DANIEL SZCZECHURA - Polish Animation (2-DVD)

DANIEL SZCZECHURA
Polish Animation (2-DVD)

 
Region 0 (PAL) (Multi-system or European DVD player is recommended to see those DVD's, alternatively most of computer-based DVD players will play those DVD's as well.)

Number of disks: 2
Studio: NInA Publishing
Total time: 148:25
Language version: Polish
Subtitles: English, Polish
Region: 0 (PAL). European or multi-system DVD player is recommended to see this DVD.

Double DVD set "Polish Animation: Daniel Szczechura" inaugurates a new monographic series issued by the National Audiovisual Institute, designed to present works of themost outstanding Polish animation artists.  Edition contains seventeen most famous animated shorts by Szczechura, as well as an unique documentary movie about master Polish poster designer Henryk Tomaszewski. The set is enhanced by special booklet containing a conversation with the artist and essay about the artist written by Kazimierz Zorawski.

Content:

DVD 1
KONFILKTY, 1960
FOTEL, 1963
WYKRES, 1966
HOBBY, 1968
PODROZ, 1970
GOREJACE PALCE, 1975
SKOK, 1978
FATAMORGANA I, 1981
FATAMORGANA II, 1983
DOBRANOCKA, 1997

DVD 2
MASZYNA, 1961
PIERWSZY DRUGI TRZECI, 1964
KAROL, 1966
PROBLEM, 1977
SKARPETKA, 1978
XYZ, 1986
HENRYK TOMASZEWSKI, 1995

About:

Daniel Szczechura - writer and director of animated films, scenery designer; born in 1930 in Wilczogeby.

Szczechura studied for one year at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1951-52). In 1958 he graduated from Warsaw University with a degree in Art History. In 1962 he obtained a second degree, this time from the Cinematography Department of the Lodz Film School. He was one of the co-founders of the Studencki Teatr Satyrykow (STS - Student Theatre of Satirists) in Warsaw and designed the scenery for many of the group's theatrical productions. During the 1950s he made more than a dozen films on 16 mm stock. Of these a handful, including "SPOJRZENIA / GAZES", made by Szczechura in collaboration with Andrzej Blasinski, brought the filmmaker awards at film competitions. His diploma film was "KONFLIKTY / CONFLICTS" (1960). In 1961 Szczechura began producing his films at the Studio Malych Form Filmowych SE-MA-FOR / SE-MA-FOR Studio of Small Film Forms in Lodz. In 1970 he became a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he heads the animation workshop of the Graphic Design Department. He has also taught abroad, among other places at the Royal Academy of Art in Ghent and at Emily Carr College in Vancouver. A member of the Stowarzyszenie Filmowcow Polskich (Association of Polish Filmmakers), he was in this organization's National Board from 1970 to 1973. He is also vice president of ASIFA (Association Internationale du Film d'Animation - International Animated Film Association).

Daniel Szczechura has won numerous awards and distinctions for his animated films. These have included the Zlote Grono (Golden Grapes) medal for lifetime achievement at the 4. WYSTAWA I SYMPOZJUM PLASTYKI "ZLOTE GRONO" / 4TH "GOLDEN GRAPES" VISUAL ARTS EXHIBITION AND SYMPOSIUM in Zielona Gora (1969), the Zenon Wasilewski Award (1975) and the Award of the Minister of Culture and Art 2nd class for lifetime achievement in animated film (1975). In 1990 he also received the ASIFA Special Prize for "invaluable contributions to the art and development of animated film" and a Gemma Award (from the Italian Animated Film Association).

