“Choosing the 12 films that will compete for the Main Competition of the festival is always an extremely challenging task,” Millennium Docs Against Gravity Artistic Director Karol Piekarczyk explains his annual programming headache to BDE on the eve of the festival’s 22nd roll-out. MDAG runs 9-18 May across seven Polish cities, and 20 May to June 2 online.
The overall Competition programme is expansive, encompassing international and Polish docs alike, with prizes for docs about music and art (Chopin’s Nose Award), for the Best Polish Film, for ecologically-themed docs (Green Warsaw Award), for the Best Film on Psychology, and for newcomers to documentary (the First Appearance Award) amongst others. But the blue riband prize is the Grand Prix Bank Millennium Award within Main Competition, for which 11 international films and one Polish film (Trains by Maciej Drygas) will compete.
“While things like artistic values, or thematic importance are always a place to start, expanding into more particular criteria, at the end of the day, however simple it sounds, we really are searching for the best films,” Piekarczyk underlines. “This is why we never have insisted that one of the requirements should be a world or international premiere. There are maybe a couple of festivals in the world that can afford that, but the further down the line you go, the more you have to ask yourselves who is this competition for – and in this case the audience always comes first.”
“In terms of artistry, I would say that all of these 12 films have all accomplished something of the highest value,” Piekarczyk adds of the International Feature Competition. “Naturally, films like Only on Earth (Robin Petré) stand out cinematically but, as it turns out, the brutal surrealism of a burning world can [also] be portrayed whilst being filmed from the perspective of cameras placed on soldiers’ helmets (as in Mstyslav Chernov’s 2000 Metres to Andriivka), which form an absolutely unique and immersive style.”
“Very often the camerawork also adapts to the protagonists – whether it is a teacher in Russia (David Borenstein/Pasha Talankin’s Mr Nobody Against Putin), a stand-up comedian fighting for Palestine (Amber Fares’ Co-existence My Ass!), a woman facing life imprisonment in the US (Jessica Earnshaw/Emily Thomas’ Baby Doe) or the most beautiful and intimate love story in Come See Me in The Good Light (Brandon Somerhalder).”
“What it [the filmmakers’ artistic approach] achieves is building a bond between the people on the screen and us, the people in the audience,” Piekarczyk underlines.
Contrasting America
MDAG is presenting the new ‘Contrasting America’ section in 2025, which seems particularly pertinent given the US administration’s boorish presence on the world stage since the re-election of Donald Trump, coupled with domestic policies that threaten the rights and liberties of its citizens, whether young or old, immigrant or indigenous.
“Amongst the films presented within it are Free Leonard Peltier, the new film by David France, co-directed by Jesse Short Bull, which not only focuses on the fight to free the title activist (which actually took place days before the Sundance premiere), but also focuses on the plight of the American Indian Movement throughout the years,” Piekarczyk explains.
“Baby Doe is also presented in this section. Gail Ritchey, a loving mother and grandmother living in a Christian community has to face her past, when one day the police come knocking on her door. Thirty years ago she left her new-born child in the woods and now she faces life imprisonment. Although very intimate and deeply human (we also screened Jessica Earnshaw’s debut Jacinta in Main Competition), the film offers a glimpse into the judicial system in the US. What we are also really happy about is that in ‘Contrasting America’ we will screen Social Studies, a new documentary series by Lauren Greenfield which explores the challenges that young people are faced with while growing up in America.”
Polish docs
Naturally, Polish films are very much in the frame and are to be found across all festival sections, whether Competition or thematic. Likewise, during MDAG Industry, international stakeholders (co-producers, distributors, broadcasters, festivals) will have the opportunity to assess new and completed projects, and to mull over potential involvement within the local doc scene.
“I think that Polish documentary cinema has an incredible tradition, which keeps on going strong, but also evolves,” says Piekarczyk. “For years our films have been recognized around the world. At the last IDFA in Amsterdam the Main Award went to Trains by Maciej Drygas, which also grabbed the Best Editing Award. Best Cinematography went to Guest by Zvika Gregory Portnoy and Zuzanna Solakiewicz. Both will have their Polish premieres at MDAG’
“What is really encouraging for us, and has been happening in the last couple of years, is the willingness of Polish producers to look for co-production opportunities with other countries. This is the case this year with the film My Dear Théo which premiered at CPH:DOX, directed by (Ukrainian) Alisa Kovalenko and produced by (Polish) Kasia Kuczynska,” he adds.
“What has become one of our primary goals in recent years is to use our Industry section as a starting point for Polish projects and bringing the international focus on them,” Piekarczyk stresses of MDAG Industry’s Progress Pitching session of new projects and the Pole Position programme of completed or soon-to-be-completed films. “We have decision makers coming from around the world who can both see the films that are at a variety of production stages, and we invite international programmers to look at documentaries that have already been completed.”
“We also give light not only to Polish projects, but also to ones from the region, so there are films from Ukraine, Czech Republic, Georgia or Romania. There will be a variety of topics presented, from what it means to grow up during the war in Ukraine (Youth by Daria Zhuravel, Ukraine) through a fascinating tale of the Polish troublesome border told through the eyes of beavers (Beavers by Paweł Hejbudzki, Poland), to a gut-wrenching story of a father looking for his disappeared son (Closure by Michal Marczak, Poland).”
International guests
International guests at MDAG will be tripping over one another, such are their numbers in 2025. Mark Cousins will be in town to present A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things in Main Competition, as well as enjoy a retrospective of his films and to give an ‘anti-masterclass.’ “We’ve coined this phrase with him specifically for this event,” says Piekarczyk. Also at MDAG will be David France and Lauren Greenfield, and Oscar-winning Ukrainian filmmaker Mstyslav Cherenkov, who will screen his new documentary 2000 Metres to Andriivka.
Asif Kapadia will attend the Polish premiere of his new doc 2073 and will also will take part in a Q&A after the screening of Amy [about Amy Winehouse], which is 10 years old this year. Guy Davidi, who will oversee deliberations within the Amnesty International jury, will also meet the audience after the screening of his 5 Broken Cameras. The festival will screen The Bibi Files, with director Alexis Bloom and producer Alex Gibney in attendance. What’s more, film protagonists coming to Poland include Noam Shuster-Eliassi from Coexistence, My Ass!, which will open this year’s festival.
Take-aways
“The Whole World Between Us is this year’s festival slogan, paired with the poster which stars two of our volunteers,” Piekarczyk sums up the festival’s inclusive/collegial approach in 2025. “I would love for all people who will participate in MDAG to take away a feeling of community.”
“’Between us’ might mean the great distance, between the stories that are being told through films, but also it might mean the close relationships that can be forged while collectively sitting in a cinema,” he explains the slogan. “The films that are screened can often be challenging, sometimes they talk about the apocalyptic state of the world, but also they can touch upon stories which might personally touch and affect us. Being together, talking and supporting each other is what is most important and cinema can be a great starting point for this.”
