START OF 2017/2018. ART WILL NEVER YIELD.
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POLSKI
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06. 10. 2017.
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The academic year 2017/2018 has just started. The school happily enriched by 203 new students, possible talents, yet not free of worries. Now, there’s time to get to work.

- Welcome to the school! Now, as you are here, feel at home. Use this time well. The school is one of the most friendly places in the world. – said vice rector in charge of curriculum, Michał Staszczak, addressing the new students.

This academic year as many as 203 students start their film studies in full time and part time programs, and amongst them there are 14 international students from such countries as Belgium, Sweden, Ukraine, Egypt, Norway, Hungary, France, Russia and Belarus.

What is the LODZ FILM SCHOOL like at the start of the new academic year 2017/2018?

HAPPY
Once again The Hollywood Reporter placed our school on the list of top ten film schools in the world. Each year the school produces a couple of hundred student films which get awards at world film festivals. Each year we stage three diploma plays and each year a full-length feature diploma film of acting students is made. Among the latest successes there are awards: Golden Mask for Maciej Musiałowski for the acting debut in the play „The Devil who…” , fours Golden Masks for the play “Witches of Salem” coproduced with Jaracza Theatre – both plays directed by Mariusz Grzegorzek. The film „Tower. A bright day” produced by the Indeks Studio, the great discovery of the Gdynia Film Festival, resulted in two prizes for our student Jagoda Szelc for the best direction debut and best screenplay.
– The Lodz Film School, the higher artistic school, is doing well. We run a very ambitious and complicated educational programme, we have many great professors and promising students. It’s good. – said the rector Prof. Mariusz Grzegorzek.

FULL OF WORRIES
- However, the sense of fulfillment and success cannot be complete. We feel, that nowadays in Poland, in our country we all love more than life, the freedom of art is endangered. This school has never been into politics, we don’t discuss politics during the classes, we don’t teach how to make political films, we teach how to speak indirectly, delve deeper, deal with universal issues – said Prof. Mariusz Grzegorzek. We leave politics to politicians to deal with it, as long as they do it well, with love to us and this country; nevertheless our sense of being endangered is growing. Lack of respect for such a delicate matter which art is is assuming more and more worrying forms.

CONVINCED THAT ART, WHICH IS OUR ABSOLUTE POINT OF REFERENCE, IS UNDESTRUCTABLE.
- We are allowed to do anything. Our spirit is free – said Prof. Mariusz Grzegorzek – Art is the matter which will never give in, it is profoundly independent, its genetic code cannot be modified. History taught us that art cannot be destroyed, confined to prison walls, or politically molded. Art is supposed to speak many voices, is supposed to ask questions but not give ready answers. It’s a powerful tool for spiritual purification and our safety valve.

I wish for myself and for all of you present here – let’s try to be free, open and sensitive, let’s not hurt each other, let’s respect others, especially those so different from us. And most of all, let’s get ready for hard and honest work.

The members of school authorities who greeted the students were: Rector, Prof. Mariusz Grzegorzek, vice-rector Michał Staszczak, and the Deans of all the Departments: Prof. Zofia Uzelac, Dean of Acting Dept; Dean of Direction Dept. Piotr Mikucki PhD, Prof. Zbigniew Wichłacz, Dean of Cinematography and Television Dept., and Dean of Film Art Organization Dept dr Roman Sawka.

Lodz Universities were represented by: Prof. Antoni Różalski, Rector of Lodz University; Prof. Sławomir Wiak, Rector of Technical University; Prof. Elżbieta Aleksandrowicz, vice-rector of Music Academy; Prof. Mariusz Łukawski, vice-rector of Fine Arts Academy, vice-rector of Lodz Seminary dr Jacek Kacprzak, and Prof. Janusz Piekarski, vice-rector of Medical University. The letter of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage List Prof. Piotr Gliński was read by the vice Minister Paweł Lewandowski.

Among the special guests who greeted the students were: the Lodz Voyvod, Prof. Zbigniew Rau; the Mayor of the City of Lodz, Hanna Zdanowska, and the director of Culture Dept. in the Marshal Office, Małgorzata Kania, On a visual and sound journey through the school’s history we were taken by the third and fourth year students of acting who worked under the artistic supervision of Wacek Mikłaszewski.

photos: Filip Szkopiński