The atmosphere of Millennium Docs Against Gravity is created not only by film soundtracks, but also by the music connected to those films. This year, festivalgoers can once again look forward to a feast full of experiences as part of the MDAG music scene. During the opening party, attendees will travel back to 2016 with a little help from the film “All These Sleepless Nights” and K MAG magazine. There will also be the now traditional and always popular silent disco, this time inspired by the film “Trainspotting”. Fans of analog music are invited to a performance by Andri Snær Magnason and Bartek Wąsik, inspired by the film “Time and Water”.
The 23rd MDAG will take place from May 8 to May 17, 2026, in cinemas across seven cities (Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdynia, Poznań, Katowice, Łódź, and Bydgoszcz), and online from May 19 to June 1 at mdag.pl!
Ticket sales for the concerts will start soon.
Photo: Marcin Oliva Soto
[A female DJ mixes music at the console, surrounded by colorful streaks of moving light.]
All These Sleepless Nights. The opening party of MDAG 2026
Partner: K MAG
2026 is the new 2016. Or so they say. For this past decade we have been wandering the streets of Warsaw to arrive at the Palace of Culture for the opening party of Millennium Docs Against Gravity. We will time travel through these 10 years to see what music revelations have defined us, with an abundance of melodic references to what has also been the soundtrack of our festival. Maybe for you it will be Paper Planes by M.I.A or maybe May is inseparable from the sound of Give It Up by Princess Shaw, as heard in the trailer of our festival?
2016 saw the premier of the film “All These Sleepless Nights” at Sundance, where Michał Marczak won the Directing Award. In 2026 Marczak returned to Sundance with his new film “Closure”, which will screen in the Main Competition at Millennium Docs Against Gravity.
The party is held simultaneously in Kulturalna and barStudio. In Kulturalna we will take you on a musical journey from 2016 up till 2026 and barStudio will become a time capsule, where time stood still and we live in 2016. The event will be accompanied by a photo showcase by “K MAG” editor-in-chief Mikołaj Komar, created as part of his series “Komar’s Eye” in 2016.
On Time and Water. Performance by Andri Snær Magnason and Bartek Wąsik
Can words and music express the joy and loss brought by passage of time? This unique one-off performance will underline how passing of time can be put into words and music. The poet and activist, Andri Snær Magnason will meet with the Polish musician, Bartek Wąsik to create a performance which will be an ode to the beautiful planet that we live on, with the persistence of time at its centre. The performance will explore the relationship between human memory and the natural world, and serve as a reminder of what it is, we are fighting to preserve.
Andri Snær Magnason, an award winning Icelandic poet, writer, filmmaker and activist is the protagonist of ”Time and Water”, a new film by Sara Dosa (know for such works as ”Fire of Love”) which screens this year in the Main Competition at Millennium Docs Against Gravity. He has collaborated with such musicians as Björk, Yo-Yo Ma or the Kronos Quartet. Bartek Wąsik is a pianist, composer, and arranger. He has won numerous awards in national and international competitions, including the Fryderyk Award and the “Polityka” Passport in 2014. His new album, Pianorizon is also inspired by his love of nature.
The performance will be preceded by the screening of ”Time and Water”. The ticket is both for the film screening and the performance.
Photo: Marcin Oliva-Soto
[A crowd dances at a silent disco wearing glowing headphones.]
Party: New York I Love You, But…
For many people New York is the second best city in the world after Warsaw. It is undeniable that it has been the birthplace not just of many musicians and bands, but also of music genres. Ella Fitzgerald sang about an island of joy that is Manhattan, Bob Dylan claimed that in the end he always has to come back to New York and also a few quite famous rappers call the city a state of mind. From Sonic Youth, The Velvet Underground and The Strokes, through Talking Heads, Lou Reed and LCD Soundsystem, or Mariah Carey, Simon & Garfunkel and Lady Gaga, to Beastie Boys, Run DMC and Public Enemy – come and check out what NYC has to offer.
The party is inspired by the „New York I Love You, But…” film section which screens this year at Millennium Docs Against Gravity. The section, curated together with the DOC NYC festival, tells the story of many exceptional artists, set against the backdrop of New York.
Concert: Joshua Eustis and Kelly Moran perform “My Themersons” with the Polish Radio Orchestra
The Themersons were among the pioneers of the avant-garde who recognised the potential of the close relationship between image and sound in film. Franciszka had a musical education, while Stefan composed and played the piano. He therefore also thought about film form in musical terms, describing film editing as a “temporal collage” – a composition in which individual sequences function in relation to the whole, just as fragments do in a photomontage.
