Thu, May 14, 7:00 PM | barStudio
DocStudio. Film screening and panel discussion: Who’s watching? Us or the Animals?
after the screening of AMMA, DO GIRAFFES CRY?, dir. Kartikeya Saxena
Partner: Fotofestiwal, barStudio
Although we have shared this planet for thousands of years, we still think of this relationship in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Animals are part of our daily lives, our culture, our myths and our ideas about the world. They are close to us, yet they remain a mystery. Cinema and photography have embraced them with boundless love. However, when we look at these frozen images, one is tempted to ask: who is really watching? Are we watching the animals – or are the animals watching us? What distinguishes and what connects these gazes and the accompanying perspectives? These issues will be discussed by animal trainers and animal wranglers working on film sets – Agata Kordas and Marek Russo – as well as photographers Tom Swoboda and Piotr Płucienniczak.
The film screening and discussion panel is co-organised by Millennium Docs Against Gravity and Fotofestiwal in Łódź, bringing togther the perspectives of cinema and photography. Festival films and the exhibition ‘We, the Animals’, on display in Łódź from 18 June, will serve as the starting point for the panel discussion.
Guests:
Agata Kordos and Marek Russ – talent scouts and animal trainers for films, adverts and TV series. They have worked on set with a wide range of animals – from ants to elephants. Together with the ‘stars’ they look after, they have taken part in the production of over 150 Polish and international films, including Jerzy Skolimowski’s Oscar-nominated film ‘IO’, the TV series ‘The Eastern Gate’, ‘Detective Forst’, ‘Klara’, ‘High Water’, ‘Klangor’, ‘Sexify’ and ‘Inspector Alex’. They have also completed over 1,000 advertising projects.
Piotr Puldzian Płucienniczak – PhD in Sociology, artist and publisher. He runs the Dar Dobryszyc publishing house and lectures at the Faculty of Artistic Research, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. His works include ‘Firmy’ (2017) and ‘Mazowieckim szlakiem gastronomii’ (2023), and he has translated works by Timothy Dexter and Angus McDiarmid.
Tom Swoboda – visual artist and photographer. He completed a course in Ancient Japanese Culture, graduated from the Faculty of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, and obtained his PhD at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice. He is the co-founder and co-director of Galeria Szara in Cieszyn, Galeria 12 in Cieszyn, and the Underground Art Centre in Clitheroe, UK. The central theme of his work is the consistent exploration of boundaries – between humans and animals, between nature and culture, and between freedom and confinement.
The panel will be moderated by Alicja Myśliwiec-Konieczna, a radio, press and television journalist, cultural manager, academic lecturer and educator. She collaborates with TVN, Radio Chilli Zet and the “Liberte!” magazine. She is currently responsible for communications at the Summer Academy in Zwierzyniec and the Łódź Fotofestiwal, Poland’s oldest event dedicated to photography and audiovisual art.
