Matuszni Family Archive

Antoni Matuszny, who came from the Beskid village of Laliki, was interested in photography since he was a child. As he recalls, he wanted to save the life of his family and the countryside in the 1970s from oblivion. At the age of thirteen, he bought the first camera, and when he was 24 – the camera of the Soviet Quarz 5.

Film shot during a St. Andrew`s Day party of employees of the Celma Cieszyn electric motor winding plant of the Agricultural Production Cooperative “Juhas” branch in Cięcin in 1977. Wiktoria Stopka, playing the accordion, laughs and turns her back to Antoni, who is filming her. Those sitting at the tables drink vodka, smoke cigarettes and talk. A few dancing couples are joined by more and more people, some fooling around with engines standing on the table. Among the participants of the party, apart from the author of the film, one can see: Elżbieta Wojciuch (Antoni’s mother-in-law), Maria Skrzypek, Maria Pawlus, Maria Pawlus (the other woman with the same name and surname), Franciszek Pawlus (Maria’s husband), Anna Piątek, Kazimierz Hyla, Stanisław Zuziak, Zygmunt Ficonia, Stanisław Biegun, Maria Biegun, Maria Gołek, Maria Kłapacz, Maria Noga, Leokadia Pawlus, Zofia Howaniec, Marian Juraszek, Helena Skrzypek, Czesława Rusek, Genowefa Węglarz, Tadeusz Lipsa, Krzysztof Wolny, Maria Grzegorzek, Aniela Juraszek, Stanisława Zając and Andrzej Biegun. 

(KN, AT)