“Pianist’s” Son, Christopher Szpilman, Guest Speaker
at Second Polish Film Festival at Trinity College

March 11, 2004—Hartford, Conn.— Christopher Szpilman, son of Wladyslaw Szpilman, whose life story inspired the film “The Pianist,” will introduce the film during its presentation on Monday, March 29 during the Second Annual Polish Film Festival, March 28 through 30, at Cinestudio at Trinity College.

Szpilman, who is currently a visiting scholar at the E.O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University, and a lecturer in Comparative Politics, Kita Kyushu Metropolitan University, Japan, will also hold a question and answer period after the film. The Tuesday, March 30th screening of "The Pianist" will be introduced by Samuel D. Kassow, Charles H. Northam Professor of History and department chair, who will also take questions after the show. 

Festival organizer Jim Nadzieja ‘04, developed the idea for the film festival in 2003. “Last year’s attendance was surprisingly good,” says Nadzieja, who hails from Rocky Hill. “This year we expect an even greater audience, especially with Mr. Szpilman in attendance.”  

Sponsored by the Trinity College Polish Club, the film festival is designed to inform, educate, and increase awareness of Polish culture, language, and traditions within the Trinity College community and in the Greater Hartford area. 

Supporters of the First Annual Greater Hartford Polish Film Festival include the Trinity College Office of the President, the Polish Cultural Club of Greater Hartford, and the Chair of Polish & Polish-American Studies at Central Connecticut State University.

Film dates, times, and descriptions follow:

Edi

Sunday, March 28^th – 2:30 p.m.

(Poland, 2002)  100 minutes
(Polish with English subtitles)
Director: Piotr Trzaskalski
Screenplay: Piotr Trzaskalski & Wojciech Lepianka
Cast:  Henryk Golebiewski, Jacek Braciak, Ola Kisio, Jacek Lenartowicz, Grzegorz Stelmaszewski.

Edi is a touching and highly involving portrait of marginal characters who manage to confront their misery and–at least, briefly–somehow triumph over it. The film tells a story of two scrap pickers - Edi and his friend Jureczek. Edi is falsely accused by some local thugs of seducing their sister, and made to take care of her little baby.

Squint Your Eyes (Zmurz Oczy)

Sunday, March 28^th – 7:30 p.m.  

(Poland, 2002)  88 minutes
(Polish with English subtitles)
Director:  Andrzej Jakimowski
Cast:  Zbigniew Zamachowski, Ola Proszynska, Malgorzata Foremniak.

Set in the Polish countryside, Jasiek, who was once a teacher, is now the unkempt watchman of an abandoned farm. 10-year-old spitfire Mala, who has run away from her well-to-do folks in town, seeks refuge with him. And neither Jasiek nor Mala's parents can persuade her to return.

The Pianist (Pianista)

Monday and Tuesday, March 29-30^th – 7:30 p.m.

(France/Germany/Poland/UK, 2002)  148 minutes
Director: Roman Polanski
Screenplay: Ronald Harwood, based on the memoirs of Wladyslaw Szpilman
Cast: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Emilia Fox, Maureen Lipman.

A brilliant pianist, a Polish Jew, witnesses the restrictions Nazis place on Jews in the Polish capital, from restricted access to the building of the Warsaw ghetto. As his family is rounded up to be shipped off to the Nazi labor camps, he escapes deportation and eludes capture by living in the ruins of Warsaw.

Roman Polanski's brilliant study of an artist living with the brutality of fascism won Academy Awards® for Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, And Palme d'Or at the 55th Cannes International Film Festival) 

Additional information regarding the Polish Film Festival is available at http://www.trincoll.edu/orgs/polish-club/pff.htm or by contacting Nadzieja at 860-297-3286.