Marian Marzyński: The Autobiography of a Documentary Filmmaker
Abstract
The aim of this article is to present the method and style of Marian Marzyński’s documentary films. Marzyński is Polish-American filmmaker who explores his own biography in different ways in the documentaries that he makes. Jazdon presents the development of Marzyński’s film career from cinema verite docs made in Poland in the 1960s up, films that he made in Denmark - where he emigrated in the beginning of the 1970s (after the anti-Semitic actions undertaken by the communist government in Poland) and his American works - beginning with Return to Poland (1981) up to the latest works like Settlement (2008) and Skibet (2010). Marzyński almost always appears in front of the camera in his films relating the theme from the film with his own biography of a Holocaust survival, immigrant, journalist or American citizen. He comments on the events presented in the film from off-screen and often initiates them. From film to film his works become more and more auto-documentaries up the docs from recent years, such as Anya in and Out of Focus (2004) or Life on Marz (2007), with autobiography dominating in them.
Keywords:
Marian Marzyński, autobiographism, cinéma véritéReferences
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Authors
Mikołaj Jazdonkwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan Poland
Adiunkt w Zakładzie Filmu i Telewizji UAM, autor książek Dokumenty Kieślowskiego (2002) i Kino dokumentalne Kazimierza Karabasza (2009) oraz opracowań do albumów DVD z serii Polska Szkoła Dokumentu; redaktor tomu Polskie kino niezależne (2005).
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Copyright (c) 2011 Mikołaj Jazdon
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