Film
Film
A Night On Milwaukee Ave
A Night On Milwaukee Ave tells the story of the most famous Polish neighborhood in America through everyday people and legendary stars who lived and performed along Milwaukee Ave, Chicago in the last decades of the 20th century. Featuring musical icons like Krzysztof Krawczyk and Urszula, award-winning filmmakers Adrian Prawica & Rafał Muskała take you back in time when Jackowo [ Polish Village, Avondale ] was the center of entertainment and the Polish experience in America.
Polish Village had bright neon lights, local stores and smoke-filled dive bars that lined Milwaukee Avenue in the “Jackowo” neighborhood, as Polish immigrants celebrated another weekend in Chicago. There were tens of thousands of Polish immigrants now residing in this neighborhood, and while they worked hard, this notorious entertainment district offered a break from everyday reality, and brought them together to reminisce about the old days in Poland. Escaping the oppressive communist system back home, they were able to experience an entirely different world. Among them, were some of the most iconic and legendary performers, musicians, and singers who came to the United States to entertain and seek financial freedom.
Music: Slawomir Bielawiec
The Forth Partition
At the Dawn of the 20th century, Chicago was the second largest city in the United States with over 2,000,000 residents. It was also the center of Polish culture and political activism in America. With Poland partitioned between Russia, Austria and Germany, over 4,000,000 Poles immigrated to the United States between 1870 and 1920 in search of a better life. In Chicago, they worked in some of the most dangerous factories and mills in the United States. In their neighborhoods, they built communities, churches, and most of all, aided their beloved Poland in her fight for independence. Their story is known as the „Fourth Partition”.
Starting with the arrival of the first documented Poles in Jamestown in 1608, the film discusses political and economical reasons for the mass Polish migration at the turn of the 20th century. Featuring rarely shown photographs and films, the film talks about old Chicago Polish neighborhoods, as well the jobs people had living in these neighborhoods. It discusses their culture, daily life, and their political activism during the first world war.
Music: Slawomir Bielawiec
Haymarket: The Bomb, the Anarchists, the Labor Struggle.
The Chicago Haymarket tragedy, where a bomb thrown into the ranks of Police was followed by an eruption of panic and violence resulting in a trial and execution of presumably innocent workers’ rights activists, is examined in this feature documentary film. Expert historians and professors present the history of the bomb, the anarchist movement of the 19th century, and the labor struggle of working people fighting for a shorter work day during the industrial might of America’s Gilded Age.
Ref-Ren
Dwuczęściowy film dokumentalny, który zagłębia się w różne aspekty życia Feliksa Konarskiego – „Ref-rena”, twórcy piosenki „Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino”, pisarza, aktora, pieśniarza, twórcy kabaretowego, kompozytora.
Pierwsza część – czasy przedwojenne i okres II wojny z wykorzystaniem materiałów archiwalnych z Filmoteki Narodowej.
Druga część filmu poświęcona jest życiu i twórczości Feliksa Konarskiego oraz jego żony Niny Oleńskiej w Chicago.
Music: muzyczna adaptacja i wykonanie Kujawiaków Feliksa Konarskiego – Slawomir Bielawiec
