DATE, TIME, AND PLACE: Saturday, March 24, 3 p.m. in Hoyt Auditorium, University of Rochester River Campus
WHAT: Screening of Marek Piwowski's The Parade Step, or in Polish Krok (1997) with a talk by Don Fredericksen, professor of film at Cornell University.
In this 25-minute film, Polish authorities are confronted with the news that the Polish military parade step is disliked at NATO headquarters. A special committee is convened to devise a new step "with which Poland will march into EU" and the fun begins.
Piwowski's wacky faux-documentary has been described as a way for Poles to reflect on which new post-communist self-definition they wish to embrace.
A frequent lecturer in Poland, Fredericksen has co-edited books on film, music, and the psychological analysis of culture, including the first book-length study of Andrzej Wajda's Kanal with Marek Hendrykowski, professor of film in Poland. Fredericksen served as a judge at the Krakow Short Film Festival and the Camerimage Festival and he teaches a course on modern Polish film history.
Marek Piwowski is a director, journalist, and screenwriter. He studied navigation at the Moscow Marine School, journalism at the University of Wroclaw, and film directing at the Lodz Film School. Piwowski has worked as a miner, farm laborer, magazine reporter, and film actor, and has been a lecturer at New York University. He is a member of the American Film Institute.
"What fascinates me most in the documentary film are the portraits of people, the things which happen on their faces," said Piwowki. "Perhaps some scenes in my films suggest that I treat people like an entomologist when examining his insect specimens… Stupidity is more flavoursome food for artistic matter, than correctness and norm."
ADMISSION: Free and open to the public
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Bozenna Sobolewska at 585-275-9898 or bozenna.sobolewska@rochester.edu.