THE ALBANIAN CINEMA PROJECT
KF-16 [Albanian dances] (QSA, AL, 1972). 12 minutes
16mm, sound, color
Dance of sowing the crops (work rituals)
Wedding Song
Dance of the brave mountaineers (lyrical, erotic dance)
Tropoja women’s dance (lyrical, epic)
Researcher: Prof. Ramazan Bogdani
Source: Arkivi Qendror Shteteror i Filmit
Notes: Albanian traditional dances from the northwestern and northern regions. An ethno-musical study done in 1972 by Ramazan Bogdani. From the collection of the Center of Albanological Studies, Folklore Department (QSA, Tirana, Albania.)
Nëntori i dytë [The Second November] (AL, 1982)
Director: Viktor Gjika
The restoration blog: The Albanian Cinema Project
Tomka and His Friends (Albafilm-Tirana, AL, 1977) 78 min.
Director: Xhanfise Keko
Screenplay: Nasho Jorgaqi
Cast:
Enea Zhegu as Tomka
Herion Mustafaraj as Vaska
Genci Mosha as Gëzimi
Sotiraq Cili as Tomori
Tomka is a young fellow who likes to play football with his companions. However, the Nazis who have entered the town occupy the football field. Instructed from the grown ups , Tomka starts to undertake actions against the military camp that used to be their football field.
Note: Restored as a collaboration between Arkivi Qendror Shteteror I Filmit (Albanian Film Archive) and the US Library of Congress Audiovisual Conservation Center.
Watch here: Albanian Film Archive
THE CAMERALESS FILMS OF JULIAN JÓSEF ANTONICZ
Julian Antonisz, eccentric both in his personal and artistic life, described himself as: “…an avant-garde filmmaker, inventor, composer, screenwriter and the author of animations…” Throughout all the experimental work he did, the common factor was that majority were done without the use of a camera. He also experimented with non-camera sounds and music. His cinema is the art of absurd humour, often with a reflective element, an avalanche of surprising ideas shown in an expressive, highly rhythmical form. He died while working on the 13th issue of ‘The Polish Non-Camera Newsreel’. A laureate of numerous festival awards.Non-camera movies are an extreme example of the artist’s unique work on film stock.
In presentation of Antonisz’s case, the original non-camera film will be presented as a object intervening the historic relic of the material culture, the object of contemporary art and the traditional recognizable film material. Julian Antonisz’s non camera films are good example, epitomizing specific problems of – work on their preservation was the result of a compromise between the conservative approach to an artwork, typically considered as a unique result of the labour of an artist, and its conversion into the film medium.
The restoration project to restore Antonisz’s works was absolutely exceptional, as was the original materials which are unique in the collection at the National Film Archive. The project of digital restoration of such material was equally unprecedented. It soon become evident that the digitization of these films required an in-depth analysis of the artist’s output: not only with regard to the reels of 35mm film stored in the Archive, but also the general context of the artist’s practice. (Provided by Elżbieta Wysocka, Repozytorium Cyfrowe Filmoteki Narodowej, PL)
Official website | Digital Film Repository
Polska Kronika Non-Camerowa nr 1 [The Polish Non-Camera Newsreel No.1] (Animated Film Studio, PL, 1981) 9:37 min.
mov, sound, color, non-camera film
Director/Writer/Animator: Julian Józef Antonisz
Cooperation: Danuta Zadrzyńska
Cinematography: Edward Norek, Krzysztof Stawowczyk
Music: Julian Józef Antonisz
The first edition of the animated newsreel, which is a pastiche of real documental newsreels, contains the following subjects: ‘Home. Trapped by krill’, ‘Cultural newsreel. Sanation photoplasticon liquidated’, ‘The secret of U-27’, ‘Oil ejection in Karlino’, ‘From the world. Situation in the Universe’. (Bronze Hobby-Horse at the XXII National Short Film Festival in Cracow, 1982.) (Provided by Elżbieta Wysocka, Repozytorium Cyfrowe Filmoteki Narodowej, PL)
Source: National Film Archive (Filmoteka Narodowa, Warsaw, Poland)
Note: Digitally restored in 2012, English subtitles.
Ostry film zaangażowany [A Hard-Core Engaged Film] (Animated Film Studio, PL, 1979) 7:28 min.
sound, colour, non-camera film; projected from DCP.
Frames from Światło w tunelu (1985)Director/Writer/Animator: Julian Józef Antonisz
Cooperation: Danuta Zadrzyńska
Cinematography: Marek Dumnicki, Krzysztof Stawowczyk
Music: Julian Józef Antonisz
It is a story full of pure nonsense humour about a sly and sneaky retired woman who brought about the shutdown of old sales booths decorated with posters, which was the cause of the decline of the national cultural life. ‘Now the town is empty, Folks stay indoors / They miss out on films, of which they don’t know’ – sang Janina Jaskólska, the cleaning lady from Cracow’s Animated Film Studio, in the film ‘A Hard-Core Engaged Film. Non-Camera’. It seems that Antonisz accurately lay out the degree of ‘sharpness’ and ‘engagement’ possible to publicly diffuse at that time. In this sense it became a kind of document of the period. That is symptomatic that during the XX edition of The Krakow Short Film Festival (National competition) in May and June 1980 -animated film, not a document as always, but “A Hard-Core Engaged Film. Non-Camera” – for the first time in the history of the contest – won the prize. (Provided by Elżbieta Wysocka, Repozytorium Cyfrowe Filmoteki Narodowej, PL)
Source: National Film Archive (Filmoteka Narodowa, Warsaw, Poland)
Note: Digitally restored in 2012, English subtitles.
Watch here: Digital Film Repository
Światło w tunelu [A Light in the Tunnel] (Animated Film Studio, PL, 1985) 8:43 min.
sound, color, non-camera film; projected from DCP.
Frames from Światło w tunelu (1985)Director/Writer/Animator: Julian Józef Antonisz
Cooperation: Danuta Zadrzyńska
Cinematography: Tomasz Wolf, Tadeusz Dzień
Editor: Kazimiera Walczyk
Music: Julian Józef Antonisz
Light in the Tunnel was one of Antonisz’s last works, preceding only the two Polish Non-Camera Newsreel episodes (No. 11 and 12). Film is Antonisz’s vision of afterlife, one which had originally been envisioned by Jerzy Bossak, a prominent Polish documentary director, pedagogue and an avowed appraiser of both the Cracow artist’s non-camera output and his humor. It is not only the visual side which makes the ‘Light in the Tunnel’ so impressive, but also the diligently crafted soundtrack, a specific collage composed of varying, yet consistent sounds: poignant music (the work of the director himself), field recordings, voice samples (medical verbal commands given in English) or even a popular Russian ballad. Despite the somewhat perverse humor permeating its plot, the image stands out as a moving, poignantly atmospheric masterpiece.
The movie won Antonisz the International FICC Federation of Film Societies Award (Fédération Internationale des Ciné-Clubs) at the 32nd International Short Movie Festival held in Oberhausen in 1986. What was particularly appreciated by the jury was the film’s integration of the audio-visual. The interesting thing is that the audience was presented with a silent copy of the movie, while the artist himself performed live on an out of tune pianoforte in front of the screen, but also enriching the performance with his own, unintelligible sounds… (Provided by Elżbieta Wysocka, Repozytorium Cyfrowe Filmoteki Narodowej, PL)
Source: National Film Archive (Filmoteka Narodowa, Warsaw, Poland)
Note: Digitally restored in 2012, English subtitles. Copyright National Film Archive.
Watch here: Digital Film Repository