“ARTISTS ON STRIKE”, screening during Berlinale
The 16 of February, at 4,15 PM in Berlin during Berlinale
we will screen the documentary “Artists on strike”,
a Polish/Italian documentary.
Will the director be present.
The film will be in Polish with English subtitles. We have also a Polish and Italian version of the film.Here the trailer:
(to see the subtitles, click on the CC button behind the player)
The theme is very current: it’s about ART AND FREEDOM.
If you are an artist or you would like to become an artist, you can’t miss this film.
You will discover how powerful artists are! And what they did in Poland to fight the dictatorship.
You will discover how artists in fact could change the world, as they did, throughout extraordinary strategies.
MORE INFORMATION
ARTISTS ON STRIKE
Production: WOJTEK FILMS (Poland) & Filmlux (Italy)
Coproducer: the city of Gdansk, the city of freedom
Runtime 100 min. (theatrical release)
Screenplay and directing: Elena de Varda
Music Score: Louis Siciliano (associated producer).
PRODUCER CONTACT DATA:
e-mail: Elena.wojtekfilms@gmail.com, filmlux@gmail.com
CAST:
Krystyna Janda, Olgierd Łukasiewicz, Lech Wałęsa, Teatr Ósmego Dnia [“Eight Day’s Theatre”], Jerzy Kalina, Krzysztof Skiba (Pomarańczowa Alternatywa [“Orange Alernative”] and Big Cyc), Janiccy brothers (Kantor theatre actors, Cricot 2), Józef Robakowski, Jerzy Bereś, Tymon Tymanski , Krzysztof Skiba and many others.
SYNOPSIS:
Between 1975 and 1989, the most important contemporary artistic movement of underground and independent culture in the world developed in Poland. In 1981, Polish artists during martial law signed a document stating that they would not perform or participate in shows or expositions in spaces belonging to the State (televisions, galleries, newspapers and so on), because the State was an enemy. Some of them even refused to participate at the “Biennale” of Venice.
It was the beginning of the most powerful independent artistic movement in the contemporary world: artists started to perform only in private flats and churches (it was a time when the church supported artists), books were printed illegally and distributed on a massive scale by hand, actors refused to perform on public television and in the general climate of fear, artists showed up to perform on the streets, creating massive movements (such as the “Orange Alternative”), their goal to be arrested en masse (the prisons had not enough space and it was causing the government a big problem).
We start from Poland and my personal story: an Italian girl from Milan, an 18 year old “communist” girl, who got a scholarship from the Academy of Fine arts in Krakow in 1987/89.