Archiving the Avant-Garde: Polish Educational Cinema and Edward Etler

Join us at e-flux Screening Room on Saturday, November 2, 2024, at 5 pm and 7 pm for Archiving the Avant-Garde: Polish Educational Cinema and Edward Etler—a special two-part screening that highlights the intersection of avant-garde film techniques with educational and documentary cinema produced in Poland between 1950 and 1989. Curated by Stanisław Welbel, the program presents a unique chapter in Polish cinema, showcasing the remarkable contributions of the Wytwórnia Filmów Oświatowych (WFO) and celebrating the pioneering work of filmmaker Edward Etler. A talk between Stanisław Welbel and Ksenia Nouril will follow the 5pm screening.
A single ticket grants access to both screenings.
The event is co-presented by the Polish Cultural Institute New York and e-flux Screening Room in partnership with WFO Film Studio and The Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
5 pm: Part One
Archival Innovations at WFO
The first screening, beginning at 5 pm, presents a selection of short films produced by WFO, highlighting the studio’s contribution to educational and experimental filmmaking. Known for its collaboration with the Experimental Studio of Polish Radio, WFO’s films are accompanied by groundbreaking soundtracks from avant-garde composers, fusing modernist film techniques with educational narratives that reflect the transformation of socialist Poland.
Stanisław Grabowski, Melodies That Will Not Fade (1958, 10 minutes)
The earliest film in the selection is a short documentary focused on a state-funded institutional program dedicated to archiving and recording traditional music from remote areas of Poland. This project can be seen in the context of the identity-building efforts of the still-new People’s Republic of Poland, where folk traditions and culture were appropriated by the regime. The documentary also highlights the societal shifts occurring in socialist Poland. The documentation of traditional music, created from the post-war decades until today, forms one of the largest collections of its kind and is accessible to scholars. The film features original audio recordings. It serves as an introduction to the filmography of WFO in this selection.
Stanisław Grabowski, For Example, Działoszyn (1964, 11 minutes)
Działoszyn is a small town in south-central Poland. The documentary shows how this poor and neglected town transformed due to the construction of a new cement factory and industrial complex nearby. The film illustrates how the lives of the people changed, offering a rare glimpse not only into the formative years of a new society but also showcasing the visual language used to advocate for and depict these changes. The jazzy soundtrack creates an interesting juxtaposition between the backwardness of the town and the changes brought by modernization, with jazz—considered ultra-modern at the time—having only been legal for about a decade. The music was composed and performed by Lesław Lic (1930–2021), a Polish composer and musician, and a member of the iconic Polish jazz band Melomani.
Piotr Andrejew, Midway Along the Road (1974, 18 minutes)
The midway point lies between modernity and the old socialist era. The main protagonist of the film resembles the director of a large-scale state construction combine, with the future path dependent on his effectiveness. The film features a soundtrack composed by Eugeniusz Rudnik (1932–2016), a legendary Polish modern composer, sound engineer, and pioneer of electro-acoustic music. As electronic music follows the modernization of the state, Rudnik’s work reflects the transformative changes occurring during this period. He worked for the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, a groundbreaking experimental music studio in Warsaw, where electronic music was produced and recorded.

Bogdan Dziworski, Modern Pentathlon (1975, 8 minutes)
The documentary, first in the series on films on sports by Bogdan Dziworski (b. 1941), focuses on Janusz Gerard Peciak (b. 1949), a Polish modern pentathlete, Olympic champion (Montreal 1976), and multiple-time world champion. The soundtrack by Eugeniusz Rudnik exemplifies the innovative productions of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, featuring early electronic and electroacoustic recordings that incorporate field recordings as an integral part of the musical score. The sounds of the athlete’s running and breathing create the pulse and rhythm of the abstract music. The film illustrates individual efforts and the meditative repetitiveness of the exercises; on one hand, it shows the strict, anonymous regime of training, while on the other, it highlights the power of the individual person and character.