Szczechura's debut films borrowed from the aesthetics of Jan Lenica and Walerian Borowczyk. As he himself admitted:
"I see no reason to hide that I was inspired by the films of Borowczyk and Lenica, which suggested the cut-out technique that allowed me to rid myself of the baggage of additional animators, phase designers, assistants. This technique generally revolutionized animated film, (...) because the subject scope of animations expanded with the introduction of cut-outs" (quoted from M. Gizycki, "Nie tylko Disney: rzecz o filmie animowanym" / "Disney Was Not Alone: On Animated Film," Warsaw, 2000).
While classical animated film proved incapable of venturing beyond "cat chases mouse" situations, cut-out films allowed artists to broach issues that are far more important. In an interview with the editors of "Kwartalnik Filmowy" / "Film Quarterly," Szczechura said:
"Their [i.e. Borowczyk and Lenica's] early animations made a big impression on me precisely because they were serious" ("Kwartalnik Filmowy" / "Film Quarterly," 19-20/1997).
As Szczechura himself wrote in a different text in the same issue of the magazine, Lenica and Borowczyk and the cut-out technique they used 'imparted a wisdom on animated film.'"

Szczechura created his debut film "CONFLICTS" (1960) almost accidentally, while completing an internship at the film school where he was studying to be a cinematographer. Although something of an afterthought, the film was in no way accidental in terms of technique. It combined cut-outs with live-action scenes, giving the artist an opportunity to play with the film's substance. One element of this game, embodied in scenes reminiscent of old film melodramas, involved using footage of live actors for the segments occurring 'on screen' while presenting the cinema audience as a cut-out, suggesting that the film being watched by the audience was more real than life. This was accurately read as an allusion to the realities of the 1960s, a time when political censorship of art was widespread in Poland, when authorities decided what would be shown to the public with most of their choices going completely against audience tastes and desires. The film was also in some way a product of Szczechura's experiences with the Student Theatre of Satirists and this group's contacts and relations with censors.

Daniel Szczechura's next films also in some way derived from his experiences with the satirical theatre. They included his professional debut "MASZYNA / THE MACHINE", the film "LITERA / THE LETTER" made one year later, and above all "FOTEL / A CHAIR" (1963), which was his most renowned film of this period and remains Szczechura's best satirical film. In the first of these the filmmaker poked fun at the mania for giant projects that reigned in the Polish People's Republic, showing the construction of a vast and complicated machine designed for... sharpening pencils. In "THE LETTER" he directed viewers' attention to the concept of ideology, which, enigmatic as is the letter "N" in his film, attracts throngs of people only to prove a mockery, a joke, a prank. "A CHAIR" was, however, the strongest of his gibes at the system that reigned in Poland at that time. A treatise about methods of gaining power, the film features characters that are shown from a bird's eye view and resemble pawns on a chessboard more than they resemble people.

"A CHAIR", "THE MACHINE" and "THE LETTER" all caused Szczechura to be compared to Slawomir Mrozek. Even today, some commentators (Jerzy Uszynski, "Film Quarterly," 19-20/1997) view the filmmaker as a chronicler of Polish reality, someone capable of accurately capturing and ridiculing the absurdities evident in abundance in the Polish People's Republic. As satirist Antoni Chodorowski once said in commenting on his own drawings of Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Science, in this country "everything was ridiculous." However, such a reading of Szczechura's films can be applied only to some of his works. Another of his celebrated achievements was "HOBBY", a film he made in the year of the student revolt against totalitarian rule (1968). Though it can also be read as a metaphor of enslavement and liberation, it simultaneously surpasses any such interpretations and could do completely without them. Psychological or psychoanalytic interpretations that define the film as a picture of female predacity and male naiveté prove equally insufficient. The situation is quite similar with the somewhat earlier film "WYKRES / A GRAPH", whose hero chases an undefined point, an unachievable goal. "A GRAPH" can easily be read as a satire - i.e. "this is how all of us, during Socialist Realist times, chased after the unattainable goal that was supposed to be the happiness of humankind under Communism." But the film can also be seen as expressing the hopelessness of human endeavor, i.e. read in a philosophical manner as possessing an existential message.
"Daniel Szczechura's films began as descriptions of reality - satirical, overstated, sneering, but nevertheless descriptions. Soon thereafter the flippant tone was replaced by a perspective far more serious; the desire to document external reality gave way to explorations of issues hidden deep within us," wrote Jerzy Armata in summarizing the artist's creative development on the occasion of a screening of ten of Szczechura's films ("HOBBY - DANIEL SZCZECHURA", 2002, in "Kino" monthly, 2/2002).
The director himself had his fill of producing films that were purely satirical in spirit.
"When I made 'A Chair' in 1963, I was inundated with requests for films that would continue to 'beat issues with the whip of satire' (...). Something prevented me from accepting them, and in retrospect I see that this helped me avoid the trap of off-handedness, illustration" ("Rezyser" / "Director" monthly, 1/1998).
Kazimierz Zorawski ("Kino" monthly, 8/1971) created a classification of Szczechura's films in terms of their subject matter. He identified a group of works that explore mechanisms operating within human society ("THE MACHINE", "A CHAIR", "KAROL / CHARLES"), a series that illustrate operations of the human mind ("A GRAPH" and "HOBBY") and finally those in which the director sought out new areas of interest ("THE LETTER", "PODROZ / THE VOYAGE", "PIERWSZY, DRUGI, TRZECI... / FIRST, SECOND, THIRD..." and "DESANT / THE LANDING"). It is difficult to agree completely with these choices, because "THE LANDING" or "THE LETTER", and even "FIRST, SECOND, THIRD..." have more in common with "THE MACHINE" or "A CHAIR" than they do with "THE VOYAGE". The latter film, in turn, has indubitably more to do with "SKOK / THE LEAP", as both films attempt to illustrate the absurdity of life.

