Theaters remain closed, while the number of films available online is increasing. Today we recommend short documentaries that tell fragments of Polish architectural history, weaving in socio-urban themes. They are available online legally and completely free of charge.
"Uniwersam Grochów"
Documentary film directed by Tomasz Knittel from 2018, describes a phenomenon from the borderline of urban planning and sociology. It is available for free on ninateka.pl, and the film can be viewed HERE.
The modern three-story building housed on the first floor a megasam with groceries, a fast-food bar, NBP and PKO branches, a laundry, a "Polifoto", "Prednom" and "Toto-Lotek" outlet, "Ruch", a "Warmet" store, and a flower store. On the second floor there is a megasam with industrial goods, a cafe with a "disco", a restaurant with a cocktail-bar and a banquet hall, watchmaking services, a car insurance claims department of PZU, a tailor and furrier cooperative and a modern hairdressing salon with a biosauna. The underground floor was occupied by warehouses and technical equipment (air-conditioning and ventilation units, refrigeration units, a water treatment station, etc.). - wrote about the opening of the Universam Grochow on July 22, 1977, the weekly illustrated magazine Stolica.
In late 2016, the iconic building was demolished. The film shows the last moments of the enterprise in Warsaw's Praga Południe district. The approach to work and the economic model depicted in the film, takes the viewer back several decades. The demolition of the building left not only an architectural gap, but also a void in the local community.
teaser of the film prod. Papaya Films | YouTube
"This film was made out of passion, but also through sentiment. It is an attempt to capture an unusual mosaic of people: those who are a little lonely, excluded, elderly. And those who maybe didn't manage a bit and led a life around Universam," director Tomasz Knittel told Polish Radio.
Among other awards, the film won the Audience Award and the Maciej Szumowski Award at the Krakow Film Festival.
"Spa. Architecture of Zawodzie"
The film, directed by Ewa Trzcionka , shows the bizarre magic of the famous "pyramid" hotels in Ustroń, in the Silesian Beskid. It is available free of charge on YouTube. The entire film in the link below or HERE.
The post-war mecca of workers' vacations hides the incredible architectural thought and respect for nature shown by the creators of the time, some of the best Polish architects of the modern era: Aleksander Franta and Henryk Buszko. The uniqueness of the project is undeniably evidenced by the fact that it was included in the largest and most outstanding work on architecture of the 20th century, which is "Worlds Architecture of XXth Century" by Phaidon Publishing. The film is a story not only about the buildings themselves, but about the genesis of the architectural plan, about the mission to create in harmony with nature.One of the film's creators, Aleksander Franta, as well as prominent contemporary Polish architectsRobert Konieczny and Przemo Łukasik, naturalists, engineers and historians, speak about the complex of buildings in Ustroń ' s Zawodzie sanatorium district. This gives us the impression of an exhaustive and pleasing to the eye and ear story about the architect's mission and social responsibility for heritage.
The authors of the film were honored, among others, with a Special Award by the Chamber of Architects of the Republic of Poland for the best published material about architecture.
"Super Unit"
The documentary film directed by Teresa Czepiec tells the stories of several of the families living in a huge block of flats in Katowice, thus creating an unusual architectural puzzle. The film is available on vod.pl, HERE.
"I knew the super-unit from my days studying directing in Katowice. I walked past this block many times with the feeling that there was something special to discover in it. I was also inspired by the name, which opens additional fields for interpretation: A super-unit is a specific building, but one can also refer to a unique person or a non-existent but possible unit of measurement in this way." - says the director in an interview with Polish Docs.
The super-unit is a huge apartment block designed as a so-called living machine, with up to 3,000 people living on the building's 15 floors. The elevator stops every 3rd floor so residents have to navigate a veritable maze of corridors and stairs to reach their apartments. 762 apartment doors and 762 stories. The director opens just a few of them. The heroes of the film are precisely the residents, without whom this "machine" would never start.
Trailer of the film, prod. Wajda School | YouTube