Kazimierz Mucha, Wacław Kondek’s Unrest (1980, 12 minutes)
Kazimierz Mucha (1923–2006) produced a series of films about art for the WFO Film Studio. The film dedicated to Wacław Kondek (1917–1976) is more of an impression than a documentary. Kondek created paintings and forms inspired by folk art, in a fairy-tale and surreal spirit; he was also a film animator, set designer, and puppeteer. He was a survivor of forced labor in the Nazi Reich and a concentration camp. This cinematic impression juxtaposes Kondek’s fairy-tale works with the desolated landscapes of industrialized Poland. The film is accompanied by the soundtrack of the legendary Polish avant-garde contemporary composer Bogusław Schaeffer (1929–2019).
Piotr Andrejew, This Kind of Arrangement (1975, 18 minutes)
Piotr Andrejew’s second film in this block, shot at the Gdynia Shipyard, shares a similar structure to the first film in the selection. We closely observe the work of the workers without a narrator, listening to their conversations and gaining insight into their routine and perspective. In 1970, there were mass protests by workers in the shipyards of Gdańsk and Gdynia; the authorities ordered that force be used against the protesters, leading to the deaths of many shipyard workers. The imagery of the shipyard plays an important role in Polish collective consciousness. In Andrejew’s film, an extraordinary soundtrack has been incorporated, recorded by the experimental rock band SBB—founded by Józef Skrzek (b. 1948)—at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio. SBB was formed in 1971 and became a very influential band in the Eastern European progressive and avant-garde rock scene, collaborating with jazz and experimental musicians.
7 pm: Part Two
Retrospective: Edward Etler
At 7 pm, we turn our focus to Edward Etler, an influential filmmaker who was forced to emigrate from Poland in 1968 due to an anti-Semitic campaign by the communist government. Known for his experimental style and collaboration with Krzysztof Komeda, Etler’s films reflect both the creative freedom allowed by WFO and his personal exploration of identity and history.
Edward Etler, Crush, Edward Etler (1963, 17 minutes)
The music for this film was composed by Krzysztof Komeda (1931–1969), a legendary Polish composer and jazz musician known for such famous soundtracks as Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby. Crush was intended to be an educational short narrative film warning against speeding, but shot in the poetic style of French New Wave cinema, it seems to have the opposite effect; after watching the film, one would want to jump into a car and simply drive and speed ahead. The film features Barbara Brylska (b. 1941), an icon of style and one of the most renowned Polish actresses.
Edward Etler, Tarpaulin Sky (1963, 10 minutes)
A very rare and genuine glimpse into youth culture in Poland in the 60s. The documentary follows the Sopot International Song Festival, a summer festival at the Polish seaside. Tarpaulin is a material that tents used to be made of. The movie features music by a popular band from the Eastern Bloc’s big-beat style of that time—Czerwone Gitary. The film doesn’t include dialogue but focuses on the people, conveying a sense of nostalgia for the passing summer. It provides a rare image of young people in a socialist state, not filtered by the propagandistic vision that would rather portray them as exemplary hard workers striving for a great future—a familiar cliché.
Edward Etler, The Haunts of the Platforms (1964, 10 minutes)
Another very atmospheric film by Etler, this time dedicated to the work of tidying up trains. The rhythm of the music, also composed by Krzysztof Komeda, accompanies the crew as they repair and clean the damaged carriages. The depicted photographs decorating the compartments illustrate the themes of impossible journeys and isolation. Although the film is intended as a warning against the phenomenon of vandalism, it serves more as an impression of transience, resembling a kind of stationary road movie.
Edward Etler, Judaica (1966, 12 minutes)
The film presents the material remnants of pre-war Jewish culture in Poland. In addition to sacred objects, buildings, and cemeteries, the camera briefly enters the Warsaw studio of Adam Muszka (1914–2005), a Polish-French painter of Jewish descent. This was the last such meeting between the painter and the filmmaker, as Muszka left Poland for Paris and never returned in 1967. Etler was forced to emigrate in 1968 due to the anti-Semitic campaign unleashed by the communist regime in March 1968. The film was perceived as anti-Polish by the censorship because it depicts emptiness and monuments in a dire condition, leading to repression against the director. This reflects the changing political climate in Poland in 1968. Just a few years earlier, for a similar film on a related subject, Etler received an award at the international film festival in Locarno and was praised in Poland. The film concludes with a shot taken during the cleaning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising monument, created in 1946 by Nathan Rapaport (1911–1987) in Warsaw. (Etler survived the Warsaw Ghetto during the Nazi occupation.) It was one of the last films made by Etler in Poland before he was forced to leave the country.
Edward Etler, A Film is in Production (1965, 10 minutes)
Nouvelle Vague cinema at its best, this film portrays the process of making another film: shot on location and improvised. It focuses on a single day of shooting The Ashes (1965), a historical drama by iconic Polish film director Andrzej Wajda (1926–2016), set during the Napoleonic Wars. This lighthearted film plays with coincidence and humor, depicting Napoleonic soldiers smoking cigarettes and wearing sunglasses. Interestingly, it reveals the behind-the-scenes aspects of one of the highest-grossing Polish movies, with a box office of six million tickets sold.
Edward Etler, The White Waltz (1963, 10 minutes)
An impressive film dedicated to the Sanatorium for Tuberculosis Patients in Zakopane, located in the Polish Tatra Mountains. The script references Thomas Mann’s novel The Magic Mountain. Among the patients at the sanatorium is once again the actress Barbara Brylska, an icon of Polish cinema. This melancholic film embodies a new wave aesthetic, playing with the conventions of documentary cinema, and employs well-known techniques from the French Nouvelle Vague—shot with a handheld camera, with actors portraying themselves, a loose and improvised script. A surreal metaphorical scene also references the power of cinema itself, where patients in the sanatorium watch the world through the frame of an empty television box without a screen inside.
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