Bedrock

Synopsis

This feature-length documentary takes the viewer on a stranger-than-fiction journey where stories of first loves, summer jobs, and family vacations unfold amongst traces of the Holocaust. The film looks at numerous Holocaust spaces in Poland 80 years after WWII and asks how to live with and commemorate these ubiquitous sites of death. Bedrock evokes both heartbreak and absurdity in depicting the unsettling coexistence of the impossible contrasts that constitute modern Poland.

About the Director

Kinga Michalska

I’m a Polish, queer visual artist based between Tiohtiá:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal and Warsaw. I use film and photography to examine issues of identity, memory, land, and hauntings. I am interested in the periphery of who and what makes history: common people, geological processes, queer intimacies, personal archives, and speculative fictions. As questions of relations of power are at the core of my work, I am committed to fostering community as well as questioning my own position within the stories I tell as an integral part of my practice. I hold a BA in Cultural Studies from Warsaw University and an MFA in Photography from Concordia University. I’m an alumna of RIDM festival’s Talent Lab and First Pitch. My previous films include Vampires, It’s Nothing to Laugh At, an experimental, medium length documentary. Bedrock is my first feature film. My work has been presented in Canada, Poland, UK, Germany and Italy. 

Instagram: @catbirdproductions

Artistic Statement

I am a Polish, non-Jewish documentary filmmaker. Growing up in Poland in the 1990s, I was taught in school that Poles were just victims of WWII — it was never mentioned that we were also perpetrators, witnesses, and often, a mix of all of the above. It was only in my 20s that I came to realize how intimately intertwined are our lives in Poland were with spaces of Jewish trauma, which are omnipresent in this country. The reality of “living on graves” is not unique to citizens of the city of Auschwitz but concerns all Poles. My work navigates these complex questions of identity, home, memory, complicity, and land with empathy and criticality. Bedrock explores both the magnitude of tragedy and the vibrancy of life, initiating vital dialogue amongst Jewish and Polish communities. 

Festivals, Screenings, & Awards

Berlin International Film Festival (Panorama Dokumente)