The motto of this year's festival, "The World Wakes Up," is a reference to "our current situation where, after defeating the pandemic, we are slowly beginning to return to normal life," the festival's director, Artur Liebhart, told Polish state news agency PAP.
"The films we encourage viewers to watch this year are a way of asking if we are ready for all those changes that seem inevitable after the pandemic," Liebhart said.
He added that many of the productions set to be screened this year "are about activism and call for action for a better, equal and eco-friendly world."
One of those films, Nathan Grossman’s I Am Greta, was screened at the official opening of the festival on Thursday night.
It is a portrayal of environmental activist Greta Thunberg, showing her everyday life as well as her struggle with Asperger's syndrome.
The cinema part of this year's Millennium Docs Against Gravity will take place from September 3 to 12 in Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdynia, Katowice, Poznań, Bydgoszcz and Lublin. After that the event will move online for additional screenings from September 16 to October 3.
This year's festival focuses on documentaries that show people actively working for ecology, human rights and better working conditions, according to organizers.
Fourteen documentaries will vie for the Bank Millennium Award, which is the main prize of the festival, which is now in its 18th year.
These include Paweł Łoziński’s The Balcony Movie, in which the Polish filmmaker observes passers-by in Warsaw's Saska Kępa district; and Gorbachev. Heaven by Vitaly Mansky, which is a recording of the director's visit to the villa of the Soviet Union’s last leader; in addition to I Am Greta.
The full programme is available at www.mdag.pl.
(jh/gs)
Source: PAP
