Common Borders

Since DokumentART is a cross-border festival, its major themes are the borderland, Polish-German relations, and the region. Trans-border issues are the focus of a block of screenings and meetings called Common Borders. This series features works about the Polish-German borderland and films that address the subject in a more general sense, from the perspective of historical and sociocultural changes. Common Borders are often developed in cooperation with other social, artistic and cultural institutions (in 2009 it was Krytyka Polityczna with Mary Koszmary [Nightmares], the famous film by Yael Bartana; in 2011, Nowa Amerika – a cross-border project of a new state).


Past events


Filmy poprzednich edycji

  • Across The Border131'
    Jan Gogola, Peter Kerekes, Robert Lakatos, Paweł Łozinski, Biljana Čakič-Veselič, GER 2004, 131'

    A polyphonic film portrayal of the idea of borders at the beginning of the 21st century, created by five directors from central Europe: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia. Individual episodes of the cinematic journey from the north to the south present a subjective view on matters relating to identity, not only national, but identity in Europe, and the concept of borders. The Polish episode concerns neighbours from two sides of the river: Poles and Germans who have suffered equally from the experience of resettlement. In the town of České Velenice, Jan Gogola, the director, plays an ironic game with the inhabitants. In the Slovakian “Helpers,” a puppet threatens children with bad people who want to destroy “our blooming garden.” The Hungarian episode shows small-business travellers, lost in a multilingual world. The Slovenian one portrays the paradoxes of territorial borders.

     

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  • Borders Our Way / Hranice po našimu57'

    In a series of episodes presented, and probably provoked, by Jan Gogola, in the dialogues he has with their protagonists, borders “our way” seem like something elusive and – not being too serious – transcendently and transcendentally uncertain. The bridge between the Czech Těšín and the Polish Cieszyn can divide as well as connect. The protagonists of the film's episodes live in Silesia, where the borders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia meet. They speak different languages, one of which, perhaps the most important one, is speaking “our way.” A cook and songster, born in 1920, sings in Czech, Polish, Latin, Italian, German, Hungarian... When listening to him, Austria-Hungary comes to mind; a country that no longer existed the year he was born.

     

     

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