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Sep 12 | Europe according to Auschwitz: Experiments from the Laboratory of Reportage

  • Interchurch Center Columbia University 61 Claremont Avenue New York, NY, 10027 United States (map)
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When: Thursday, September 12, 2019

Where: Interchurch Center, 61 Claremont Ave, Meeting Room A and B

The Laboratory of Reportage of the Faculty of Journalism, Information and Book Studies of the University of Warsaw focuses on bridging journalism and creative writing using multimedia storytelling and group-work on text. It is a place where outstanding Polish documentarians and students work together to create books as well as documentary films, theatre and radio pieces. In this workshop, a team from the Laboratory of Reportage will share their innovative work through a case study of their Europe According to Auschwitz project, which includes experiments with historically rigorous polyphonic novels that aim to incorporate the tensions and inconsistencies of experiences into a shared story made up of many perspectives, as well the documentary miniseries "From The Auschwitz Chronicle."

Marek Miller graduated from the University of Łódź. He is a journalist and author of documentary books. Some of the titles he has published are: "Who let the journalists here?" - the story of the protests in the Gdańsk Shipyard in 1980, "Film School. A novel about the Łódź Film School" - the story of the Łódź Film School (Roman Polański and Andrzej Wajda are two of its graduates), "Aristocracy" - about the delegation of the Polish gentry incarcerated by the NKVD in 1945, "Europe According to Auschwitz - Litzmannstadt Ghetto" - about the Łódź ghetto in 1939-1945, "Writing. Marek Miller talks to Ryszard Kapuściński". The latter book characterizes his main interests well. He founded the Laboratory of Reportage.

Jacek Wasilewski graduated from the University of Warsaw and the National Film School in Łódź. His field of research is narrative. He explores research on rhetoric and semiotic, including oral history, and researches ways of creating meanings in society. He focuses on discourse mechanisms of national narratives creation and archetypes attributed to public heroes. Besides academic research, he examines brands’ narratives and advertisements. He writes scripts for documentaries and TV series. He is now focused on workshops concerning creation of narratives.

Michał Bukojemski graduated from the National Film School in Łódź. His career as a cameraman working mostly on documentaries spanned over 40 years. From 1990 to 1996 he worked as a cameraman for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC News) in Moscow. Before that he gained some experience as a film director. With the advent of Digital Video technology, Michał Bukojemski embarked, in 1996, on a career of solo documentarist, and today produces his own films. From 2006-2015 he shared his experience in documentary film making with students on the Camera Department in the National Film School in Łódź.

Anna Figura graduated from the University of Warsaw. She is an alumni of the Laboratory of Reportage. She is a coordinator of the project "Europe According to Auschwitz". Her work focuses on radio documentaries.

Read Blog Post Reflections:

The Most Unlikely Love Story by Steve Fuchs

Expanding Our Moral Imagination: Oral History as Education Curricula. Period. by KK. Hammond

The Truth of the Apple by Elizabeth Jefimova