Garbo, Arzner, Hitchock, Welles
Meet the icons of the 15th FKA
The 15th Kamera Akcja Festival is a tribute to great artists whose work marked turning points in the history of cinema and blazed trails for generations to come. The anniversary visual identity reminds us of the great figures constantly inspiring contemporary critics and filmmakers. The main poster features Greta Garbo, whose work corresponds perfectly with the idea of Action Camera.
Voice of protest by Hollywood’s first female director. Dorothy Arzner
The patron of this year’s Authors Spotlight International Competition is Dorothy Arzner, the first woman in the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the only female director within the studio system of the 1930s and 1940s in Hollywood. Although her work was ignored by film critics for many years, she impetuously broke down many barriers, becoming a pioneer in a male-dominated industry.
In 1919, Arzner got her start in filmmaking at Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, later transformed into Paramount Pictures, where she rewrote scripts. She was quickly promoted – first as a screenwriter, then as an editor. The experience of working on more than 50 films, including Blood and Sand starring Rudolph Valentino, led her to make her directorial debut in 1927 with her film Fashions for Women.
Dorothy Arzner was not only a talented director, but also brought technical innovations to film production. She created for Paramount their first sound film, “The Wild Party” (1929), using a boom mic – a boom microphone – on the set. She is a bold and determined filmmaker – her films with strong female characters, including “Dance, Girl, Dance” and “Christopher Strong” with Katharine Hepburn, went beyond the stereotypes of the time. Despite her many achievements, Arzner faced many difficulties related to discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation. She was one of the few openly gay female directors in Hollywood. Shortly after the end of World War II, where she acted as a nurse, she ended her career – she took up teaching at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, inspiring young filmmakers to follow their dreams.
The Authors Spotlight competition is precisely for people like Arzner – those who stand out for their originality, passion, courage in filmmaking, and who want to inspire others with their work.
Create suspense with your pen like Hitchcock
Master of Suspense and patron of the Competition Critic Writes Alfred Hitchcock had an extraordinary ability to build suspense. His mastery of audience manipulation made his films classics that still fascinate and inspire generations of filmmakers and critics.
For a long time Alfred Hitchcock was perceived only as a master of the genre, and not as an author who developed a certain aesthetic and thematic concept of cinema and used his typical stylistic figures. Hitchcock’s artistry was recognized only by critics and directors belonging to the French New Wave of the late 1950s and early 1960s.It was they who revealed Hitchcock to the British and Americans as an author, not a craftsman
prof. Krzysztof Loska
Such inspiration for cinemagoers is provided by the authoritative texts of film critics. These are analyses, columns, essays about cinema that lead viewers to interesting contexts, uncover meanings and broaden their view of an audiovisual work.
Hitchcock began his career in Britain, where he worked as a subtitle designer on silent films and later as a screenwriter and director. In 1939 he moved to the United States, where his career really took off – he made his best-known works then, such as “Psycho” (1960), “A Window on the Yard” (1954), “Vertigo” (1958) and “The Birds” (1963). Hitchcock also had a knack for discovering and developing acting talent, and the careers of many of his collaborators, such as James Stewart, Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly, gained momentum thanks to him.
Following the example of Alfred Hitchcock, the Kamera Akcja Festival has consistently supported young critics at the beginning of their careers for the past 15 years. Over the years, winners of the Critic Writes Competition have included Patrycja Mucha, a well-known blogger, podcaster and director of the Timeless Film Festival, Gazeta Wyborcza journalist Dawid Dróżdż, PISF Award winner Diana Dąbrowska, as well as the discoveries of last year’s Kamera Akcja – Wiktor Szymurski, Aleksandra Wolf or Daria Sienkiewicz.
The organizers want it to be in Lodz that young critics can take their first journalistic steps. This is not only a chance to develop their skills, but also an opportunity to make a name for themselves in the world of film criticism and establish contacts with other film enthusiasts.
The power of storytelling according to Orson Welles
Also speaking with his powerful voice at this year’s Action Camera is Orson Welles, an icon of the Critic’s Speech Competition, a legend of cinema (“Citizen Kane”), theater (Broadway’s “Caesar”), but also a master of radio. His famous 1938 radio play “War of the Worlds” caused mass panic among listeners. This legendary radio drama demonstrated Welles’ ability to create realistic and thrilling audio stories. His ability to build tension and use sound to evoke strong emotions revolutionized radio as a medium.
Welles was the founder and principal creator of Mercury Theatre on the Air, whose radio broadcasts became synonymous with high quality and focus on the smallest details – adaptations of classic works of literature such as “Dracula,” “Cyrano de Bergerac” and “Treasure Island” won the applause of critics and listeners alike, who could not tear themselves away from their receivers. Welles knew what he was doing – he used radio as a platform to experiment with sound, narration and editing techniques, which gave his broadcasts a unique character and style that could not be imitated.
He is an artist who pursued his vision, often against the odds. His film work includes titles that used tricks that were innovative at the time – non-linear narrative structure, depth of field, and unusual camera angles – and were controversial, ahead of their time, and fit into a wide range of genres and styles: from film noir, such as “The Lady from Shanghai” (1947), to epic adaptations of literary works, such as Franz Kafka’s “The Trial” (1962).
There’s a reason Welles is the patron of this year’s Critic Talk. It is the competition that seeks authors of audiovisual content about film who can, like him, see the potential in spoken forms of narrative, build tension and stir the imagination of the audience. This is an opportunity for critics who know how to transport listeners into the world of cinema, using words the way Welles used sounds.
The 15th Kamera Akcja Festival will be held from 24 to 27.10.2024 in Łódź and from 14 to 23.10.2024 online on the Think Film platform. The task is implemented thanks to a grant from the budget of the City of Łódź. Subsidized by funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Cultural Promotion Fund, the Polish Film Institute and the University of Łódź – the festival’s patron. The main partners of the festival are Monopolis and the Film School in Lodz. The Kamera Akcja Festival and the Festiwal Człowiek Mediów w Zagrożeniu form the “Lodz Film Festival” cooperation network. Passes at attractive prices on sale only until October 10, 2024.