Yet another reading emerges from the two-film series consisting of "FATAMORGANA / MIRAGE" and "FATAMORGANA II / MIRAGE II" (produced ten years later and thus not encompassed by K. Zorawski in his analysis), both of which feature stories that are Surrealist in spirit and governed by the logic of dreams. Finally, there is "GOREJACE PALCE / BURNING FINGERS", also based on a dream-like concept, though one that is nightmarish rather than joyous. Titled "DOBRANOCKA / A GOOD NIGHT STORY", Daniel Szczechura's last film also is strongly evocative of the dream world.

The filmmaker himself strongly believes that animated film needs constantly to renew its narrations. Thus, in his later films he abandoned creating clear anecdotes with a punch line and a linear narration in favor of producing open-ended stories that were enigmatic. As he said of "MIRAGE":
"What did the poet mean by this? I'm incapable of verbalizing it" ("Kino" monthly, 11/12/1990 - in conversation with M. Gizycki).
Daniel Szczechura has stated many times that his films resemble narrative features. He attributes this to his education: as someone who studied cinematography, he is less skilled than colleagues like Witold Giersz as a painter or graphic artist - a fact he readily admits. He exhibits a tendency to compose shots in a filmic manner rather than in a manner characteristic of the visual arts - as a cinematographer, not as a draughtsman. Szczechura believes that animated films are not visual art, because their individual scenes cannot be contemplated to infinity.
"Films are series of images and each of these images as a meaning in its series," he said in an interview with the editors of "Kwartalnik Filmowy" / "Film Quarterly" (19-20/1997).
He sees animated films as being closely related to poetry.
"To me, a good animated film is the analogue of a good song, one by Agnieszka Osiecka, Wojciech Mlynarski or Brel. I would love it if animations were shaped just like that, if they were abbreviated, closed forms that included both content and emotion," Daniel Szczechura once said ("Film" monthly, 8/2002).
Daniel Szczechura is one of Poland's most famous makers of animated films. His name evokes memories of greatest successes of Polish animated film, especially during the 1960s. He is also someone who placed emphasis on constantly investigating new avenues and who proved capable of abandoning developed formulas that brought him success in favor of exploring the unknown. "PODROZ / THE VOYAGE", a kind of anti-film in which seemingly nothing happens, serves as an example. The focus in this film is falls on the rhythm of the telegraph posts that pass by, on the monotony of the sounds that customarily accompany travel. A leaf that falls to the ground in a park alley proves a special event. Marcin Gizycki believes that this film marked a turning point in Polish animated film, a turning point as significant as the debuts of Jan Lenica and Walerian Borowczyk. Gizycki writes that "THE VOYAGE" was a harbinger of "several other exceptional works that described phenomena as simple as that leaf that descended to the ground in the park alley" ("Film Quarterly", 19-20/1997).

