Wpływ transformacji ustrojowej na estetykę i funkcje Polskiej Kroniki Filmowej na przykładzie sekwencji dotyczących wydarzeń z Marca ’68, Grudnia ’70 i Sierpnia ’80
The impact of political system transformation on the aesthetics and functions of the Polish Film Chronicle on the example of sequences pertaining to the events of March ’68, December ’70 and August ’80

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to observe the changes that have taken place in the aesthetics and functions of the Polish Film Chronicle after 1989. To capture the transformation in the message of the PFC, documents on the months-symbols of the Polish People’s Republic period were analysed. The research problem is the analysis of six sequences: three produced during communism [Party Position (12B/68) Gdańsk and Gdynia – after the December events (50B/70) and the end of the strike (36A/80)], and three sequences broadcast after 1989 [That August 35/90, Three Decembers 51/90 and March Days (11/90). The individual documents are analysed using a classic method of study of the chronicle, proposed by Siegfried Kracauer in his work „From Caligari to Hitler”. The analysis includes the following elements: image, words, music, and sound, and – an element added by the authors of the present study — sequences adjacent to this sequence. The film study analysis is complemented by non-source-based knowledge of the period in question. After 1989, the Polish Film Chronicle changed its character, using in its message previously unpublished materials and reducing the emphasis on role of the off-screen reader. Despite renouncing its status as a „propaganda tube”, it did not lose its impressive function. The PFC newsreels are described chronologically, according to the events told, which allows to capture both the changes that took place in the chronicles after 1989, but also the modifications that took place in newsreels broadcast during the Polish People’s Republic period.

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