Films

The Zookeeper’s Wife
2017 Vol. 9 No. 1—Spring / Films

The Zookeeper’s Wife

Book reviews are usually assigned to reviewers who know something about the subject at hand. Film reviews? Not so much. So CR takes a look at The Zookeeper’s Wife… and also some of the reviews.

OJCU – To My Father
2016 Vol. 8 No. 1—Winter / Films

OJCU – To My Father

In 1938, a little girl, Alina Bandrowska, saw her father arrested by the NKVD, the Soviet secret police. He never returned.

Bridging Urban America
2016 Vol. 8 No. 2—Spring / Films

Bridging Urban America

A documentary about an engineer? Take a look at Ralph Modjeski’s bridges. They are breathtakingly beautiful and they were built to last. Basia and Leonard Myszynski’s film is a must.

War and Peace in Vilnius
2016 Vol. 8 No. 2—Spring / Films

War and Peace in Vilnius

In Lithuania to study the once culturally diverse now vanished communities of the region, Lynn Lubamersky found a BBC TV crew there too, filming “War and Peace.” That’s enough to set a historian thinking about imperial Russia then, imperial Putin now, the communities that don’t want to vanish… and the BBC’s Downton Abbey-style production.

Young Karski at the start of his diplomatic career
2016 Vol. 8 No. 2—Spring / Films

Karski and the Lords of Humanity

“Tell your people that they have a friend in the White House.” But the genocide continued, and in the end the friend gave Karski’s country to Stalin.

Childhood Denied
2016 Vol. 8 No. 2—Spring / Films

Childhood Denied

Myra Dziama’s gentle film is mostly about childhood restored, with love and understanding. And the “custody battle” launched in the UN by Moscow’s Poland for the children who chose Canada.

Three Films at the EUFF
Films

Three Films at the EUFF

Poland’s “Bogowie” is a very exciting cardiology story. Really! Finland/Estonia’s “The Fencer” is about the graceful – but oh, so bourgeois – art of fencing. And a quirky doc about Shakespeare.

Kościuszko: A Man Ahead of His Time
2015 Vol. 7 No. 3 — Fall / Films

Kościuszko: A Man Ahead of His Time

There are more statues of Kościuszko in the United States than any other historical figure except George Washington. When Kościuszko talked about freedom, he meant it. So why don’t Americans know who he is? This documentary is a must for a national broadcast. PBS, take note.

Jill Godmilow: “Wow, We Did That?!”
2015 Vol. 7 No. 2 — Summer / Films

Jill Godmilow: “Wow, We Did That?!”

“Wow, we did that?!” Yes, dear children, listen to Jill Godmilow and learn what your brave and smart elders once did, nothing less than “the greatest revolution in the world.”

Hollywood Place Conversations: All About Ida
2015 Vol. 7 No. 1 — Spring / Films

Hollywood Place Conversations: All About Ida

It’s a black-and-white film about a Polish Catholic nun that America didn’t ridicule but fell in love with. Agnieszka Niezgoda asks three members of the Academy, “Why?”

Tarpan: Repainting an Ancient Picture
Films

Tarpan: Repainting an Ancient Picture

The ancient breed of horses, the Tarpans, were extinct but Polish scientists bred an almost perfect descendent, and called it konik. Today, the koniks have been reintroduced into the wild by an international team of scientists, documentary makers Jen Miller and Sophie Peregrum filmed them, and Justine Jablonska has the story.

NEON
2014 Vol. 6 No. 3 — Fall-Winter / Features / Films

NEON

The Neon signs of the communist era were works of art, even though the product was never in stock. Eric Bednarski celebrates the art and the artists.

Chatting with NEON’s Eric Bednarski
2014 Vol. 6 No. 3 — Fall-Winter / Films / Interviews

Chatting with NEON’s Eric Bednarski

“I’m pro-Neon,” says Eric Bednarski. Take a look and you will be too.