The New York Polish Film Festival

Once and future super-commenter George Krzewski is this blog's foremost expert on any number of esoteric topics, Polish cinema chief among them. Coincidentally, this weekend, Anthology Film Archives hosts the fourth annual New York Polish Film Festival. Take it away...

Ok guys, here it is: The Fourth Annual New York Polish Film Festival kicks off today at one of our (my?) favorite places in New York, Anthology Film Archives. The festival runs into next Tuesday, and every day promises to deliver some great movies. This year's highlights include Andrzej Wajda's Katyn (an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film) and Andrzej Jakimowski's Sztuczki (Tricks), which made some waves on the festival circuit last year, including awards at Tokyo, Venice, and the Polish Film Fest in Gdynia (Poland's most prestigious festival). Each screening will be preceded by a short film or documentary, including Francesco Carrozzini's Wierszalin, a behind-the-scenes look at the titular experimental theater group last seen here in NYC in 2005, at La Mama.

Tonight's program includes Jasminum, directed by Jan Jakub Kolski, whose Witold Gombrowicz adaptation Pornography was shown during 2003 New York Film Festival; many of his other films were featured at Lincoln Center the following year, for their series on Polish film since 1989. Jasminum comes from the director's original screenplay (unlike his literary adaptations Pornography and Far From the Window), and promises to be a return to the more personal, surreal visions of his early 90s work. (It'll be shown with 52%, a short doc about an aspiring ballerina who is rejected from a prestigious dance theater company because her leg-to-torso ratio is not the ideal 52%.)

Tricks, which also screens tonight, will be shown with the short Sun and Shadow, in which two elderly gentlemen, Tadeusz Konwicki and Gustaw Holoubek, reminisce about past times and places while taking a walk in a forest. Gustaw Holoubek just passed away earlier this year, and the festival is dedicated to his memory. Sun and Shadow is directed by his son Jan.

Oh, and did I forget to mention? There will be Zywiec beer, courtesy of the the sponsor while supplies last. Beer and movies, they go together really well!