Filmography

Amateur films

1955 "SPOJRZENIA / GAZES" (in collaboration with Andrzej Blasinski), narrative film
(Awards: 1955 - Ogolnopolski Konkurs Filmow Amatorskich / Polish National Competition of Amateur Films, Warsaw, Grand Prix)

1957 "STADION / THE STADIUM" (in collaboration with Andrzej Blasinski), narrative film
(Awards: 1957 - Ogolnopolski Konkurs Filmow Amatorskich / Polish National Competition of Amateur Films, Warsaw, 2nd prize)

Student films

1960 "KONFLIKTY / CONFLICTS", thesis project, mixed media (live action and drawn animation)
A parody of early cinema conventions and a mockery of the movie audience, which is shown as getting excited about a bloody melodrama featuring a love triangle and a revolver, and as protesting when the animator, at the request of some commission, changes the finale into one deprived of blood. As the author stated, he intended to ridicule censorship that interferes in the content of art.
(Awards: 1961 - 4. FESTIWAL ETIUD SZKOLNYCH PWSF / 4TH STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL OF THE STATE HIGHER SCHOOL OF CINEMA, Warsaw, Social Film Award and Audience Award)

Animated films

1961 "MASZYNA / THE MACHINE" (written with Miroslaw Kijowicz), cut-out film
Workers build a colossal machine that is then used to... sharpen a pencil. The film ridicules industrial monumentality, and above all that which characterized life in the Polish People's Republic.
(Awards: 1962 - 2. OGOLNOPOLSKI FESTIWAL FILMOW KROTKOMETRAZOWYCH / 2nd POLISH NATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL (PNSFF), Krakow, Brazowy Smok Wawelski / Bronze Wawel Dragon for an Animated Film)

1962 "LITERA / THE LETTER" (written with Andrzej Blasinski), cut-out film
The film focuses on the letter "N," which appears high above the crowds and upon landing becomes the focus of everyone's desire, causing the throng to chase after it. The film ends in a gag as the letter becomes part of the word "KONIEC" (Polish for "END"). Szczechura produced several endings of the film in various languages: FIN, ENDE, END. "An ironic mockery of human stupidity and excessive zeal" (Andrzej Kossakowski, Polski film animowany 1945-1974 / Polish Animated Film 1945-1974, Warsaw, 1977).
(Awards: 1963 - 3. OFFK / 3rd PNSFF, Krakow, Brazowy Smok Wawelski / Bronze Wawel Dragon for an Animated Film)

1963 "DUET" (made by Szczechura under the alias 'Karol Wirten,' screenplay by Emil Saski)

1963 "FOTEL / A CHAIR" (screenplay by Szczechura and Emil Saski), cut-out film
The story of a power struggle. In a grand hall reminiscent of Warsaw's Congress Hall, a gathering takes place - perhaps of the Polish United Workers' Party. One seat at the chairman's table is vacant and all those gathered in the hall attempt to get to it, using all manner of trickery, including tripping up their competitors. When finally a figure succeeds in getting to the seat and occupying it, the struggle ends... and all those gathered applaud. A satire on the Polish People's Republic, told in a manner that is graphically clear, with the figures shown from above resembling wheels in a machine. "This is practically a representation of the mathematical formula for an electoral gathering - merciless in its ironic comedy" (A. Kossakowski, "Polski film..." / "Polish Animated..."). "A humorous and wise story about careerism, accurate in its telling, modern in its abbreviated draftsmanship that is simplified to the maximum degree possible" (Aleksander Jackiewicz, "Zycie Literackie" / "Literary Life" monthly, 24/1964).
(Awards: 1964 - Syrenka Warszawska/ Warsaw Mermaid, Nagroda Klubu Krytyki Filmowej SDP / Award of the Film Critics Club of the Association of Polish Journalists for 1963; 10th Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Grand Prix for an Animated Film and honorable mention and distinction of the jury of the Association of People's Universities; 1. MIEDZYNARODOWY FESTIWAL FILMOW KROTKOMETRAZOWYCH / 1ST INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL (ISFF), Krakow, Grand Prix - "Zloty Smok Wawelski" / "Golden Wawel Dragon"; Cordoba Short Film Festival, special mention; 4th Buenos Aires International Short Film Festival, honorable mention; 1965 - Biennale of Youth, Paris, distinction; 6th International Festival of Documentary and Experimental Films, Montevideo, Grand Prix)

