Another journey into the world of the most interesting silent films from around the globe, accompanied by excellent music performed live by artists such as Maciej Obara Quartet, RGG or Atom String Quartet feat. Marcin Albert Steczkowski at the Iluzjon cinema in Warsaw on October 22–30. The programme includes a trip to a dormant and empty Paris, hundred-year-old travellers from Poland and abroad, films of cinema pioneers and unique pictures of pre-war Poland.

Voyages - JOURNEYS

"Voyages" - "Journeys" will be the theme of the next, 17th edition of the Festival Movie Cinema. The formula of the nine-day festival combines the most interesting and best silent films from countries such as France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Hungary, Canada, Sweden and Japan.

Streaming

An innovation in the implementation of this year's edition will be live broadcasts of selected projections and concerts on the ninateka.pl portal. By implementing the project in such an innovative formula, we give the event a national and even global rank. Streaming will be a fundamental supplement to the classic formula of a film festival, it will be aimed at promoting silent cinema. Thanks to the broadcasts, we would like to enable Poles living abroad and using Ninateka to participate in the Silent Movie Festival.

Live music

One of the hallmarks of the festival since its inception is the variety of music performed live. Over twenty musicians, soloists and bands will set off on this year's film trip around the world. Following the storyline, they will land in Japan and the Pacific Islands, in the hot jungle and in the cold Canadian North. They will travel by train, ship and dog sled, and face dramas typical of the presented culture or epoch. They will play, among others Maciej Obara Quartet, Księżyc, Atom String Quartet feat. Marcin Albert Steczkowski, RGG, Kasia Pietrzko Trio and JAAA! feat. Irek Wojtczak.

Opening film

The journey not only in space, but also through the ages, lost worlds or the history of cinema will begin with a wandering around dormant Paris, with its deserted streets and heroes balancing on the edge of the Eiffel Tower, in the opening film entitled “The Crazy Ray“ (1925) by René Clair.

Pioneers of Cinema

During the Silent Movie Festival, there will be films of pioneers of cinema. Among them, the pictures of the first female director in the history of cinema, Alice Guy-Blaché, who during her long career (1896–1920) directed and / or produced nearly 1,000 films, including 150 films with synchronized sound (Gaumont's Chronophone), and Lois Weber - the first American female director, and at the same time the best-paid creator of Universal.

Programme

A highlight of the program will be the premiere of the unknown, because found in 2018, "Polish Sketch" (1920–1931) in the digital restoration version. It is an amateur documentary by Belgian Maurice Bekaert, which is a priceless and very touching record of pre-war Poland, its architecture and inhabitants.

The films presented during the festival will also take viewers to unbelievable places, e.g. to the "Lost World" (Harry O. Hoyt, 1925) and the land inhabited by dinosaurs, and together with Saturnino Farandola, the protagonist of one of the craziest films of the era, wherever you can experience unforgettable adventures - to the seas, land, into the air and under the water. Known to the general public, Buster Keaton will take viewers on a journey through time, including to the Stone Age and the Roman Empire, and the youngest audience will go with Georges Méliès to the Moon and to the lands visited by Gulliver and Robinson Crusoe.

The filmmakers whose films will be shown during the nine-day Silent Movie Festival will also include internationally recognized and recognizable directors, including Carl Theodor Dreyer, Jean Renoir, Jean Epstein, Alexander Korda, Yasujirō Ozu.

The event is organized by the National Film Archive - Audiovisual Institute.