The Polish Educational Film Studio and the Cinema of Wojciech Wiszniewski1

Abstract

The 1970s Polish documentary style—retrospectively labeled “creative documentary”—had no contemporary equivalent in the West. No longer seeking to represent reality objectively, it borrowed from both fiction filmmaking and the interwar avant-garde to produce highly expressive films that presented “real” people’s life stories. This chapter concentrates on Wojciech Wiszniewski, a leading filmmaker within this movement, who produced his most remarkable films with the Educational Film Studio (WFO). The essay explores how the WFO, located near the National Film School in Łódź but far from the prestigious centers of documentary in Warsaw, became an incubator for highly unorthodox film practices. Additionally, the essay sketches the relationship between the WFO and these other centers, where Wiszniewski also made several short films.