1964 "NA JEZDNI / IN THE STREET" (directed by Szczechura under the pseudonym Karol Wirten, written under his own name)
The story of a driver who does not follow road regulations.

1964 "PIERWSZY, DRUGI, TRZECI... / FIRST, SECOND, THIRD..." (screenplay by Emil Saski), mixed media film
The story of a ski jumper who takes off and... flies around the world, encircles the globe, and lands back at the ramp only to learn that he took third place. "Szczechura seems to say that the world and human acts have been classified and codified; even an unusual achievement can be crammed into some drawer of classification. (...) This is the director's appeal for fantasy and imagination" (S.J., "Film" monthly, 10/1965).
(Awards: 1965 - International Festival of Mountain Films, Tridente, distinction)

1966 "KAROL / CHARLES", satirical cut-out film
(Awards: 1967 - Viennale International Week of Entertaining Films, Vienna, Honorary Diploma)

1966 "WYKRES / A GRAPH", mixed media film
An almost abstract parable of human fate about a man who hopelessly chases an unattainable goal.
(Awards: 1966 - 6. OFFK / 6th PNSFF, Krakow, Brazowy Lajkonik/ Bronze Lajkonik for an Animated Film; Bergamo International Film Festival, honorary diploma)

1968 "DESANT / THE LANDING" (written by Szczechura with Andrzej Warchal), mixed media film
A humoresque based on a text by Andrzej Warchal previously staged at the "Piwnica pod Baranami" / "Cellar Under the Rams" in Krakow. A private and a corporal leap out of an airplane. When it turns out that they have both forgotten their parachutes, they engage in a discussion about how to fall and land safely. The discussion continues until they suddenly hit the ground.

1968 "HOBBY", combined cut-out and drawn animation
A macabre tale about female possessiveness, this film lends itself to multiple interpretations. It can be seen as being about cruel women who ensnare naïve men, or as a story about enslavement and liberation.
(Awards: 1968 - 14th Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Grand Prize and distinction of the jury of the Association of People's Universities; 2nd Philadelphia International Short Film Festival, distinction; 2nd International Animated Film Festival, Mamaia, "Silver Pelican" and FIPRESCI Prize; 1970 - International Film Festival, Adelaide-Auckland, First Prize for an Animated Film; 7th Buenos Aires International Short Film Festival, First Prize for an Animated Film; PRZEGLAD FILMOW SMF "SE-MA-FOR" / "SE-MA-FOR" STUDIO OF SMALL FILM FORMS FILM REVIEW, Lodz, Grand Prize)

1969 "ZBRODNIA STELLI / STELLA'S CRIME" (5), "SINDBAD POGRZEBANY / SINBAD BURIED" (6) in "PRZYGODY SINDBADA ZEGLARZA / THE ADVENTURES OF SINBAD THE SAILOR" (screenplay by Katarzyna Latallo)
Cut-out films in a series of films made by various directors based on Boleslaw Lesmian's "Przygody Sindbada Zeglarza" / "The Adventures of Sinbad the Sailor."

