16mm film, a whirring camera, and a return to the roots of cinema – this is a brief description of the unique "Łódź Unplugged 2026: An Interdisciplinary Experimental Film Workshop," which took place from 21st to 30th, June. Our school had the pleasure of hosting students and faculty from Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. The main goals of this ten-day meeting were international integration, the exchange of experiences, and intensive, team-based creative work.

The workshops resulted in ten short, three-minute-maximum experimental films. The creative process was overseen by experienced teachers from both universities: Susanne Schüle, Richard Marx, and Frank Geßner on the German side, and Jacek Rokosz and Oleksandr Pozdnyakov on the Lodz Film School.

Armed with Bolex cameras and black-and-white 16mm film, the young creators left the safety of the digital world for the workshop. In an era where algorithms and digital post-production offer complete control over every pixel, the workshop participants decided to seek freedom in the spirit of 1960s "Uncontrolled Cinema." Instead of planning every detail, they trusted the power of chance.

Working with light-sensitive film proved to be an incredibly creative, yet physically demanding, experience. Each reel of film offered only two and a half minutes of shooting time, requiring immense discipline, focus, and lightning-fast decisions. Furthermore, the students were able to manipulate the film emulsion itself, manually modifying it by scraping or applying physical dyes or paints to the surface. In this way, the raw film acquired a unique, structural character at the intersection of cinema and painting.

The project concluded with a final screening of the completed films.

We thank all participants and lecturers for this extraordinary and inspiring time!

photos: Susanne Schüle