Joanna Polak Retrospective

Joanna Polak, visiting Seattle for the 2016 edition of Seattle Polish Film Festival, is an award-winning animator whose films have been presented at more than 300 festivals and exhibitions worldwide, winning more than 25 awards and distinctions. Polak has a special genius in her work for leading multi-generational groups in the creation of animation — many of the haunting and sophisticated films in this program were created in such workshops.Notable among these projects is a series of fairy tale films created with children and the elderly in the “Tales of the Borderland” project, which preserved Lithuanian, Gypsy, Jewish, Russian and Polish tales through their adaptation. These films belong to another place and time, detailing fears, superstitions and simple joys that are as long-vanished as the people who lived them. Still, they strike a modern chord as well, capturing a timeless human longing for magic, redemption and understanding of loss. In Seattle, Polak’s work has appeared in three consecutive
editions of Children’s Film Festival Seattle, which is produced by Northwest Film Forum and distributed throughout the USA as part of the festival’s “Best of the Fest” touring programs.