1970 "PODROZ / THE VOYAGE", mixed media film
A monotonous rail journey there and back. "For six minutes we watch the still silhouette of a traveler framed by a train window. The sole movement on screen, visible behind the traveler, is the rhythmic passing of telegraph posts in a monotonous, unchanging landscape" (A. Kossakowski, "Polski film..." / "Polish Animated...).
(Awards: 1970 - 10. OFFK / 10th PNSFF, Krakow, Brazowy Lajkonik / Bronze Lajkonik for Best Animated Film)

1971 "DIFFERENZEN", produced in Austria

1971 "JESLI UJRZYSZ KOTA FRUWAJACEGO PO NIEBIE / IF YOU SEE A CAT FLYING ACROSS THE SKY" (written by Szczechura with Andrzej Krauze), cut-out film
Designed as a children's film, this humorous, grotesque story is based on a sentence by Andrzej Krauze: "Jesli ujrzysz kota latajacego po niebie, nie dziw sie, to kot, ktory lubi ptaki" / "If you see a cat flying across the sky, don't be surprised - it's a cat who likes birds."
(Awards: 1973 - 3. OGOLNOPOLSKI FESTIWAL FILMOW DLA DZIECI I MLODZIEZY / 3rd POLISH NATIONAL FESTIVAL OF FILMS (PNFF) FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE, Poznan, Brazowe Koziolki / Bronze Goats)

1971 "ZAMEK W LESIE / THE FOREST CASTLE" (6) in "KLECHDY POLSKIE / POLISH TALES" (screenplay by Maria Achmatowicz and Alicja Kowalska)
Film in a series of shorts made by various directors based on well-known old Polish tales. A story about the beautiful Princess of Varmia.

1972 "LAMUS / THE JUNK HEAP", mixed media film

1972 "OGRODNIK / THE GARDENER", mixed media film

1973 "ARENA / THE ARENA", entertaining mixed media film

1973 "MYSIA WIEZA / THE TOWER OF MICE", produced in Italy

1973 "POEMA DE FUMETTI", produced in Italy

1974 "O KROLU POPIELU / KING POPIEL", film from the international series "BAJKI NARODOW / TALES OF NATIONS".
(Awards: 1975 - Nagroda im. Zenona Wasilewskiego / Zenon Wasilewski Award for Best Animated Film for Children; 4. OFF DLA DZIECI I MLODZIEZY / 4TH PNFF FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE, Poznan, Srebrne Koziołki / Silver Goats)

1975 "GOREJACE PALCE / BURNING FINGERS", mixed media film
A dark, nightmarish tale about a forest robber who exacts revenge on the killers of his friend. The burning fingers of the title are the hand of the murder victim, which burn like a candelabrum. The candles extinguish one by one as each murderer dies, however, one is left burning...
(Awards: 1976 - 16. OFFK / 16th PNSFF, Krakow, distinction)

1977 "PROBLEM / THE PROBLEM" (screenplay by Janusz Weiss), mixed media film
A humorously toned burlesque about an average man who asks himself questions about the meaning of life.

1978 "SKARPETKA / THE SOCK" (screenplay by Kazimierz Zorawski), film joke
A man finds a banknote and attempts to use the lines of which the bill is drawn to draw himself a house. The lines, however, prove enough to draw a single sock.
(Awards: 1978 - Linz International Film Festival, Lifetime Achievement Award)

1978 "SKOK / THE LEAP", mixed media film with the director himself lending the protagonist his face
The average morning of a middle-aged man: he prepares to go out by bathing, dressing, reading the newspaper and eating breakfast. The finale is tragic - instead of going out the door, he heads for... the window. A remake of Ryszard Czekala's narrative film etude titled "WYPADEK / THE ACCIDENT" (1972).
(Awards: 1978 - 20th Barcelona International Film Festival, Silver Medal)

1981 "FATAMORGANA / MIRAGE", mixed media film combining live action and animation
Part one of a two-part series whose second installment is titled "FATAMORGANA 2 / MIRAGE 2". A surrealistic grotesque resembling a dream. A vast concrete skyscraper traipses across a meadow and into a lake, in which it ultimately disappears. During this trek, its inhabitants go about their lives, unaware of what is happening outside.
(Awards: 1982 - Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Award of the FICC International Film Club Federation)

1983 "FATAMORGANA 2 / MIRAGE 2", mixed media film combining live action and animation
Part two of the story about the walking skyscraper. This time the building emerges from the lake. Its inhabitants spend the day on the beach, and then return to the skyscraper before it once again disappears in the water.

