KAZIMIERZ PRÓSZYŃSKI’S "OKO" CAMERA

KAZIMIERZ PRÓSZYŃSKI’S "OKO" CAMERA

Kazimierz Prószyński’s "Oko" Camera

The 20th edition of the Silent Movie Festival will give us a chance to glimpse one of the most interesting, yet least known episodes in the history of filmmaking technology, namely the development of Kazimierz Prószyński's "Oko" camera. While the project didn’t achieve commercial success and its creator failed in his grand plans of building the film industry in Poland, the “Oko” endures as evidence of an extraordinary technical vision. This year’s festival will not only be an attempt to reconstruct this forgotten chapter of cinema history, but also literally lend a voice to the invention itself.

At the formative stage of the language of cinema and the standardization of filming technology, Kazimierz Prószyński proposed a camera that paradoxically combined highly innovative elements with solutions that were already considered outdated at that time. On one hand, the "Oko" provided functionality by combining a camera with a projector, as well as a light source, which could be considered state-of-the-art in its time. On the other hand, it was based on several assumptions that did not take into account the dominant trends, such as the drive for tape standardization or the need for easy installation. Its ambivalence, resulting from innovation intertwined with conservatism, is the key to understanding why Prószyński's invention remained outside the mainstream of film technology development despite its undeniable uniqueness.

During this year’s festival, we will present archival footage recorded with the "Oko" camera itself. This material has exceptional technical value as an example of a non-standard film format with a width of 12 cm. It captures the everyday life in Gdynia of the mid-1920s – a city that in the 20th century was to become a symbol of independence and modernizing ambitions of the re-emerging Poland.


Films from Kazimierz Prószyński’s “Oko” camera

Poland 1925, 15' (15 frames per second)

Creator: unidentified

Amateur silent film Source: FINA

Recorded in the summer of 1925 on the beach in Gdynia, the films from Kazimierz Prószyński's “Oko” camera are among the oldest preserved amateur footage created in the Second Polish Republic. Their value lies in the unique tension between the private nature of the recording and the public significance of the captured images. We see holiday-goers having fun on the beach, posing for photos, swimming, as well as shots of a hydroplane landing from the Naval Aviation Squadron in Puck. The informal character of the shots allows one to pick up a broader historical context: the modernizing Gdynia, the expansion of the port, and the atmosphere of enthusiasm accompanying the rebirth of the Polish state.

The value of these films comes not only from their content but also from the fact that they have been recorded on a completely unique medium. The tapes will be played back using a historical model of the “Oko” camera, made functional by Stanisław Kwiatkowski. The show will take place only once due to the fragile nature of the tapes. Such a presentation has never been done before and, for conservation reasons, won't be possible any time soon in the near future. This one-time event shall be a symbolic tribute to Kazimierz Prószyński on the 150th anniversary of his birth. Upon seeing what was referred to as the “biopleohraph,” the Polish writer Boleslaw Prus was to write as follows: “Such people, at times strange, yet always unique, should be carefully nurtured, and above all, presented before society. For they make progress possible, and, moreover, they secure the nations the right to existence."

 

                                                                                                  By Monika Supruniuk


"Oko" Camera - presentation and lecture by Monika Supruniuk

Tickets

Date: Saturday, September 20, 3:00 PM

Where: Iluzjon Cinema, MAŁA CZARNA




Monika Supruniuk 

Art conservator specializing in the conservation and restoration of works on paper, as well as photography and film. She graduated from the Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where she obtained a doctoral degree, and currently gives classes on the identification and conservation of photographs. Since 2009, she has been associated with the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute. She collaborates with many public institutions and NGOs, including the Archaeology of Photography Foundation, the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, the Museum of Warsaw, and the Centre of Community Archives. She has published several academic works and co-edited books on silent films. She has been awarded the Young Poland scholarship by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2013) and the Scholarship of the Minister of Science and Higher Education for outstanding young scientists (2018–2021). She is the Principal Investigator in the Polish National Science Centre grant: Permanence and change. The conservation of analog media art (2013–2016). She has co-hosted many educational events and exhibitions, as well as initiated the Warsaw edition of the Home Movie Day. Her interests focus on the conservation of analog media, the history of photographic and filming techniques, and the reinterpretation of audiovisual works in the digital age. 


Monika Supruniku - foto

Contact

National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute
www.fina.gov.pl

Wałbrzyska Street 3/5
02-739 Warsaw
tel: +48 22 38 04 902
tel: +48 22 38 04 904
e-mail: kancelaria@fina.gov.pl

Cinema Iluzjon 
www.iluzjon.fn.org.pl

Narbutta Street 50a 
02-541 Warsaw
tel. +48 22 848 33 33
      +48 22 182 46 41
e-mail: kasa.iluzjon@fina.gov.pl