The music of Kelly Moran and Joshua Eustis forms one of the most significant dimensions of the cinematic experience in “My Themersons”. Moran, a New York-based pianist and composer, has spent years developing a musical language centred on the prepared piano, repetition, an ambient atmosphere, and minimalism understood as the art of eliciting emotion from the slightest change. By moving between different musical worlds, her sensibility is unique – she has released music on the iconic Warp label and collaborated with artists such as FKA Twigs, The Avalanches, and Yves Tumour. Her compositions are both austere and sensual, disciplined and deeply moving. In the film, they serve as a source of an inner light that spills across the images.
Joshua Eustis, on the other hand, brings a darker energy, full of underlying tension. As an artist with a background in electronic, ambient and industrial music – having collaborated with Nine Inch Nails and Apparat, among others – and with experience in soundtrack production (his latest being “Marty Supreme”), Eustis crafts music with dramaturgy, orchestral grandeur and cinematic tension. Where Moran leads the viewer towards immersion, Eustis restores resistance. When she reveals fragility, he introduces shadow, structure and unease. As a result of this tension, the soundtrack to “My Themersons” is not a uniform ornament, but a composition of forces – a dialogue between two ways of experiencing the film.
Photo: Dominika Scheibinger
[Three musicians on stage: saxophone, turntable, and cello.]
Choose dance. Trainspotting silent disco at MDAG 2026
Warsaw, 2026. In a pre-apocalyptic future Irvine Welsh visits Warsaw for Millennium Docs Against Gravity. It has been exactly 30 years since the release of the “Trainspotting” film based on his iconic novel. The work which defined a generation still feels relevant – we live in bleak times and in this unsettling future there is not much left to do but to hit the dance floor. Come and put on these futuristic headsets where you can switch and choose between Britpop and house music, or if you want to understand what set grounds for the culture of the nineties, you’ll be able to listen to music from the preceding decades. There will be ample choice, although in the end there is only one thing to choose – dance.
The party is inspired by the film “Irvine Welsh: Reality is Not Enough” (dir. Paul Sng) which screens at this year’s Millennium Docs Against Gravity.
EABS plays Sun Ra. Concert at MDAG 2026
Infinity versus the end of the world – this theme resonated both in Sun Ra’s work and in the album recorded by EABS, paying tribute to his musical legacy. ‘Discipline of Sun Ra’, released in 2020, navigates between genres, flowing with the current of jazz while also drawing on hip-hop, juke, and house. The musicians have honoured one of the most important artists and composers of the 20th century, all while maintaining their own originality. For this reason, rather than a tribute, the EABS album could be described as a continuation. ‘Infinity, as understood by Mr Ra, means creating the jazz of the future, but in such a way that it encompasses the past’. EABS is guided by the same mission. Their music, much like Sun Ra’s work, is intergalactic. It evokes cosmic spaces, which, now that Sun Ra is no longer with us, takes on a whole new meaning. Outer space is not merely a source of inspiration – the magic of music is contrasted with passenger flights into space and a messianic desire to conquer new planets.
The concert at Millennium Docs Against Gravity will be connected with the film ‘Sun Ra: Do the Impossible’ (dir. Christine Turner), featured in this year’s festival programme.
Party: We Want the Funk!
We invite you to join us on a musical voyage through the history of funk — from James Brown, through Sly & the Family Stone, Parliament-Funkadelic and Labelle, to later innovators who keep the groove alive. Come celebrate the sound that is as bold and joyful, as it is political. It’s going to be fun, it’s going to be fresh, it’s going to be funky. We want the bass loud, the dancefloor full, and the energy high all night long. Join us at Kulturalna and let the rhythm take over.
The party is inspired by the film ”We Want the Funk” (dir. Stanley Nelson and Nicole London) which screens at this year’s Millennium Docs Against Gravity.
Photo: Marcin Oliva Soto
[A female DJ mixes music at the console, with colorful streaks of light around her.]
EVENT SCHEDULE:
May 8 | Kulturalna, barStudio | All the Sleepless Nights. MDAG 2026 Opening Party | free admission
May 9 | Iluzjon Cinema | On Time and Water. Performance by Andri Snær Magnason and Bartek Wąsik | tickets: 40 PLN
May 9 | Kulturalna | New York I Love You, But… Party | free admission
May 13 | Polish Radio Concert Studio (Lutosławski Studio) | Concert: Joshua Eustis and Kelly Moran perform “My Themersons” with the Polish Radio Orchestra | tickets: 80 PLN
May 15 | Kulturalna | Choose Dance. Trainspotting Silent Disco | headphone rental: 30 PLN
May 16 | Pardon, To Tu | EABS plays Sun Ra. Concert at MDAG 2026
May 16 | Kulturalna | We Want the Funk! Party | free admission
