Common People: „Symphony of the Ursus Factory“ | Vilnius

The cycle of documentary film screenings “Common People” initiated by Kaunas Artists’ House (KAH) and the platform “Kitas Kinas” continues it’s events and invites to watch and discuss documentaries not only at Kaunas Artists’ House, but also in Vilnius – at Kirtimai Cultural Center.

The screening of a film “Symphony of the Ursus Factory” (dir. Jasmina Wojcik, 2018) will be held at Kirtimai Cultural Center on October 29th 8 p.m.

The Ursus Factory used to be one of the largest factory and producer of agricultural machinery in Europe. Throughout almost the entire 20th century it was the glory of the Polish industry. The collapse of communism was the beginning of the factory’s end. These days, the empty halls of Ursus are falling into ruin. Tens of thousands of employees’ working lives were dumped in the dust bin of history.

The creative team of the film invited the plant’s ex-employees – workers, technologists, managers, secretaries – to take part in an experimental documentary project to once more bring the factory back to life. With sounds and body memory, the ex-workers of the factory re-enact one day of work in the plant. The resulting symphony consists of the choreographed movements of the workers as well as of the technical, administrative and managerial staff, accompanied by the recreated phonosphere of the heavy industry. Yet there is even more to the symphony: the almost-forgotten values connected with the age of industry, such as the workers’ sense of community, solidarity and work ethos.

The Symphony of the Ursus Factory is a creative documentary, which applies the methods of participatory art and social practice, and combines video art with choreography and experimental music. Above all, though, it is a voice commemorating the Ursus Factory and the industrial and workers’culture, a voice which fights for the dignity of the working people and for a historical politics that takes notice of their lives. The project has been awarded with Polish Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art and Wajda School’s Film Award.

Dir. Jasmina Wojcik
Documentary, Poland, 2018, Polish with English subtitles, 60 min.

Tickets and discounts: tickets cost 3 EUR (2 EUR concessions – schoolchildren, students, seniors). Tickets can be purchased at “Tiketa” sales points in person and online. There will not be a possibility to buy tickets at the venue.

The „Common People“ screening series aims to discuss not only the content of documentary films, but also the whole notion of documentary cinema. The series adresses questions of ethics, directorial decisions. To film or not to film? When does a director cross the line of closeness with their subject? Should documentary cinema reflect ‘reality’ or the vision of its creator? These questions and others are raised and discussed looking at films who maintain a close look at people telling their own stories: sensitive, creative, eccentric and based somewhere in the margins.

The project is financed by the Lithuanian Film Center, organised by Kaunas Artists’ House. Partners: platform “Kitas Kinas”, Kirtimai Culture Center, Kaunas Deaf Rehabilitation Centre, Vilnius Queer Festival “Kreivės”.