Posts Tagged ‘solidarity’

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.
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