Buda Family Archive

collection Buda Family Archive
authors Zygmunt Buda
starring Jacek Buda; Józef Cyrankiewicz; Władysław Gomułka; Ryszard Siwiec; Bogdan Sobol; Janina Sobol; Łucja Stafisz; Franciszek Suchara; Helena Suchara
length 0:19:50
country Poland
locations Warsaw, Poland 
year 1968
format 16 mm
color color
signature PAFD 0037 050
description

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.
The film was made with a Sanyo camera on September 8, 1968 during the nationwide harvest festival at the 10th-Anniversary Stadium in Warsaw. Folk dance groups perform in front of the audience gathered in the stands. Next to the filming Zygmunt, there are: his sister-in-law (Janina Sobol) with her husband (Bogdan), his son (Jacek) and his mother-in-law (Łucja Stafisz). The family is accompanied by Franciszek and Helena Suchar, who live in the USA. The woman also films the harvest festival celebrations with an amateur camera. Shots of full stands of the stadium. Farmers solemnly bring wreaths with crops to the pitch and give gifts to the government delegation – Władysław Gomułka and Józef Cyrankiewicz. After the official part, folk bands perform again in front of the audience. On the lower stands, opposite the places occupied by the Buda family, we can see a burning man. Some people and militiamen try to extinguish the fire. As Jacek (the son of the film’s author) recalls, everyone present at the stadium, including the dancers performing, stared at the scene. After a while, the injured man is taken to the hospital, and the militia persuade the spectators to return to the stands to effectively mask the empty space. The burning man was Ryszard Siwiec, who set himself on fire as a protest against the intervention of Warsaw Pact forces in Czechoslovakia. Siwiec, severely burned, dies in hospital four days later, while his protest goes unnoticed and completely ignored by the media of the time. The dancers continue their performances, one of the points of the artistic program of the day is also the performance of Piotr Janczerski and his Skiffle Group “No To Co”. As Jacek recalls, the band probably performed their biggest hit at that time – the song “Te Opolskie Dziouchy”.

(AT)

keywords family  free time  harvest festival  holiday  mass event  crowd  stands  dancers  concert  performance  wreaths  bread  folk costumes  folklore  camera  fire  protest  militia 
source of funding Polish Film Institute