Polish American Congress
New Jersey Division
The Voice of a Million Americans of
Polish Heritage in the Garden State
AMERICAN
FILM PORTRAIT OF POLISH SOLIDARITY!
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AMERICAN FILM
PORTRAIT OF POLISH SOLIDARITY
The film has
been presented at the GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
TUESDAY,
NOV. 20, 7 P.M.
"A vivid, evocative, powerful documentary" -
as stated Mr. William Styron
When New York filmmaker Richard Adams was prevented by the December
1981 crackdown on Solidarity from filming in Poland, he
took advantage of the fact that many visitors from
Poland were also stranded in the U.S., including
many of the workers, artists, and intellectuals
from Solidarity who had joined together to create a thriving
civil society within a totalitarian state. The result was one
of the only American documentaries to capture human dimensions of
Poland's first "Solidarity period" that had been obscured by
Cold- War rhetoric - and that are a distant memory
for most Poles today - but that still have
enduring relevance for any society, including our
own. The Independent Self-Governing Trade Union
Solidarity (NSZZ Solidarnosc) was unique in
history: first, because it was rooted in a workers'
movement which had learned from hard experience
that to protect their own interests they had to
fight for the interests of society as a whole; and conversely,
because it won the trust and support of virtually all segments
of society, by providing under Polish conditions at the time the
only available channel for local grass-roots initiatives, open debate,
and democratic action. And they did this with an enthusiasm, spirit
of cooperation, and sense of responsibility toward the nation as
a whole that constituted a real revolution of the spirit, and ultimately
changed the world. CITIZENS premiered at the
Museum of Modern Art in 1986 and was aired subsequently
on PBS stations, at film festivals, and on college campuses
throughout the country. In 1991, on the 10th anniversary of martial
law, Polish television aired the film nationally on prime time.
Since its release CITIZENS has served as a rich catalyst for the
discussion of important lessons drawn from the unique legacy of the
Solidarity movement of 1980-81. Among the many key issues and topics
illuminated by the Solidarity experience are social movements, civil
society, censorship, conflict resolution, and questions of democracy,
addressed not only to the broader public but also to policy
makers and scholars of political science, sociology, history, journalism,
and East European area studies. CITIZENS was
produced under the sponsorship of the New York Foundation
for the Arts, and was made possible in part by grants from the
Wisconsin Humanities Committee and the Massachusetts Foundation for
Humanities and Public Policy, which are programs of the National Endowment
for the Humanities. Additional support included a grant from
the New York State Council on the Arts and private American foundations.
Richard Adams was a Fulbright Scholar at Warsaw's
Documentary Film Studio in 1965. His credits
include the feature-length documentaries, ASYLUM
and MEN OF BRONZE, and the PBS series, I REMEMBER HARLEM. His latest
film, A DAY AT E.I.S., a video portrait of a unique homelessness
prevention center in New York City, was warmly received at
the 2001 New York International Independent Film & Video Festival.
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