News Archives - IBFF Screens Shades of Poland at Kosciuszko Foundation
In the early evening of Feb. 18th, the temperature outside was a chilly 23-degrees, but inside the second floor screening room of the Kosciuszko Foundation on E. 65th Street in New York City, things warmed up with the International Black Film Festival (IBFF) screening of Jakub Barua's film Shades of Poland and the stimulating and lively discussion that followed.
About 35 attendees including independent filmmakers, film enthusiasts, members of the IBFF and the Kosciuszko Foundation, gathered in a large room adorned with paintings of Polish scenes of country fairs, pensive scholars and war heroes including Kosciuszko himself in a framed portrait above the fireplace. IBFF Director Allen C. Dawson and Kosciuszko Foundation Director Alex Storozynski welcomed the group with Storozynski sharing some background on the foundation's namesake.
"Tadeusz Kosciuszko was one of the greatest heroes of Poland," Storozynski told the audience. "He was the 'Prince of Tolerance' in the 18th Century."
Dawson explained the mission of the IBFF and shared some insight into Barua, whom he met on a trip to Africa.
"The IBFF uses film as a tool for social change," Dawson said. "Shades of Poland was banned in Poland and for Jakub, it's a crowning moment for a filmmaker to get his film seen in a room like this. It's a triumph."
Dawson and Storozynski were joined by well-known film and television actor Giancarlo Esposito (Ali, Waiting to Exhale, and numerous TV shows,) who met Barua while Esposito was filming "Gospel Hill" in Kenya and Barua was showing Shades of Poland at a film festival in Nairobi. Esposito, who has carved out a long career as an actor in television and film described his impression of Barua's reaction to having his film shelved.
"Film has the great ability to change and heal our perspective," Esposito said, "and it hurt the director that his film didn't get a wider audience."
Shades of Poland, released in 1999, aired only once on Poland's equivalent to PBS and was then shelved. The 52-minute documentary is a chronological history of the Africa-Poland relationship and touches upon issues of racism, slavery (the word "Slave" comes from the word "Slav") and the ensuing friendship between the peoples of Africa and Poland. Barua, a Polish filmmaker of interracial parents - his mother is Polish and his father is African - could not attend the screening, but was eagerly awaiting the audience's responses through comment forms that were distributed afterward.
After the closing credits, members of the audience were invited to share their impressions of the film in an open discussion. Several attendees of Polish dissent discussed how seeing the film created a feeling of embarrassment for the way Africans were treated early on and that maybe the film's lack of airing on Polish television was, perhaps, one of the reasons for that.
"You look at yourself and see yourself in the mirror," a Polish audience member said. "It is an embarrassment and a difficult movie for Polish people to watch."
Several film-goers agreed that the documentary was enlightening and educational; others felt "the African voice" seemed to be missing and that the perspective weighed too heavily on the Polish point of view, an observation Dawson reminded the audience to jot down on their comment forms along with any other reflections they had about the piece.
Overall, the discussion was lively and informative, which is an integral part of IBFF's mission that film be used as a medium to enlighten, inform and negotiate the relationships between people of all nationalities and cultures.
IBFF's next screening is The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo, a film by Lisa F. Jackson which will be held at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 W. 64th Street @ Central Park West. Doors open at 6 pm; film at 7 pm. For more information, visit the IBFF's website at www.blackfilmfestival.net or call 347-371-2544.
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