FULL-LENGHT FEATURE DEBUTS TO BE PRESENTED IN MUNK STUDIO’S NOVEMBER SHOWCASE OF AWARD WINNING FILMS FEAR OF FALLING 2012, 87' Tomek (30) escaped from the province and decided to sort out his life in a big city. He has a career as a TV reporter and has just started a family when he receives a message from a psychiatric hospital in his home town. His estranged father is there. Against himself and the advice of his closest ones, Tomek decides to reach out to his father, although they haven’t seen each other for years. As a result, Tomek gets involved in a relationship on the verge of craziness and normality, which will make him re-evaluate his entire life Bartosz Konopka One of the most frequently awarded Polish directors. His latest film „Rabbit a la Berlin” is nominated for the Academy Award 2010 in the Documentary Short Subject category. So far the film has won awards at festivals such as Hot Docs Toronto, Hamptons, Jihlava, Krakow Film Festival, Planete Doc Review. Konopka’s short feature debut „Three For the Taking”(2006) produced by Munk Studio won 12 awards at many different festivals, i.e. Grand Prix at Brest Film Festival and Best Debut Award at Message To Man IFF in St. Petersburg. His documentary ”The Goat Walker”(2004) was awarded by Planete Television at the Berlinale in 2004 and was then shown by all Planete chanels worldwide. It also won a number of audience awards at various festivals. Bartek holds a Master degree in film studies from the Jagiellonian University and has graduated from the directing department in the Kieślowski Radio and Television School in Katowice and the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing. SPECIAL SCREENING PASSENGER 1963, 62' The last film of Andrzej Munk, who died in a crash during the filming. A German woman on a ship coming back to Europe notices a face of another woman which brings recollections from the past. She tells her husband that she has been an overseer in Auschwitz during the war, but she has actually saved a woman's life. Her vision is shown and then the actual events. ź FIPRESCI Award and Special Jury Mention at Cannes Film Festival in 1964 ANDRZEJ MUNK Andrzej Munk is recognized today as one of the most outstanding Polish film directors; he was one of the most interesting representatives of the so-called "Polish Film School". In 1951 he graduated from The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Lodz, with a diploma in directing. Later on he was also a lecturer at the same school in the years 1957-1961. For five years after graduation Munk worked at the Documentary Film Studio, first as the camera operator at the Polish Film Chronicle and then as a documentary film director. Feature films of Andrzej Munk are characterized by a highly original and innovative approach to the topic of Polish heroism and national mythology, which he presented with the cool detachment typical of documentary filmmakers. The first feature film by Andrzej Munk was “The Men of the Blue Cross” (original title Błękitny krzyż) released in 1955, which was largely similar to a documentary. The reconstructed scene of rescue by the Tatra Mountain Rescue Service (GOPR) was interpreted, apart from professional actors, also by real-life participants of the original rescue of 1945 on which the story was based, when the wounded from the field hospital in Slovakia were carried right across and behind the Nazi posts. In 1956 he made, based on his joint script with Jerzy Stefan Stawiński, " The Man on the Tracks" (Człowiek na torze). Ranked among the classics and considered the director’s masterpiece, "Heroism" (Eroica) from 1957, is thanks to Studio Kadr available now in restored version. "Bad Luck" (Zezowate szczęście) was made in 1959, and two years later Munk began work on his last film "The Passenger" (Pasażerka). The work on the film, was interrupted by the tragic death of the director on September 20, 1961. Few years later film was finished by Munk’s colleague and coworker Witold Lesiewicz. Since 1965, The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Lodz presents the Andrzej Munk Film Award to the best debutants. SHORT FEATURES FROM 30 MINUTES PROGRAM TO BE PRESENTED IN MUNK STUDIO’S NOVEMBER SHOWCASE OF AWARD WINNING FILMS DRAWN FROM MEMORY 2011, 24' Marek decides to make a documentary about his grandmother. She agrees, but only if she can fulfill her dream of playing a vampire. As he films both a series of home horror movies and his documentary, Marek comes to realize that his grandmother's memory is failing and that his movie is turning into something completely different from the one he set out to make. Marcin Bortkiewicz Marcin Bortkiewicz, film and theatre director, dramatist, screenwriter and actor, was born in Słupsk in 1976. A graduate of the University of Gdańsk and the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing, his theatre work to date has encompassed Theatre Rondo, Słupsk, the Wojciech Bogusławski Theatre in Kalisz, the Witkacy New Theatre in Słupsk and Ecce Homo Theatre in Kielce. His latest premiere, Super Susan, with Ewa Kasprzyk, took place on 12th March 2011 in Warsaw’s Kamienica Theatre. He has collaborated with film producer Darek Ditki and his Biuro Pomysłów production company, the KALEJDOSKOP Film Studio, the Munk Studio, the HARPOON FILMS Studio and Sebastian Petryk of PS FILM. He has written and directed a number of non-fiction shorts, namely Silence, The Rules of the Game, Cat Trail, From the Diary of a Young Filmmaker. His debut short non-fiction film, Early Learning received an Honourable Mention from the jury of the 2009 Krakow Film Festival. He wrote and directed the sixth of the Decalogue 89 cycle, The Lodger . SHORT FEATURES FROM 30 MINUTES PROGRAM TO BE PRESENTED IN MUNK STUDIO’S NOVEMBER SHOWCASE OF AWARD WINNING FILMS HANOI - WARSAW 2010, 30' A young Vietnamese woman, Mai Anh, illegally enters Poland through the green border with Ukraine. Now she only has to reach Warsaw, where she will join her boyfriend and start the life she has dreamed of. But the journey through Poland turns into one of humiliation and violence. Mai Anh escapes her brutal traffickers and tries to reach Warsaw on her own Katarzyna Klimkiewicz KATARZYNA KLIMKIEWICZ studied film directing at the Polish Film School in Lodz and the Northern Film School in Leeds (as part of the student exchange programme). In 2003 she received a scholarship at the prestigious Binger Film Lab, where she wrote her first full length script Daughters (nominated by the Binger Lab for Sundance/NHK International Filmmakerʼs Award 2005). In 2006 she went to Berlin and co-directed (with Andrew Friedman) a documentary film Wasserschlacht- The Great Border Battle (winner of the Berlin Today Award at Berlinale 2007). A year later she went to Israel and made a documentary film Nothing to Lose - a portrait of Israeli hippies.