The workshops were aimed primarily at non-Polish-speaking students, for whom this was likely their first contact with the Polish School of Documentary.

Focusing on its methods, including observation, reality condensation, and intervention, students from Shanghai University and the Lodz Film School worked on short documentaries, from concept through production, to screening at the Film School Cinema.

Before the workshops, participants received data on Łódź and its residents obtained from the Łódź branch of the Central Statistical Office, such as fruit and vegetable consumption, average age at marriage, divorce rate, number of registered pets per resident, and so on. This simple data served as inspiration for their films.

The short documentaries were produced in less than three days of shooting and three days of editing. The creative teams decided to film Łódź in an unusual way: they asked questions about why Poles don't smile, visited the Lost and Found Office, made a film meditation on a Łódź factory, currently filled with contemporary music, and compared Chinese and Polish dumplings, culminating in a picnic in a village near Łódź.

The workshops lasted 10 days (from July 7 to 16) and were attended by:

* Shanghai University students:
Yuan Jiaxue, He Yizi, Zheng Zilin, Weng Jiaxi, Wang Jueying, Liang Kexin, Shi Jia
and their supervisors:
Yu Hao and Guo Yifei;

* Lodz Film School students:
Anja Zalewska, Maja Górczak – film directing; Bartek Żytowicz, Paweł Witkowski – film production;
and lecturers:
Jakub Piątek – creator of the original workshop programme, lecturer in directing,
Mo Tan – graduate of directing, co-creator,
Sandra Ksepka – leader of editing workshops, lecturer in editing, Małgorzata Szyłak – leader of cinematography workshops, lecturer in cinematography.

photos: Yu Hao, Guo Yifei, Jakub Piątek