Jędrzej Michalak :: Szczecin Film Festival 2020

Jędrzej Michalak

About the artist

Jędrzej Michalak was born in 1986 in Nowy Tomyśl, a small town in the Greater Poland region. He graduated from law at the University of Warsaw but became discouraged from pursuing law career after a few months of experience in a corporation. Jędrzej has decided to take up filmmaking seriously. He is currently studying directing in Łódź, where he is working on his next films, organising musical performances, and writing children’s stories.

Home Video (2015)

Musimy porozmawiać (2015)

Piotrek (2015)

Big Man (2014)

Nie zabijaj (2013)

Gallery

Films

We Need to Talk, 16'18"

Production: PL 2016

“We need to talk” is a very intimate and moving documentary film made in the classic “talking heads” convention. The director has created his work from a series of personal messages by people who have recently lost someone very close and, with the help of the camera, are trying to talk to the dead as if they were still alive. The film medium becomes a form of self-therapy for the participants. Jędrzej Michalak presents portraits of people who had been struck by death and live in its shadow, making them very believable psychologically. This has resulted in a picture that talks about life where death is a natural, unavoidable, and traumatic event. Sooner or later, everyone will need to face it and go through several obligatory emotional stages such as denial, anger, sorrow, and, finally, acceptance.