Big Sky Documentary Film Festival 2019 – Collection (Kolekcja)
Mieczysław lives with his wife, Wladzia, in a small, lost village. Being on the edge of life he lives a simple life, taking care of his disabled wife. In his spare time, the old man tries to save relics of the past fot the future generations.
Interview with Writer/Director Marcin Polar
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
The story I’m telling in this film was a part of my childhood. When I was young, during the holidays, I spent months in the countryside with Mieczysław, who is my cousin’s grandfather. I feel like I have connected with him my whole life. After my first approach to film his story was even before my studies at the film school. I have been thinking of shooting it for almost 8 years. After that time, I felt technically and mentally ready to do it.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
This film – like all of my documentaries – tells about elementary human needs, connections and emotions. This film uses the language which is close to every human being all over the world, understandable in every culture and in every religion. Observing Mieczysław’s life everyone can find some important truths about ourselves in his story.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
For me, this film is very personal, but it was constructed to be understood by everyone. It was not so easy to find universal way of storytelling in the story you are so much connected with. Mieczysław is over 90 years old and has nothing to hide. He treats his whole life as a part of his collection which he really wants to save for younger generations. For him, this film is maybe even more important that we can imagine. Thanks to this we can see some very delicate and intimate moments in a film, which would be unreachable if the filmmaker was stranger to him. Mieczysław knew me very well and when I described him what I wanted to show in the film, he totally agreed that whole of that is true and he really wanted to participate in it. And he did it as he told.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
The fact is that my closeness to Mieczysław was one big documentation process even before I started to shoot. The script I wrote was prepared perfectly in all details and let me tell most of the truths from his life in just few important scenes. As I told before, I had one approach few years ago and after that I was waiting for right moment to start filming again. During that time, I learned a lot, and at the same time Mieczysław’s collection has grown, so it worked great for the film from both sides.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
I had conversations with many people at every festival I participated around the world, and many of them told me that it was their favorite film and they really liked that the warmth radiates from that story, and that for them, it was very touching and beautiful in its simplicity. Most of documentaries nowadays are focused on the dramatic stories, connected to the war, immigration and conflicts between the society and the government. What they loved about my film was that it is totally far away from that kind of stuff, and it shows warm simple story of the simple people, but with many important and inspiring things that we can bring to ourselves.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
What surprised me the most is that my film was very well understood in so many different cultures. I was worried that in some countries the story could be understandable because the Polish countryside is a very specific place and we have middle European culture which old people are really connected with. I constructed the storytelling to be as universal as I could, but before it is screened, you are not always 100% sure that it will work well.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
What is now important to me is to find the distributors and buyers for this film because his festival’s journey has now slowly come to an end. It is an appropriate time to find other channels to screen it.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
I think now important for me are international buyers, distributors and journalists too.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I hope that this documentary can help some of us to find out that there are always few simple things which never changes and which we can simply forget about in this fast and consumerism world.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
What exactly makes us human and what important and valuable we can offer from our individual lives to other people?
Would you like to add anything else?
I want to invite everyone who has the opportunity to watch "Collection"!
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Now I’m starting to work on my next documentary project. This production is very fresh but I can only tell now that it will be again (after "The Tough") the story connected to the mountaineering activities.
Interview: March 2019
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Collection
Mieczysław lives with his wife, Wladzia, in a small, lost village. Being on the edge of life he lives a simple life, taking care of his disabled wife. In his spare time, the old man tries to save relics of the past fot the future generations.
Length: 18:50
Director: Marcin Polar
Producer: Paweł Wilkołek
Writer: Marcin Polar
About the writer, director and producer:
MARCIN POLAR is a director, cinematographer and photographer. A graduate from the Krakow Film School, and Cinematography, Direction and Art Photography at the Radio and Television Faculty of the University of Silesia in Katowice. Creator of documentaries, short films, music videos and commercials. He has vast experience in filming in extreme conditions, often using mountaineering, aerial, and underwater techniques. His short documentary “Collection” was screened at major festivals all over the world, and the latest "The Tough" was selected to Sundance Film Festival 2019.
PAWEŁ WILLOŁEK was born in Krakow in 1990. A graduate of the Faculty of Radio and Television at the University of Silesia, Major: Film and Television Production (2009-2015). Already during his studies, he took up film production professionally. His professional activities were focused mainly on the implementation of advertising – initially, he was the coordinator and production manager. Later, he also worked as a director on many commercial projects, which allowed him to master advanced film production standards. At the same time, he also participated in work on the sets of the feature films – ”Król Życia"", ”Po prostu przyjaźń"". From 2016, the owner of the Film House production company. Since then, he has independently conducted several advertising projects (as a producer or director) and made a documentary film ""Collection"" (producer, editing) which is currently taking part in major documentary film festivals in Poland and around the world.
Key cast: Mieczysław Skrzyszowski (main character), Władysława Skrzyszowska (secondary character), Lucjan Garbarz (secondary character)
Looking for: distributors, journalists, buyers, producers
Facebook: Kolekcja
Other: IMDB, YouTube (1), YouTube (2)
Made in association with: Podkarpacie Film Commision Film-House
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Big Sky Documentary Film Festival 15 feb 2019 – niedz., 24 feb 2019