An exciting addition to this year’s Habitat International Film Festival (17th- 26th March 2023) was Documentary Film Making workshop by Kieślowski Film School, University of Silesia, Poland. Programme was organised in collaboration with Polish Institute New Delhi.

A workshop conducted by Dr Anna Huth (lecturer), Grzegorz Paprzycki (documentary film director) and Jakub Kopeć (film editor) took place from 17th to 20th March. Main focus of this four day long workshop was documentary dramaturgy and editing of live footage.
Kieślowski Film School presented documentary film packages from their archives (18th- 19th March) as well as selection of shorts films on 26th March:

There is No Peace of Mind (14mins, 2022) directed by Karol Ulman. A middle-aged man hires a company to get transformed into a tree. The process is supervised by a doctor and a therapist to make sure that he is fully aware of the consequences and that his decision is not accidental.

Hide and Seek (8 mins, 2022) directed by Karolina Belka. Hide and seek becomes something more than just a game. A little girl is no longer looking for her friends, but for missing love and warmth.

Soliloquium (11 mins, 2022) directed by Karolina Monwid-Olechnowicz. A surrealistic take on the power of human thoughts balancing on the border in an undefined space-time that is our psyche.

Funeralia (16 mins, 2022) directed by Bartłomiej Błaszczyński. K. wins a grave-digging contest, which he should not win. The organizers do not like this, so they teach him a lesson, depriving him of what was most important to him.

Quiver (13 mins, 2022) directed by Joanna Rozniak. Justyna is a young dance student who fills her days with love, movement, and parties. One quiet night, a violent encounter disrupts her carefree life.

Out of Water (13 mins, 2022) directed by Gratian Piechula. Zosia is a 13-year-old hearing child of deaf adults. As she finds herself in the role of interpreter and intermediary between her deaf father and the rest of the world, things start to feel burdensome.

Okna (3 mins, 2022) directed by Julia Dziworska. The film is a chronicle made during a strict lockdown. A documentary record time of the pandemic. Lives of the inhabitants of a certain Warsaw block from perspective balconies and windows.

Aphonia (12 mins, 2022) directed by Marta Z Nowak. A new boy arrives at a boarding school for deaf children. He does not speak, he cannot sign, and there is no contact with him. A deaf girl helps him find his way into the new world. They make a bond but soon it turns out that the boy doesn’t fit in here either. The film features deaf and hard-of-hearing children.

To find out more about the workshop, please watch the short film by Pulkit Karla: