An American girl describes her visit to Poland

Identifier
irn1005152
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2003.214
  • RG-60.7214
Dates
1 Jan 1946 - 31 Dec 1946
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • English
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

Biographical History

Julien Hequembourg Bryan (1899-1974) was an American documentarian and filmmaker. Bryan traveled widely taking 35mm film that he sold to motion picture companies. In the 1930s, he conducted extensive lecture tours, during which he showed film footage he shot in the former USSR. Between 1935 and 1938, he captured unique records of ordinary people and life in Nazi Germany and in Poland, including Jewish areas of Warsaw and Krakow and anti-Jewish signs in Germany. His footage appeared in March of Time theatrical newsreels. His photographs appeared in Life Magazine. He was in Warsaw in September 1939 when Germany invaded and remained throughout the German siege of the city, photographing and filming what would become America's first cinematic glimpse of the start of WWII. He recorded this experience in both the book Siege (New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1940) and the short film Siege (RKO Radio Pictures, 1940) nominated for an Academy Award in 1940. In 1946, Bryan photographed the efforts of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency in postwar Europe.

Eugene Cenkalski was a screenwriter and director. During the war, Cenkalski worked for the Polish government in England and the United States, producing and editing war film for Poland. After the war, he and his wife Christina settled In Lodz and collaborated on rebuilding the Polish film industry. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1209418.pdf

Scope and Content

Film summary from International Film Foundation promotional materials: Mary, an American elementary school girl, describes to her class her experiences in visiting her grandparents in Poland. In her own language she takes her class into a Polish school, into Polish homes, and into the fields where agricultural activities are seen. She shows them the beautiful costumes and colorful dances of the Polish people and gives her class an insight into the cities of Lowicz, Krakow, Zakopane, and Gdynia. Music by Gene Forrell, Devised by Eugene Cenkalski Film ID 3073 = 35mm black and white nitrate positive with sound Film ID 3074 = 35mm black and white nitrate silent fgm (fine grain master)

Subjects

Places

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.