For Film Buffs – Film Discussion Clubs in Poland
There are times at the Center when we sit around thinking about what we can offer our guests. One of our recurring ideas is a film club. For those who weren’t raised in the later years of the PRL (Poland before the “Solidarity”), the initials „DKF” may not mean anything. To learn more about the Dyskusyjne Kluby Filmowe, or the Film Discussion Clubs, read the text below, from Józef Lorski, in Warsaw. (The text has been abbreviated.)
There was a time in Poland when there was a vibrant movement of film discussion clubs. The first clubs arose during the political strife of 1956. Soon thereafter, a nationwide federation of clubs formed, to represent the clubs to the state authorities, giving the clubs a certain status that removed them from the oversight of the local authorities. Every independent initiative in the PRL, not inspired or developed by the party, was in some way or other under the control of a party institution, or at least under suspicion. The clubs were forced to search for their own patrons among different groups, including schools, factories, offices, and cultural centers, and so such sponsorship was necessary. The repertoire – above all, the meetings and discussions after the movie showings – comprised an oasis of freedom in the world of the PRL. There were few other places where it was possible to be so open, to say what you were thinking publicly. Often the films simply became a pretext for conversations about people and everyday situations, about the rules governing social life.
What could you see in the clubs, what attracted viewers, especially the young and active members of the groups? The repertoire of the DKF clubs was both lively and inspired, though often elitist; all the activities of the movement gave the organizers, audience, and participants in the discussion a feeling that they were participating in something authentic, something that, to a great degree, belonged to them. This meant a great deal in those times, especially in the sixties and seventies. Even more when it turned out that we young movie fans had the chance to meet Antonioni, the legendary director from the inaccessible abroad, who was invited to one of the club’s seminars.
1989, the year of the fall of communism and the beginning of terrific change, brought the end of the film club movement. The 1980s had not been the best years for the movement; Solidarity had shown that there were many ways to lead activities independent from the authorities. In addition, martial law meant the liquidation of many publishing houses that had printed numerous publications outside the control of the censor, and so the clubs ceased to be as attractive as they were in the earlier period. However, thanks to the American, French, and German embassies, which lent the DKF clubs free films not available in movie theaters, the clubs continued to prosper. With the arrival of freedom and capitalism, it turned out that anybody who wanted to show a movie had to pay the distributor, and so paying to send a copy of a film for one showing in some small town in the provinces did not work out. In 1988, there were 550 film clubs registered. Today, there are about 130.
Fortunately, the clubs continue to function. A recent film retrospective in Warsaw recalled the best years of the clubs while reminding us of what it was possible to realize during those times. DKF Kwant, one of the best clubs of the earlier times, devoted to Czechoslovak film of the sixties and affiliated with the Warsaw Polytechnic, was the organizer of the event. Some of the most important creators of Czech and Slovak film, including Jiri Menzel, Vera Chytilova, Juraj Herz and Martin Sulik, participated in an excellent seminar in conjunction with the retrospective. Vaclav Havel, first president of the new Czechoslovakia, was a special guest. Accompanying the retrospective was a beautiful catalog, dedicated to the topic of the seminar and including descriptions of the films, both the most popular and those lesser known, above all, those that never made it to the theaters after the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact powers. I fear that such a thoughtful selection of wide ranging films from the Czechoslovakia of this period will never be shown again.
With real joy, I practically ran to the movie theater on Krakowskie Przedmiescie, feeling the excitement from years past, when I watched the films with other young people, a feeling the organization of the seminar could not hope to duplicate. Today’s discussions didn’t have the same intensity. Perhaps there are more important problems clamoring for attention than old films.
Józef Lorski
Translated by Sean Martin
Forum, 5/2006
Tags: film club, Forum, independent initiative, political strife, solidarity, time in poland, warsaw
