Film and the Inexorable Wheels of History
Film and the Inexorable Wheels of History

Summary/Abstract: The author describes the figure and work of WładysławJewsiewicki, who is considered a pioneer of the prehis-tory and history of Polish pre-war cinema. After Polandregained statehood in 1918, until the outbreak of WorldWar II, no synthetic history of film or cinema was created,nor was there a film archive. In the early 1950s, Jewsiewickicompiled the first list of fictional, documentary, advertis-ing, propaganda, educational, and animated films createdin 1896-1939, as well as texts about film; he described thehistory of the first cinematographic inventions and wrotea synthetic history of silent and sound film in pre-war Po-land. Subsequent generations of film historians referred tohis documentary works. Currently, the trend of regionalhistories of pre-war cinema is developing dynamically inthe New Cinema History, as well as in reference to the ar-chaeology of film and media inspired by Thomas Elsaesser.

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