Buda Family Archive

Zygmunt Buda was born in Poznań in 1924 and was interested in photography since his childhood. From 1941, he worked in the Poznań photographic company Foto-Stewner, founded by Ernest Stewner. After the end of the war, he worked as a photographer in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, from which, in the 50s, he was dismissed for political incorrectness. From the 60s, he worked in the Film Services Department at the corner of Marszałkowska and Krucza streets in Warsaw. Zygmunt recorded films with a business camera with a 16-millimeter tape and a private SANYO camera with an 8-millimeter tape, which he received as a gift from a family living in the USA. His sons, Jacek and Marek, as well as the next generations of the Buda family, also became enthusiasts of filming family life.
Part 1
The film was made during a trip to the holiday home of the State Forests “Lubuszanin” in Sosnówka near Karpacz in the winter of 1989. Piotrek (Jacek and Irmina’s son) says a rhyme to the camera, probably “To a Ladybird Came a Beetle” by Jan Brzechwa. Irmina and Piotrek ski down a hill near Grabowiec and make a snowman. The spring weather made skiing impossible, so Piotrek and his mother play in the fresh air and swing on swings. In search of snow, the family takes the lift to Wielka Kopa in Karpacz. Piotrek and other boys from the center play war. After the snowfall, the family goes skiing again.
Part 2
Spring 1989. The family walks around the Royal Baths Park in Warsaw. Piotrek takes pictures of a squirrel with his first camera.
Part 3
An account of the first Holy Communion of Łukasz and Mateusz (Jacek’s godson) in Kalisz. The boys are the sons of Buda’s cousin (Katarzyna) and her husband (Marek Łakomy). Piotrek sits on Katarzyna’s lap. Next to him, we can also see Teresa Bartoszewska (Zygmunt Buda’s sister). Elegantly dressed boys with candles in their hands enter the church and sit on designated seats.
Part 4
An account of the first Holy Communion of Marek’s daughter (Ania Buda). Almost the whole family is present at the ceremony: Zygmunt and Katarzyna (the girl’s grandparents), Marek and Romana (her parents), Paweł (her brother), Teresa Bartoszewska, Małgorzata Juszkiewicz (Teresa’s daughter) with Jurek (her husband) and Natalia (her daughter), Jola Jarocińska with Janusz (her husband) and Daniel (their son), Janina and Bogdan Sobol (her aunt and uncle). Family members pose for a camera in front of the church. Ania crouches on the grass in front of a block of flats and feeds the hamster she received as a communion gift. Boys, under the watchful eye of Jola Jarocińska and Natalia Juszkiewicz, play on the playground.
Part 3
The Buda family spends their holiday in the seaside town of Niechorze. Piotrek in an inflatable circle swims in the sea, and later together with his mother rests on a blanket. Irmina also swims in the warm (at least that summer) Baltic Sea. The family watches the lighthouse in Niechorze and feeds swans on the beach. Piotrek shoots a slingshot and hugs his mother. Close-ups of ladybirds and other insects. Jacek and his son jump over the waves and play on a rocking motorbike.
Part 4
Piotrek and his grandfather, Zygmunt, visit the Museum of the Mazovian Countryside in Sierpc. A boy plays with a walkie-talkie in a rye field and poses for the camera against the background of a historic nineteenth-century windmill. Close-ups of beetles, crickets and other insects. Katarzyna with her sister (Tonia Chmielewska) and Piotrek walk on a grassy beach at Lake Urszulewskie near Sierpc. After returning home, Katarzyna and Tonia pick up carrots, and Piotrek picks and eats currants.

(AT)