1986 "XYZ", mixed media film
A dream-like, grotesque story of a peculiar voyage of an office worker. While reading a newspaper he levitates along with the chair he occupies. He floats among the clouds, meets various persons and then finishes reading and exits the room.

1988 "RYBKA BYC / TO BE A FISH", two-dimensional drawn animation
A filmed burlesque in which a fish demands to see an angler's fishing license. It then gets together with another fish, they get drunk and unruly, are arrested and put in jail, where they watch TV. They continue to watch until they are chased away by a cat who emerges from the television set.

1991 "NOVI SINGERS", mixed media musical film
The music of Chopin as performed by the band Novi Singers, visually arranged by Daniel Szczechura.

1991 "GRANDE VALSE BRILLIANTE", musical film

1992 "ODGLOSY WIOSNY / THE SOUNDS OF SPRING", musical film

1992 "HUMORESKA DVOŘAKA / A DVORAK HUMORESQUE", musical film

1997 "DOBRANOCKA / A GOOD NIGHT STORY", animated film
A fairy tale about the search for happiness (embodied in a house and a door which a key will fit) based on original drawings by Stasys Eidrigevicius and a poem by Jan Wolek.
(Awards: 1997 - 34. MFFK / 34th ISFF, Krakow, Radio Krakow Award for Best Soundtrack; 15. MFF DLA DZIECI I MLODZIEZY "ALE KINO" / 15th "WHAT A MOVIE" INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF FILMS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE, Poznan, Srebrne Koziołki / Silver Goats for Best Animated Film and Honorable Mention by the "Marcinek" Children's Jury)

2002 "HOBBY - DANIEL SZCZECHURA"dz:. Subtitle: "KILKA FILMOW ANIMOWANYCH JEDNEGO AUTORA / SEVERAL ANIMATED FILMS BY ONE AUTHOR".
A full-length animated film composed of ten films made previously by Daniel Szczechura: "KONFLIKTY / CONFLICTS", "FOTEL/ A CHAIR", "WYKRES/ A GRAPH", "HOBBY", "PODROZ / THE VOYAGE", "GOREJACE PALCE / BURNING FINGERS", "SKOK / THE LEAP", "FATAMORGANA / MIRAGE", "FATAMORGANA 2 / MIRAGE 2" and "DOBRANOCKA / A GOOD NIGHT STORY". These films are linked using supplementary footage created contemporarily. Linking sequences include views of the inside of a movie theatre and an operating projector. At the film's end, the cinema is occupied by a single viewer - the director himself.

Documentaries

1995 "HENRYK TOMASZEWSKI" - A filmed portrait of the renowned poster artist.

Daniel Szczechura was also the director of photography on the student films STS 58 (1959) and "PLAKAT Z DREWNA / A WOOD POSTER" (1961) by Agnieszka Osiecka, "ULAN I DZIEWCZYNA / THE LANCER AND THE GIRL" by Krzysztof Zanussi (1961), and "SMIERC I DZIEWCZYNA / DEATH AND THE MAIDEN" (1960) and "SWIAT NA NAS CZEKA / THE WORLD AWAITS US" (1959) by Wojciech Solarz.

He has additionally acted as creative guide on such films as Joanna Zamojdo's "PROGRAM" (1980) and Ewa Ziobrowska's "W MURACH / WITHIN THE WALLS" (1987).
Szczechura authored the animations included in Marek Piestrak's film "TEST PILOTA PIRXA / PILOT PIRX'S TEST" (1978) and appeared in Marek Nowicki's feature film "MILOSC Z LISTY PRZEBOJOW / MUSIC HIT LIST LOVE" (1984).
 

(All text courtesy of Jan Strekowski and Instytut Adama Mickiewicza. All rights reserved)