Matuszni Family Archive

collection Matuszni Family Archive
authors Antoni Matuszny
starring Michalina Białożyt; Wojciech Białożyt; Roman Kubaszczyk; Ludwik Matuszny; Paulina Matuszna
length 04'22
country Poland
locations Laliki, Poland 
year 1978
format 8 mm
color black and white
signature PAFD 0015 030
description

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.

A film made in Laliki Kubaszczyce in 1978, documenting the funeral of a neighbor of the Matusznys, Roman Kubaszczyk called Romuś. Shots from the nearby quarry, the place where the deceased neighbor worked. As Antoni Matuszny recalls, Roman was involved in stone working for most of his life. The men carry the coffin containing the body of the deceased out of the house and place it on a horse-drawn cart driven by Ludwik Matuszny, Antoni’s father. The mourners, together with the parish priest Jozef Lesny, walk in procession behind the cart to the church in Laliki. After the funeral ceremony, the coffin on the cart travels to the cemetery where mourners say farewell to the deceased Roman. Among those gathered can be seen Roman Kubaszczyk (son), neighbors Wojciech and Michalina Białożyt, Paulina and Ludwik Matuszny and cousin Genowefa. 

(KN, AT)

 

keywords Poland  Laliki  village  family life  funeral  priest  church  cemetery  horse cart  coffin 
source of funding Ministry of Culture and National Heritage