"I have been working with archival materials for many years. I have spent hundreds of hours in the archives, looking through thousands of metres of film tape. I have always been fascinated by the activity of taking original materials and giving them a whole new meaning. How to use the huge possibilities of the language of film to build an emotional relationship between the viewer and the archived reality?”
BIOGRAPHIES
Director Maciej J. Drygas is a renowned film and radio director, screenwriter, producer, and professor at the Polish National Film School in Łódź. His works have received numerous prestigious awards, including the European Film Academy Award for Best Documentary for “Hear My Cry” (1991), the Prix Italia for the radio documentary “Last Will” (1992), the Grand Prix at the Monte Carlo International Television Festival for “State of Weightlessness” (1995), and the award for Best Feature-Length Documentary at the Cinema Verité festival in Tehran for “Abu Haraz” (2013). Drygas also wrote the libretto for the opera “Qudsja Zaher”, which was nominated for the International Opera Awards in London in 2014. He is the originator and founder of the Home Movie Archive at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Warsaw. His films and radio documentaries have been broadcast across Europe, as well as in Canada, Japan, Brazil, South Africa, New Caledonia, and Australia.
Producer Vita Zelakeviciute is President of the Management Board at Drygas Film Production since 2017. Producer of notable films including Danger Zone (2023, dir. Vita Maria Dygas) and Trains (2024, dir. Maciej Drygas). With a background in directing award-winning documentaries, Želakevičiūtė brings a strong creative vision to her production work. She is also a long-time expert for the Polish Film Institute and a lecturer at the Wajda School in Warsaw.